Union and Confederate marine engines.

major bill

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Aug 25, 2012
A Civil War ironclad without a steam engine would be of little use. So how effective were Confederate steam engines when compared to Union Navy steam engines? I know that both sides built ironclads at different locations. Did the locations where ironclads were build have the proper factories or machine shops to produce powerful and reliable steam engines to power the ironclads? It would seem like a steam engine with enough power to use in an ironclad would require not only a proper factory but also skilled workers.
 
I will admit while I am clueless on many subjects, I am beyond clueless on Civil War ship engines. For example the USS Keokuk had four condensing engines driving two small screws. Well the part of that I understand is "two small screws" which I believe is a couple of propeller things.
 
A Civil War ironclad without a steam engine would be of little use. So how effective were Confederate steam engines when compared to Union Navy steam engines? I know that both sides built ironclads at different locations. Did the locations where ironclads were build have the proper factories or machine shops to produce powerful and reliable steam engines to power the ironclads? It would seem like a steam engine with enough power to use in an ironclad would require not only a proper factory but also skilled workers.

A lot of Southern ironclads used recycled engines rather than new.
 
I have not well versed on Civil War era marine engines (I do not even understand the different types). When I was 20 years old I helped make gas marine engines but mostly all I did was on install the oil pump or oil pan and to me they were just funny looking 425 or 350 cubic inch car engines. I did put some pistons in them and they pistons looked like car pistons.
 
I have not read this book but the review is interesting and answers some questions.
In gas engines most differences are in the bolt on parts like oil pans and manifolds with some internal differences like cam shafts and parts materials and coatings.
In steam engines I think what made them most different besides their type ( ie high pressure vs compound ) was their application and whether they were stationary or not. Another thing is many gas marine engines use a open or raw water system (for cooling).
In steam whether marine or locomotive they all eventually used a closed water system (for steam).
This book claims that the confederates did exceptionally well given the constraints of their resources but also says that power and reliability were trouble spots. The union also suffered from power problems but with better production levels and purpose built engines and vessels.
https://cwba.blogspot.com/2018/08/review-engines-of-rebellion-confederate.html
 
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Marine Propulsion in the 1860s. - Boilers - Steam engines are external combustion engines, the fire is outside the engines themselves, inside a boiler. Most riverboats burned wood to make steam while most ocean and coastal steamboats burned coal. The Civil War also saw the first US Navy trials of fuel oil on a few boats. A marine engine description needs to specify the boiler type to know just how the steam was made. Boilers were described by their shape and pressure, high or low. There were two broad categories based on whether the water passed through the fire, called a water tube boiler, or vice versa, called a fire tube boiler. Beyond that, there were variations in the overall shape of the boiler, "ordinary," and "Scotch" being fire tube types, and "Western Rivers," and "Haystack" being water-tube types. There were many variations on the proportions and shape, a thorough explanation would bore you greatly, so I'll leave it there for now.

 

Engines - Nearly all engines used pistons that produced linear motion, which needed to be converted to rotary motion to turn a propeller. The way they did that is generally how they were named. The simplest had the piston cylinder horizontal working a piston shaft pointed at the center of a crank on the propeller shaft. To make that work, a second shaft (the connecting rod, or Pittman) connected the piston shaft to the crank. That was called a "simple, direct-acting" engine. If the cylinder pointed up at the propeller shaft it was a "vertical, direct-acting" engine. If the cylinder was above the shaft it was an "inverted direct-acting" engine. If the piston was angled up at the crank it was an "inclined, direct-acting" engine. If the cylinder was sitting on the keel vertically and operated a sidewheel shaft above, it could use a type of return connecting rod held rigid by a heavy four-sided frame that looked like a church steeple sticking out the vessel top. That was logically called a "steeple" engine. If the vertical cylinder was in front of or behind the sidewheel, and connected by the connecting rod to the sidewheel crankshaft and an intermediate rocking link it was called a "rocking beam," or sometimes "vertical beam" engine. There were also variations to save space, 1) where the connecting rod did not point forward, it pointed back at the cylinder (a return-connecting rod); or 2) operated inside a smaller cylinder taking up the middle of the piston (a trunk) engine. At this point take a Google break and look up pictures with these names because that really helps to figure this stuff out.

 

Engine steam valves - To automate the operation of the steam cylinders engineers designed a bunch of mechanisms that turned the steam on or off. Those were steam valves. There were lots of types, and their descriptions get way complicated fast. If you really want we can go there, later.

 

Condensers - Steam takes energy from wood, coal, or oil, to convert from water. Most steam machinery included a contraption called a condenser to save fuel by saving steam after it was used once. Without a condenser the steam was just blown up an exhaust pipe – then the engine was called a high-pressure engine. There were two types of condenser; jet and surface condensers. Jet condensers sprayed a stream of water inside a box to cool the steam back to water before returning it to the boiler. Surface condensers used cool water in pipes from outside the ship to cool the water. Condensers were important for efficiency, but were complicated and could get gummed up by the engine lubricants that got picked up in the water and steam. The most common lubricant was tallow and it could build up inside boilers, coating surfaces so they did not transfer heat well. They could also “foam,” making water gauges unreliable and therefore dangerous (inadequate water could make a boiler explode.)

 

Propellers – Steam machinery converted fuel into rotary motion, but had to transfer that into movement. All the machines that did that were called “propellers,” no matter how they worked, so paddle wheels, whether sternwheels or sidewheels, were still “propellers.” Paddle wheels could be simple fixed flat boards around the circumference of a cylindrical framework, or elaborate “patent” wheels with paddle boards that pivoted so that they stayed vertical, perpendicular to the water surface. Andy Hall showed the patent wheels of the blockade runner Cornubia/Lady Davis in a digital model earlier. Subsequent to paddlewheel propulsion, screw propellers were invented and have come to dominate ocean travel. Screw propeller design advanced quickly through the 1850s but the general shape of them was established in the 1850s. They had 2 to five blades that had curved surfaces of increasing twist and outlines either triangular or petal-shaped. They were described by their patent shape, diameter, and amount of twist. Most screw propellers were fixed and had to be dragged if under sail, but many could be uncoupled from the propeller shaft at the “cheese” (shaped) coupling and allowed to free-wheel. A few ocean-going steamers such as CSS Alabama could both uncouple the screw, but also lift it clear of the water in a patent lifting frame in a well near the stern.
 
Interesting but complicated. This is perhaps why many books about Civil War ships do not go into much depth about the ships propulsion system.
 
Some of the Southern ironclads were built on pre-existing ships and used that ship's steam plant (Manassas, Viginia). Others used engines that had been installed in riverboats, but had been removed and installed in the new ironclad. Some (Neuse, Albermarle) used non-marine engines -- a saw mill plant or maybe a locomotive. Finally, some plants were purpose built in England and run through the blockade.
 
Chief Engineer James H Warner was the presiding genius behind much of the converted machinery and the new build at Columbus Nava Ironworks Georgia. His machinery all worked unfortunately some ships had engines installed as was, regardless whether they were fit for purpose.
 
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