IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING AND APPLYING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Henry Cradock Monckton, vi Fineshade,
in the County of Northampton, Esquire, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
Sealed the 15th July 1862, and dated the 16th January 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Henry Cradock
Monckton, at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 16th January 1862.
I, EDWARD HENRY CRADOCK MONCKTON, of Fineshade, in the County of
Northampton, Esquire, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING AND APPLYING MOTIVE POWER,"
to be as follows:-
The novelty of this Invention consists, firstly, in circulating in small
quantities pure or distilled water or other fluid, or air, or gas, or mercury
placed in a suitable reservoir, and pumped or forced through suitable vessels
or tubes which have been heated by coal, coke, or gas, or any suitable method,
and then passing the steam or elastic fluid so generated through the cylinder
of an engine or other suitable apparatus, thereby producing motive power.
The steam or elastic fluid is then passed through a condenser constructed of a
series of tubes or suitable vessels placed in a cylinder or other receptacle,
which are cooled by a stream of water circulating about the tubes or vessels
and flowing through the cylinder or receptacle, or by a current of air driven
through it by a blower, the steam, vapour, or gas having by this means become
Price 1

page_text: condensed and reduced again to its former bulk or thereabouts, is passed into
the original reservoir, whence it is again pumped or forced by any suitable
method into circulation through the heating apparatus and engine, and is thus
kept in perpetual circulation with little or no waste or loss. Where air or
gas is used, instead of water and fluids, it is necessary, the above conditions
being observed, that the apparatus should be rendered suitable to receive the
peculiar agents and be enlarged in proportion; and further that the air or gases
should in the first instance be condensed to the pressure of several atmospheres,
by which means very little heat would be required to expand them to the
necessary degree. When condensed they would of course be reduced to the
state of pressure under which they were originally pumped into the reservoir,
so that the air or gas expanded by heat on the one side of the piston, where
such is the arrangement of the machinery, would act against the pressure of
air or gas as originally condensed on the other, and thus the destructive agency
of heat would be avoided, while the condensation and absorption of heat by
means of the condenser would be rendered comparatively easy.
One example of apparatus (which, however, may be varied in form so long
as the principle of the Invention is adhered to) is as follows:-A reservoir
containing, say, distilled water, is placed in connexion at the one side with a
force pump, and on the other with a condenser, the pump drives the water
into another vessel constructed of tubes of brass or other metal so flattened as
to admit a thinly spread surface of liquid being brought into immediate
contact with the metal; these tubes are either heated by gas or are placed in
a fire where the water is converted into steam; attached to these flattened
tubes is a coil of pipe placed also in the fire, in which the steam is super-
heated and passes on to an ordinary steam dome or chest above, whence it passes
into the cylinder or otherwise of an ordinary steam engine, and thence passes
into a peculiarly formed refrigerator, the novelty of which consists in having a
number of small flattened tubes of sufficient length placed parallel, and coiled
or not as may be found desirable, similar to the cooler of a still, the ends of
which are inserted at either side into a closed box; the whole of these are
again placed within a case, so arranged as to admit of a current of cold air
being driven through it by means of a blower, or in lieu of it a stream of
water, by which means the steam is condensed in the tubes and falls from the
other end of the condenser into the reservoir above mentioned, whence it is
again made to circulate.
The engine, or the tubes, or the refrigerator above referred to may be of any
suitable form, so long as the principle of the Invention, viz., circulation of the
material used, whether it be water, liquids, air, or gases, or a mixture of any of

page_text: these is adhered to, it being obvious that where volatile liquids, compressed
air, or gases are used closed vessels throughout would be necessary; it is
also obvious that though but little waste of material would practically occur,
such waste, if any, can be supplied; it is not asserted therefore that there shall
be no absolute loss of the material used while circulating through the apparatus,
but only that by this means a great saving may be effected.
The obvious advantages of this system of obtaining motive power by
constant circulation are, that there would be extreme cleanliness,--great power
obtained with but little heat,-great regularity of action, which if gas heaters
were employed would be rendered absolutely equable, the avoidance of all
necessity for stokers and engineers,-total absence of all danger of explosion
and bursting of boilers,-great economy of space, and little or no liability to
get out of repair.
-
I prefer to use metal tubes coated with gold, silver, aluminium, or other
metal, such coated metal would be applicable to other parts of engines and
boilers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edward Henry Cradock Monckton in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 16th July 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME I, EDWARD
HENRY CRADOCK MONCKTON, of Fineshade, in the County of Northampton,
Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Edward Henry Cradock Monckton, Her special licence that I,
the said Edward Henry Cradock Monckton, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Edward Henry Cradock Monckton,
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend within
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and
Isle of Man, an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING AND
APPLYING MOTIVE POWER," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Edward Henry Cradock Monckton, my executors or administrators, by

page_text: an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Oflice within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edward Henry Cradock Monckton, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
1 now proceed to point out more particularly the novelty of this Invention,
which consists, firstly, in dispensing with boilers, and in generating steam or
vapour in the most rapid manner by the circulation in small quantities of
pure or distilled water or other fluid, or air, or gas, or mercury placed in a
suitable reservoir, and pumped or forced simultaneously through one or more
peculiarly-shaped silver or gold-plated circular, oval, or flattened, copper,
brass, iron, or other metallic tubes, properly supported and stayed, and shaped
so as to withstand pressure, which have been heated by coal, coke, or gas,
or any suitable method, and then passing the steam or clastic fluid so
generated through the cylinder of an engine or other suitable apparatus.
Having thereby produced motive power, the steam or elastic fluid is then
passed into a condenser constructed of a series of flattened tubes or suitable
flat vessels placed in a cylinder or other receptacle, which are cooled
either by a current of air being forced between them by any suitable means,
and thus circulating about them, and then passing through the cylinder or
receptacle, or else by means of water, where such is largely available, or
else by means of a shower bath arrangement added to a blast of air, thus
combining the cooling properties of air with those of rapidly evaporated
water. The steam, vapour, or gas, having by these means become condensed
and reduced again to its former bulk or thereabouts, is repassed into the
original reservoir, whence it is again pumped or forced by any suitable method
into circulation through the heating apparatus and engine, and is thus kept
perpetually circulating with little or no waste or loss. Where air or gas is
used, instead of water and fluids, it is necessary, the above conditions being
observed, that the apparatus should be rendered suitable to receive the peculiar
agents, and be enlarged in proportion, or, if necessary, be hermetically closed.
If air or gases were used as a motive agent, they might, in the first instance,
be condensed to the pressure of several atmospheres, by which means very
little heat would be required to expand them to the necessary degree; when
condensed, they would, of course, be reduced to the state of pressure under

page_text: which they were originally pumped into the reservoir, so that the air or gas
expanded by heat on the one side of the piston, where such is the arrangement
of the machinery, would act against the pressure of air or gas as originally
condensed on the other, and thus the destructive agency of heat would be
avoided, while the condensation and absorption of heat by means of the con-
denser would be rendered comparatively easy. One example of apparatus
(which, however, may be varied in form so long as the principle of the
Invention is adhered to) is as follows: A reservoir or receiver containing a
fluid, as, for example, distilled water, is placed in connection at the one side
with a lift and force pump, and on the other with a condenser, as above
described. The pump raises and injects the water into another vessel con-
structed of electro-plated, oval, or flattened tubes of, say, brass, copper, or other
metal with their sides stayed and united together so as to form a sort of
gridiron, the tubes being so flattened or compressed at their sides as only to
admit of a thinly-spread surface of liquid passing in, which is thus brought
in immedate and forcible contact with the metal of the tubes; these are to
be heated either by jets of gas, or to be placed directly in a fire, or else are to
be arranged so as to form, in the first instance, the fire-bars of the furnace or
grate, and have other similar tubes placed above them in the fire, or else are
to be arranged so as to form a descending series from the upper part of the
furnace in a coil, spiral, or serpentine, by which means they will become more
and more heated as they descend towards the fire, past which, in this case,
they are made to descend, and then to be arranged, firstly, so as to form fire-
bars, and, secondly, a superheater placed in the fire itself; in these the water
is instantly converted into steam, and attached to these flattened tubes are one
or more coils or gridirons of pipe placed also in the fire, in which the steam is
superheated to any desired amount, and even to decomposition, should such be
wished, and passes on either intermediately to an ordinary steam dome or chest
above, or directly into the cylinder or otherwise of an ordinary steam engine;
it thence passes into a peculiarly-formed regenerator, the novelty of which
consists in using cases, the sides of which are in proximity, or else flattened or
compressed tubes with a view to extended surface, and the bringing the vapour
to be condensed into immediate and close contact with the refrigerating medium.
A sufficient number and length of these are to be placed either parallel or coiled,
or in a serpentine form, as may be found desirable according to the space at
command, and their ends at either extremity inserted into closed boxes. The
whole of these so united are to be enclosed within a case or compartment so
arranged as to admit of a current of cold air being driven through it by
means of a blower, or in lieu of it, if desirable, of water being run or forced

page_text: through it where such is plentifully available, as on the ocean, rivers, or canals.
The current of cold air, heated by passing through the refrigerator, is always
available to be used as a hot blast to be injected into the furnace, by which
means heat will be considerably economised. The whole or a part of the
tubes of the refrigerator being placed on a gradual descent, may, without any
outer case, be buried in the moist ground, and be taken round a field or
garden, or into a well or reservoir, or be carried up round the roof or ceiling
of a house in order to give a larger surface for refrigeration, and thus the
ground or the surrounding atmosphere can be made to refrigerate sufficiently,
especially in winter, without any resort being had to artificial means, or a part
of the refrigerator only need be acted on by a current of air, or by water, and
the remainder be buried in the ground. By these means the steam or vapour
is condensed in the refrigerating tubes, and falls from the other end of the
condenser into the reservoir above mentioned, which may be opened or closed
according to the nature of the fluid or other medium used, whence it is again
made to circulate.
It is obvious that under this system, though but little waste of material
would practically occur, such waste, if any, can be easily supplied, it is not
asserted therefore that there shall be no absolute loss of the material used while
circulating through the apparatus, but only that by these means a great
saving may be effected. The obvious advantages of the above methods of
obtaining motive power are that there would be extreme cleanliness of
the apparatus, the greatest amount of power obtained with the least possible
heat, thereby effecting a great saving of fuel, extreme regularity of action,
which if gas heaters were employed would be rendered almost absolutely
equable, the avoidance of all necessity for stokers and engineers, -total
absence of all danger of explosion and bursting of boilers, great economy of
space, extreme lightness and portability,--and little or no liability to get out
of repair.
I prefer to use metal tubes coated with gold, silver, aluminium or other
unoxidisable metal, the principle of coating metals in this manner would
be applicable to other parts of engines, and also to engines and boilers, as
now constructed. In order further to explain the principles of my system, I
would advert to the fact that in the application of heated tubes for the purpose
of converting water driven into them from a force pump into steam, which
steam may subsequently be superheated, it is found that where the tubes are
heated above a certain degree of temperature the water is repelled by the
overheated metal, and passes along the tube without being converted into
steam; to obviate this, I arrange by one method one or more pipes or tubes

page_text: either circular, oval, flattened, or otherwise, so as to descend from the upper
to the lower part of the furnace either in the form of a coil, spiral, zig-zag,
or serpentine, and force the water in small quantities only, and in proportion
to the steam required, from a reservoir surrounding the fire and forming a
part of the furnace, into them from above, the result of which is that as the
water must necessarily pass gradually down the heated tubes it will at length,
sooner or later, arrive at that portion where their temperature is sufficient
to cause the water to flash into steam or vapour, and by another method I
force the water into hollow fire-bars where the same result takes place, and
the steam or vapour continuing its passage along the gridiron shaped tubes
placed in the fire, becomes superheated by its contact with the more highly
heated metal. The disposition of these hollow bars or tubes may be varied
in many ways, thus, by placing them upright, connected at the top and bottom
with annular tubes so as to surround, or they may be united together so as
to form the fire-bars, their ends being secured into straight tubes and also
into the form of a gridiron by a similar construction, which tubular gridiron
can form a superheater and be placed in the fire or hot flues. This last
arrangement I term a "continuous expansion gridiron superheater." This
form of expansion superheater, made of either round or flattened tubes, is
also peculiarly suitable to all present boilers, one or more of them being joined
together and applied according to the extent of superheating required.
The object gained in this, in most places the water holds lime and other
impurities either in solution or mixed with it, which by applying great heat to
the boiler forms a cake or incrustation which causes the metal of the boiler
to be burnt and oxidised by the fire; by the use of these superheaters only
just sufficient heat need be applied to the boiler to merely generate steam,
which passing into the superheater becomes instantly far more expanded
than could be attained by the application of a far greater heat to the boiler,
less water is thus used and less incrustation consequently takes place; fuel
is much economised, and less heat being applied to the boiler, it will be saved
from much destructive action, while such deposit as will occur will be soft
and easily removeable; but independently of all this, much power will be
gained owing to the high rarefaction of the steam leaving the engine cylinder
causing it to condense much more rapidly than ordinary steam and thus
producing much the effect of a condensing engine. When so applied a little
water should be introduced into the superheater at the time of heating up
the boiler by means of a small tube, and any liquid remaining in it when the
steam is up, can be blown off through a small tube with a tap at the bottom
which will prevent the superheater from burning.

page_text: It must be remembered that though "steam passing along one continuous
tube will become gradually superheated in its passage, that there is a vast
difference both in the method and in the result, where it passes at once from
the orifice of a single tube into the expanded surface of a series of hot tubes
communicating with each other, as in the gridiron superheater, for here, in
the first place an instantaneous expansion takes place, the small quantity of
steam entering filling at once the entire series of tubes and becoming enor-
mously rarefied as well as simultaneously enormously superheated; and the
passage from one gridiron or similar superheater to another, consisting of
a single tube only in each successive one, the same result as regards rarefaction
and superheating takes place; another curious and extraordinary result is
that each gridiron with its entrance tube acts with regard to steam in prin-
ciple precisely as an hydrostatic balance does with regard to water, a small
pressure at the entrance tube counterbalancing a greatly expanded pressure
within thus the steam entering the first superheater from the boiler expands
over a large surface, without causing any back action into the boiler; thence
passing from the first to the second superheater, a second similar expansion
also takes place without causing any back pressure into the first superheater
and so on, whatever the number of the gridiron or other similarly constructed
superheaters employed, so that the steam as it leaves the generator may
be expanded a great many times and do its work in the engine with all this
increase of volume, without any more back pressure or the generator than
would exist without it.
The gridiron form is also well suited to multitubular boilers, as from its
shape when placed either in the fire-box or smoke-box, or in both, it offers no
impediment to cleaning out the fire tubes. Though the gridiron form of
superheater may prove often the most convenient, any other suitable form
for uniting together a series of tubes on the same principle may be adopted
to suit any particular position or apparatus. Though the tubes in the above
different forms of apparatus are by preference coated with silver or other
unoxidisable metal applied to it by galvanic action, or by any other process,
or may be drawn or rolled with the metal when drawn into a tube, yet
tubes may be used without such coating of brass or copper, or other metal or
alloy. These tubes in small engines, where prime cost is of little consider-
ation, are best made of silver, or its alloys, as their value would then never
diminish. In the case of steam in starting the engine, and on first lighting
the fire, a little water should always be injected into the tubes by hand, which
will be sufficient to set it in motion. Although the object is to render steam
and other engines most complete by combining all the advantages of the hig

page_text: pressure with those of the condensing engine, yet, where the water is abundant,
and is known to be very pure, such as is the case with rain water, which how-
ever ought always to be filtered or strained, the condensing apparatus may be
omitted in any special case.
There is one fact which should never be lost
sight of, which is, that superheating by sudden expansions diminish heat, that
is, the more a given quantity of steam is expanded by heat in a sufficient
space, it becomes so much the more attenuated, the heat being distributed over
a much larger expanded surface, so that at last the result is elasticity mul-
tiplied to an extreme with heat diminished in proportion to the expansion.
By the ordinary methods of superheating, this result cannot be attained, for
the confined steam being compressed while being heated, and not attenuated
by being allowed room to expand while the heat is communicated to it, conveys
with it a condensed heat in its compressed, though more elastic body, destruc-
tive to the engine, which can never occur in the latter case. There is no
reason why locomotive, marine, auxiliary, screw, and canal boat engines should
not carry condensed gas instead of solid fuel; the saving of room would be
immense, there would be no boiler to burst, funnels and the smoke nuisance
would be at once got rid of; there would be no ashes to clear away, no
fear of stokers dying with heat, and in the case of a leak, no fear of the fires
being put out, and in vessels of war the gain would obviously be still greater,
there would be a much greater economy of fuel, as no heat would be thrown
away, the whole being applied direct to the spot only where it was wanted, and
the captain by turning the gas cock could be his own engineer, and regulate the
vessel's speed as he wished. As regards the construction of the tubular grid-
iron and other superheaters, the tubes may be made of different sizes, and be
screwed together by the addition of T-pieces, screw sockets, bends, elbows,
nuts and back nuts, and pieces of tube, with a right and left screw on each,
and a nut in the middle. Occasional bars with screws and nuts at each end,
may be inserted through occasional tubes to bind them better together, or
turned pressure joints, with or without the interposition of a softer metal, as
copper or brass may be occasionally used instead of a screw joint, in order to
afford greater facilities for opening.
The methods of uniting tubes are so well known as hardly to need any
description, or else a series of tubes may be riveted at each end into either
an oblong or circular trough with a flange all round it, and a sheet of metal
be fastened over it by means of screws and nuts put through it, and the
flange round the trough, thereby making it steam tight, and at the same time
easy to be opened, if at any time it should be necessary to clean it. Though
as a general rule, a steam chest would not be required, still, if for any

page_text: special purpose one was wanted, it might be added in any convenient situation,
selecting by preference, a place where it would be subjected to heat, taking
care otherwise to have it well protected by a non-conducting material.
Having now described my said Invention, and the manner in which the
same is to be performed, I would remark in conclusion, that I do not limit
myself to the precise details expressed, as the same may be varied or modified
without in any way departing from the principle of my Invention; but what
I claim, and desire to be secured to me by the herein in part recited Letters
Patent are the various arrangements and combinations of parts constituting
my Improvements in Apparatus for Obtaining and Applying Motive Power,"
substantially as herein described and set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Henry Cradock Monckton,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of May,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
ALEX. PRINCE,
Agent for Patents,
4, Trafalgar Square,
Charing Cross.
E. H. C. MUNCKTUN. (L.S.)