Improvements in Furnaces for Locomotive Engine Boilers.
Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 14th Dec., 1886.
Specification Accepted, 14th Jan., 1887,
[Communicated from abroad by JOSHUA B. BARNES, of Springfield, in the State of
Illinois, United States of America, Engineer.]
Improvements in Furnaces for Locomotive Engine Boilers.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, Fel. Inst. P.A. of the Agency for Foreign Patent
Solicitors, 6 Lord Street, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, and 323 High
Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
The prime object of this invention, is to utilize more effectively than heretofore, the
products of combustion which have been allowed to escape into the air as smoke,
cinders, and sparks, or at best have been but very imperfectly consumed or made
available as a heat generating element.
The principle upon which this invention is based, is, that the hydrocarbons which are
produced by the destructive distillation, or what is more commonly called combustion,
of coal, in the furnace of the boiler, when gradually mixed with common atmospheric
air, and the temperature sufficiently reduced, assume the form of uninflammable
smoke, but immediately after leaving the bed of the fire, and before mixing with cold
air, these same hydrocarbons are not only rich in carbon, but are highly inflammable.
Holding then, in view, this well ascertained property of the products of combustion,
the object of this invention is first, to provide means for igniting the inflammable
gases as soon as they leave the bed of the fire, and while they are yet intensely heated,
by bringing in contact with them at the proper time and place, a duly proportioned
quantity of air, distributed as heroinafter described, so as to produce its maximum
effect; second, to consume and thereby utilize as a generator of heat, that carbonaceous
matter scarcely yet reduced to the condition of coke, which, under ordinary circum-
stances is ejected so abundantly from the smoke stack of the locomotive engine, in the
form of cinders or sparks; third to produce by means of compounded currents of air
induced by a peculiar structure and combination of the internal parts of the smoke
box, such an increase in the power of the draught as to admit of a considerable
enlargement of the nozzle of the exhaust pipe, and thereby decrease in an important
degree the back pressure or reaction of the exhaust steam upon the pistons.
With these ends in view the invention consists in certain details of construction and
combinations of parts fully explained in the following specification, and illustrated in
the accompanying drawings in which :-
:-
Figure 1 is a side sectional view of the fire-box and smoke box of a locomotive

page_text: boiler, taken in the line of the axis of the latter, and shown as provided with the
device Figure 2 is an end elevational view of the fire-box. Figure 3 is a sectional
plan view of the fire-box taken in the line xx in Figure 1 and Figure 4 is an end view
of the smoke-box having the door removed. Figure 5 is a sectional plan of smoke-box
showing spark arrester r.
Referring to the drawings, A represents the body of the boiler, B the fire box, C,
the smoke-box, and D the smoke stack. In the interior of the fire box is a deflector 6
of fire brick supported by three water tubes c, connecting the water space of the front
part of the fire-box, with that of the rear, said tubes being in order to insure proper
circulation, and necessary facility for cleaning, not less than three inches in diameter,
and inclined and located with reference to the bed of the fire and crown sheet, about
as indicated in Figure 1; access to the interior of said tubes being provided for by
means of removable plugs a in the shell of the boiler.
Situated in a horizontal line a little below the door e of the fire-box are seven short
tubes affording openings from the outside of the boiler to the interior of the fire-box,
for the purpose of admitting to the fire as hereinafter explained, an induced current of
atmospheric air controlled as to quantity by a plate g provided with a series of holes h
(see Figure 2) and adapted to slide horizontally in a guide plate i which like the plate g
is furnished with a series of openings, coincident with the tubes f, and the sliding
plate g. Adapted to vibrate upon a stud 7 secured in the end of the boiler, is a hand
lever m for actuating the slide 9, and connected therewith by a link k the upper part
of said lever being provided with a thumb screw n for clamping it to a plate o, having
a curved slot in which plays the nut of the thumbscrew, so as to retain the lever, in
any required angular position, and hence retain the plate g at either end of its stroke,
or at any intermediate point thereof.
In the smoke box is a baffling plate p secured to the flue plate and extending down-.
ward only a little below the centre of the cylindrical part of the boiler, but wholly
across the interior of the smoke box, and at a distance from, and inclination to, the
flue plate, about as shown in the drawings. To the lower part of said baffling plate, and
to the sides of the smoke box is secured horizontally (and a little below the centre of the
boiler) a spark arrester r, consisting of a thin perforated iron-plate, the perforations being
preferably of an oblong form about an inch in length, and a quarter of an inch wide.
Sustained so that the lower extremity of its flared or funnel shaped part shall be
slightly above the top of the nozzle of the exhaust pipe and the upper extremity of its
cylindrical part a few inches below the bottom of the smoke-stack, is an induction pipe,
or what is commonly called the petticoat pipe, shown in the drawings at t, the function
of which is to improve the draught creating power of the exhaust steam in its passage
from the blast pipe o, to the smoke stack.
Attached to the front end of the screen r, and extending rearward and upward at
such an inclination as to meet the smoke stack at its junction with the smoke box, and
fit the sides and circular part of the latter so as to cut off the upper portions of the
smoke-box is a deflector F, which, with the sides and arched upper part of the smoke
box, the baffling plate p and upper portion of the flue-plate or end of the boiler,
forms essentially, a conical chamber, adapted to fill the office of a secondary induction
pipe for co-operation, as hereinafter explained, with the induction pipe t.
The several parts described, both in the fire-box and the smoke box being arranged
with reference to each other as represented, and the fire kindled, the gases of quick
evolution from the green coal which is purposely thrown to the front end of the fire-
box, in passing over the bed of glowing fire, and beneath the deflector b, which is soon
raised to incandescence, become highly heated, and on meeting the inflowing stream
of air from the induction tubes f, instantly flash into flame, igniting and consuming
the greater part of the fragments of heated coal, that are usually ejected from the
smoke stack in the form of slightly burned cinders. The heavier portion of the sparks
not totally consumed in their first passage over the body of the fire, strike, in their
ascent, the crown sheet of the fire box, from whence they are thrown upon the back of
the deflector down which they roll and fall through the openings u (see Figure 3)

page_text: again into the fire, and this process is repeated until there is nothing left of them that
is inflammable.
The efficacy of the influx of air to. the fire-box is mainly due to the deflector F in
the smoke-box, which not only serves to cut off that part S, in which, without the
deflector, an eddy would be formed, and consequently a counter current set up, but
forms a chamber in which the pipe t, produces an effect similar to that produced by
the exhaust pipe, in the pipe t, namely, an induced draught. This latter by its co-
operative action with the former, urges the process of combustion to such an extent,
as to admit of an important enlargement of the nozzle of the exhaust pipe, the effect
of which is to reduce considerably, the back pressure or reaction of the exhaust steam
upon the pistons.
On the escape from the flues of the uninflammable portion of the sparks, those that
are too large to pass through the slits in the arrester r fall into the lower front of
part
the smoke-box as shown at y from which they are from time to time removed by the
ordinary means.
The results of the invention, ascertained by careful comparison, extending over
several months of regular daily service upon one of the principal lines of railway in
the United States as to the consumption of coal by those locomotives equipped with
this device, and those not so equipped, but performing like duties, demonstrate
unequivocally, that however much the device may, in some of its details, either
separately or collectively considered, resemble other inventions designed for the same
purpose, the peculiar combination, proportional relations, and positional adjustment of
its several essential and co-operative parts render it, as a full economizer, and spark
arrester, much more than the mere equivalent of any of the devices which, up to the
present time have been put forth for the accomplishment of the same end.
Even without the deflector b, baffling plate p, and spark arrester r by the simple
co-operative action of the deflector F, in the smoke box, with the controllable induced
current of fresh air admitted, as described, into the fire-box an important economy is
effected.
I am aware that deflectors employed either in the fire-box, or smoke box, are not
new, also that the admission to the interior of the fire box, of induced currents of air,
is not new, and therefore I do not broadly claim such.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
1st. In a locomotive engine the combination in the smoke box, of a baffling plate,
a horizontal screen or spark arrester, an induction pipe t, in connection with the exhaust
nozzle, and a deflector adapted to cut off the upper forward part of the smoke box, so as
to form by their union with the upper arched half thereof, and the flue plate or end of
the boiler, a chamber adapted to fill, essentially, the office of a secondary induction
pipe, substantially as set forth.
2nd. In a locomotive engine, the combination of the fire box having a series of
induction tubes, and an inclined deflector as herein described, with a smoke box having
a baffling plate, a spark arrester, and a deflector, all of said parts constructed and
located with reference to each other for co-operative action, as and for the purpose set
forth.
3rd. In a locomotive engine, the combination of the fire-box having a series of
induction tubes arranged and controlled as herein described, and the smoke box pro-
vided with a deflector located in the upper front part thereof, and inclined as set
forth