AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPARATUS FOR HARDENING OTHER SUBSTANCES SUSCEPTIBLE OF BEING VEGETABLE GUMS, OILS, AND HARDENED BY STEAM
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Clark Samuel Putnam, of the City, County, and
State of New York, in the United States of America, for the Invention
of "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPARATUS FOR HARDENING
OTHER SUBSTANCES SUSCEPTIBLE OF BEING
VEGETABLE GUMS, OILS, AND
HARDENED BY STEAM."
Sealed the 1st November 1858, and dated the 16th July 1858:
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Clark Samuel Putnam
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 16th July 1858.
I, CLARK SAMUEL PUTNAM, of the City, County, and State of New York, in
the United States of America, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPARATUS FOR
HARDENING VEGETABLE GUMS, OILS, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES SUSCEPTIBLE OF BEING
HARDENED BY STEAM," to be as follows:-
It consists in the arrangement of an apparatus to be employed for the
purpose of hardening or vulcanizing india-rubber, gutta percha, and other
gums, oils, and substances, by exposing them to high steam, so as to make it
portable, self-circulating, and self-regulating. The self-circulation is created
through the medium of the connection and the relative position of the boiler
and vulcanizing chest. This connection is made by two pipes fitted with
valves, one of these leaving the boiler at the top enters the bottom of the
chest, projecting into it about an inch or more to prevent the water of the

page_text: condensed steam from getting into its mouth. The other leaving the chest at
the bottom, enters into the boiler and terminates near its bottom. The first
conducts the steam from the boiler to the chest, and the latter conducts the
water of the condensed steam from the chest to the bottom of the boiler to be
reconverted, and no water is lost. The boiler and chest may be arranged in
any relative position provided this circulation is preserved. The form and size
of either is not material. For small articles a retort-shaped circular boiler
may be fitted into the top of a circular stove, and to the top of the boiler the
chest by flanges, thus rendering the apparatus portable. To this apparatus
the self-regulating apparatus may or may not be attached. This consists of a
chamber conveniently located, connected and communicating with the steam
chest through the medium of two pipes. In this chamber, over the mouth of
one of these pipes a valve is seated, whose stem passing out through the top of
the chamber supports a lever carrying an adjustable weight. When the tem-
perature is too high, as will be indicated by a thermometer placed in a tube
formed in the steam chest, the pressure of the steam will open the valve, and
steam will enter when the pressure in the chest and chamber are equal; a
valve in the second pipe will fall by its weight, and the water in the chamber
will through this pipe pass into the chest, & thence into the boiler. To this
lever may also be attached devices for regulating the draught of the fire.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Clark Samuel Putnam in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 14th January 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, 'CLARK
SAMUEL PUTNAM, of the City, County, and State of New York, in the United
States of America, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
"One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Clark Samuel Putnam, Her special licence that I, the said Clark
Samuel Putnam, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Clark Samuel Putnam, or 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

page_text: and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN
IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPARATUS FOR HARDENING VEGETABLE
GUMS, OILS, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES SUSCEPTIBLE OF BEING HARDENED BY STEAM,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Clark Samuel Putnam,
or 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 Clark Samuel Putnam, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement :-
The Invention consists in constructing and arranging an apparatus so as to
make it automatic as to the circulation and regulation of the steam, and
portable.
The mode of construction and operation may be thus described, reference
being had to the Drawings hereto annexed, representing a section of one
form of the apparatus, and to the letters marked thereon, viz. :-
A is a retort-shaped boiler, sustained by flanges a, or otherwise, on the top
of a stove or furnace X; B, the vulcanizing chest attached to the boiler;
C, the pipe for admitting steam into B, and D the pipe conducting the water
from the chest to the bottom of the boiler A; c and d are stop yalves; E is a
cock, to be used as occasion requires, for letting the steam out of the chest ;
F is a pocket for a thermometer; G, a condensing chamber connected with B
by the pipes H, I; J is a valve over the mouth of H; K, a lever, sustaining
an adjustable weight L; M, a valve in pipe I; and N represents a series of
levers or other suitable device to act upon and regulate the heat.
The object is to simplify the construction of the apparatus, by making it
compact in form, and adapting its size to the article to be vulcanized, and
while automatic, as above mentioned, economizing expense, room, and trouble,
by dispensing with the pump and its gearing; the process is also rendered
more regular and certain, and can be perfected in less time than is now
required in the ordinary one.
The apparatus is thus operated:-Through a door in B the articles to be
hardened are introduced and arranged, the door is closed steam-tight, and
valves c, d, are opened, c first, to admit the steam through pipe C into the
chest, and then d, to conduct into the boiler the water of the condensed steam

page_text: that the chest may be kept as dry as practicable. The temperature rising to
the required point indicated by the thermometer, is there maintained the
proper length of time. By previous experiment it is known at what point on
the lever K the weight L must be placed to keep down the valve J, to resist
the pressure of the steam in the chest affording the requisite temperature.
When this is exceeded, the valve overcoming the weight admits the steam into
the condenser G so long as the pressure continues. Here the steam may be
condensed by cold water applied externally, or other convenient mode, when
the valve will close. Whenever the pressure in B and G are equal, the valve
L is to open by its own weight, and the water in the condenser will pass
through 1 into B, and with the water also collected in B will pass down
through D to the bottom of the boiler to be reconverted. Thus, the same
water, either as steam or water, is always in circulation, none of it is lost, and
consequently no additional supply by the pump is required. By means of the
condensing chamber and its pipes and valves, the temperature is regulated
with exactness; in many cases, however, this part of the apparatus may be
dispensed with entirely, or any other mode of operating a safety valve may be
substituted. The articles having steamed as long as required, the valve dis
first and then c is closed, the steam in the chest let off through E, the articles
removed and replaced by others, the lost water is replenished, and the process
is again repeated.
The boiler, chest, and chamber may be of any shape or size most convenient
for the purpose, but they must be located in respect to each other so as to
enable the pipes to communicate with them, and operate in the manner as
described.
What I claim and desire to secure under the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent is, the construction of a portable, automatic, circulating, and
regulating steam apparatus, substantially as described, for vulcanizing india-
rubber, gutta percha, and other vegetable gums, as well as oils and other
substances susceptible of being hardened or vulcanized by steam.
In witness whereof, I, the said Clark Samuel Putnam, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, on this Thirteenth day of January, Anno Domini
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
C. S. PUTNAM. (L.S.)