NEW OR IMPROVED CONSTRUCTIONS AND ARRANGEMENTS OF VALVES AND THEIR ACTUATING PARTS, AND THEIR APPLICATION TO STEAM BOILERS AND ENGINES, SUITABLE ALSO FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by David Rowan at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 27th June
1870.
I, DAVID ROWAN, of the City of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "NEW OR IMPROVED CONSTRUCTIONS AND ARRANGEMENTS OF VALVES
AND THEIR ACTUATING PARTS, AND THEIR APPLICATION TO STEAM BOILERS AND
ENGINES, SUITABLE ALSO FOR OTHER PURPOSES," to be as follows, that is to
say :-
This said Invention consists, firstly, in new or improved constructions
and arrangements of the working parts of equilibrium valves, and the
adaptation and application of these with their self-acting float valve
arrangement for regulating the feed water of steam boilers; and, secondly,
in adapting and applying the similar or like arrangements of valves as
self-regulating ball or other float valves for discharging or trapping off
the condensed steam and water regularly and particularly from the steam
jackets of cylinders and other parts of steam engines where it is formed
or collected, and which arrangements are also applicable as general self-
acting trap valves for discharging the condensed steam and water from
steam pipes and steam heating and other vessels where it collects, and

page_text: is desired to be discharged without loss of steam. Both these purposes of
feeding steam boilers, and of discharging condensed steam and collected
water from the jackets and other parts of steam engines, and other steam
pipes and vessels, are effected by these improvements and apparatus in a
more simple, efficient, and economical manner than has hitherto been the
case.
The further nature or construction and arrangement of these improve-
ments as applied under the first part of this Invention to the feeding of
steam boilers consists, under one modification, in arranging and attaching
an equilibrium pressure valve chamber or chest to the lower end of the
feed pipe within the boiler some little distance below the surface level of
the water, so that the valve and its discharge openings when working
will be wholly immersed.
The construction of the equilibrium valve preferred is that of the double
equal sized cylindrical chamber class, with a disc headed feather valve
working into each chamber on one stem in the same axial line, and
having the feed water branch pipe entering the chest between the two
seats and valves, so that the slightest power and motion applied to the
valve in one direction opens both disc or narrow piston lids, the pressure
from without and within the boiler acting equally on opposite sides of
these allows the water fed in through the feed pipe to flow out through
both end chambers or seats into the boiler, and by an equally slight
power and motion in the opposite direction shuts off the "feed." This
reciprocatory motion of the valve is effected by one arrangement when it
is laid horizontally (as preferred, so as to take up less depth of water space
to immerse it although it may be set vertically or at an angle where more
convenient or desired) by a horizontal triple-armed balanced float lever
fulcrummed near the middle on a fixed joint formed or attached to the
valve chamber just over or above the centre of a short arm projecting
down at right angles from the said lever, so that the free end of this arm
works into a joint or eye on the outer end of the valve or its spindle,
which reciprocates horizontally by the falling and raising action and
power of an ordinary stone or other equivalent float hung and working
on one arm of the long lever and counterbalanced by a weight on the
opposite arm, so as to be half immersed in the water and worked within
the boiler, and actuated by its varying height or water level line, which
is somo inches above the valve and seat, the float lever arm being bent
upwards for the purpose when necessary.

page_text: The construction and arrangement of these improvements as applied
under the second or last part or purpose of this Invention for the dis-
charging of condensed steam or water from the steam jackets of steam
engine cylinders, and other steam vessels and pipes, consists in the
construction of a small equilibrium pressure valve and chamber sub-
stantially equivalent to that herein described within a small close trap
or collecting vessel placed so as to be conveniently connected to the
lower parts of the casings, steam vessels, and pipes from which the water
is all collected and drawn off by small pipes which conduct it by one
main branch pipe into the said valve chest or vessel below the normal
water level at which the float would close the valve. The valve is
worked by preference in this case by a large hollow copper ball float on
a short horizontal arm of a bell crank fulcrummed as herein-before
described to a fixed pin joint on the valve chamber in a vertical line over
the pendant shorter arm which works and is directly connected to the
valve. The water in this case escapes from the collecting float vessel
through the hollow seatings and dises out through the central lateral
branch, by which the valve chamber is fixed to the side of the vessel and
the main discharge branch and pipe through it and on its outside; all by
the excess and raising of the water level and the float, which on falling
to their regulated height close the valve and outlet flow. This water.
discharge vessel and valve may be fixed in any convenient position below
the jackets, casings, and pipes to allow the water to flow from these into
them, which can be discharged into the hot well (when applied to
steam engines) although that may be somewhat higher than the discharge
valve, this height depending on the pressure of steam in the jackets and
close vessels from which the water is drawn, and this arrangement allows
the pressure of steam to be always left on within the said jackets and
vessels without loss of steam through the water outlet.
These improved water feeding and discharging regulators are par-
ticulary adapted for stationery engines and land purposes, but are also
applicable for the boilers and engines of steam ships, and when so applied
their floats are placed half immersed as near the centre of oscillation of
the surface of the water level in their boilers and discharge vessels as
possible.