a barometer sometimes applied to the condensers of steam engines? A.Yes; and it is called the vacuum gauge, because it shows the degree of perfection the vacuum has attained.

By this time the gold rush to the southern portion of Western Australia had set in strong, and the country that had so long repelled the pastoral pioneer by its aridity was now overrun with prospectors, their camps supplied with water by condensers at the salt lakes and pools.

A.The pipe leading to the condenser from the cylinder is made somewhat bell mouthed where it joins the condenser, and the gland for compressing the packing is made of a larger internal diameter in every part except at the point at which the pipe emerges from it, where it accurately fits the pipe so as to enable the gland to squeeze the packing.

Q.Will you state the proper dimensions of the air pump and condenser in laud and marine engines? AMr.

When the air pump piston ascends it leaves behind it a vacuum; and the foot valve being relieved from all pressure, the weight of the water in the condenser forces it open, and the warm water flows from the condenser into the lower part of the air pump, from which its return to the condenser is prevented by the intervening valve.

The air pump is bolted to one side of the bottom frame, and a passage is cast on it conducting from the condenser to the air pump.

In horizontal types of distiller an engine and pump are mounted on a cast iron casing as a bed, and in this casing is placed a number of tubes through which the steam passes to be condensed, the whole being simply a surface condenser with engine and pump above.

There is but one air pump, which is situated within the condenser between the cylinders, and it is wrought by means of a crank in the intermediate shaftthis crank being cut out of a solid piece of metal as in the formation of the cranked axles of locomotive engines.

The single acting air pump requires to be provided with a valve or valves in the piston or bucket of the pump, to enable the air and water lying below the bucket when it begins to descend, and which have entered from the condenser during the upward stroke, to pass through the bucket into the space above it during the downward stroke, from whence they are expelled into the atmosphere on the upward stroke succeeding.

This was the idea of a separate condenser for the steam, and from that moment the power of steam in the civilisation of the world was assured; the advantages of the invention were soon put to the proof and established, and by a partnership on the part of Watts with MATTHEW BOULTON (q. v.)

The steam enters the cylinder through the outer trunnions, or the trunnions adjacent to the ship's sides, and enters the condenser through the two midship trunnionsa short three ported valve being placed on the front of the cylinder to regulate the flow of steam to and from the cylinder in the proper manner.