n indication of the boiler pressure. The valve
itself is a poppet held against the face of the valve seat by a second
knife blade attached to the lever. The ornamental column forming the
stand of the safety valve is cast iron and does much to decorate the
interior of the cab. The pipe carrying the escaping steam projects
through the cab roof. It is made of copper with a decorative brass band.
This entire mechanism was replaced by a modern safety valve for use at
the Chicago Railroad Fair (1949). Fortunately, the old valve was
preserved and has since been replaced on the engine.
The steam gauge is a later addition, but could have been put on as early
as the 1860's, since the most recent patent date that it bears is 1859.
It is an Ashcroft gauge having a handsome 4--4--0 locomotive engraved on
its silver face.
The steam jet (item 3, fig. 18) is one of the simplest yet most notable
boiler fitting of the _Pioneer_, being nothing more than a valve tapped
into the base of the steam dome with a line running under the boiler
jacket to the smokestack. When the valve is opened a jet of steam goes
up the stack, creating a draft useful for starting the fire or
enlivening it as necessary. This device was the invention of Alba F.
Smith in 1852, according to the eminent 19th-century technical writer
and engineer Zerah Colburn.[15]
The two feedwater pumps (fig. 20) are located beneath the cab deck (1,
fig. 17). They are cast-iron construction and are driven by an eccentric
on the driving-wheel axle (fig. 27). The airchamber or dome (1, fig. 27)
imparts a more steady flow of the water to the boiler by equalizing the
surges of water from the reciprocating pump plunger. A steam line (3,
fig. 18), which heats the pump and prevents freezing in cold weather, is
regulated by a valve in the cab (figs. 18, 27). Note that the line on
the right side of the cab has been disconnected and plugged.
The eccentric drive for the pumps is unusual, and the author knows of no
other American locomotive so equipped. Eastwick and Harrison, it is
true, favored an eccentric drive for feed pumps, but they mounted the
eccentric on the crankpin of the rear driving wheel and thus produced in
effect a half-stroke pump. This was not an unusual arrangement, though a
small crank was usually employed in place of the eccentric. The
full-stroke crosshead pump with which the _Jenny Lind_ (fig. 22) is
equipped, was of course the most common style of feed pump used in
|