Excerpt from Report Made to the Bureau of Steam-Engineering, Navy Department, March 3, 1883 Sir : The Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, of Bristol, R. I., having kindly placed at my disposal, for the purpose of making a limited number of experiments, the steam-yacht Siesta, just built by them for Mr. Hulbert H. Warner, of Rochester, N. Y., I accepted the offer and was able to satisfactorily complete the trials that form the subject of this report, which is respectfully submitted for the information of the Bureau. I regret I had not the assistance of a board of naval engineers, and that the trials could not be longer in their duration and more varied in their conditions. The limit of time was fixed by the fact that the vessel had to be delivered to her proprietor as soon as completed; and the want of the assistance of a board of naval engineers was supplied as far as possible by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company assigning me a sufficient number of the best qualified persons in their employ for the purpose. During the experiments the carpenters were on board finishing the joiner work, but in all other respects the hull and machinery were in proper condition for trial. The duration of each experiment was confined to the shortest time in which reliable results could be secured, with the view of making as many experiments under different conditions as possible, and it is believed no better distribution of the limited time could be effected. Of course the entire, and by no means inconsiderable, expense was borne by the Messrs. Herreshoff, who showed in this their well-known liberality and their desire for the improvement of steam machinery. To them, therefore, the reader is indebted for the very valuable and interesting facts which these trials have established. Among them the entirely novel one of the great influence exercised on the economy of the compound engine by the more or less short cutting off of the steam in the large cylinder. Certainly, the variation of the cut-off of the large cylinder, that of the small cylinder remaining constant, does not theoretically affect the measure of expansion with which the steam is used, but it so affects the distribution of the steam in the two cylinders as to cause a very important difference in the economic result. This fact was first pointed out by me in a report on the Herreshoff system of motive machinery as applied to the steam-yacht Leila, made to the Bureau of Steam-Engineering on June 3, 1881, and it receives in these experiments with the motive machinery of the Siesta the strongest confirmation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.