Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1891 — The Largest Engine. [ARTICLE]

The Largest Engine.

At the Friedensville (Pa.) zinc mines there is in operation tho largest stationary engine in the world. During the last few months it has pumped dry by underground drainage nearly every orepit, spring and small stream within a radius of five miles The engine is known as the “President,” is of 5,000horse power, and is run by sixteen boilers. At each revolution of its ponderous wheels a small stream is thrown out; the number of gallons raised every minute being 17,500. Tho driving-wheels are thirty-five feet in diameter, and woigh forty tons each. 'The sweep-rod is forty feet long. The cylinder is 110 inches in diameter, while the piston-rod is 18 inches in diameter and makes a ton-foot stroke. The engine has a ba last box capable of holding sixty tons, ami to feed the boilers twenty-eight tons of coal are required daily. On the engine is the largest nut in the world. It is hexagonal in shape and weighs 1,600 pounds. To tighten or loosen this nut twenty men are required, while the wrench that fits it is twenty feet long. From the end of the walking beam of the engine to tho bottom of the shaft the distance is 300 feet. The masonry on which tho engine rests is 108 feet deep, some of the foundation stones weighing five tons.