The valves coming under this class are sometimes formed as spheres or hemispheres resting in a conical seat, and in such cases they are generally closed by their own weight, and opened by the pressure of the fluid which passes through them.
(132.) One of the advantages attending the use of slides, compared with the other form of valves, is the simplicity with which the same slide may be made to govern several passages, so that a single motion with a slide may perform the office of two or more motions imparted to independent valves.
In most modern engines the passage of the steam to and from the cylinder is governed by slides of various forms, some of which we shall now explain.
(133.) In _figs._ 47. and 48. is represented a slide-valve contrived by Mr. Murray of Leeds. A B is a steam-tight case attached to the side of the cylinder; E F is a rod, which receives an alternate motion, upwards and downwards, from the eccentric, or from whatever other part of the engine is intended to move the slide. This rod, passing through a stuffing-box, moves the slide G upwards and downwards. S is the mouth of the steam pipe coming from the boiler; T is the mouth of a tube or pipe leading to the condenser; H is a passage leading to the top, and I to the bottom, of the cylinder. In the position of the slide represented in _fig._ 47., the steam coming from the boiler through S passes through the space H to the top of the cylinder, while the steam from the bottom of the cylinder passes through the space I into the tube T, and goes to the condenser. When the rod [Pg230] E F is raised to the position represented in _fig._ 48., then the passage H is thrown into communication with the tube T, while the passage I is made to communicate with the tube S. Steam, therefore, passes from the boiler through I below the piston, while the steam which was above the piston, passing through H into T, goes to the condenser. Thus the single slide G performs the office of the four valves described in (116.).