IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS CONNECTED WITH ASH Ex- HAUSTERS OF BOILER ASH-PITS OR RECEIVERS, ALSO APPLICABLE IN PART FOR CONDENSING VAPOURS, COOLING ENGINE AND OTHER BEARINGS, CLEANING BOILER TUBES, AND ALSO SHIPS' DECKS
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Robertson at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 18th December 1877.
GEORGE ROBERTSON, of 4, Three Crown Square, Southwark, in the County of
Surrey, Engineeer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS CONNECTED WITH ASH Ex-
HAUSTERS OF BOILER ASH-PITS OR RECEIVERS, ALSO APPLICABLE IN PART FOR
CONDENSING VAPOURS, COOLING ENGINE AND OTHER BEARINGS, CLEANING BOILER
TUBES, AND ALSO SHIPS' DECKS."
This Invention relates to improvements in apparatus connected with ash-
exhausters of boiler ash-pits or receivers, also applicable in part for condensing
vapours, cooling engine and other bearings, cleaning boiler tubes, and also ships'
decks.
In carrying my Invention into practice for exhausting, I fit over, around, or
alongside the exhaust tube of an ash exhauster another tube, in or through which
compressed air is caused to flow into the steam exhaust tube at the bend of said
tube, so that the compressed air impinges upon or against the rising particles, and
forces them in a direction at right angles, or nearly so, to their upward direction,
thereby preventing them striking the bend of the pipe as they do now, and abrasing
it by their cutting action; the compressed air blast also causes the vapour of the
steam to be condensed by the time it leaves the nozzle of the tube, and obviates the
inconvenience and annoyance now felt from its escape from the side of the vessel in
which the apparatus is fitted.
In connection with the foregoing I purpose using a perforated back screen to the
inlet mouth of the exhaust pipe in the ash-pit or ash receiver, so that a quantity of
air may enter from the back of the mouth-piece and cause the suction at that end
to be more perfect than at present, as especially when large pieces of fuel refuse
block or choke the passage.
The compressed air tube may be of various shapes to adapt it to the particular
purpose for which it is intended. For instance, to adapt the compressed air to
cooling engine bearings, I make the bearings bottom, and also the cap, if necessary,
hollow, and I cause or allow the compressed air to flow into and around those parts
that are exposed to a rubbing or frictional action, and so prevent them becoming

page_text: heated, or the compressed air may flow into an ordinary bearing by arranging a
cover over or around it.
In using compressed air for cleansing boiler tubes I use a ring or circular slitted
outlet on the end of a long tube, which has to be inserted and moved to and fro
in a boiler tube in order that the force of the compressed air may remove any
deposit thereon.
For cleansing decks of ships or vessels I attach a compressed air tube just behind
the water outlet so that the compressed air follows the water and partially dries up
the deck which has just been acted upon by the water. The compressed air tube
may be separate from the water tube, but so attached that they serve as one tube,
or one tube may be within the other, and the outlets arranged in any suitable
manner.