MENTS IN STEAM ENGINES AND IN SURFACE CONDENSERS FOR THE SAME, AND APPLICABLE OTHERWISE.
Year: 1875

page_text: 66
IMPROVE-
LETTERS PATENT to James Davie, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention of
MENTS IN STEAM ENGINES AND IN SURFACE CONDENSERS FOR THE SAME, AND
APPLICABLE OTHERWISE.'
"
Sealed the 23rd May 1876, and dated the 22nd December 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Davie at the
. . Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd December 1875.
I, JAMES D'AVIE, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for “Iм.
PROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES AND IN SURFACE CONDENSERS FOR THE SAME, AND
APPLICABLE OTHERWISE," to be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to an improved arrangement or combination of
steam engine details, which, whilst designed for use in small screw:
steam vessels, is not limited to that application, and which comprises a
surface condenser of improved construction, and applicable for con-
for various purposes.
densing steam or other vapor
قہ

page_text: In the improved engine arrangement there are two inverted steam
cylinders of the same or different sizes, and working either on the
common separate cylinder system or on the compound or high and low
pressure system. The valves are worked by single eccentrics on the
opposite ends of the crank shaft through what is known as Hackworth's
dynamic valve motion, but with interposed rocking shafts, which admit
of the port faces, the valve chests, and the chest covers being arranged
more conveniently at one side of the pair of cylinders than is usually
the case with such valve motions, and of a suitable length of travel
being obtained with moderately sized eccentrics. The reversing guide
pieces of the valve motion are fixed on the opposite ends of a rocking
shaft, which extends from end to end of the engines, and has the hand
lever fixed on any convenient part of it.
The engines are provided with an improved surface condenser placed
to one side of one of the steam cylinders, but not occupying space, to the
side of the other cylinder, where the various pumps with their actuating
levers, and other details are arranged compactly and conveniently. The
condenser is by preference in the form of a vertical cylinder, but with
its lower part tapered or coned. The condensing surface is in the form
of a series of concentric annular cylinders, formed of thin copper, iron,
or other suitable metal, and these cylinders are of different lengths, so
that whilst their upper ends are all at one level their lower ends are at
different levels in order that of the outermost one being highest, that of
the next one lower, and that of each inner one lower than those outside
of it, so as together to correspond with the lower tapering part of the
condenser casing.
The circulating or condensing water first enters a chamber at the
lower part of the condenser casing, and thence has access to the annular
cylinders, or to some of them, through connecting pipes, which are by
preference fitted into stuffing boxes. The upper ends of the annular
cylinders are connected, also by preference, by stuffing box joints with
a diametrical casing communicating with the outlet pipe.
The exhaust steam is admitted at the top of the condenser into a clear
space above the annular cylinders, and has free and immediate access to
the inner and outer surfaces of the whole of these cylinders, this freedom
of access to a comparatively large surface being designedly arranged
with the view of avoiding or at least diminishing the back pressure

page_text: experienced with tubular surface condensers, and believed to be due to
the resistance the steam experiences in passing amongst the tubes.
In the engines the casing of the condenser may be made of cast iron
as usual, but when the condenser is used for obtaining fresh water from
salt water, or for some other purposes, the casing is by preference made
of copper, and the internal copper surfaces are tinned.
It is an advantage of the improved construction of condenser that it
can be easily taken to pieces for cleaning or examining.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the. Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Davie in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 17th June 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I. JAMES
DAVIE, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of December, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five,
in the thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said James Davie, Her special
licence that I, the said James Davie, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Davie, 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
STEAM ENGINES AND IN SURFACE CONDENSERS FOR THE SAME, AND APPLICABLE
OTHERWISE, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James
Davie, 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

page_text: 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 James Davie, 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 relates to an improved arrangement or combination
of steam engine details, which, whilst designed for use in small screw
steam vessels, is not limited to that application, and which comprises a
surface condenser of improved construction, and applicable for con-
ḍensing steam or other vapor for various purposes.
In my improved engine arrangement there are two inverted steam
cylinders of the same or different sizes, and working either on the
common separate cylinder system or on the compound or high and low
pressure system. The valves are worked by single eccentrics on the
opposite ends of the crank shaft through what is known as Hackworth's
dynamic valve motion, but with interposed rocking shafts, which admit
of the port faces, the valve chests, and the chest covers being arranged
more conveniently at one side of the pair of cylinders than is usually
the case with such valve motions, and of a suitable length of travel
being obtained with moderately sized eccentrics. The reversing guide
pieces of the valve motion are fixed on the opposite ends of a rocking
shaft, which extends from end to end of the engine, and has the hand
lever fixed on any convenient part of it.
The engines are provided with my improved surface condenser, which
is placed to one side of one of the steam cylinders, and is in the form of
a vertical cylinder, but with its lower part tapered or coned. The con-
densing surface is in the form of a series of concentric annular cylinders,
formed of thin copper, iron, or other suitable metal.
The exhaust steam is admitted at the top of the condenser into a clear
space above the annular cylinders, and has free and immediate access to
the inner and outer surfaces of the whole of the cylinders, this freedom
of access to a comparatively large surface being designedly arranged
with the view of avoiding or at least diminishing the back pressure

page_text: experienced with tubular surface condensers, and which I believe is due
to the resistance the steam experiences in passing amongst the tubes.
When the condenser forms part of a set of propeller engines, or when
it is in connection with such engines, but with donkey engines attached
to it for independently working the circulating and air pumps, it may
be made of cast iron as usual; but when the condenser is used for
obtaining fresh water from salt water, or for some other purposes, the
casing is by preference made of copper, and the internal copper surfaces.
are tinned.
It is an advantage of my improved condenser that it can be easily
taken to pieces for cleaning or examining, whilst the pumps can be
arranged in connection with it in an extremely convenient manner.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, I hereunto append two Sheets of
explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and representing my.
improved steam engine and condenser arrangements. In these Drawings
the same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts
wherever they are repeated.
Figure 1, on Sheet 1 of the Drawings, is a plan of the engines, and
Figures 2 and 3 are elevations as at right angles to each other, whilst
Figure 4 is a plan of the condenser as with its cover removed. In this
example the engines are compound, and have a small high-pressure
cylinder 1, and a larger low-pressure cylinder 2, which are inverted over
the crank shaft 3 in a well-known manner. The reversing guide picces 4
of the Hackworth dynamic valve motion are on the ends of a horizontal
shaft 5 arranged parallel to the crank shaft 3, and having on it, about
its middle or at any other convenient part, the reversing hand lever 6.
The movement is transmitted from the eccentric rods 7 by links 8 to
levers on short rocking shafts 9, which last have on them levers con-
nected by links 10 to the valve rods in such a way that the valves with
their chests 11 and the covers 12 of the latter may be conveniently dis-
posed at the side of the pair of cylinders. The condenser 13, the internal
construction of which will be herein-after described with reference to
Sheet 2 of the Drawings, is placed to one side of the smaller cylinder 1,
and the pumps 34, 35, 36, 37, are placed to the outer side of it, being
worked by means of a cross head 38 connected by links 39 to a cross
bar 40 attached to a pair of levers 41, which are centered on studs fixed

page_text: in the sides of the condenser, and are connected to the piston rod cross
head.
Figures 5 and 6, on Sheet 2 of the Drawings, represent a donkey
engine combined with a surface condenser of my improved construction,
the combined apparatus forming a self-contained. and distinct machine
for condensing steam from large engines or other apparatus, and com-
prising all the parts necessary for its operation independently of the
large engines or other apparatus with which it may be connected. One
half of Figure 5 is in vertical section, and Figure 6 is a vertical section
as at right angles to Figure 5.
The shell or outer casing 13 of the condenser is cylindrical at its
The condensing
upper part, but its lower part is tapered or coned.
surface is in the form of a series of concentric annular cylinders 14,
formed of thin copper in this example, with the sheets composing each
cylinder united by welding or brazing, or it might be by means of
rivetted flanges. The annular cylinders 14 arc of different lengths, and
are arranged with their upper ends all at one level, and with their lower
ends at different levels, the inner ones projecting lower than those out-
side of them, so that their general contour corresponds with the form of
the casing 13.
The circulating or cooling water first enters a chamber. 15 formed at
the lower part of the casing 13, and thence has access to the annular
cylinders 14 through short connecting pipes 16, which are by pre-
ference fitted, as shown, into stuffing boxes in a plate 17, and the
chamber 15 is provided with a cover 18, by which access can be easily
had to the stuffing boxes. The upper part of the chamber 15 is shaped
to serve the purpose of an air vessel. The upper ends of the annular
cylinders 14 are connected, also by preference, by stuffing box joints 19
to a diametrical casing 20, communicating with the outlet pipe 21.
As herein-before mentioned there is a clear space 22 in the upper part
of the condenser casing 13 above the annular cylinders 14, and it is into
this space that the steam to be condensed is at first admitted, so that it
has free access at once to a large surface.
The annular cylinders 14 are by preference made slightly narrower
towards their upper ends, so as to leave wider spaces between them for
the entrance of the steam. In the centre of the series of annular
cylinders 14 there is a plain cylinder or tube 24.

page_text: The donkey engine details will be easily understood from the Drawing,
the circulating pump piston 25 being worked directly from the steam
piston 26. The rod 27 of the pump piston 25 is continued down to a
piston 28 in a barrel 37, constituting a single acting air pump for the
condenser, an arrangement which is very convenient and dispenses with
a stuffing box that would be otherwise required with the air pump.
The circulating and air pumps of the engines shown on Sheet 1 of the
Drawings are arranged like those shown on Sheet 2.
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 and 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 arranging or combining together of a pair of inverted cylinders
with the valve motion details and vertical cylindrical surface condenser.
in the improved manner herein described and delineated.
2. The constructing and combining together of the parts of surface
condensers, in the improved manner herein described and delineated.
3. The arranging of the circulating pump and air pump with their
pistons on the same rod and without an intermediate stuffing box, as
herein described and delineated.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Davic, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of Junc, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
JAMES DAVIE. · (L.S.)