IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR FEEDING STEAM BOILERS WITH WATER CONDENSED FROM STEAM
Year: 1876

page_text: που στουψο
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Thomas Hughes at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th April 1876. A communication from
abroad by Julius Laporte and William Motz, of Berlin.
EDWARD THOMAS HUGHES, of the Firm of Hughes and Son, Patent Agents, 123,
Chancery Lane, London. "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR FEEDING STEAM BOILERS
WITH WATER CONDENSED FROM STEAM." A communication from abroad by Julius
Laporte and William Motz, of Berlin.
For the purpose of collecting the condensed water from the condensing pipes and
conducting it back again at intervals to the steam boiler at any pressure I employ
the following improved apparatus.
To the outside of a metal cylinder are fixed three valve boxes containing expansion
valves communicating by passages with the interior of the cylinder in which there is
a floating body carrying six rollers which run up and down on three iron bars fixed
to the inside of the cylinder, and on the top of the floating body there is a slotted
frame. In bearings fitted to the body of the cylinder there is a shaft having on a
half of its length a collar, the shaft being mounted with a three-armed lever and the
collar with a slotted cam, and on the central arm of the lever there is a pin or
stud which enters the slot of the cam, and on the lower arm a fork and pin com-
municating with the slotted frame, and consequently with the floating body. The
apparatus is placed above the highest level of the water in the boiler, and one
expansion valve communicates with the condensing or collecting pipe, another with
the steam in the boiler, and the third with the water in the boiler.
The operation of the apparatus is as follows:-The pressure from the boiler raises
the valve communicating with the condensing or collecting pipe and forces the air
through an opening at the top of the valve box, and when the air is expelled and
the opening closed the condensed water will enter the cylinder and raise the floating
body and also give motion to two weights one in connection with the three-armed
lever and the other with the collar. As the water gradually rises, and with it the
floating body, the weights are at one part of their traverse in equilibro, but a further
traverse causes one weight to overbalance the other and move downwards, thereby
causing the cam to act upon a lever at the upper part of the cylinder and open the
valve communicating with the steam.
The entering steam immediately causes an equilibrium of the pressure in the cylinder,
and the water by its own gravity and the pressure of the steam passes into the water
space of the boiler, and as the water in the cylinder is lowered the three-armed lever
moves with it, the cam remaining upright as the pin or stud in the slot can move
down in the slot.

page_text: When the water lowers, the movements of the weights are reversed, and the
weight which was first overbalanced after a time is overbalanced by the other so
as to reverse the action of the three-armed lever and cause the steam to be shut off
from the steam valve and the steam remaining in the cylinder which is by the
water from the condensing valve condensed, thereby causing sufficient vacuum to
draw the condensed water into the cylinder and so on continuously.
When the condensed water is obtained from steam pipes heated with expanded
steam, or if pumps are used, the apparatus may be filled at once with full steam, and
the vacuum which is then formed sucks or aspires the water, and the apparatus
becomes self-acting until it is filled with air, which has to be expelled by a jet of
steam.