AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR PREVENTING INCRUSTATION IN STEAM BOILERS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Seward, of Clitheroe, in the County of
Lancaster, and Henry Smith, of Enfield, in the said County, for the
Invention of "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR PREVENTING INCRUSTATION IN
STEAM BOILERS."
Sealed the 19th May 1864, and dated the 20th November 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Seward and Henry
Smith at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition;
on the 20th November 1868.
We, JAMES SEWARD, of Clitheroe, in the County of Lancaster, and HENRY
SMITH, of Enfield, in the said County, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR PREVENTING INCRUSTATION IN
STEAM BOILERS," to be as follows:-
We place at the surface of the water in the boiler one or more boxes with
several compartments elevated above each other, and placed in such a position
as to receive the scum or sediment from the low watermark to any height in
the boiler. Under the said compartments we have a receiving chamber with
a perforated cover, so that as the scum or sediment enters the compartments
of the box it will fall through the perforated cover into the receiving chamber,
and remain there until forced out by the action of the steam through a pipe
attached to the receiving box or chamber, and opened by a trap or valve
outside the boiler.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Seward and Henry Smith in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 20th May 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
SEWARD, of Clitheroe, in the County of Lancaster, and HENRY SMITH, of
Enfield, in the said County, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said James Seward and Henry Smith, Her special
license that we, the said James Seward and Henry Smith, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said James Seward and
Henry Smith, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED
APPARATUS FOR PREVENTING INCRUSTATION IN STEAM BOILERS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said James Seward and Henry Smith,
our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or
their, or one of our or their hands and seals, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said James Seward and Henry Smith,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement and accompanying Drawings (that is
to say)-
Our Invention relates to an arrangement of apparatus for the collection of
the scum or sediment from the water of steam boilers, and by this means
preventing in great measure the incrustation of their interior surfaces, which
not only obstructs the passage of the heat to the water, but causes great
deterioration of the boilers.
Hitherto, vessels have been used for collecting sediment or scum placed at
various parts of boilers, sometimes at the bottom of the boiler and sometimes

page_text: considerably below the water surface and sometimes at or near the water
surface, but such receivers have either been not sufficiently extensive, or owing
to the varying level of the water they have not acted properly as collectors,
their edges being either too much below or too much above the surface water,
and if below, the scum or sediment when it enters is kept in agitation and
driven out again, so that it has not time to settle, and this is the case par-
ticularly when one edge is considerably below the water surface and the other
above it.
To the sediment collectors hitherto used and known as Scott's, and as
improved and rendered self-acting by Robert Armstrong, a pipe is connected
coming to the exterior of the boiler and provided with a tap, which could be
opened when required to allow the sediment to be forced out by the pressure
of the steam.
Having explained the defects and peculiarities of sediment collectors for
stenm boilers hitherto in use, the advantages and nature of our improvements
will be now more readily understood.
Our improvements consist in forming sediment collectors for steam boilers
with a series of compartments, so that the upper edges of the sides of the
compartments ascend in steps one above the other, these compartments
communicating with one common box or receiver, which has its bottom
inclined from the ends towards the middle, such incline being varied to suit
the different descriptions of boilers. Owing to the incline, the dirt or sediment
falling into the collector has a tendency to fall by its own gravity towards the
top of the pipe, and is thereby ejected by very little of the boiling water in the
boiler. This sediment collector is arranged so that it extends across the boiler,
and the upper edge of the side of its lowest compartment is placed at about
the level of the lowest water line, and so as to face the direction of the
surface current of the water of the boiler, which is from the hottest or furnace
end to the coolest end of the boiler. The upper edge of the side of the highest
compartment is about on a level with the high water level of the boiler. By
this arrangement there will always be a compartment having its lowest side or
edge at a suitable height in respect to the level of the water that will properly
receive the scum or sediment, giving it time to settle into the cavity or box
below ready to be expelled by the pressure of the steam when the tap
at the exterior of the boiler is opened. Any convenient number of com-
partments stepped one above the other may be used. The lowest edges
of the partitions forming the compartments descend a little below the upper
calge of the lowest compartment, and at this level a perforated plate may be
fixed, which will tend to prevent agitation, and thus the disturbance of the

page_text: sediment which may have been deposited will be prevented, and it will also act
to cause water to pass into the receiver equally over the collector from end to
end, so that there will be a current at every part of the collector sufficient to
carry the deposit or sediment with it when the tap is opened. One or more of
our improved sediment collectors may be used in the same boiler.
Fig. 1 is a front elevation; Fig. 2 a plan view, and Fig. 3 a cross sectional
view of one of our improved sediment collectors; Fig. 4 is a longitudinal
section, and Fig. 5 a cross section of the line A, B, Fig. 4, shewing the mode
of applying our improved sediment collector to a two-flue steam boiler.
The sediment collector is made in two parts, an upper part C, containing
the sides a and partitions a', stepped one above the other, and a lower part D
forming the receiving chamber with an inclined bottom. The two parts C
and D are secured together by means of a flange and screw bolts, and below
the lower edges of the partitions a¹ is placed the perforated plate a³.
It will be seen that in the boiler shewn in the Drawing, two of our improved
collectors are used, each of which is placed upon a vertical pipe a', which
descends to a horizontal pipe a passing along the bottom of the boiler and out
to a blow-off tap b. A socket joint with stuffing-box packing is formed in the
pipe a³ to allow for expansion and contraction. The arrangement of the
piping will vary according to the form of the boiler to which our improved
sediment collectors are applied.
We have now particularly described the nature of our Invention and the
mode of carrying the same into effect, and claim as our Invention sediment or
scum collectors for steam boilers, constructed and arranged as herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Smith, for and on behalf of myself
and the said James Seward, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Seventeenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-four.
HENRY SMITH. (L.B.)