VARIOUS IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON- STRUCTION AND APPLICATION OF STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1813

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BARTON, of Tufton Street, Westminster, in the County of Middlesex; send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the First day of November,
in the fifty-fourth year of His reign, give and grant unto the said John
Barton, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said John Barton, my exors, adiñiors, and
assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of years therein men-
tioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "VARIOUS IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON-
STRUCTION AND APPLICATION OF STEAM ENGINES;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso that if I, the said John Barton, shall not par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said improvements, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties
and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and
become void, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more
fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Barton, do hereby declare that the application of my said improvements
are as follows:-

page_text: close covers and
The principle of my Patent is in saving the heat of fires, which is generally
suffered to escape useless, to raise steam, for which purpose I apply boilers
or other proper vessels containing water in the most suitable and convenient
place where the heat can act on with power, which steam, when raised, the
most ready method must be taken to connect with the steam-engine boiler. The
high pressure I prefer, as with that I gain another great advantage by the
steam. After it has done its work in the engine, and has passed the cock, I
discharge it in vessels having false bottoms and sides by pipes or other
methods, being properly secured from the atmosphere
casing with which I can dry or heat many things in less time and with less
expence and danger than by the immediate application of fire to the vessel.
I fix a boiler, which may have a flue through it, to take the flame and heat
from the cupala to raise steam (which is done quick with the blast which is
necessary to melt the iron). To this I connect another boiler as close as I
conveniently can, to which the cylinder and other working parts of the engine
is connected, with a force pump to supply water, as it will waste by evaporation.
Furnaces, forges, ovens, kilns, glass-houses, and almost all great heats, may be
advantageously employed to raise steam for drying or heating or to work
steam engines, and afterwards will go further for drying, boiling, heating, &c.,
if properly applied, than any way the same fuel can be used. The principle
businesses I know of in which steam can be advantageously employed is
maltsters, dyers, distillers, brewers, sugar-houses, sugar plantations, hop
drying, salt works, tallow melters, powder drying, or any inflammatory
business where drying or boiling is required; or it is particularly well adapted
for warming manufactories, drying houses, hothouses, or any houses or
buildings whatever for which it can be applied, as there is no fear of fire or
explosion. The chief advantage under my Patent is, doing two or three
works by the heat originating from one fire. By this explanation the general
outlines and various applications of my Patent may be understood and applied
by any intelligent engineer, with the assistance of a
practical workman under-
standing the business to which it is applied.
I claim some improvement in the steam engine. I use the cock for
reversing the steam with two sides cut out, by which I can reverse the steam
by turning the cock about one sixth round, so the steam on the piston is
charged much quicker. I likewise use the piston very short, and I have
holes cast or drill'd nearly through the piston, between the screws which
tighten the cap, to put in tallow. When I pack the engine this tallow escapes
by small holes drill'd horizontally into the holes where the tallow is; so it
keeps the packing greasy, and will wear much longer and work much better
than the common way.