Improvements in Steam Engines and Vapour Engines Combined.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 26th July, 1890-Accepted, 13th Sept., 1890
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Steam Engines and Vapour Engines Combined.
I, CHARLES WELLS, of No. 115, Great Tichfield Street, in the Administrative
County of London, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement:-
The present invention relates to improvements in steam engines; and its particular
object is to recover the greater part of the heat from the exhaust of ordinary steam
engines, for the purpose of obtaining further effective pressure therefrom.
In carrying this invention into effect, the exhaust steam is intercepted in its passage
from the exhaust into the atmosphere, or into the condenser, according to the type of
engine to which the present invention is applied, and Jed into a vessel containing a
solution of ammonia of the necessary strength. The heat of the exhaust evaporates
the ammonia which is then fed into a working cylinder. The exhaust from this second
working cylinder is led to a vessel charged with water, where it is again dissolved, to
be again used as a source of power after having been again subjected to an evaporative
process.
The exhaust steam returns from this ammonical solution vessel to the condenser.
For the purpose of preventing any nuisance being caused by the smell of the
ammonia, the whole of the apparatus, except the steam engine proper, is enclosed in
an air-tight chamber and such rods as are required to pass through the side of the
chamber are provided with the necessary glands and stuffing boxes. Suitable venti-
lating flues and man holes are also provided.
In order that this invention, and the means by which it is to be carried into practical
effect, may be thoroughly understood, I will now describe them in detail, referring in
so doing to the accompanying drawings which are to be taken as part of this Specifi-
cation and read therewith.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of an engine and the present invention combined therewith,
the part of the figure more particularly relating to the present invention being a
sectional elevation taken on the line AB of Fig. 2.
Fig. 2 is a plan partly in section taken on the line C-D of Fig. 1.
E is the steam supply from the boiler, and F is the cylinder of a condensing engine.
G is the exhaust pipe therefrom; and through it the exhaust steam flows towards the
ammonical solution contained in the two vessels H and I. Both these resemble a
tubular surface condenser in construction, the details being illustrated in sectional
elevation on the left hand side of Fig. 1. The vessel-either H or I-is an upright
cylinder having a chamber or steam space h, hat each end. i, i are a series of steam
tubes connecting the two chambers; and the space within the cylinder between the
tubes is the solution chamber. It is shown as being about two thirds full.
The evaporation of ammonia from the solution in the chamber of the vessel H will
naturally proceed more rapidly than in the next one, in consequence of the greater
heat of the exhaust steam in the tubes i of the former. The impoverished ammonical
solution flows from the vessel H, by way of the pipe J, through a cooling coil K, into
a tubular condenser L which it enters in the form of spray, and where it is recharged
with gaseous ammonia supplied thereto as hereinafter explained. The pipe J is con-
trolled by a cock j.
The recharge solution is pumped out of the condenser L into the solution chamber
of the second ammonical solution vessel 1, by the pump M through the pipes m, m,
and a second process of evaporation is established in the said vessel by the exhaust
steam which has owed into it through the pipe N which connects the opposite end
chambers 1, 1, of the vessels H and I.
o, o are pipes establishing a communication between the respective solution and

page_text: ammonia spaces in the vessels H and I; and O is the pipe through which the exhaust
steam is led to its condenser.
The gaseous ammonia, as a matter of course now under a sufficient pressure, is led
through the supply pipe P into the working cylinder Q, while the exhaust ammonia
from the cylinder is returned to the solution space of the condenser L through the
exhaust pipe R, thus completing a cycle of operations.
S is the airtight chamber above mentioned as being provided to enclose all the
apparatus excepting the steam engine proper; s, s, glands and stuffing boxes; T, a
ventilating flue; and t a man-hole.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is
1. Using exhaust steam to produce available power by warming a solution of
ammonia to the extent of evaporating the ammonia therefrom, as set forth.
2. Using a separate vessel heated by the steam for the purpose of extracting as much
ammonia as possible, as set forth.
3. Using a coil for cooling the impoverished ammonia solution and sending it in
the form of spray into the condenser, as set forth.
.4. Enclosing all the apparatus, as set forth.
בד
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
22, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.