IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH APPARATUS FOR CONDENSING STEAM
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Walker Me Carter, of the City Saw Mills,
Foyle Street, Londonderry, in the County of Londonderry, Ireland,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH APPARATUS
FOR CONDENSING STEAM."
Sealed the 17th June 1873, and dated the 23rd December 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Walker McCarter
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 23rd December 1872.
I, JOHN WALKER MC CARTER, of the City Saw Mills, Foyle Street, Lon-
donderry, in the County of Londonderry, Ireland, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH
Apparatus for CONDENSING STEAM," to be as follows, that is to say :—
This Invention has principally for its object to apply in connection
with surface condensation the principles or modes of operation described
as applied to injection condensers in the Specifications of Letters Patent,
granted to the present applicant, and dated 20th April 1869 (No. 1222),
and of Letters Patent also granted to the present applicant and dated
12 July 1870 (No. 1968). It is also an important object of the present
Invention to render the apparatus suitable for application to steamships

page_text: with a view to economising the fuel and rendering a larger proportion
than hitherto of the engine power available for propulsion. At the
same time however the improved apparatus is advantageously applicable
to any land engines in connection with which surface condensation is
employed.
In carrying out the present Invention in the case of a steamship,
the circulating water after passing through and acting in a surface con-
denser in the ordinary way is led by one or more pipes up to apparatus
which is by preference of the more improved kind, described in the
Specification of the more recent Letters Patent herein-before referred to,
the self-acting valves at the bottoms of the upper and lower compart-
ments consisting by preference of simple discs of vulcanised rubber
closing by their own elasticity. This apparatus or extractor condenser,
as it may be termed in the present application, is placed a little higher
than the load water line of the ship, so that the water discharged
from its lower compartment may find its way by gravitation through a
suitable pipe or pipes to the sea. An air pipe from the surface condenser
is led to the extractor condenser to draw off any air from the con-
densing steam, and it is passed up through the circulating water pipe
in order that any steam leaving the surface condenser with the air may
be condensed and run back to the fresh water in it. Ordinarily there is
of course no necessity for injecting water into the upper compartment
of the extractor condenser; but a separate injection pipe is fitted to
it, and also a steam communication from the surface condenser or
from the exhaust pipe of the main engines, so that in the event of
the surface condenser getting out of order, the extractor condenser may
be used as an injection condenser for the main engines. A small donkey
engine is fitted in connection with the extractor condenser for driving
the tappet shaft by which the valves of the lower compartment are
actuated, and to be used when starting, or when manœuvring in or near
port; or if preferred it may be used continuously instead of the tappet
shaft being driven from the main engines when they are working con-
tinuously. The donkey engine is also used to work a pump which
pumps a small supply of water from the sea into, an air vessel, whence
the injection water is taken for the lower compartment of the extractor
condenser.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Walker M. Carter in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 21st June 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
WALKER MC CARTER, of the City Saw Mills, Foyle Street, London-
derry, in the County of Londonderry, Ireland, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said John Walker M° Carter, Her
special licence that I, the said John Walker M. Carter, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Walker M. Carter, my 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 In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH APPARATUS FOR CONDENSING
STEAM," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Walker
Mc Carter, my executors or administrators, by 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 Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Walker Mc Carter, 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 in writing, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawings, that is to say:-
My said Invention has principally for its object to apply in connection
with surface condensation the principles or modes of operation described
as applied to injection condensers in the Specifications of Letters Patent
granted to me and dated 20th April 1869 (No. 1222) and of Letters
Patent also granted to me and dated 12 July 1870 (No. 1968). It is

page_text: also an important object of my present Invention to renuer me apparatus
suitable for application to steamships with a view to economising the
fuel and rendering a larger proportion than hitherto of the engine power
available for propulsion. At the same time however my improved
apparatus is advantageously applicable to any land engines in connection
with which surface condensation is employed.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing
may same may be properly understood, I hereunto append a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and showing the
application of my improved apparatus to a steamship. In these Drawings
the same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts
wherever they are repeated.
Figure 1 of the Drawings is a transverse vertical section of a screw
steamship showing parts of the engines 1 of the inverted cylinder
class and the surface condenser 2; Figure 2 is an enlarged vertical
section of what is herein-after termed the extractor condenser 3 but
which is substantially the same as the apparatus for condensing steam
by injection as made under my earlier Patents herein-before referred to.
In carrying out my Invention the circulating water which enters from
the sea by the pipe 4 fitted with a stop valve, and which after acting in
the surface condenser 2 in the ordinary way leaves it by the pipe 5, is
led by that pipe up to the extractor condenser 3. This extractor con-
denser comprises two compartments 6, 7, the upper one communicating
with the lower one by a number of valve apertures fitted with valves 8
which are simple discs of vulcanised rubber. The lower compartment 7
communicates by a similar set of rubber valves 9 with a discharge
passage 10. The upper compartment 6 has leading into it the pipe 5
by which the circulating water from the surface condenser 2 enters, and
a pipe 11 by which injection water enters (when using the apparatus as
an injection condenser); this injection water being distributed in a
shower by passing through a perforated plate 12. The lower compart-
ment 7 has leading into it three pipes 13, 14, 15, cach having fitted to
it an equilibrium valve 16, and the three valves are worked by rods
17, 18, 19, passing out through stuffing boxes and fitted with ad-
justable blocks 20 with anti-friction rollers to be acted on by cams or
wipers on a shaft 21. This shaft 21 is represented as arranged to be
driven by gearing 22 from a small donkey engine 23 which also works a
pump 24 for a purpose to be herein-after explained. In working the

page_text: extractor condenser a vacuum is formed in the lower compartment 7 by
first admitting steam into it by one 13 of the pipes and then condensing
that steam by admitting cold water by another pipe 14. This vacuum
causes the valves 8 to open and water then descends from the upper
compartment 6 into the lower one 7. Air is next admitted by the third
pipe 15 which causes the valves 8 to close and then the water in the
lower compartment 7 drains off by the valves 9. The extractor con-
denser 3 is placed sufficiently above the outside sca level to allow of
this drainage taking place, and pipes 25, 26, are led to both sides of the
ship, so that a list of the ship to either side may not prevent it. A
small pipe 27, indicated by dotted lines is led from the top of the
steam space in the surface condenser 2 up through the centre of the
ascending circulating water pipe 5, and any air in the surface con-
denser 2 is drawn up by this pipe, whilst any steam which tends to
ascend with the air is condensed on the way and runs back into the
condenser. The upper compartment 6 of the extractor condenser is as
delineated larger than is necessary for mercly receiving the circulating
water, but it is made large enough to act as an injection condenser for
the steam of the main engines in the event of anything going wrong
with the surface condenser 2. In that case the valve of the circulating
inlet 4 is closed and valve 28 is opened in a branch pipe, putting the
steam space of the condenser 2 in communication with the ascending
pipe 5. The injection water then enters from the sea by the pipe 11 and
the apparatus 3 acts as in my former applications of it. The injection
water for the lower compartment 7 may also ordinarily be taken from
the sea, it being raised by the donkey pump 4 only when starting the
engines or when manoeuvring in or near port. If preferred the donkey
engine 23 may be used continuously to work the tappet shaft 21 instead
of that shaft being driven from the main engines; or the shaft may be
ordinarily driven from the main engines, and only when starting or
manoeuvring by the donkey engine.
'
Having thus particularly described my said Invention and the manner
of performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself
to the precise details herein described or delineated, but that what I
believe to be novel and original and claim as the Invention secured to
me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,—
1. The fitting of apparatus substantially such as is herein-before described
as an "extractor condenser" in connection with a surfaco condenser.

page_text: 2. The making of such "extractor condenser" of a size suitable for
use as a main injection condenser in the event of the surface condenser
being out of order, as herein-before described.
3. The withdrawing of air from the surface condenser by means of
a pipe (27) leading into and through part of the pipe by which the i
circulating water leaves the condenser, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Walker McCarter, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of June, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
threc.