The Eclipse Corliss Engine The Eclipse Corliss Engine Group Classic Engineering
Above - The Eclipse Cross Compound Corliss Engine.
The Frick Company produced Corliss engines in the following styles :-
Horizontal or Vertical form, Condensing or Non-Condensing, single or in pairs.
" Compound " Engines, Tandem, Cross, Triple, or Quadruple.
The valve gear is of the most approved pattern; an independent and separate valve controls
each port, and is so placed that a short passage leads with the least amount of waste room
to the piston; the exhaust valves, from their position, drain the water from the cylinder.
The steam valves are so constructed that they act as relief valves in certain cases, and
the valves themselves are solid castings from end to end, and separate from the driving stem
The valve stems are made of Deoxidized Phosphor Bronze, as are also the trunnions, glands,
shoes and springs, and the stems are made interchangeable.
The wrist plate motion opens the steam valves quickly, giving boiler pressure at closest cut-off,
and kept in motion up to the point of extreme travel, permitting the point of cut-off to be
exactly determined and disengagements effected positively. Both the steam and exhaust valves
are given a peculiar dwell movement where it is most needed. The reversal of the valves is bought
about without shock, the movement being so easy from a state of rest to a rapid motion, and
that without straining the connections, the wear and tear of moving parts - as light as they
sometimes are made - is scarcely perceptible.
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The man responsible for many of the Frick-Corliss engine designs was Edgar Penney who moved
to Waynesboro in 1883, to compliment an already large array of other Stationary and Traction engines.
By the 1930's the Frick Company had grown to an immense size employing over 1,200 workers in Waynesboro.
The Eclipse Corliss Engine Group Classic Engineering