Improvements in Steam Generators, Evaporators, and Liquid Heaters or the like.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Mar., 1893-Accepted, 27th May, 1893
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Steam Generators, Evaporators, and Liquid Heaters
or the like.
I, RICHARD LEDERER of Jung-Bunzlau, Bohemia in the Empire of Austro-
Hungary, Manufacturer 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:-
It is a well known fact that in steam-boilers, evaporators and other similar
apparatus employed for evaporating or heating liquids, but especially in steam-
generators of certain well known types and in feed-water apparatus, also in such
evaporators which treat liquids apt to form large quantities of froth, the rising
steam carries away with it great numbers of particles of the liquid under treatment.
The improvement which forms the subject of this invention therefore mainly
consists in the arrangement above the boiler or evaporator, of a space or chamber
or device which shall hereinafter be referred to as the intermediate separator. The
steam as it rises, carrying away with it a certain quantity of globules of the liquid,
when it reaches the said separator, is divided therein, the pure steam being
separated from the liquid. Thence the steam is conducted further away to its
proper destination, while the liquid returns to the boiler or evaporator, as the
case may be.
This object is attained by the employment of connecting tubes of large sectional
area between the evaporator and the intermediate separator, the increase in the
width of the said tubes causing a proportionate decrease of speed, which enables
the steam or gas to separate from the liquid in the tubes arranged within the
separator.
The liquid is returned to the evaporator by a tube of uncommonly large dimen-
sions which forms one of the particularly important features of this invention, as
the pipes which have hitherto been used for conveying back liquid from the
overflow apparatus (an equivalent of the present separator) did not exceed
60 millimetres in diameter, their only object having been to discharge the small
quantities of liquid collecting therein at more or less extended intervals of time;
whereas in the present arrangement the particles of liquid are conducted back to
the main apparatus in a speedy and continuous manner.
In the accompanying drawings some of the forms in which this invention may
be carried out are illustrated. It will be seen by these illustrations that the
improvements enable steam-boilers and evaporators of quite small diameter to be
constructed i.e. to dispense with large steam-chambers or extensive evaporating
surfaces. It is indeed advantageous for the proper evaporation of any liquid that
the latter should be allowed to attain in boiling a condition of intense effervescence,
so as to promote and maintain a lively circulation through the pipes. Attempts
have before been made to promote evaporation by the employment of apparatus
of very large diameter and of a trunk-like shape, so as to increase as much as
possible the extent to which the liquid can rise in boiling. These devices,
however, are unnecessary in apparatus or plants arranged in accordance with this
invention.
The water
In the drawings Fig. 1 represents a steam-boiler fitted with these improvements.
The steam passes through the tube S into the dome. The steam-pipe leading
from S through the dome is provided below with a slot or opening s.
carried away by the steam flows through the pipe R into the water-chamber of the
boiler, while the steam surrounding the said pipe rises and is conducted further
away wherever required.
The pipe R opens about 10 or 20 centimetres beneath the lowest water-level,

page_text: so that a water seal is produced as it were, and the steam from the boiler is
prevented from rising through the said pipe in appreciable quantities.
Fig. 2 illustrates the arrangement of two domes on one boiler. One dome D
receives the steam and conducts it to the other dome D', in which takes place the
same operation as in the arrangement shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 3 is a somewhat different combination of parts, the modification consisting
in the fact that the return-pipe R has not a water-seal formed in it by the water
in the boiler, but has a water-seal of its own constituted by the water returning
through it. These three arrangements (Figs. 1, 2, 3) may, moreover, be modified
by replacing the dome forming an integral part of the main apparatus, by a
separate and detachable overflow or separating-chamber or steam-collector, connected
with the boiler simply by suitable tubes adapted one to supply the place of the
steam-tube S and dome D and the other as illustrated in Fig. 4 connecting the
separating-chamber with the pipe R.
Fig. 5 represents an evaporator-with-a horizontal overflow-chamber (which,
however, may be erected vertically, if preferred, and stand beside the main
apparatus).
The tube S is of such a size as to represent two or three times the sectional
area of the tube S¹, the velocity in the overflow vessel or separator being
correspondingly reduced.
The steam is forced down by the cover D', arranged a short distance away from
the tube S. The particles of liquid therefore descend through the pipe R and
collect in the liquid reservoir of the evaporator..
There forms in the pipe R, as shown in Figs. 1 to 4 a bydraulic seal during
the conveyance of the steam, as it rises, to the place where it is utilized; through
the tube S¹. In the arrangement Fig. 6 the operation is the same except
that the water-seal for the pipe R is formed in the steam-chamber of the evaporator
itself.
The object of the arrangement illustrated by Fig. 7 is to control and destroy if
necessary, the water-seal in the pipe R, by causing the pan or basin V to descend.
This will be found necessary in the case of liquids readily forming sediments
which are apt to cover or clog the said pan or basin V.
This closing pan or basin may be screwed down or lowered by means of a spindle
(suitably packed where it passes through the wall of the separator) whenever it is
required to destroy the water-seal; after which the apparatus may be opened,
the closing pan or basin cleaned, and finally the water-seal restored again, and the
operation started afresh. The cleaning of the pan or basin V may, however, be
provided also by connecting the same to the pipe by a hinge arranged on one side,
so that the basin may under the action of the spindle be turned down and brought
to a practically vertical position.
By this means any impurities which may have collected in the basin are caused
to drop down into proper discharge-apparatus, after which the basin may be
brought up again to its horizontal position. It will therefore be seen that the
whole may be performed without opening the apparatus or interrupting its
operation. It is of course, necessary that the spindle shall not be rigidly con-
nected with the closing-basin but that the connection be formed by a link permit-
ting the lateral displacement of the lid ; or the water-seal basin may be stationary,
while a scraping device may be connected with the spindle to break up and loosen
the sediment, so as to enable it to be washed away by the liquid or discharged
by opening a valve or door specially provided for the purpose.
The arrangement shown in Fig. 8 consists in means for closing the return-
pipe R by means of a float adapted to press the lid D¹, against the pipe. The
size and weight of the float is such that it requires a predetermined volume of
liquid, or liquid-column, in the pipe R to overcome it and to enable the liquid to
pass from the pipe R into the evaporating apparatus; while on the other hand the
rising of the liquid through the pipe R into the separator is prevented.
These arrangements will be found advantageous in many special cases where it

page_text: is deemed advisable to reconstruct existing apparatus and yet inconvenient to
perform material alterations.
Fig. 9 shows an evaporator with an intermediate separator erected on one side of
it, and in which a special wide circulation pipe replaces the return-pipe R mentioned
above.
In all these arrangements the feeding-device is not arranged in the body of the
evaporating apparatus itself, but in the separating or overflow-chamber, this device
being designated by the letter c in the drawings. According to the nature of the
liquid to be evaporated, this pipe may effect its discharge either upon the surface
of the separator direct or upon the caps of the steam or vapour-exhaust pipes,
from whence the liquid will be discharged in jets, thereby offering an extensive
contact-surface to the vapours which may itself be a sufficient means of forcing
down any liquid-particles or globules rising with the vapour.
A further result attained by this arrangement is that the vapour, which expands
as soon as it rises from the inflowing liquid (seeing that in evaporators arranged
for compound or multiple action the liquid always passes from high pressure to
low pressure) is not conducted into the main evaporator, but that the inflowing
liquid is immediately divided into liquid and vapour, and that this vapour, without
entering the evaporator, is directly conducted either to the next following
evaporator (in the case of a plant or battery comprising a series of them) or to the
condenser.
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
1. In a steam-generator evaporator or other apparatus for evaporating or
heating liquids the connection of the same with an intermediate separator by
means of tubes S so arranged and of such size as to ensure the constant down-
ward deflection of all the liquid globules or particles carried away with or by
the same so that contrarily to what takes place in the usual steam-collectors in
which a uniform current of steam is created a chamber or space is provided for
the particles of liquid to collect and rest in.
2. In apparatus as characterized in the first claim the combination with the
discharge or return pipe R of a water-seal such as shown in Figs. 1 to 7 or an
automatic closing device such as shown in Fig. 8 or of a combination of both these
closing arrangements whether in the steam-chamber or in the liquid reservoir and
the arrangement of the steam or vapour pipe in combination with a deflecting cap
such as shown in Figs. 5 to 8 substantially as described.
3. In apparatus as characterized in the preceding claims the creation therein of a
circulating system by the connection of the liquid reservoirs in the evaporator with
the liquid receiving spaces in the separator by means of wide circulation-pipes
substantially as described and illustrated in Fig. 9 of the accompanying drawings.
4. In apparatus as characterized in the preceding claims the arrangement in com-
bination with the separator of a liquid supply pipe connected at any part thereof so
as to admit of the direct discharge of the vapours which need not pass into this
evaporator and which are produced in another evaporator at a higher pressure the
points where the liquid is discharged being determined according to the nature of
the liquid to be evaporated and the discharge-orifice of the pipe being made to
meet either the wall of the separator or the cap covering the steam-exhaust pipe
substantially as described.
Dated this 1st day of March 1893
W. P. THOMPSON & BOULT,
Agents for the Applicant.