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 Journal of Autoimmunity xxx (xxxx) xxxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Autoimmunity
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jautimm

Review article

The epidemiology and pathogenesis of coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

outbreak
Hussin A. Rothana, Siddappa N. Byrareddyb,c,d,∗
a
Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
b
Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience, University of Nebraska Medical Centre, Omaha, NE, USA
c
Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy, Omaha, NE, USA
d
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Nebraska Medical Centre, Omaha, NE, USA

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by SARS-COV2 and represents the causative agent of a potentially
Coronavirus fatal disease that is of great global public health concern. Based on the large number of infected people that were
COVID-19 exposed to the wet animal market in Wuhan City, China, it is suggested that this is likely the zoonotic origin of
Wuhan city COVID-19. Person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 infection led to the isolation of patients that were sub-
Pneumonia
sequently administered a variety of treatments. Extensive measures to reduce person-to-person transmission of
Pathogenesis
COVID-19 have been implemented to control the current outbreak. Special attention and efforts to protect or
reduce transmission should be applied in susceptible populations including children, health care providers, and
elderly people. In this review, we highlights the symptoms, epidemiology, transmission, pathogenesis, phylo-
genetic analysis and future directions to control the spread of this fatal disease.

1. Introduction cardiovascular disease [6]. These patients were presumed to be infected

in that hospital, likely due to nosocomial infection. It was concluded
Coronavirus is one of the major pathogens that primarily targets the that the COVID-19 is not a super-hot spreading virus (spread by one
human respiratory system. Previous outbreaks of coronaviruses (CoVs) patient to many others), but rather likely spread due to many patients
include the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV and the getting infected at various locations throughout the hospital through
Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV which have been pre- unknown mechanisms. In addition, only patients that got clinically sick
viously characterized as agents that are a great public health threat. In were tested, thus there were likely many more patients that were pre-
late December 2019, a cluster of patients was admitted to hospitals with sumably infected. As of January 22, 2020, a total of 571 cases of the
an initial diagnosis of pneumonia of an unknown etiology. These pa- 2019-new coronavirus (COVID-19) were reported in 25 provinces
tients were epidemiologically linked to a seafood and wet animal (districts and cities) in China [7]. The China National Health Com-
wholesale market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China [1,2]. Early reports mission reported the details of the first 17 deaths up to January 22,
predicted the onset of a potential Coronavirus outbreak given the es- 2020. On January 25, 2020, a total of 1975 cases were confirmed to be
timate of a reproduction number for the 2019 Novel (New) Coronavirus infected with the COVID-19 in mainland China with a total of 56 deaths
(COVID-19, named by WHO on Feb 11, 2020) which was deemed to be [8]. Another report on January 24, 2020 estimated the cumulative in-
significantly larger than 1 (ranges from 2.24 to 3.58) [3]. cidence in China to be 5502 cases [9]. As of January 30, 2020, 7734
The chronology of COVID-19 infections is as follows. The first cases cases have been confirmed in China and 90 other cases have also been
were reported in December 2019 [4]. From December 18, 2019 through reported from a number of countries that include Taiwan, Thailand,
December 29, 2019, five patients were hospitalized with acute re- Vietnam, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Japan, Singapore,
spiratory distress syndrome and one of these patients died[5]. By Jan- Republic of Korea, United Arab Emirates, United States, The Phi-
uary 2, 2020, 41 admitted hospital patients had been identified as lippines, India, Australia, Canada, Finland, France, and Germany. The
having laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection, less than half of these case fatality rate was calculated to be 2.2% (170/7824) [10]. The first
patients had underlying diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, and case of COVID-19 infection confirmed in the United States led to the

∗
Corresponding author. Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience Durham Research Center, 8047 985880 Nebraska Medical Center Omaha,
NE, 68198-5880, USA
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (H.A. Rothan), [email protected] (S.N. Byrareddy).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaut.2020.102433
Received 10 February 2020; Received in revised form 17 February 2020; Accepted 18 February 2020
0896-8411/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: Hussin A. Rothan and Siddappa N. Byrareddy, Journal of Autoimmunity,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaut.2020.102433
H.A. Rothan and S.N. Byrareddy Journal of Autoimmunity xxx (xxxx) xxxx

description, identification, diagnosis, clinical course, and management

of this case. This includes the patient's initial mild symptoms at pre-
sentation and progression to pneumonia on day 9 of illness [11]. Fur-
ther, the first case of human-to-human transmission of COVID-19 was
reported in the US on January 30, 2020 (https://www.cdc.gov/media/
releases/2020/p0130). The CDC has so far screened > 30,000 passen-
gers arriving at US airports for the novel coronavirus. Following such
initial screening, 443 individuals have been tested for coronavirus in-
fection in 41 states in the USA. Only 15 (3.1%) were tested positive, 347
were negative and results on the remaining 81 are pending (https://
www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov). A report published in Nature
revealed that Chinese health authorities concluded that as of February
7, 2019, there have been 31,161 people who have contracted the in-
fection in China, and more than 630 people have died (http://www.
nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00154) of infection. At the time of
preparing this manuscript, the World Health Organisation (WHO) re-
ported 51,174 confirmed cases including 15, 384 severe cases and 1666
death cases in China. Globally, the number of confirmed cases as of this
writing (February 16, 2020) has reached 51,857 in 25 countries
(https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-
reports) (Fig. 1).

Fig. 2. The systemic and respiratory disorders caused by COVID-19 infection.

2. Symptoms The incubation period of COVID-19 infection is approximately 5.2 days. There
are general similarities in the symptoms between COVID-19 and previous be-
The symptoms of COVID-19 infection appear after an incubation tacoronavirus. However, COVID-19 showed some unique clinical features that
period of approximately 5.2 days [12]. The period from the onset of include the targeting of the lower airway as evident by upper respiratory tract
COVID-19 symptoms to death ranged from 6 to 41 days with a median symptoms like rhinorrhoea, sneezing, and sore throat. Additionally, patients
of 14 days [8]. This period is dependent on the age of the patient and infected with COVID-19 developed intestinal symptoms like diarrhoea only a
status of the patient's immune system. It was shorter among pa- low percentage of MERS-CoV or SARS-CoV patients exhibited diarrhoea.
tients > 70-years old compared with those under the age of 70 [8]. The
most common symptoms at onset of COVID-19 illness are fever, cough, admission, some of the cases show an infiltrate in the upper lobe of the
and fatigue, while other symptoms include sputum production, head- lung that is associated with increasing dyspnea with hypoxemia [17].
ache, haemoptysis, diarrhoea, dyspnoea, and lymphopenia [5,6,8,13]. Importantly, whereas patients infected with COVID-19 developed gas-
Clinical features revealed by a chest CT scan presented as pneumonia, trointestinal symptoms like diarrhoea, a low percentage of MERS-CoV
however, there were abnormal features such as RNAaemia, acute re- or SARS-CoV patients experienced similar GI distress. Therefore, it is
spiratory distress syndrome, acute cardiac injury, and incidence of important to test faecal and urine samples to exclude a potential al-
grand-glass opacities that led to death [6]. In some cases, the multiple ternative route of transmission, specifically through health care
peripheral ground-glass opacities were observed in subpleural regions workers, patients etc (Fig. 2) [15,16]. Therefore, development of
of both lungs [14] that likely induced both systemic and localized im- methods to identify the various modes of transmission such as feacal
mune response that led to increased inflammation. Regrettably, treat- and urine samples are urgently warranted in order to develop strategies
ment of some cases with interferon inhalation showed no clinical effect to inhibit and/or minimize transmission and to develop therapeutics to
and instead appeared to worsen the condition by progressing pul- control the disease.
monary opacities [14] (Fig. 2).
It is important to note that there are similarities in the symptoms
between COVID-19 and earlier betacoronavirus such as fever, dry 3. Pathogenesis
cough, dyspnea, and bilateral ground-glass opacities on chest CT scans
[6]. However, COVID-19 showed some unique clinical features that The severe symptoms of COVID-19 are associated with an increasing
include the targeting of the lower airway as evident by upper re- numbers and rate of fatalities specially in the epidemic region of China.
spiratory tract symptoms like rhinorrhoea, sneezing, and sore throat On January 22, 2020, the China National Health Commission reported
[15,16]. In addition, based on results from chest radiographs upon the details of the first 17 deaths and on January 25, 2020 the death

Figure 1. The chronological incidence of COVID-19 infections and death cases in China. Infections with COVID-19 appears in December 2019. At the time of
preparing this manuscript, February 16, 2020 there have been 51,174 people who have contracted the infection in China, and more than 1666 people have died.

2
H.A. Rothan and S.N. Byrareddy Journal of Autoimmunity xxx (xxxx) xxxx

cases increased to 56 deaths [8]. The percentage of death among the 5. Phylogenetic analysis
reported 2684 cases of COVID-19 was approximately 2.84% as of Jan
25, 2020 and the median age of the deaths was 75 (range 48–89) years World Health Organisation (WHO) has classified COVID-19 as a β
[8]. CoV of group 2B [23]. Ten genome sequences of COVID-19 obtained
Patients infected with COVID-19 showed higher leukocyte numbers, from a total of nine patients exhibited 99.98% sequence identity [19].
abnormal respiratory findings, and increased levels of plasma pro-in- Another study showed there was 99.8–99.9% nucleotide identity in
flammatory cytokines. One of the COVID-19 case reports showed a isolates from five patients and the sequence results revealed the pre-
patient at 5 days of fever presented with a cough, coarse breathing sence of a new beta-CoV strain [5]. The genetic sequence of the COVID-
sounds of both lungs, and a body temperature of 39.0 °C. The patient's 19 showed more than 80% identity to SARS-CoV and 50% to the MERS-
sputum showed positive real-time polymerase chain reaction results CoV [5,19], and both SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV originate in bats [24].
that confirmed COVID-19 infection [14]. The laboratory studies showed Thus, the evidence from the phylogenetic analysis indicates that the
leucopenia with leukocyte counts of 2.91 × 10^9 cells/L of which COVID-19 belongs to the genus betacoronavirus, which includes SARS-
70.0% were neutrophils. Additionally, a value of 16.16 mg/L of blood CoV, that infects humans, bats, and wild animals [25].
C-reactive protein was noted which is above the normal range COVID-19 represents the seventh member of the coronavirus family
(0–10 mg/L). High erythrocyte sedimentation rate and D-dimer were that infects humans and has been classified under the orthocoronavir-
also observed [14]. The main pathogenesis of COVID-19 infection as a inae subfamily. The COVID-19 forms a clade within the subgenus sar-
respiratory system targeting virus was severe pneumonia, RNAaemia, becovirus [25]. Based on the genetic sequence identity and the phylo-
combined with the incidence of ground-glass opacities, and acute car- genetic reports, COVID-19 is sufficiently different from SARS-CoV and it
diac injury [6]. Significantly high blood levels of cytokines and che- can thus be considered as a new betacoronavirus that infects humans.
mokines were noted in patients with COVID-19 infection that included The COVID-19 most likely developed from bat origin coronaviruses.
IL1-β, IL1RA, IL7, IL8, IL9, IL10, basic FGF2, GCSF, GMCSF, IFNγ, IP10, Another piece of evidence that supports the COVID-19 is of bat origin is
MCP1, MIP1α, MIP1β, PDGFB, TNFα, and VEGFA. Some of the severe the existence of a high degree of homology of the ACE2 receptor from a
cases that were admitted to the intensive care unit showed high levels diversity of animal species, thus implicating these animal species as
of pro-inflammatory cytokines including IL2, IL7, IL10, GCSF, IP10, possible intermediate hosts or animal models for COVID-19 infections
MCP1, MIP1α, and TNFα that are reasoned to promote disease severity [20]. Moreover, these viruses have a single intact open reading frame
[6]. on gene 8, which is a further indicator of bat-origin CoVs. However, the
amino acid sequence of the tentative receptor-binding domain re-
sembles that of SARS-CoV, indicating that these viruses might use the
4. Transmission same receptor [5].

Based on the large number of infected people that were exposed to 6. Therapeutics/treatment options
the wet animal market in Wuhan City where live animals are routinely
sold, it is suggested that this is the likely zoonotic origin of the COVID- The person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 infection led to the
19. Efforts have been made to search for a reservoir host or inter- isolation of patients that were administered a variety of treatments. At
mediate carriers from which the infection may have spread to humans. present, there are no specific antiviral drugs or vaccine against COVID-
Initial reports identified two species of snakes that could be a possible 19 infection for potential therapy of humans. The only option available
reservoir of the COVID-19. However, to date, there has been no con- is using broad-spectrum antiviral drugs like Nucleoside analogues and
sistent evidence of coronavirus reservoirs other than mammals and also HIV-protease inhibitors that could attenuate virus infection until
birds [10,18]. Genomic sequence analysis of COVID-19 showed 88% the specific antiviral becomes available [7]. The treatment that have so
identity with two bat-derived severe acute respiratory syndrome far been attempted showed that 75 patients were administrated existing
(SARS)-like coronaviruses [19,20], indicating that mammals are the antiviral drugs. The course of treatment included twice a day oral ad-
most likely link between COVID-19 and humans. Several reports have ministration of 75 mg oseltamivir, 500 mg lopinavir, 500 mg ritonavir
suggested that person-to-person transmission is a likely route for and the intravenous administration of 0·25 g ganciclovir for 3–14 days
spreading COVID-19 infection. This is supported by cases that occurred [26]. Another report showed that the broad-spectrum antiviral re-
within families and among people who did not visit the wet animal mdesivir and chloroquine are highly effective in the control of 2019-
market in Wuhan [13,21]. Person-to-person transmission occurs pri- nCoV infection in vitro. These antiviral compounds have been used in
marily via direct contact or through droplets spread by coughing or human patients with a safety track record. Thus, these therapeutic
sneezing from an infected individual. In a small study conducted on agents can be considered to treat COVID-19 infection [27]. Further-
women in their third trimester who were confirmed to be infected with more, there are a number of other compounds that are in development.
the coronavirus, there was no evidence that there is transmission from These include the clinical candidate EIDD-2801 compound that has
mother to child. However, all pregnant mothers underwent cesarean shown high therapeutic potential aganist seasonal and pandemic in-
sections, so it remains unclear whether transmission can occur during fluenza virus infections and this represents another potential drug to be
vaginal birth. This is important because pregnant mothers are relatively considered for the treatment of COVID-19 infection [28]. Along those
more susceptible to infection by respiratory pathogens and severe lines, until more specific therapeutics become available, it is reasonable
pneumonia (https://www.thelancet.com, DOI:https://doi.org/10. to consider more broad-spectrum antivirals that provide drug treatment
1016/S0140-6736(20)30360-3). options for COVID-19 infection include Lopinavir/Ritonavir, Neur-
The binding of a receptor expressed by host cells is the first step of aminidase inhibitors, peptide (EK1), RNA synthesis inhibitors. It is clear
viral infection followed by fusion with the cell membrane. It is reasoned however, that more research is urgently needed to identify novel che-
that the lung epithelial cells are the primary target of the virus. Thus, it motherapeutic drugs for treating COVID-19 infections. In order to de-
has been reported that human-to-human transmissions of SARS-CoV velop pre-and post-exposure prophylaxis against COVID-19, there is an
occurs by the binding between the receptor-binding domain of virus urgent need to establish an animal model to replicate the severe disease
spikes and the cellular receptor which has been identified as angio- currently observed in humans. Several groups of scientists are currently
tensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor [20,22]. Importantly, the working hard to develop a nonhuman primate model to study COVID-
sequence of the receptor-binding domain of COVID-19 spikes is similar 19 infection to establish fast track novel therapeutics and for the testing
to that of SARS-CoV. This data strongly suggests that entry into the host of potential vaccines in addition to providing a better understanding of
cells is most likely via the ACE2 receptor [20]. virus-host interactions.

3
H.A. Rothan and S.N. Byrareddy Journal of Autoimmunity xxx (xxxx) xxxx

7. Future directions to control the spread of the disease novel coronavirus causing severe pneumonia in human: a descriptive study, Chinese
Med J (2020), https://doi.org/10.1097/CM9.0000000000000722.
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Declaration of competing interest 6736(20)30251-8.
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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-020-0332-0. guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)
[5] L.L. Ren, Y.M. Wang, Z.Q. Wu, Z.C. Xiang, L. Guo, T. Xu, et al., Identification of a infected pneumonia (standard version), Mil. Med. Res. 7 (2020) 4.

4
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admitted water drop by drop, until the sound had died away. For
these inventions and for his steam steering gears the judges made
an award.
Our foreign judges were enthusiastic about them; Horatio Allen
had fought Mr. Sickels during his whole business life and would
never allow a Sickels cut-off to be applied in the Novelty Iron Works.
For example, the directors of the Collins steamship line adopted the
Sickels cut-off, but it was put on only two of their ships, the “Arctic”
and the “Baltic,” the engines of which were built at the Allaire works.
The “Atlantic” and “Pacific,” which were engined at the Novelty
Works, did not have it, Mr. Allen absolutely refusing to allow it. To my
surprise Mr. Allen signed this award with a cordial expression of
admiration of Mr. Sickels’ genius; he had softened in his old age.
The following is a copy of this award.
INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 1876.

United States Centennial Commission,

Philadelphia, 3d August, 1876.

REPORT ON AWARDS.
“Group No. XX.
“Catalogue No. 1027.
“Product, Models of Improvements in Steam-engines.
“Name and address of exhibitor, Frederick E. Sickels.
“The undersigned, having examined the products herein
described, respectfully recommend the same to the United States
Centennial Commission for Award for the following reasons, viz:
“These exhibits possess great historical interest.
“In the year 1842 Mr. Sickels patented the trip or liberating cut-off,
an invention which, in a variety of forms, has come into use
wherever steam-engines are made. In applying this invention to
poppet valves, Mr. Sickels prevented these valves from striking their
seats by his invention of the dash-pot, in which he availed himself of
the incompressibility, the indestructibility and the divisibility of water,
and which is now employed for this purpose in all such applications.
 “In 1848 he patented an improvement in the method of controlling
motive power, by which method steam is applied at the present time
to various uses, notable among which is the steering of steam
vessels, the steersmen turning the wheel precisely as in steering by
hand, but all the force being exerted by the steam.
“Charles T. Porter,
“Reporting Judge.
“Approval of Group Judges,
Horatio Allen, Chas. E. Emery, Emil Brugsch,
F. Reuleaux, N. Petroff.”
 James Moore

After our work was finished and I had gone home the awards were
made public; to my astonishment the award to Mr. Sickels was not
among them, so I wrote to General Walker, who was our medium of
communication with the Commission, asking the reason for this
omission. He replied that the award had been thrown out by the
Committee of Revision. “Committee of Revision!” I had never heard
of such a thing. I asked for an explanation and I learned that the
judges did not make awards, they only recommended them; the
awards were made by the Commission after they had passed the
scrutiny of the Committee of Revision. Well, who were the
Committee of Revision? I learned that the Commission consisted of
two commissioners from each State appointed by the Governor; Mr.
Corliss was a commissioner from Rhode Island. At a meeting of the
commissioners Mr. Corliss proposed the novel scheme of a
Committee of Revision, to which the action of the judges should be
submitted for approval before the awards were made. The idea
seemed to please the members of the Commission, as tending to
magnify their own importance, and it was adopted; as a matter of
usual courtesy Mr. Corliss was made chairman of the committee,
and the committee threw out the award to Mr. Sickels. I made careful
inquiry and could never learn that the Committee of Revision threw
out any other award, so it seemed evident that with the throwing out
of this award to Mr. Sickels the object of its existence was
accomplished.
In the Corliss valve system the liberation of the valve was the
fundamental idea; this was applied by him to valves moving in the
direction parallel with their seats. It not being necessary to arrest
their motion at any precise point, they were caught by air cushions at
any points after they had covered their ports. Mr. Corliss had
appropriated the liberating idea, according to “the good old rule, the
simple plan, that they may take who have the power, and they may
keep who can,” and all this machinery had been devised by him to
prevent the historical fact that the liberating idea had been invented
by Mr. Sickels from appearing in the records of the exhibition. By all
this enormous expenditure of ingenuity and influence he succeeded
in giving to this fact a prominence and importance which it would
never otherwise have had, besides advertising his efforts to
suppress it.
Mr. Horatio Allen’s life-long aversion to Mr. Sickels was caused by
professional jealousy. Mr. Allen conceived himself to be an inventor,
and for years had been cherishing a cut-off invention of his own. The
original firm was Stillman, Allen & Co., and for years Mr. Stillman had
prevented the Novelty Iron Works from being sacrificed to Mr. Allen’s
genius, but later Mr. Allen had obtained supreme control of these
works by an affiliation with Brown Brothers, the bankers, his principal
stockholders, and Mr. Stillman sold out his interest and retired from
the firm. Mr. Allen, having a clear field, now determined to put his
invention on the new steamer of the Collins line, the “Adriatic,” and
American engineers were amused at the display of this amazing
absurdity on the largest possible scale. In this construction there
were four valves; each valve was a conical plug about six feet long
and had four movements; first it was withdrawn from its seat a
distance of three inches so that it could be rotated freely, then it was
rotated first to draw off the lap. Up to this point theoretically the port
had not been opened, but the steam had been blowing into the
cylinder or out of it, as the case might be, through these enormous
cracks; the valves then rotated further to produce the opening
movement, for either admission or release; the rotation was then
reversed until it reached its original position, then the fourth
movement brought it to its seat. It is probable that the ship would
have gone to sea working steam after this ridiculous fashion, if the
complicated mechanism required to produce the four movements
had not broken down at the trial of the engines at the dock, beyond
the power of Mr. Allen’s genius to remedy; so the valves had to be
removed and the Stevens valves and Sickels cut-off were substituted
for them. The story that any sane man ever designed a four-motion
steam-engine valve, and that he made the first application of it on
the largest steamship, except the Great Eastern, then in the world, is
such a tax on credulity, that I was glad to find the following
corroboration of it in a letter to “Power,” from which I copy the
essential portion.
 Emil Brugsch

“In one of Mr. Porter’s ‘Reminiscences,’ which I have mislaid, he gives an

account of the alterations to the last steamer of the E. K. Collins lines, the
‘Adriatic.’ His description of Horatio Allen’s cock-valves and their motions is
absolutely correct. The writer made the greater part of the detail drawings by which
the new valves and the Sickels cut-off were placed on the ‘Adriatic.’
Peter Van Brock.
Jefferson, Iowa.”

These engines, as further designed by Mr. Allen, were afterwards

described by Zerah Colburn in the London Engineer in his usual
caustic style. His description began with this expression: “These
engines are fearfully and wonderfully made.”
I had hoped that my old friend Daniel Kinnear Clark might turn up
as the English member in our group of judges at the Centennial
Exposition, but in this I was disappointed. The English judge in our
group was Mr. Barlow, son of the celebrated author of “A Treatise on
the Strength of Materials,” which, if I remember rightly, was the first
authoritative treatise on that subject. Mr. Barlow, however, was not of
much help to us; he came late and attended but one meeting. That, I
remember very well, was the meeting at which I presented my
classification. He left Philadelphia with his son to visit Niagara Falls,
and we never saw him again. I remember his giving me a very
cordial invitation to visit him when I should find myself in England.
Two of my English engineering acquaintances appeared at this
exhibition. One of them was a judge in the group which embraced
sewing machines. I remember asking him what was the most
interesting mechanical device he had seen at the exhibition; he told
me it was the automatic tension in the Wilcox & Gibbs sewing
machine. In a walk with him through Machinery Hall one day, I called
his attention to a locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works.
After looking it over cursorily he remarked that he did not see
anything particular in it. I could not help replying, “That may not be
the fault of the locomotive.” I had thought him a light weight in
England, and that superficial remark confirmed my opinion. The
other friend, as I am proud to call him, I have always considered
mechanically the most interesting man I ever met. It was Mr. Smith,
of Smith & Coventry, the machine-tool builders of Salford. Mr. Smith
was the brains of the concern. He had come over to learn what
America could teach him, and the only thing he took back, so far as I
know, was the twist-drill, the manufacture of which was begun by
that firm after his return. I shall have something to add later to what I
have already said respecting his wonderful improvements in
machine tools. In one of the pleasant walks we took together, our
attention was arrested by the exhibit of Riehlé Brothers, the
celebrated scale manufacturers of Philadelphia. Among other novel
and interesting features of their exhibit this firm showed a ³⁄₄-inch
bolt broken by a stress applied to it through a nut of only one half the
standard thickness, or three eighths of an inch deep, and that run on
loosely by hand. This astonishing revelation drew from Mr. Smith the
ejaculation, “Why, old Whitworth lied.” Mr. Whitworth had stated that
he had ascertained by experiment that a nut to be as strong as the
bolt must have a depth equal to the diameter of the bolt, and this had
been accepted as mechanical truth by the entire engineering world,
no one ever thinking to make the simple measurement which would
show that the force required to strip the threads of any bolt in a nut of
this standard depth would be nearly three times the strength of the
bolt. He was, of course, highly interested in the wonderful steelyards
made by this firm, which would weigh anything that could be lifted by
a crane. His only discovery respecting machine tools was, that their
manufacture in the United States was generally very inferior.
It was fortunate that I had prepared the drawings according to my
revised model for three or four sizes of the engines, as otherwise I
should not have been able to accept the position offered me at the
Philadelphia exposition. I received two more orders before May 24,
and two more during the summer, but with the preparations I had
made and Mr. Goodfellow’s familiarity with the work, everything went
on smoothly during my absence.
 CHAPTER XXIV

Engine Building in Newark. Introduction of Harris Tabor.

fter my return from Philadelphia the first order I

received was a very important one. On the advice of
Mr. Holley, the Albany and Rensselaer Iron and Steel
Co. of Troy, N. Y., decided to order from me two
engines for the new roll trains they were about to
establish; this being the first opportunity I had of
applying my engine in what proved to be its most important field.
These were a 22×36-inch engine to drive a 16-inch train for rolling
light steel rails, and an 18×30-inch engine to drive an 8- or 10-inch
train for rolling merchant steel. These engines did not run rapidly; the
first was a direct-connected engine making only 75 revolutions per
minute; the second made only 112 revolutions per minute, but was
belted to drive the train at twice that speed.
Mr. Corning, president of the company, did not like the slow way in
which the rails were turned out of the former train. I happened to be
standing with him observing this work when he asked a boy why the
billets were not fed to the rolls faster. The boy replied, “Because the
gentlemen at the hooks could not catch them, sir.” Where are the
gentlemen at the hooks to-day, when rails 200 feet long are turned
out of the rolls?
These engines stood near each other, the trains extending in
opposite directions. The battery of boilers was located at a
considerable distance from them. I set between them a vertical
steam receiver, four feet in diameter and twelve feet high. This
receiver performed two functions: it maintained the steam pressure
at the cylinders and separated the steam from the water carried over.
This latter was accomplished by admitting the steam at the top of the
receiver by a pipe extending two thirds of the way to the bottom,
draining the water from the bottom by means of a Nason steam trap,
and taking the dry steam to the engine from the top of the receiver.
This was my first application of this method, which afterwards proved
most valuable in cases of greater importance. These engines were
of the highest interest to me, as their successful running opened the
door to that important field.
While they were still lying on the floor of the shop ready for
shipment, I had an opportunity of submitting them to the criticism of
William R. Jones, the manager of the Edgar Thompson Steel Works,
to whom, as already related, I had sold a small engine and
governors for his large ones. I had not made these engines properly
in one respect, as he pointed out to me that, for rolling-mill uses,
they must be made capable of being run backwards by hand from
any position, a requirement of which I had been ignorant. I soon
made the necessary additions to the valve-gear which enabled this
to be done. I never knew how Mr. Jones came to make this
opportune visit, but undoubtedly Mr. Holley sent him.
I had another visitor before these engines were shipped. It was the
manager of the Laclede rolling mill at St. Louis, accompanied by his
engineer. They had designed a system of driving several trains of
rolls from one engine, the power of which was to be transmitted
through gearing. They were greatly fascinated by the appearance of
the engines, and gave me an order for a large engine on the spot.
This engine afforded me a curious experience. When it was
started, teeth were broken out of the gear at the very first revolution,
and I received a telegram from them telling me of this misfortune and
that I must come to St. Louis immediately and see what was the
trouble with the engine. I was too busy to go myself, but Mr. Phillips
kindly permitted his engineer, Mr. Collins, to go in my place. Mr.
Collins took with him everything necessary to expose the defect,
whatever it might be, which we expected would be found in the
gearing. Among other things he had the pattern-maker prepare for
him two or three short pieces of lath about two inches wide and one
eighth of an inch thick; these latter proved to be all that he needed.
On his arrival the proprietors assured him there could be no fault
with the gearing, for they had it made by the most eminent
engineering firm in St. Louis. The members of this firm showed him
triumphantly the broken pieces and directed his attention to the
perfect soundness of the metal, as proved by the fractured surfaces.
His first experiment was to whittle an end of one piece of lath to fit
exactly between two teeth of a wheel at one end of the space. To his
amazement he found that this templet would not fit in any other
space around the whole wheel, every one was in some degree or
other too large or too small; neither would the templet fit in the
opposite end of the same space. This one experiment settled the
matter; the engine, to be sure, had broken the gears, because the
larger teeth of the driving-wheels had wedged into the smaller
spaces of the driven wheels. How such work could be produced was
a puzzle to Mr. Collins; as for myself, I have never wondered at any
imperfection in gearing since my experience with Mr. Whitworth’s
work. The owners of the rolling mill applied for advice to Samuel T.
Wellman, the manager of the Otis Steel Works at Cleveland. He
gave them the sensible advice to abandon altogether the plan of
driving through gearing, and to drive each train by a separate
engine, directly connected, which my high-speed engine would
enable them to do. This was the first I heard of Mr. Wellman, with
whom I was afterwards to have such pleasant relations.
While on the subject of gearing I will state a couple of incidents.
One of my first small engines I sold to Mr. Albright of Newark, a
harness-maker. Half of the power of the engine was to be
transmitted to an adjoining building driving a vertical shaft through a
pair of miter gears. It was required that these should run noiselessly,
which at 350 revolutions per minute seemed a difficult thing to
accomplish. I had the gears cut in the best gear cutter I knew of, and
fitted them to run in a lathe, the spindle of the driven gear running in
a frame made for the purpose, and being provided with a friction
wheel and brake. To make sure that the same teeth and spaces
should always come together, I made a prick-punch mark on one
tooth and behind the corresponding space. When started at 350
revolutions they rattled finely. The resistance of the friction brake
was sufficient to make the points of contact on the teeth mark
themselves well in 15 minutes’ running. I then took them down and
carefully removed the bright spots on the surface with a scraper. The
next time the noise was more than half gone, and four successive
scrapings by a skillful workman cured it entirely. There is this
encouragement in correcting gearing, that its subsequent running
always tends to improve the truth of the surfaces; they wear to a
more general contact.
One day I had a letter from Mr. Barclay, the miller for whom I had
made my first engine in Harlem, and which I arranged to drive his
millstones by belting. He told me he had moved his mill from
Harrison Street to a building on North Moore Street, New York, and
he found there was something the matter with the engine. (In these
cases there is always something the matter with the engine.) It used
to drive three runs of stones, now it would only drive two, and he
burned a great deal more coal than before. He wanted me to come
and see what the matter was. The moment I opened the door of his
mill I knew what the matter was. I heard the roar of rough gearing
and was pretty mad. I told him I hoped he liked that music, for it cost
him more than half the coal he was burning to keep it up. I gave him
a sharp piece of my mind for changing the system of driving from
that which I had provided without consulting me on the subject. I told
him when he threw out his gearing and put the pulleys and belts
back just as I made them, he would find the engine would give him
the same power that it had done for five or six years in its old
location.
Robert W. Hunt
 In the first engines which I built in Newark the governor had a
more or less uncomfortable action. This annoyed me exceedingly. It
did not sensibly affect the running of the engine, but was a drawback
to the appearance of the engine in motion. I was utterly at a loss how
to account for it, so I finally determined I would solve the problem by
a comparison of two engines of the same size. One of these was the
smaller engine for the rolling mill at Troy, where the action of the
governor was quite satisfactory; the other was an engine I had made
for the Newark Lime and Cement Company, in which the action of
the governor was very unsatisfactory. After some weeks of
comparison I gave the problem up: I could get no light on the
subject. Soon after I had occasion to go to Troy and found my
smaller engine running at double its former speed or at 224
revolutions per minute. Mr. Robert W. Hunt, the general
superintendent, informed me that they planned to employ this speed
when rolling steel to finish at very small sizes, which they were then
doing for the first time. The action of the governor which had before
been so perfect was now most abominable; the counterpoise flying
up and down furiously between the extreme points of its action. I told
Mr. Hunt that something was hindering the action of the governor,
and asked him if he would have an examination made and let me
know what he found. A few days after I received a letter from him
saying he had found nothing at all, but he added that that order had
been completed and the engine was running at its old speed, and
the governor was working as well as ever. In an instant the truth
flashed upon me; it was the inertia of those polished cast-iron disks
on the rocker-shaft which I had thought so much of that caused all
the trouble. This inertia, increasing as the square of the speed, had
offered four times the resistance to the reversing of their motion
when the speed of the engine was doubled, and the pressure of the
link which was necessary to overcome this resistance held the block
fast. The governor could not move it until it had accumulated
sufficient force by change of its speed; then it moved it too far, and
so it was kept in constant violent motion from one end to the other of
its range of action. I was thoroughly ashamed of myself that when I
had made the subject of inertia a study for years this action should
have been going on so long, the most prominent thing before my
eyes, and I never saw it. I had use enough at once for my new
insight as will appear.
The Gautier steel works, which had been located in Jersey City,
were removing to Johnstown, Penn., having formed an alliance with
the Cambria Iron and Steel Company. Mr. Stephen W. Baldwin, then
manager of the Gautier Company, had given me an order for an
engine suitable for driving at 230 revolutions per minute their ten-
inch train, or it may have been an eight-inch. I went to Jersey City
and made a careful measurement of the indicated power required to
drive this train. The engine used was rather a large one, with a large
and heavy fly-wheel running at slow speed and driving the train at
this rapid speed by means of a belt. I found that my 10-inch by 20-
inch engine directly connected with the train would, at 230
revolutions per minute, be capable of furnishing twice the power they
were then using. I built an engine of that size with a fly-wheel about 8
feet in diameter, shipped it to Johnstown, and sent George Garraty,
my most trusty erecter, to set it up. I should say that Mr. Baldwin had
meantime severed his connection with the Gautier Steel Company,
and it was then in the hands of parties who were strangers to my
engines. I received a letter from Garraty stating that on his arrival he
had found them just about to send the engine back; everybody about
the works had agreed that a man who sent that little engine to drive
that train to roll steel was a fool. At his solicitation they promised to
do nothing until they should hear from me. I then wrote to the
president, Mr. Douglas, stating I had carefully measured the utmost
power which that train had required at Jersey City, and had furnished
an engine capable of supplying double that power with ease, and I
was sure he would run no risk in setting it up. This he consented to
do. While Garraty was erecting the engine they were making
preparations in the mill to stall it if possible. There was great
excitement when it was started; the furnace men worked like
beavers and succeeded in feeding billets to the train twice as rapidly
as ever before, but they could not bring down its speed in the least.
Finally they lowered the steam pressure, but the engine did not stop
until they had brought this down to 40 pounds. Then a great shout
went up, not for themselves but for the engine, which had shown
itself capable of doubling the output of that train, and telegrams were
hurried off to the stockholders of the concern in New York and
Philadelphia to relieve their anxiety. Garraty left that night and
reported himself to me the following morning. After giving an account
of the success of the engine he added: “But the governor is working
very badly; they have not noticed it yet as they have thought only of
the running of the train, but they will.” By a remarkable coincidence I
had that very morning received the letter from Mr. Hunt which had
opened my eyes to the cause of this bad action; the day before I
could not have understood it.
 Stephen W. Baldwin

Within twenty-four hours after my interview with Garraty I had

started for Johnstown, carrying with me two light steel levers to
replace those disks. In that time I had made the drawings and had
the levers forged and finished, joint-pins set and keyways cut,
perfect duplicates of the disks in all their working features. When I
told my purpose to Mr. Douglas he smiled and said for the life of him
he could not see what disks on the rocker-shaft had to do with the
governor action. However, they had not yet started their night shift,
so I might have the engine after 6 o’clock, but it must be ready for
use at 6 o’clock the next morning. I told him that as the change
would probably occupy me less than an hour, I thought I might safely
assure him on that point. I engaged a machinist with the engineer to
help me at 7 o’clock in the evening and amused myself the rest of
the day about the mill. The furious governor action was so irritating I
did not stay long in the engine-room. In the evening we had the disks
off and the levers on and all connected up, ran the engine idle for a
few minutes to see that all was right and I was back in my hotel
within the hour, which illustrated the advantage of working to gauges.
I had taken off 29 pounds weight, that being the difference between
the weight of the disks and the levers. Next morning I went down to
see the effect of this change. It seemed magical. The governor
appeared to have gone to sleep, it was not taking any interest in the
activity about it; the counterpoise stood at about the middle of its
range of action, only moving lazily a short distance up or down
occasionally. After calling Mr. Douglas in to see what disks on the
rocker-shaft, with their motion reversed 460 times a minute, had to
do with the governor action, and hearing his expressions of
admiration, I took the next train home. As might be supposed I was
not long in eliminating all traces of this blunder from drawings and
from engines already made.
I had an order from John W. Hyatt of Newark for a 6×12-inch
engine to make 450 revolutions per minute, to drive an attrition mill
running at 900 revolutions per minute, in which he pulverized bones
to dust for manufacturing artificial ivory. This was the highest number
of revolutions per minute that I had ever employed, and perhaps it
was the most absolutely silent running engine that I ever made. Not
long after its completion I had a call from a young gentleman who
introduced himself to me as Harris Tabor. He told me he had
invented a steam-engine indicator which he thought would be
superior to the Richards indicator, as the pencil movement was very
much lighter and would draw a straight vertical line. He said he
called in the hope that I might give him an opportunity to test his
indicator on a very high-speed engine. I told him I thought I could do
just what he wanted. I took him down to Mr. Hyatt’s place where the
engine was running with the indicator rig on it which I had been
using; he was, of course, greatly pleased with this remarkable
opportunity. He took a number of diagrams with his indicator, and
they proved to be quite free from the vibrations which were produced
by the Richards indicator at the same speed. I gave him a certificate
that these diagrams had been taken by his indicator from a Porter-
Allen engine at a speed of 450 revolutions per minute. With these he
started for Boston to see Mr. Ashcroft. With the result of that
interview the engineering world is familiar. To my great regret not one
of the diagrams taken at that time has been preserved either by Mr.
Tabor, Mr. Ashcroft or myself, an omission that none of us can
account for. The Hyatt plant was afterwards, I understood, removed
to Albany, N. Y.
I had a singular experience with another 6×12-inch engine which I
sold to William A. Sweet, elder brother of Prof. John E. Sweet, for
use in his spring manufactory in Syracuse, N. Y. Mr. Sweet had two
batteries of boilers set at some distance from each other and at
different elevations; these were connected by a pipe which was
necessarily inclined. About the middle of the length of this pipe a
stop-valve had been introduced, and when this valve was shut the
pipe in the upper end of it was, of course, partly filled with water. My
engine received its steam from the bottom of this pipe below the
stop-valve. The boilers at the lower end were one day overloaded,
and while I happened to be present Mr. Sweet himself opened the
stop-valve for the purpose of getting an additional supply of steam
from the upper battery, but he did not get it. What he did get was a
charge of solid water, which brought my engine to an instantaneous
stop from a speed of 350 revolutions per minute. I was standing near
the engine and saw shooting out from the joint of the back cylinder
head a sheet of water, which at the top struck the roof of the building.
On examination it was found that the steel key of the fly-wheel had
been driven into the wrought-iron shaft almost half an inch and the
shaft was bent. The engine suffered no other injury; the bolts of the
cylinder head had not been strained to their elastic limit, and the nuts
did not require to be tightened. The shaft was straightened, new key-
seats were cut for the fly-wheel, and the engine worked as well as
ever—a pretty good proof of its general strength.