Sent to us by Larry Creed, R.R. # 13, Box 209, Brazil,
Indiana 47834. Taken from advertising material of Minneapolis
Threshing Machine Co.
This is the only photograph I have seen of a Minneapolis double
cylinder two stack steam engine. The picture was taken by a Mt.
Olive, Illinois, photographer. (Mt. Olive is about 40 miles
northeast of St. Louis, Mo.) The threshing machine also appears to
be a Minneapolis. The flywheel of the steam engine is almost shiny
from constant use. The twin stack concept did not function as well
as Minneapolis Threshing Machine Co. intended, and the double stack
engines were refitted with a single stack. Thanks to Andy Craig of
Vandalia, Illinois, for the use of his photograph. I have some
factory information on the Minneapolis double stack engines that I
think you will find interesting.
The Minneapolis Double Cylinder Engine, mounted on Direct Flue
Fire Box Boiler, is built in five sizes, viz., 18, 22, 26, 30 and
35 Horsepower. They are built to burn wood, coal or straw, as
desired.
Each cylinder and guides are made in one solid casting, and set
parallel to each other. They are attached to a heavy bed plate and
heater frame (cast in one piece) which is securely bolted to the
top of the boiler.
It is equipped with a very heavy, forged steel crank shaft,
carefully turned and nicely fitted in bab bitted boxes. On the
right end of this crank shaft is fastened a very heavy flywheel,
with our own patent Friction Clutch, one of the most essential
features on any traction engine. Those who do not equip their
double cylinder engines with a friction clutch should tell why an
engine is better without a friction clutch than with one.
On the opposite end of the crank shaft we have the simplest and
most positive and only eccentric pump attached to
any double cylinder engine built. This eccentric pump is our own
device, and is guaranteed to do the work, under all circumstances.
It can be regulated to feed the amount of water required, and can
be adjusted to pump continuously, thereby feeding the water to the
boiler as fast as it is evaporated. This will allow the heaters to
heat the water to a high temperature before entering the boiler.
The water is fed into the boiler on both sides, by first passing
through a separate heater on each side. Every engineer who has
examined this device pronounces it without an equal and the best
pump ever adopted.
The MINNEAPOLIS is the only double cylinder engine equipped with
the famous Woolf Valve Gear: the most efficient movement for
controlling the ports and increasing the power of the engine, ever
invented.
A Penberthy Injector is attached to all boilers. A Sight Feed
Lubricator and ample Hard Oil Cups are placed on all wearing parts.
The entire mechanism is so constructed that the engineer can adjust
the injector, the pump, the variable exhaust, the damper, the
blowers and the screens in the top of the stacks, as well as
operating the engine, without leaving his position on the
platform.
The MINNEAPOLIS Double Cylinder Engine, on Direct Flue Boiler,
is the latest up to date engine of that type on the American
market. We invite the closest inspection of mechanical experts. We
want them to compare this engine with every other Double Cylinder
Engine offered for sale.
Our customers who have been so fortunate as to secure one of
them, heartily recommend them to every thresher man who wants a
Double Cylinder Engine on a Direct Flue Boiler.
The BoilerThe MINNEAPOLIS Direct Flue Fire Box
Boiler is our own design and is built for high pressure, of the
best flange steel, with ample openings for cleaning purposes. All
horizontal seams are double riveted. The fire box is very large,
and made of heavy flange steel, with ample stay bolts and braces to
withstand high pressure.
We have designed a special Combustion Chamber in the fire box,
made of fire brick. This fire brick arch deflects the heat, thereby
insuring complete combustion, and reheating of all the gases to the
highest possible temperature, before they pass through the
flues.
In this pattern of boiler, we use the best steel drawn, seamless
two inch flues, of heavy gauge, thereby insuring a tight and safe
boiler.
The Largest and Most Complete Line of Threshing Machinery in
the World.
We build Double Cylinder Engines on Direct Flue Boilers;
Double Cylinder Engines on Return Flue Boilers;
Simple and Compound Engines on Return Flue Boilers.
We build them to burn Wood and Coal. We build them to burn
Straw.
42 Different Styles and Sizes
of Minneapolis Traction Engines.
See our full line of” MINNEAPOLIS ‘ Engines.- The
most up to date, simplest and best engines on the market.
TWO SMOKE STACKS.
MINNEAPOLIS Double Cylinder Engines are all equipped with two
smoke stacks. A mild exhaust is thereby obtained, making it safer
on windy days. No other engine built has this important
advantage.
Two smoke stacks on an engine will divide and equalize the
draught, thereby spreading the heat in the fire box, so that it
will pass through all of the flues alike; it being well known to
all engineers that a single smoke stack, with the constant exhaust
of a double cylinder engine, must necessarily draw the heat to the
centre flues, while the outside flues convey little or no heat.
Another important advantage is less back pressure by using two
smoke stacks and two variable exhaust nozzles, instead of one; each
of our nozzles is as large as the one nozzle used on other makes of
double cylinder engines. The variable exhaust nozzle is our own
patent and is used exclusively by us. It is adjustable, and so
arranged that it opens and closes in a perfect circle, and always
throws the exhaust to the centre of the stack. The engineer can
operate it standing on the platform.
The wonderful advantage of two smoke stacks on a double cylinder
engine will be readily appreciated by anyone when he considers that
a single engine, running 250 revolutions per minute, exhausts into
the smoke stack 500 times per minute, and a double cylinder engine,
running 250 revolutions per minute, with but one smoke stack, will
exhaust into the stack 1000 times per minute; producing practically
the same effect upon the combustion that is produced when the
blower is turned into the smoke stack, viz., it draws nearly all of
the heat in the fire box through the centre flues, producing
imperfect combustion, and as a matter of fact, consumes more fuel
than it would if it were not for this out-of-date method of
constructing a double cylinder engine with but one smoke stack.
Just multiply the number of strokes per minute of each engine by
two and you have the number of exhausts per minute through a single
stack.
Further comment on the merits of two smoke stacks
instead of one is unnecessary.
All MINNEAPOLIS Boilers are subjected to the severest cold-water
and steam-pressure tests prescribed by law, under the direction of
the Minnesota State Boiler Inspector.
The boiler and engines are mounted on heavy broad tired steel
wheels, of our own make, with very heavy gearing, to insure ample
strength for any work the engine has to do.
The whole mechanism is neatly and substantially built, of the
best material, thereby insuring the best results obtainable in any
double cylinder engine on the American market.
