IMPROVEMENTS IN EVAPORATING, BOILING, AND DISTILLING, FLUIDS, AND GENERATING STEAM
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Gordon, of Fludyer. Street, Whitehall, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN EVAPORATING, BOILING, AND DISTILLING,
FLUIDS, AND GENERATING STEAM:"
Sealed the 28th October 1856, 'and 'dated the 2nd May 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Gordon at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
2nd May 1856.
.
I, ALEXANDER GORDON, of. Fludyer Street, Whitehall, do hereby declare
the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN EVAPORATING, BOILING, AND
DISTILLING FLUIDS, AND GENERATING STEAM," to be as follows:-
My Invention in evaporating, boiling, and distilling fluids, and generating
steam, consists in collecting and concentrating, or directing towards a common
centre, the heat froin the sun's rays, and there employing the heat to act on
and heat fluids. The manner of collection and concentration is by employing
reflecting apparatus or concentrating or refracting lenses, by which the heat of
the sun is continuously rendered applicable for the said purposes..

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander Gordon in the Great Seal Patent. Office on the
1st November 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
GORDON, of Fludyer Street, Whitehall, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her-Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alexander Gordon, Her special licence that I, the said Alexander Gordon,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Alexander Gordon, 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 Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
EVAPORATING, BOILING, AND DISTILLING FLUIDS, AND GENERATING STEAM," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alexander Gordon, 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 Alexander Gordon, 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, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is
to say:
It is well known that the rays of the sun are used for heating purposes by
means of refracting glasses, and also by means of reflecting surfaces, made of
any suitable materials, both of which means are easily arranged so as to con-
centrate on the appointed field of operation, the rays of heat or light coming
from the sun. It is known that in geodesical operations the sun's light bas.
not only been reflected on the eye of the surveyor for the short time that the
sun is in one part of its path, but by means of a watch motion, or other con-
trivance, the reflector of light has been kept in motion, so as to coincide with
that of the sun, and continue the reflected light on the surveyor's position;
the heliostat is such an instrument. Now, my Invention consists in employing

page_text: reflecting apparatus, or concentrating or refracting lenses, or both combined,
in such a manner that, the heat of the sun's rays is for hours continuously
rendered applicable for purposes of evaporating, boiling, and distilling
fluids and generating steam; and this my Invention I call a thermheliostat,
because it collects the sun's rays, and continuously directs them upon the
vessel, a body placed in or near the focus to which the rays are require:
to converge, and so produce there great heat, the thermheliostat being made
to keep pace or correspond with the sun's diurnal motion.
I now proceed to shew the application of my thermheliostat for the purpose
of distilling sea water and obtaining therefrom fresh water, and the description
of it will suffice to enable any one to make and use a similar apparatus, not
only for distilling, but also for boiling and evaporating and generating steam;
and also for purposes of cooking, especially in tropical climates, and in positions
where the sun's heat is great, and where it may be difficult or 'expensive to
procure coals, wood, or other fuel for making a fire, such as at certain light-
houses, which I have constructed in positions little frequented, in the West
Indies and in the East Indies.
I prefer reflecting the rays of the sun to refracting them through glass,
but now proceed to describe both. In the Drawings the double F, F, show
the focus..
In the use of reflecting ap I proceed as follows:-I take any bright
hollow surface in the shape of a section of a hollow globe, and what I prefer
is, say, six or seven feet in diameter at the mouth. In or near the focus of
this I suspend from a crane or davit, or other suitable apparatus, 'a still, in con-
nection with a worm and tub, the mouth of the reflector being kept directly
open to the sun's rays; the heat is concentrated on the still II; fresh water. is
distilled off from the salt water, and when filtered through charcoal it becomes
fit for drinking. Sometimes I support the still upon a frame. This reflector
is supported by two bearings, one of which I call the north pole and the other
the south pole; by a clock motion, or a regulated motion from a falling
weight, such as is commonly used in lighthouses for revolving lights, or by any
other suitable motive power, so regulated as to keep for one or more hours of
the day-the mouth of the reflector fully open to receive the rays of the sun as
he changes his place in the heavens. This movement of the reflector from
east to west can also be effected by a man in attendance watching a shadow:
I prefer bright and polished brass for reflecting heat.
Drawing A shows a still H and the section of a reflector in position for the
sun at noon. As the sun advances in the afternoon, the reflector must dip to

page_text: :
the westward at a corresponding rate. The Drawing B shows. an elevation
after noon. When such an apparatus is to be emplyed;; the latitude of the
place must be attended to, and the equinoctial changes, must be provided for;
so that once a day, or once a week, or once a month, the whole apparatus may
be set to suit the sun's declination.
"
Drawing D shows the north and the south poles supported on a frame and
resting on a bearing at K. This dipping towards the north or the south is
easily effected by wedges, or screws, or levers, or tackle, pulley, or other con-
venient mechanical force. Sometimes a graduated segment of a circle may be
used, in arrangement like the brass meridian of a terrestrial globe.
Drawing C shows a plan of the reflector at noon, and the dotted lines from
its centre indicate a convenient position for uniting the still head to the worm
tub: Drawing E shows how three reflectors may be of such forms, and so
arranged that the apparatus' need have no diurnal motion, but only will require
the equatorial motion, such as described above, with reference to Drawing D
This Drawing D represents the position of the apparatus when the sun is on
the equator. L is one reflector and M is another; F, F, is the focus. To
understand the shape of these two reflectors, it is necessary to conceive a
parabola to revolve about its parameter as an axis, so that its north and south
limbs would become the generating lines of two surfaces L and M, possessing
the property of reflecting the sun's parallel rays on to the focus of the parabola,
the point where the parameter and axis of the generating parabola intersect
each other. This point being the focus of each parabolic section of this
apparatus, the sun's rays are equally received when the axes of the parabolic
sections are in a plane perpendicular to a horizontal line. When this appa
ratus is used for an hour or two at noon, a reflector placed below may collect
the sun's rays, which pass further downward, and concentrate, them upon F, F,
the focus. This supplemental reflector N may be fixed to the upper para
boloidal reflectors, or this reflector N may be arranged to have motion to receive
the sun at all hours of the day..
:
The reflectors L and M may be made of segments of circles,, or segments of
circular shape. In using refracting glasses for purposes of distilling by the
sun's heat, I employ the lighthouse apparatus known as Fresnel's, and I
prefer the arrangement of polyzonal lenses which he uses for directing rays of
artificial light. This apparatus is shown on Drawing F¹. There, 0, 0, 0, are
zones of glass, called catadioptric, because they both reflect and refract the
rays; and P, P, are called dioptric,, because the light passes through them.
When the sun is passing over this glass apparatus, the rays which fall upon

page_text: the other side of the polyzonal glasses pass through and fall upon F, F, the
focus, where I place my still or other body to be acted on by the sun's heat.
This apparatus requires no diurnal motion, and I arrange for its suiting the
sun's declination by mounting the whole on a frame, similar to that described,
at Drawing D.
The Drawings A, B, C, and D show my thermheliostat made with reflectors,
and the description of them given above will enable opticians and mechanics
to practice the Invention by placing a refracting lens or lenses above the
focus F, F, instead of the reflector below.
Whatever has to be heated must be placed in or near the focus, and the
evaporating, boiling, and distilling fluids, and generating steam, may be carried
on by any of the apparatus above described, not only by such a still as I have
described above, but also by a variety of forms. In some cases I prefer using
a pipe or pipes placed so that some part of the same shall be in or near
the focus.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner
of practising the same, I would have it understood that I do not claim the
mere collection and concentration of the sun's heat by either reflecting surfaces
or refracting lenses when they are not arranged in a manner to have the
heat from the sun continuously rendered applicable for the purposes above-
mentioned, nor do I claim the parts separately considered; but I do claim the
catadioptric apparatus described above at F¹ when it is used for purposes of a
thermheliostat, as above described; and I claim as my Invention the com-
bination of reflectors or refractors of the sun's heat, with suitable provision
to correspond with the motion of the sun, whether diurnal or equinoctial, and
whether it be for continuous use only during a part of the day or during the
whole day.
. In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Gordon, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this First day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
ALEXANDER GORDON. (L.S.)