CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE AND OTHER BOILERS
Year: 1847

page_text: FOSSICK, HACKWORTH, AND ELLIOTT'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, GEORGE
FOSSICK, Engine Builder, THOMAS HACKWORTH, Engine Builder, and THOMAS
ELLIOTT, Superintendent of Locomotives, all of Stockton on Tees, in the
County of Durham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Third day of
March, One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, in the tenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said George Fossick, Thomas Hackworth, and Thomas Elliott, our exors,
adiiors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that we, the said George Fossick, Thomas Hackworth, and Thomas
Elliott, our exors, adiiors, and assigns, or such others as we, the said George
Fossick, Thomas Hackworth, and Thomas Elliott, our exors, adñors, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick upon Tweed, and in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark,
and Man, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, our
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE AND OTHER BOILERS;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that we, the said George
Fossick, Thomas Hackworth, and Thomas Elliott, or one of us, shall cause a

page_text: particular description of the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under our hands
and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, to be inrolled in Her said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said in part 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, we, the said
George Fossick, Thomas Hackworth, & Thomas Elliott, hereby declare that
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, are fully described in and by the present Specification thercof,
reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:-
The Drawings hereunto annexed, marked Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3,
and Figure 4, are representations of a boiler in which are embodied the im-
provements constituting our said Invention. Figure 1 is a front elevation of
the boiler; Figure 2 a sectional plan on the line A, B; Figure 3 a transverse
section on the line C, D, of Figure 2; and Figure 4, a vertical longitudinal
section on the line E, F. G is the external shell of the boiler; W', the front
plate, and W2, the back plate (exclusive of the smoke box). H is the fire
tube or box, which is made of a semicircular form, with the exception only
that it is slightly convex at the top, as shewn. It may be made either of
copper or iron plates, and rivetted either with copper or iron rivets, and the
plates may be of any length, width, or thickness judged best. J, J, is the
front plate of the fire box; K, the doorway. Both the front plate and door-
way are lined with double plates (1, 1) in order to protect them from the fire.
L is the fire bridge. M, M, are the fire bars, which rest at the near end on a
slab plate h, h, and at the far end on a ledge projecting from the bottom of the
bridge. N (Figure 4) is a transverse bearing, on which the fire bars rest at the
middle of their length. The furnace is rivetted at top to a series of transverse
iron stays m, m, which are made of wrought iron, and may vary in number
according to the degree of pressure to which the boiler is intended to be sub-
jected. P is a thick plate at the inner or far end of the fire box, and of the
same nearly semi-cylindrical form, which has a flange turned out of itself all
round, by means of which it is rivetted to the other furnace plates (flange
inside). In this plate are a number of holes, in which are inserted the near
ends of the fire tubes a, a, which pass through the body of the boiler, and are
inserted at their other extremities in the back plate W³. R is the smoke box;
S, the chimney. The whole of the fire box is made steam tight, and the space
all round between it and the external shell G is filled with water, and commu-
nicates with the other water spaces of the boiler. T, T, are a series of wrought

page_text: iron stays, which are passed lengthways from the front plate to the back plate
of the boiler, and are coupled in the middle, as shewn in Figure 4. The fire
tubes a, a, are arranged in vertical rows, so as to leave a free passage from
bottom to top between the rows; and as these rows, in consequence of the
semicircular form of the fire box, are necessarily of varying lengths, they are
so placed in respect of one another that every tube shall have an open water
space on both sides of it. By this arrangement of the tubes, the water as it is
heated is enabled to ascend more freely between the tubes than in a boiler
with tubes arranged in the ordinary zig-zag manner, while at the same time
any solid matters which may be separated in the course of the conversion of
the water into steam have a free descent to the bottom of the boiler. When
again it is required to cleanse the boiler, this is readily effected by passing
straight rods down between the straight rows of tubes to the bottom of the
boiler, and stirring up the deposits, which are then carried off by washing.
These rods may have short radial flexible scrapers of whalebone, cane, or other
suitable material attached to them, in order to cleanse also the tubes in
passing; but in boilers with tubes arranged in the order herein directed, the
deposit in the tubes is so small as not for a long time to effect materially their
heating power, whereas in boilers with the tubes arranged in the ordinary zig-
zag manner, the tubes become very rapidly incrusted, lose as rapidly their
heating power, and soon cease to be of any use.
Where boilers of very large dimensions are required, a modification of the
arrangement just described, such as is represented in Figure 5 of the Drawings
annexed, may be adopted. This modification consists simply in parting the
fire box and tubes down the middle into two distinct sections, and in employing
two furnaces, one to each section. The sections are placed at such a distance
from one another as to leave a water space between them, and they are con-
nected together sideways by strong stays o, o, o. Each section is constructed
in all other respects in the same way as the single fire box and tubes herein-
before described.
Should it be desired to adapt the tubular arrangement before described to
locomotive boilers of the ordinary rectangular description, this may be done in
the manner exemplified in Figure 6 and Figure 7, the former being a sectional
elevation of the fire box end of a boiler, with the tubes adjusted according to
our plan, and the latter a sectional elevation of the same, at the smoke box end.
Boilers with the improvements before described, all or any of them, may be
applied either to locomotive, or to marine, or to stationary boilers.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
he same is to be performed, we declare that the improvements which we

page_text: claim as constituting the said Invention are, first, the employment, in loco-
motive and other boilers, of fire boxes of a semicircular form, but slightly
convex at top, and the arrangement of the fire tubes proceeding therefrom in
groups corresponding in their general outline with that of the said fire boxes,
as before described.
Second, the arrangement of the fire tubes of tubular boilers in straight verti-
cal rows, so as to leave a free passage between the rows from top to bottom,
as before described.
And, third, the modification of the said improvements, whereby they may
be the better adapted to boilers of very large dimensions, as also before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Fossick, on behalf of myself
and the said two other parties hereto, have set my hand and seal, this
First day of September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and forty-seven.