IMPROVEMENTS IN COOLING WARM WATER OR OTHER LIQUID, AND IN APPARATus therefor.”
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Henderson, of Tayport, in the County of Fife,
North Britain, Shipowner, and Robert Low, of Dundee, in the County of
Forfar, North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
COOLING WARM WATER OR OTHER LIQUID, AND IN APPARATus therefor.”
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Henderson and
Robert Low at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 25th
August 1879.
JAMES HENDERSON, of Tayport, in the County of Fife, North Britain, Shipowner,
and ROBERT Low, of Dundee, in the County of Forfar, North Britain, Engineer.
IMPROVEMENTS IN COOLING WARM WATER OR OTHER LIQUID, AND IN APPARATUS
THEREFOR."
This Invention has principally for its object to substitute an improved and
unobjectionable mode of cooling warm water for condensing purposes in place of
the inconvenient and objectionable arrangements at present in use, and it is also
applicable for cooling water or liquid for other purposes.
Where warm water requires to be cooled for condensing purposes it is a common
practice to pump it up to a considerable height and distribute in over layers or
masses of tree branches or over wooden or other shelves so that it may drip down-
wards through several layers of branches or tiers of shelves down to a large pond
at the bottom, and in most cases the branches or shelves are open on all sides so
that natural air currents may pass through. Large volumes of vapor are carried
off by the air currents and are a great nuisance to the neighborhood wherein the
apparatus is situated.
By the present Invention the pumping up of the water is dispensed with and no
lofty and unsightly erection over the pond is required. The cooling is effected by
blowing air into the water in the pond, a Roots' blower, or other suitable blower
or air compressor being employed to propel air through pipes arranged in the water
poud, cither close to the water surface or at as many inches below that surface as
may be found sufficiently effective in practice. The pipes in the water have
numerous perforations made in them, and the air issuing from these perforations
rises through the water carrying off heat and vapor from it. Any convenient
[Price Gd.1

page_text: arrangement of perforated pipes, or of perforated casings or diaphragms, or of pipes
or casings with small branch outlet tubes may be used for distributing the air
amongst the water. Horizontal or inclined plates, boards, or sheets may be fixed
over the perforated pipes and in or partly in the water to cause the air to travel
further through the water and so take up more heat. The pond may be enclosed
or covered in by a low roof, or it may be formed under a factory or building, and
the covered-in space may communicate with a chimney stalk or with a horizontal
or other flue or passage leading to any convenient outlet, so that the air blown
through the water and the vapor it carries with it may have a incans of escaping
in a manner not to be inconvenient or objectionable.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said James Henderson and Robert Low in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 24th February 1880.
JAMES HENDERSON, of Tayport, in the County of Fife, North Britain, Shipowner,
and ROBERT Low, of Dundee, in the County of Forfar, North Britain, Engineer.
IMPROVEMENTS IN COOLING WARM WATER OR OTHER LIQUID, AND IN APPARATUS
THEREFOR."
"
Our said Invention has principally for its object to substitute an improved and
unobjectionable mode of cooling warm water for condensing purposes in place of
the inconvenient and objectionable arrangements at present in use, and it is
also applicable for cooling water or liquid for other purposes.
Where warm water requires to be cooled for condensing purposes it is a common
practice to pump it up to a considerable height and distribute it over layers or
masses of tree branches or over wooden or other shelves so that it may drip down-
wards through several layers of branches or tiers of shelves down to a large pond
at the bottom, and in most cases the branches or shelves are open on all sides so
that natural air currents may pass through. Large volumes of vapor are carried off
by the air currents and are a great nuisance to the neighbourhood wherein the
apparatus is situated.
By our present Invention the pumping up of the water is dispensed with and no
lofty and unsightly erection over the pond is required. The cooling is effected by
blowing air into the water in the pond, a Roots' blower, or other suitable blower
or air compressor being employed to propel air through pipes arranged in the water
pond, either close to the water surface or at as many inches below that surface as
may be found sufficiently effective in practice. The pipes in the water have
numerous perforations made in them, and the air issuing from these perforations
rises through the water carrying off heat and vapor from it.
Any convenient arrangement of perforated pipes, or of perforated casings or
diaphragms, or of pipes or casings with small branch outlet. tubes may be used for
distributing the air amongst the water, and the pond may be enclosed or covered in
by a low roof, or it may be formed under a factory or building, and the covered-in
space may communicate with a chimney stalk or with a horizontal or other flue or
passage leading to any convenient outlet, so that the air blown through the water
and the vapor it carries with it may have a means of escaping in a manner not to
be inconvenient or objectionable.
And in order that our said Invention and the manner of performing the same
may be properly understood, we hereunto append a Sheet of explanatory Drawings,
to be hereinafter referred to, and representing by way of example one of the various
arrangements which may be employed in practice. In these Drawings the same
reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts wherever they are
repeated.
Figure 1 on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings is a sectional plan showing a
cooling pond to be used in connection with a steam engine, and also portions of the
engine and boiler houses; Figure 2 is an enlarged section of one of the air distri-
buting pipes. The pond is represented as divided, according to a common practice,
into four compartments, 3, 4, 5, 6, the warm water being led from the bot well of
the engine by a pipe 7 into the first compartiment 3, from which it passes through
the opening 8 into the second compartment 4, then through the opening 9 into the
third compartment 5, and finally through the opening 10 into the fourth compart-
ment 6, from which last it is drawn by the pipe 11 and led back again to the
condenser of the engine. A Roots' blower or any other suitable blowing or air
forcing apparatus 12, and which may be driven from the main engine or by a
donkey or auxiliary engine, or otherwise, propels the air by a main or trunk

page_text: pipe 13, which has connected to it four main branches 14, 15, 16, 17. These main
pipes 14, 15, 16, 17, extend along the middles of the several compartments of the
pond and have small branch pipes 18, 19, attached to them. Each small branch
pipe 18, 19, of which an enlarged section is shown in Figure 2, has perforations
formed in it, by preference at the underside as shown; for the escape of the air into
the water, and if found desirable the main pipes 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, may also have
some perforations made in them. In the compartment 3, into which the warm
water first enters and where it is hottest, the small branch pipes 18 are made more
numerous than those 19 in the other compartments. The pond represented may
be taken to be about five feet deep and the pipes 18, 19, may be placed about two
feet below the highest level. Such a pond, about 60 feet long and 40 feet broad,
with the arrangement of piping shown, we believe to be suitable for effectively
cooling 33,000 gallons of water per hour from a temperature of about 100 degrees
Fahrenheit nearly down to that of the atmosphere, but a particular size of pond and
apparatus may be made to yield more or less cooling effect between wide limits by
simply working the blowing apparatus at a greater or less speed.
Amongst the various modifications of which the apparatus is susceptable, hori-
zontal or inclined plates, boards, or sheets may be fixed over the perforated pipes,
and in or partly in the water, to cause the air to travel further through the water
and so take up more heat.
When the pond is covered in a suitable position for the stalk for leading away
the air and vapor will be, as indicated by dotted lines, over the corner 20 of the
hottest compartment 3.
It will be one of the advantages of our improved jarrangements and apparatus
that the passage of the air through the water will prevent the latter fron stagnating
and yielding offensive exhalations which are so serious a nuisance in crowded
localities, and thus from a sanitary point of view a great public advantage will be
gained. Further, as our mode of cooling the water in engine ponds can be applied
perfectly where the ponds are covered over, the spaces above the ponds can be
utilised by buildings, which, in localities where space is limited or ground dear,
will more than compensate for the cost of applying the apparatus. And whilst the
entire space above the pond can be utilised, less horizontal area will be required for
the ponds than is in many cases necessary on account of the limited available
supplies of fresh cold water.
Having thus particularly described our said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, we have to state that we do not restrict ourselves to the
precise details herein described or delineated, but that what we believe to be novel
and original and claim as the Invention secured to us by and in terms of the
herein before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
1. The cooling of warm water or other liquid in the improved manner and by
- means of apparatus substantially such as is herein before described.
2. The blowing or injecting of air into warm water or other liquid for the
purpose and substantially in the manner hereinbefore described.
In witness whereof, we, the said James Henderson and Robert Low, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twentieth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and eighty.