Fireless Engine
vapor or steam engine, acting independently of any FIRELOCK heating apparatus or combustion. In its simplest form the engine consists of a tank filled with water and condensed steam, from which valves allow the steam to emerge and exert pressure on cylinder and piston. By this device sufficient steam is capable of being stored to carry a locomotive and several cars over a distance of several miles. The engine may be replenished with a fresh supply of steam as occasion requires.
This form of steam engine has been found serviceable under certain conditions, but there are other forms of fireless engines which have been found convenient. In one form, invented in 1870, by Lamm of Louisiana, the motive power was furnished by vapor of ammonia, and the engine was used for a number of years in running street cars.
Its great advantage was that the vapor of ammonia could be used over and over again, a reservoir of water absorbing the vapor as it emerged from the engine and releasing it again when the proper temperature was reached. The advantages to be derived from the use of engines that can dispense with the use of fire-boxes are many, and they have been developed to a still higher level by the arrival of compressed-air and similar locomotives.