IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING STEAM BOILERS WITH WATER
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the Oilice
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 26th September
1867. A communication from abroad by Henry Demarest, of the City
of New York, in the United States of America.
1, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING STEAM BOILERS WITH WATER,"
a communication to me from abroad by Henry Demarest, of the City of
New York, in the United States of America, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of self-
acting feed apparatus for supplying water to steam generators, and consists in
the use of a vibrating or oscillating horizontal hollow lever or beam working
on a centre in three brackets or supports attached to a bed plate, which bed
plate is secured to the top of the boiler. On each end of this lever or bollow
beam there is formed a closed chamber in free communication with the
interior of the beam, a central partition formed transversely across the middle
of the hollow beam prevents any communication between the two opposit
ends of the beam and between the two chambers carried thereby. To one
of the supporting heads or brackets there are fitted a steam and a water supply
pipe; the steam pipe descends inside the boiler to a little below the proper
water level. The water supply pipe may consist either of an injector or it
may receive its supply from a head of water or otherwise, a cock being

page_text: provided for shutting off the water when required.
In the faces of the two
brackets or heads immediately adjoining, and in contact with the sides of
the beam, there are formed ports or passages which communicate with the
interior of the generator, and with other ports or passages made in both sides
of the beam and situate on opposite sides of the internal partition. When
the beam is caused to vibrate on its centre, that is to say, when one end or
the other is depressed, a communication is established by the ports and
passages herein-before referred to, between the interior of the boiler and
one or other as the case may be of the closed chambers carried by the beam
and also with the water supply pipe. The operation of this self-acting boiler
feeder is as follows:-As soon as the water in the boiler is below the mouth of
the steam pipe, steam passes through such pipe and through certain of the ports
and passages in one of the brackets and in the side of the beam into the
chamber which is at that moment depressed, at the same time the stop-
cock of the injector or water pipe is opened, and water begins to enter through
the ports and passages for that purpose into the elevated chambers. The
entrance of the steam into the depressed chamber causes the water contained
therein to flow by suitable ports and passages into the boiler. By the time
the opposite chamber is filled it becomes the heavier and descends causing
the beam to vibrate, and in doing so the connections of the ports and
passages are changed. The steam entering the newly filled water chamber
and causing it to discharge its contents into the boiler whilst water is entering
and refilling the chamber last emptied, and so on, the apparatus continuing
to operate so long as steam can pass up the steam pipe, but so soon as the
mouth of this pipe is sealed by the fact of the water rising to its proper level,
the feeder will cease to operate. Any surplus water which may continue to
flow into one or other of the two chambers will be carried off by a waste
pipe for that purpose in communication with a special port in one of the
bracket heads. The two outer brackets of the three serve to support the
main weight of the apparatus, and are firmly fixed to the bed plate, but the
third or intermediate bracket is adjustable, being attached to the bed plate
by screws passing through slots in the bracket, and also by other screws
passing through holes in the base of the bracket. These last named screws
are provided with markers of a triangular form having a rounded base and
playing freely thereon. A nut is provided on the supporting axis of the beani
or lever, and between this nut and the adjustable head or bracket, there is
placed an elastic packing ring so that by turning this nut the closeness of the
contact between the heads and the sides of the beam or lever can be regulated
A rest or support is
at will and leakage prevented between the contact faces.

page_text: provided which sustains either chamber when it is depressed, and two blade
springs furnished with rollers, which roll against and over a rounded pro-
jection on each end of the beam or lever, serve to prevent any oscillation of
the lever till the upper chamber has been filled or partly filled to any given
weight.