Military
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Steam-driven propulsion systems powered riverboats on western rivers in the mid-1800s, and Cairo's engines and boilers are among the oldest and best surviving examples of this machinery. A long steam drum connected to the top of the boilers collected steam and delivered it to the engines. Five long boilers made steam to power Cairo's engines, heated with coal at 2,000 pounds an hour, while hot gases from the fire flowed through tubes running the length of each boiler and turned water inside the boilers to steam. The steam drove two huge pistons, one on either side of the engine compartment, and the pistons pushed oscillating arms that turned the paddle wheel. At full steam, Cairo's engines could move the 888-ton gunboat at about nine miles per hour.
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Vicksburg, Mississippi · United States
