IMPROVEMENTS IN SURFACE CONDENSERS AND REFRIGERATORS
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Henderson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th
July 1869.
I, JAMES HENDERSON, of Leith, in the County of Mid Lothian,
North Britain, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SURFACE CONDENSERS AND REFRIGERATORS,"
to be as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention comprises an improved construction of surface condenser
or refrigerator, whereby a greater condensing or refrigerating efficiency
than hitherto is obtained with a given amount of surface and quantity
of cold water. The Invention also comprises means for preventing the
risk of fracture to which ordinary surface condensers and refrigerators
are exposed in consequence of great and sudden changes of temperature
in the casings, and the said means render available a large and efficient
surface hitherto not utilised for condensing, and also prevent leakage
of air.
In carrying out the first part of the Invention a cast-iron casing of
any convenient form is made for receiving the steam or fluid to be

page_text: condensed or refrigerated, and within this casing there is fitted a vessel
to receive the cold water any convenient inlet and outlet pipes.
This cold water vessel is made by preference of copper and as thin as
possible consistently with the requisite strength to withstand the pressure.
It is made by preference in the form of an inverted cone with a spherical
or dome-shaped top, and it is fitted internally with a shell arranged to
spread or distribute the cold water over the surface. It is the external
surface of this conical vessel which acts as the condensing or refrigerating
surface, and projecting rings or flanges may be fitted or formed on the
outside of it to lead off the water due to the condensation of steam on its
surface. There may be two or more of such cold water vessels in one
condenser or casing.
The improvements forming the other part of the present Invention
may be applied to the kind of condenser or refrigerator herein-before
described or to other kinds. These improvements consist in entirely
surrounding a condenser or refrigerator with water spaces, and may be
carried out in practice by making the condenser with double casings or
shells, and by admitting part of the condensing or cooling water between
such shells. The Invention is most conveniently applicable to surface
condensers of the kind fitted with tubes through which the water passes
whilst the steam surrounds them, but it may also be adopted in those in
which the steam is inside of the tubes and the water outside, and in the
latter case there will be three shells or casings, water being between
the outermost and the second, and steam between the second and inner-
most. The condensing or cooling water may be made to pass through
by pumps in the ordinary way, or in the case of steam ships the inlet
and outlet passages communicating with the outside of the ship may be
arranged with their external apertures facing forward and aft respectively,
so that the motion of the vessel will induce a current through the
apparatus. Or the necessary change and circulation of the condensing
or cooling water may be effected by revolving fans or screws inside the
apparatus in spaces formed for them in the casings.