A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OR METHODS OF APPLYING HEAT TO CERTAIN USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1826

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
GILLMAN, of Whitechapel, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Thirteenth day of December, in the seventh year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs, and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said William Gillman, together with Charles Pearson, the younger, of
Greenwich, in the County of Kent, Esquire, and Richard Witty, of Hanley,
in the County of Stafford, Esquire, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
and every of us, His especial licence, that we, the said Charles Pearson,
Richard Witty, and William Gillman, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, and every of them, by ourselves, or by our deputy or deputies,
servants, or agents, or such others as we, the said Charles Pearson, Richard
Witty, and William Gillman, our executors, administrators, or assigns, should
at any time agree with and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise and vend, within that part of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, called England, the Dominion of Wales, and
the Town of Berwick upon Tweed, our Invention of "A NEW AND IMPROVED
METHOD OR METHODS OF APPLYING HEAT TO CERTAIN USEFUL PURPOSES;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging us, the said Charles
Pearson, Richard Witty, and William Gillman, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same

page_text: is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or
under the hand and seal of one of us, and to cause the same to be enrolled in
His Majesty's Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Gillman, do hereby declare that the nature of our said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and
ascertained as follows (that is to say):-
Our new or improved method or methods of applying heat to certain useful
purposes doth consist in heating water or other fluid to any requisite tem-
perature for its evaporation or conversion into steam of high or low pressure,
or for any other purpose, by so directing the heat from a fire by a descending
flue, and supplying the water or other fluid at the lower part of the apparatus
to ascend by a continuous channel, as nearly as practicable in contact with
such flue, so as that the particles of fluid meeting with increasing temperature
by passing in an opposite direction to that of the current of heat, may, in
proportion as they expand by abstracting that heat, acquire a tendency to rise
and be carried forwards towards those parts of of the flue that are hotter, until
by the continual accession of heat they arrive at the situation of highest tem-
perature; to effect this, we construct the flue or flues in the manner of
descending flues, so that the draft from the fire shall be downward until
it reach the opening into the chimney or other vent. The boiler or vessel in
which the fluid is to be so heated we form into two, three, or more shallow
cases or divisions, according to the quantity to be heated, the magnitude of
the fire, and other circumstances, observing that the larger the horizontal area
and the smaller the depth of each case or division, the more rapidly will the
fluid therein be heated); placing the said divisions in teirs one above another,
connecting the same so as to make them in communication with each other,
alternately downward and upward at opposite ends, and supporting the same
on all sides with brickwork or other material, in any manner that will so form
the fire-place and the flue or flues, as to cause the current of heat to descend,
and in its descent to sweep along both the top and bottom of each of the cases
or divisions, or of as many as may be desirable. The fluid to be heated we
first introduce by a force or feeding pump or other means, as circumstances
may require, into the lowest of the said divisions, which being exposed to that
part of the fluc where the heat is least or most exhausted, the cold fluid is in
the most proper relative state for abstracting the last portion of heat derivable
from the current before it quits the flue and enters the chimney. The

page_text: particles of the fluid, as they warm, rise by expansion or diminished specific
gravity, in some degree independently of the pressure of the force or feeding
pump, to the upper internal surface of the division, where by means of a
sufficient communication, open upward to the next division of the boiler, that
portion of the fluid that has attained most heat in the lowest division, ascends
with the aid of the force pump or other feeding power to the second
division, which being nearer to the fire is capable of transmitting a higher
temperature to the fluid than it attained before; and its particles receiving
a renewed impulse, rise by a similar communication from the second divi-
sion to a third, where, being exposed to still higher temperature, the fluid
continues to ascend; and thus, through any number of connected divisions that
may be requisite for the object in view, it finally reaches the division most
exposed to the heat of the fire, and attains the temperature required for its
evaporation or conversion into steam, which may be worked off in the usual
way under any pressure duly proportioned to the strength of the boiler. The
size and form of the communications are not material, so that they be adequate
to the passage of as much water or other fluid as the feeding power may
supply; but the situation of the communication downward should be at an
opposite or different end from that of the communication upward in each
division, so that the fluid entering from below into one end of the division
shall traverse the whole length thereof in a contrary direction to the current
of the flue before it passes up into the next division.
Another way of applying this principle is by forming with iron or other
metal the fire-place and downward alternately reverted flue or flues in one
air-tight connection, and placing the same in a boiler or vessel of any required
size, form, and material, observing that the area of all the flues so placed
should be nearly or entirely the same as that of the boiler at their respective
depths or levels when fixed, leaving sufficient space, either at intervals or in
continuity, between their rims and the sides of the boiler, for the water or
other fluid to rise according to the intended rate of supply at such points only
as to insure that the fluid shall traverse the flues in the most opposite
direction to the current of the flue practicable. By making one or both of the
ends of each course or level of the flue to coincide or come in contact with the
corresponding end or side of the boiler, provision may be made for openings
for cleansing the flue occasionally, and in like manner it may communicate at
bottom with the chimney or vent. Each course or level of the flue or flues
being in the aggregate nearly equal in width to that of the boiler, the depth of
the flue may be in the smallest proportion compatible with the cleansing
of them, and the spaces for the water or other fluid to circulate in between the
different courses or levels of the flues should also be shallow. The fire-place

page_text: and ash-pit may be fitted to the side or front of the boiler at a conve-
nient part, according to the method of making boilers for steam-boats, and
should, like them, be kept surrounded with water. For generating. what is
usually termed high pressure steam, we prefer the tubular to any other
description of vessel, and the higher the pressure required, the smaller should
the calibre of the tubing. When this method is adopted, we place the tubes
horizontally, or nearly so; teirs one above another, as before described, for the
divisions of a boiler, making the flue or flues tight with brick and tile or
other material proper for fire work, and so as to secure the downward draft
in the reverting course requisite to make the heat sweep along each tier of
tubes successively. The tubes may themselves, if placed in perfectly close
lateral contract, or made in metal plates or blocks, from the flues or the tubes,
may be placed at small intervals in the tiers and across the respective courses
of the flue or flues, and as high therein as practicable, so as to preserve
sufficient depth of flue under them to admit a rake to cleanse the same when
necessary. The tubes are respectively connected by short tubes from tier to
tier in such a manner as to make a steam-tight communication from one end
of each horizontal tube to a tube in the tier below, and from the other end to
a tube in the tier above; so that the lower tier of tubes being fitted at one end
of them into a service pipe supplied with water or other fluid by a force or
feeding pump, or by any adequate pressure, the fluid, warming in its passage
through each tube, acquires the tendency to ascend, as already described; and
passes up the communication at the other end into the tube in, the next tier
above, which, being in a higher temperature, furnishes an increase of heat to
the water as it passes along to the other end, where it rises again by the
connecting tube to the tube in the next tier; and so on, until it attains the
requisite heat in the upper or last tier of tubing, boilers, or other vessel, or is
suffered to expand in a steam reservoir or case, in which the tubing may
terminate. It may be proper to give the horizontal portion of the tubing a
slight elevation in the direction of the current of the fluid, and sometimes,
particularly in small apparatus, to connect them horizontally, so as to oblige
the fluid to flow through two or more tubes or through every tube in cach tier
before the fluid ascends to the next tier; or a tier may be divided into sections
of two or more tubes connected horizontally at each end, and from the tube or
connecting piece by which they are so connected at one end a common com-
munication may be made with the tier below, and in like manner at the other
end with the tier above, and one long tube contorted into a similar shape may
be substituted for any portion of the various tubes connected in the manner
before described, should it be thought preferable. The method of applying
heat in respect to the mode of heating water or other fluid, as above.

page_text: described, which we claim as our Invention, being confined to the arrange-
ment by which the water or other fluid is conveyed in its coldest state to the
situation that is lowest or most favorable to its abstracting the last available
portion of heat from the nearly exhausted gaseous conductors or carriers
thereof, passing downwards from the fire by a contiguous passage, but in an
opposite direction; so that, on thus acquiring a tendency to rise, the fluid may
be in a situation to ascend, and be carried forward by virtue of the impulse so
acquired in the tubing, cases, or divisions, arranged as above directed, for con-
veying the fluid to warmer and still warmer situations, in the manner already
described, until it acquire the highest temperature practicable or expedient.
Whereas in the foregoing description of our Invention or improvements many
things are necessarily mentioned that are already known and in use, the
application of which, in our method or methods of applying heat, we have
pointed out for the illustration thereof, but the materials, forms, connections
and dimensions of which, in all other respects than those we have particularized,
are discretionary, and must be varied according to the various purposes for
which our methods may be used, being sufficiently known to all competent
persons conversant with the apparatus employed for high-pressure steam boiler
making and the like, to be adjusted as circumstances may render expedient;
we hereby declare that we do not claim any exclusive right in respect of those
things, but only to the employment thereof for the purposes herein set forth,
of applying heat by a descending current to warm a fluid ascending contigu-
ously in an opposite direction. And we claim the exclusive right of applying
heat from a fire in this method by either of the arrangements or contrivances
herein described, or by any other in imitation thereof.