Regional Historic The American Society of Mechanical Engineering Mechanical Engineers Landmark

Harris-Corliss Randall Brothers, Inc. Atlanta, Georgia October 16, 1985 Sometime during 1977 the old 350 History of the Harris-Corliss engine at Randall Brothers’ the Randall Brothers Co. was retired Engine from its job as a prime mover for the The Randall Brothers’ engine has been woodworking plant. Retirement did around so long that no one remem- not come because of the age of the bers when things happened to the engine, over 80 years, but because of engine or even when it was purchased. the U.S. Environmental Protection According to a brass plaque on the en- Agency’s concern over the smoke from gine, it was built by the William A. the smokestacks. The engine Harris Steam Engine Co. of Pro- was still, and is to this day, in perfect vidence, R.I. Historical records suggest working order. that it was built sometime before 1895, Because of the EPA concern, the because the engine was exhibited at , which had previously been the Cotton States and International Ex- fired by scrap woodchips from the position of 1895 which took place on woodworking plant, were converted to the site of what is now Piedmont Park oil, but even this did not prove suc- in Atlanta. The engine is typical of the cessful. Fuel oil was too expensive and machinery that helped Georgia re- winter supplies are unreliable. In 1977 cover from the effects of the Civil War. the Randall Brothers plant switched to Records from the William A. Harris grid-supplied electricity Steam Engine Co. indicate that Exposi- One of the final jobs for the engine tion Cotton Mills, Atlanta, Ga., ordered was to run a vacuum system that a 350 horsepower engine on April 12, sucked up sawdust around the old 1898 for delivery on May 16, 1898. This plant, but that job, too, yielded to out- order was filled with the engine that side electricity. was on exhibit at the 1895 Exposition.

Harris Steam Engine Company works–1878 Randall Brothers, Inc. purchased the nology for whom the boilers are by a wrist plate drive mounted on the engine from Exposition Cotton Mills occasionally fired up to show the oper- side of the . sometime between 1898 and 1910. The ation of a classic . engine was used on a regular basis to It should be noted that only the ex- The Corliss Engine drive an electric generator and to haust are directly connected to power machinery, including lumber Corliss type engines were well made the wrist plate so that they are saws, through overhead line shafting. and efficient, but expensive. The best positively controlled by the plate’s mo- The boilers that supplied the steam quality, hard, close-grain charcoal iron tion. The inlet is not positively were capable of burning wood, coal was used for the cylinders and other connected to the wrist plate, but is ar- or gas until converted to fuel oil in castings. The cylinders were generally ranged to be moved so far, at the the 1970s. steam-jacketed and provided with pat- beginning of the at ented safety relief attachments for the which point a disengaging or “trip” This Harris-Corliss steam engine escape of entrained water. gear acts and the valve is closed very served the Randall Brothers for more The essential feature of the Corliss en- rapidly under the action of a spring. than 75 years. Toward the end of its gine is the valves that admit the steam operation there were some problems The actual speed of closing is con- to and exhaust it from the cylinder. finding replacements when parts wore trolled by an air dash-pot with a valve There are separate steam and exhaust out. When parts needed to be re- that can be adjusted to give the desired valves for each end of the cylinder. placed, Randall Brothers simply made speed of valve motion. The trip gear them in their own machine shop. The valves are cylinders that oscillate can be made very “light” so that the about their longitudinal axes in cylin- governor is not affected by its action, Although no longer in regular use, the drical spaces bored out of the cylinder consequently the latter can be made steam engine is in its original location casting. sufficiently sensitive to keep speed at the Randall Brothers plant. It is in variations within very narrow limits outstanding mechanical operating The oscillatory motion alternately ex- (one percent of nominal). condition, and is regularly available to poses and covers openings (ports) the public, particularly engineering connecting to the cylinder. The motion The valves are small and the area of classes at the Georgia Institute of Tech- of the valve is provided and controlled contact very limited, so friction is re-

Two views of Harris-Corliss Engine as it appears today, still at Randall Brothers almost 90 years after it was purchased. duced to a minimum. Other advan- low to medium speed engines (20 to tages of this gear compared to more 175 rpm). conventional piston and Randall Brothers Engine gears are that: The Randall Brothers’ Harris-Corliss 1. it is light; engine is rated at 350 horsepower at a 2. it is easy to maintain in a steam speed of 90 rpm. The is tight condition because they can 13 feet in diameter with a 25-inch face be made self-adjusting within the and the drive is approximately ; 102 feet long. The engine cylinder 3. the steam enters and leaves the measures 16 inches in diameter with a cylinders by separate ports so the 42-inch stroke. The shaft diame- effects of heating and cooling of ter is 14 inches. This simple engine the cylinder material on the steam operates at a steam pressure of 125 psi. are reduced; 4. the clearance volume at the ends of the cylinder can be made very small because the valves can be lo- cated at the very end of the cylinder; 5. valve action is very rapid thus re- The American ducing “wiredrawing” effects at the business was an outgrowth of the New inlet valve. England textile industry which began with the Slater Mill in The Corliss valve gear led to extreme just before 1800. The result was that at efficiency in terms of steam consump- one time Providence, R.I., was the tion. This general type of valve gear world center of steam engine was the most efficient for controlling manufacturing.

Order for Harris-Corliss Engine, April 12, 1898 cluding an improved valve gear, was In 1856 he became a draftsman for the (1817-1888) patented in 1849. The patent was re- Corliss Steam Engine Company. For George H. Corliss was an inventor and issued in 1851 and again in 1859. This eight years he was the right-hand manufacturer of the finest and most special valve gear revolutionized steam man of George H. Corliss and, during efficient steam engines of the late 19th engine design. that time, made all the drawings for century. He was born in Easton, N.Y., that inventor's numerous patent In 1856 George H. Corliss incorpo- June 2, 1817, and began his working applications. life as a clerk in the factory store of rated the Corliss Steam Engine William Mowry & Co., a cotton Company in Providence. In time the company became the world’s largest He was the first of Corliss’ chief assis- manufacturer. maker of stationary engines. During tants to leave the Corliss Company. In In 1838 he opened his own store, the Civil War, the Corliss Company 1864, he established the William A. which led him to consider, as a result manufactured a number of precision Harris Steam Engine Company—also of complaints by his customers, the parts for the iron-clad Monitor. in Providence—to manufacture the possibility of using machinery in the Harris-Corliss steam engine. Harris Corliss held 68 patents and pioneered manufacture of ready made boots and paid royalties to Corliss until expira- ideas in standardization and mass pro- shoes. This gradually led him into the tion of the basic Corliss patent. duction. He died in 1888. invention and construction of various types of machinery and eventually he William Andrew Harris The company built more than 5,000 found his way into the steam-engine (1835-1896) engines and sold them all over the business. William Andrew Harris began his ca- world. They were particularly popular In 1844 he moved to Providence, and reer as a bank clerk at the Union Bank in textile mills, but many went to Cuba joined the machine and engine busi- in Providence in 1852. He left the to drive sugar mills; others were used ness of Fairbanks, Bancroft & Co. By banking business in 1855 to take a job in early electric lighting plants and still 1846 he was a partner in the firm and as a draftsman at the Providence Forge others were used in the Connecticut had invented the steam engine that & Nut Company (Rhode Island Tool brass industry and in mines in the bears his name. This steam engine, in- Company). West.

George Henry Corliss

William A. Harris ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The American Society of The Atlanta Section of the ASME gra- Mechanical Engineers tefully acknowledges the courtesies of Dr. L. S. Fletcher, President Randall Brothers, Inc. for its coopera- Dr. P. Kezios, Past President tion in planning the designation Dr. Ralph E. Powe, Vice President, Region XI ceremony and for the many years it ASME Atlanta Section has made the Harris-Corliss Steam En- John Cerny, Chairman gine available for study to the Dr. Pandell Durbetakl mechanical engineering classes of the Katherine Morgan Georgia Institute of Technology. We William J. Conley II extend our appreciation to the follow- William B. Crawford, History & Heritage ing institutions for assistance in Bobby L. Green, Region XI gathering information about the man- ufacturers of this engine: National History and Heritage Committee Georgia State Department of Archives Dr. R Carson Dalzell, Chairman and History Robert M. Vogel Atlanta, Georgia Robert B. Gaither Department of Archives Division Richard S. Hartenberg Office of Secretary of State of J. Paul Hartman Rhode Island Joseph P. Van Overveen Providence, Rhode Island Euan F. C. Somerscales Carron Garvin-Donohue John D. Rockefeller Library Randall Brothers Inc. Providence, Rhode Island Luther H. Randall, Jr., Chairman of the Board William C. Shreve, President University of Rhode Island Harvey A. Tatum, Executive Vice President Kingston, Rhode Island H. W. Persons, (Ret’d Chairman) Rhode Island Historical Society William P. Burke, Vice President Millwork Providence, Rhode Island J. Harold Williamson, Vice President-Sales Eugene F. Robinson,Vice President-Administration The New England Museum of Wireless and Steam, Inc. East Greenwich, Rhode Island Atlanta Historical Society Atlanta, Georgia Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia Fulton County Public Library Atlanta, Georgia

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