IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONDENSING APPARATUS OF STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Spence of Newcastle-on-Tyne, in the County of
the same name, Engineer, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
CONDENSING APPARATUS OF STEAM ENGINES." A communication from abroad
by James Carmichael Spence, of Calcutta, in the East Indies, Engineer.
:
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Spence at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th March 1881.
JAMES SPENCE, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, in the County of the same name,
Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONDENSING APPARATUS OF STEAM ENGINES."
A communication from abroad by James Carmichael Spence, of Calcutta, in the
East Indies, Engineer.
This Invention relates to certain improvements, the object of which is to increase
the efficiency of condensers used for steam engines (by producing a better vacuum
and also increasing the temperature of the feed water with the same or a smaller
cooling surface), having special reference to the surface condensers of marine
engines.
To effect this it is proposed to construct the condenser (which may be of any of the
well known existing forms) so that the exhaust steam from the engine is made to
enter it at the lowest point of the portion containing the tubes.
The tubes are so disposed as to leave ample space for the dispersion of the
steam among them and to bring it into contact with their cooling surfaces with the
least possible obstruction.
The mode of conducting the exhaust steam into the lower part of the condenser
will vary according to the form of the latter, and may be effected by a pipe or passage
inside the portion containing the tubes or by the exhaust pipe joining a branch on
the outside, in either case a sufficient number of tubes being left out to admit of
the free introduction of the steam and the rows of tubes so disposed as to leave the
steam free access to their cooling surfaces.
The circulating water is preferably introduced so that it first enters the tubes at
the opposite end from that at which the exhaust steam enters, and the feed water
from the condensed steam is taken from the lowest point as is usual.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said James Spence in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
8th September 1881.
JAMES SPENCE, of Newcastle on Tyne, in the County of the same name,
Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONDENSING APPARATUS OF STEAM ENGINES."
(A communication from abroad by James Carmichael Spence, of Calcutta, in the
East Indies, Engineer.)
This Invention relates to certain improvements, the object of which is to increase
the efficiency of condensers used for steam engines (by producing a better vacuum and
also increasing the temperature of the feed water with the same or a smaller
cooling surface), having special reference to the surface condensers of marine
engines.
To effect this it is proposed to construct the condenser (which may be of any of
the well known existing forms) so that the exhaust steam from the engine is made
to enter it at the lowest point of the portion containing the tubes.
The tubes are so disposed as to leave ample space for the dispersion of the steam
among them and to bring it into contact with their cooling surfaces with the least
possible obstruction.
The mode of conducting the exhaust steam into the lower part of the condenser
will vary according to the form of the latter, and may be effected by a pipe or
passage inside the portion containing the tubes, or by the exhaust pipe joining a
branch on the outside, in either case a sufficient number of tubes being left out to
admit of the free introduction of the steam and the rows of tubes so disposed as to
leave the steam free access to their cooling surfaces.
The circulating water is preferably introduced so that it first enters the tubes at
the opposite end from that at which the exhaust steam enters, and the feed water
from the condensed steam is taken from the lowest point as is nanal
Figure 1 on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings shews a transverse section
through a surface condenser of the form usually adopted in marine engines, and
Figure 2 shews a side elevation of the same.
The portions A, A¹, containing the water tubes shew them arranged in vertical
rows, one row immediately above the other, so as to leave free spaces of access for
the exhaust steam, and this arrangement of tubes. I prefer to use. The exhaust
steam from the engines enters at the branch B, passes down the belt B¹ into the
lower portion of the condenser under the lower row of the tubes, when it comes in
contact with a diaphragm D running from end to end of the condenser, which acts
as a "baffle" to prevent the steam rushing at once to the air pump outlet C (which
I prefer to construct at the opposite side from where the steam enters) and causes
it to rise into the spaces between the tubes, and by contact with their cooling
surfaces to be condensed, the resulting water falling down and finding its way to the
air pump through the holes H left in lower part of the diaphragm.
The circulating or condensing water in the Drawing is introduced at the
branch E, traverses the tubes in the upper portion A, and returns through the
tubes in lower portion A' to the discharge branch F, from which it flows into the
sea..
In any other form of surface condenser the operations are the same, the leading
features being always that the steam shall enter at the lower part, and that the
coldest water shall enter where it is furthest from contact with the condensed steam

page_text: in the form of feed water, which is raised in temperature by the contact of the hot
exhaust steam passing over and through it.
Having now described the nature of my Invention and illustrated one method in
which it may be carried into practical use, I declare that what I consider novel and
secured to me by the hereinbefore in part recited Letters Patent is,-
1st. In surface condensers the introduction of the exhaust steam into the lower
portion at or near the bottom and the cold water through the tubes in the portion
furthest from the condensed feed water, substantially as shewn and described.
2nd. The surface condenser having the inlet and outlet passages for steam, cold
water, condensed steam water, and vapour respectively, and the tubes arranged
substantially as shewn and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Spence, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Sixth day of September, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eighty one.
Witness,
T. J. DANSON,
Consulting Engineer & Patent Agent,
Newcastle on Tyne.
JA. SPENCE. (L.S.)