IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
KETLAND IZON, of Cambridge, Clerk, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fourth day of January, in the first year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said William
Ketland Izon, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said William Ketland Izon, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said William Ketland Izon, my exors, adñiors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO STEAM
ENGINES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said
William Ketland Izon, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Ketland Izon, do hereby, declare the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had

page_text: to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon (that is to say) :-
My Invention relates to the application of liquors which boil at a tempe-
rature considerably below the boiling point of water to the purpose of con-
densing or partly condensing the steam of a steam engine, by which means I
am enabled, in consequence of such liquors being readily vaporized, to obtain
a considerable power from the vapors thus obtained; and although such
liquors are more costly than water the liquors may be continuously used,
first, in the liquid state to condense the steam of a steam engine worked by a
vacuum produced by condensation, and, secondly, in the state of vapour to
work an engine similar in construction to a steam engine; and such vapours
being condensed again become the condensing means, or partly the condensing
means, of the steam of the steam engine, and with little waste of the liquor.
The construction of condensing steam engines being well understood, it will
not be necessary to enter at large into the nature of the various parts; and as
the engine employed is to be worked by the vapours, which I will called
"spirit vapours" for distinction, being similar in every respect to a steam
engine, it will not be necessary to enter into a description of the various
parts other than to show how the engines work together to produce the most
beneficial arrangement for carrying out my Invention. The construction of
engines which I prefer is to use two steam cylinders to one spirit vapour
cylinder, and all three engines to have the same length of stroke, in order to
their working three cranks on one main shaft; and the spirit vapour cylinder
should be of larger diameter than the steam cylinder, in order that the area of
the piston should as nearly as possible be made to compensate for the
difference of the expansive force of the spirit vapours and the steam; by this
means the three engines may be brought to work with uniformity of
on the main shaft, and the using of two steam cylinders with one spirit vapour
cylinder will, by the steam in the act of condensing, raise or generate such
a quantity of spirit vapours from the liquid employed for condensation as will
be sufficient to supply a single cylinder with vapour. And in order to give
the best information in my power for carrying out my Invention, I will proceed
to describe the Drawing annexed, first observing that the liquor I prefer
to employ is spirits of wine, but I do not confine myself thereto, though
I believe such to be the best for the purpose, for it will be evident that there
are other fluids which boil at degrees much below water; but I do not think
that any liquors or mixtures of fluids could be usefully employed, which, under
the simple pressure of the atmosphere, boiled at a temperature greater than
190° of Fahrenheit.
power

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
The Drawing represents the section of part of a steam engine, together
with suitable apparatus for containing liquods boiling at low degrees of tem-
perature. a is one of two steam cylinders; 6, the ordinary slide; c is an
additional slide which works by an excentric on the main shaft. The object
of this slide is to cutt off the steam from the boiler at any determined length
of the stroke, which will depend on the cutting of the cam or excentric on the
main shaft, as is well understood by engineers, and the slide c remains open
till the piston arrives at the same point from which it started, when it will
again close; immediately the slide c opens the steam which has performed its
duty on the piston rushes into the system of tubes d, which are in the
vessel e, wherein is placed the liquid, which boils at a low degree of tem-
perature, and from the system of tubes d the uncondensed steam rushes
through the system of tubes ƒ also in the vessel e, by this means the larger
quantity of the steam may be condensed, and the air and water which will
collect at the end of the tubes will pass along the pipe g, and into the system
of pipes h, which are to have a constant supply of cold water running amongst
them. i,, is the air pump, and ; is the pipe by which the air pump forces the
condensed water back to the boiler of the steam engine. K is the vapour
pipe leading to the spirit vapour cylinder, which, as before stated, is similar to
a steam cylinder, and has an air pump and condenser like that of a steam
engine; and the condenser is to be of that kind where condensation by
the application of water externally of the tubes or other surfaces, amongt
which the spirit vapours are admitted to be condensed, as is well understood
by engineers, and suitable apparatus is to be applied for returning the liquid
back into the vessel e. As the liquid used in the vessel is expensive, it is
important to make every possible provision to prevente escape, and in order to
prevent loss by a safety valve or blowing off when the pressure becomes greater
in the vessel e than is desirable, I apply the following apparatus:- is a pipe
fixed on the upper part of the vessel e, there being a second pipe l within the
upper part of the pipe 2, thereby producing a vessel in which may be contained
mercury or other suitable fluid. In order to obtain a close joint to the
inverted tube m, as is shown in the Drawing, n is a hollow tube which moves
within the pipe A, and has attached to it the strap n', through which the rod o
is placed, and is retained by an adjusting screw nut; on the lower part of the
rod o is placed a valve or slide which closes the pipe p, or allows it to be open
as required. The pipe p leads to the condenser of the spirit vapour cylinder,
hence it will be seen, that in case of an increase of pressure (beyond that

page_text: which is desirable) the tube n will be forced up, and open a way to the condenser
which will relieve the vessel e of the excess of spirit vapour, and the valve will
close again when the desired degree of pressure is restored. This apparatus is
also so arranged as to regulate the temperature of the liquid in the vessel e
for in case the temperature of the liquid in that vessel should sink below the
required degree, then a valve will open to allow of the steam from the steam
boiler to pass into the system of pipes in the vessel e, in addition to the steam
which comes from the steam cylinders. 7 is the valve which covers tho
opening leading to the steam pipe of the steam boiler. The valvo or slide q
is attached to the rod q', and by the beam a motion of the valve or tube n is
communicated to the valve below when sinking, in consequence of decreasing
temperature and pressure in the vessel e, all which will readily be traced in the
Drawing. And it only remains further to remark, that although I have
shown only one steam cylinder, the other is to have like connexions with the
vessel, and is to be similar to the steam cylinder described; and in con-
structing the spirit vapour cylinder I recommend the area of the piston to be
about three fourths of the sum of the areas of the pistons of the two steam
cylinders. And it will be evident that by the peculiar arrangements of valves
to the vessel e the pressure may be adjusted with sufficient exactness in order
that the spirit vapour engine may by its larger area of piston work with about
the same amount of power as one of the steam cylinders.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I would have it understood that I make no claim to any of
the parts separately nor combined other than for the carrying out my Inven-
tion; and variations may be made in the arrangement and construction of the
engines without departing from my Invention, which I do hereby declare to
consist in the application to steam engines worked by a vacuum produced by
condensation of liquids boiling at considerably lower temperatures than water,
as the condensing means, or partly the condensing means, and the spirit vapours
evolved in the act of condensing the steam being separately used in an engine
to give motion to a piston and afterwards condensed, thus again and again
serving as a condensing means to the steam of the steam engine, as above
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Ketland Izon, have hereunto
set my hand & seal, this Second day of July, in the year of our Lord

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Second day of July, in the year
of our Lord 1888, the aforesaid William Ketland Izon came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and thirty-eight.