AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR MODIFYING TEMPERATURE IN THE CONDENSATION OF VAPOURS AND IN THE COOLING OR HEATING OF LIQUIDS OR FLUIDS
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
SAUNDERS, of Bush Lane, in the City of London, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS I did, by petition, represent unto Her most Excellent Majesty
Queen Victoria that I had invented "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR MODIFYING
TEMPERATURE IN THE CONDENSATION OF VAPOURS AND IN THE COOLING OR HEATING
OF LIQUIDS OR FLUIDS," and Her said Majesty, being willing to encourage all
useful inventions, did issue Her Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great
Britain, bearing date at Westminster, the Nineteenth day of March, in the
seventh year of Her reign, whereby Her said Majesty did give and grant unto
me, the said William Saunders, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
William Saunders, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said William Saunders, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend my said Invention within that part of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion of
Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all Her said Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad; in which said Letters Patent there is con-
tained a proviso obliging me, the said William Saunders, by an instrument

page_text: in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, and cause the same to be enrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Saunders, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are described and ascer-
tained in manner following (that is to say) :-
My Invention is the application or use of a series of discs or plates made in
the manner herein-after described and represented in the Drawings hereto
annexed, so as to obtain in one structure a double vertical spiral or thread of
any dimension which may be requisite, by means of which, by passing through
the one spiral or thread the fluid or vapour to be acted upon, and at the same
time by passing through the other spiral or thread a cooling or heating agent, a
rapid and perfect transmission of the heat from the matter contained in the
one spiral or thread to the matter contained in the other spiral or thread may
be effected. Water or any other fluid may be used as the cooling or heating
agent.
The accompanying Drawing contains three Figures, marked respectively A,
B, and C. The Figure (A) represents a disc or plate of metal with a central
perforation, and which is cut through from that perforation to its circumference
or outer edge. Figure (B) is a vertical section of a structure composed
of a series of the discs or plates shewn in Figure (A). Figure (C) represents
an arrangement of a series of similar discs or plates, so fashioned or formed
as to suit particular occasions, and herein-after more fully explained. The
apparatus is formed of a series of the discs or plates before described, having
intervening fillets or flanges of metal of equal size, interposed at and between
the discs or plates at their inner and outer circumferences, and attached thereto
by bolting, rivetting, soldering, or otherwise, and carried through the whole
series of discs or plates so as to leave sensible spaces between the several pairs
of the said discs or plates. The series of discs or plates should be made to
assume the spiral form, as shewn in the Drawing, Figure (B), the radial section
in the disc or plate (A) being intended for that purpose. Any number of dises
or plates, being formed in the manner shewn in Figure A, are to be connected
together by rivetting, soldering, or any other means upon the line of their
radial section, the depressed side of the upper plate being connected with or
joined to the upper side of the next inferior disc or plate but one, and so on

page_text: through the whole series. The several discs or plates are retained or held in
their spiral position by the intervention of the fillets or flanges already described.
The upper plate of the series is not to be joined to the next below it, but passes
on to the third, and from the third to the fifth, and so on progressively; and it
will seen that by following this rule throughout the construction, two spirals or
threads are formed, the one to receive the fluid or vapour to be acted upon,
the other to receive the cooling or heating agent. These spirals or threads
may be made of any content or capacity by placing the said plates more or less
distant from each other at the time of construction. At letter (a), Figure B,
is shewn a section of the central cylinder left or formed by the combination of
the perforated discs or plates. In the Drawing it is shewn as being formed by
fillets, in the same manner as the circumference of the enclosing cylinder.
This mode is applicable for large structures of the apparatus; in smaller struc-
tures of the like kind a cylinder or tube may be so formed as to receive upon
its outer surface the inner circumference of the discs or plates, which may be
attached thereto by rivetting, soldering, or other ordinary means. The pipes or
tubes marked b and c are intended to show the mode of supply and departure of
the cooling agent; and the pipes or tubes marked d and e represent the channels
or points of ingress and egress of the vapour or fluid acted upon. The chamber
formed by the discs or plates, numbers 1 and 2, and marked W, is intended to
contain the water or cooling agent, and which, being supplied from a head, or by
means of any other pressure, is to flow or pass upwards from its entrance at 6
through the spiral to the escape at letter c. The intervening chamber, marked
V, is intended to contain the vapour or fluid to be acted upon, which passes into
the apparatus at (d), and after diffusing itself through the whole length of the
spiral, makes its egress at e in a condensed or cooled state. It will be seen
that the cooling agent impinges or strikes first upon the tube communicating
with the spiral containing the vapour or fluid to be condensed or cooled,
and thence flows upwards through its proper spiral chamber to its exit
at c, in its course absorbing the excess of temperature presented to it by
the warmer fluid, thus ensuring a transmission of the heat from one fluid
to the other with the most certain economy. In this description of the
mode of action of the apparatus I have supposed it to be in use as a condenser
or cooler, but when the matter acted upon is to be heated instead of cooled, in
that case it will be necessary to pass the matter to be acted upon through the
spiral marked W, while the other spiral marked V is occupied by the heating
vapour or fluid.
Figura Cie a modification of Figure B with a view to economy and

page_text: strength in the use of the more valuable or the less tenacious metals; the
difference in structure being that the discs or plates are alternately concave and
convex, as shewn in the sectional portion of Figure C, so that their edges
approximate, and the several pairs of discs or plates are held together by a
single flange or fillet, instead of by two flanges or fillets, as in Figure B, the
same plates and flanges or fillets to be united or held together by the means
already described, namely, by bolting, rivetting, soldering, or otherwise, and in
cases where for chemical or other reasons it may be thought desirable that
any of the more valuable metals, as silver, or any of the feebler or less tenacious
metals, such as tin, should be employed in the construction of the apparatus, I
would recommend this form as more conducive to economy and strength. It
must be evident that the dimensions of the apparatus will be dependent upon
several data, such as the difference of temperatures between the fluids employed,
the amount of supply of the cooling agent, the temperature to which it is
necessary to reduce or elevate the matter to be acted upon, the thickness of
the discs or plates, and the quantity of work to be performed within a given
time. As these data will be exceedingly variable, it would be difficult, if not
impossible, to provide for all contingencies within the limits of a Specification.
I have, however, had a condenser on this principle some time in private use
in connection with a still, whose working contents are one hundred and fifty
gallons. This condenser is composed of sixteen discs or plates, fifteen inches
in external diameter, the central perforation being three inches in diameter,
making a spiral of eight coils or turns. The total external height of the
apparatus is about two feet. The water chamber or spiral contains six
gallons, which is all the water present at any one time in the condenser. With
the still in full action, and a moderate supply of water, I have found it to be
quite equal to its work; if the water were increased together with a propor-
tionate increase of vapour from a larger still, I have no doubt it would be still
efficient up to a certain limit. With a current of water which does not fill a
half inch cock, the still being in full action, the last or lowest coil of the spiral
is not sensibly increased in temperature, and the second coil upwards scarcely
more so. In passing the finger upwards, each coil becomes regularly and
rapidly hotter, until the topmost coil may be said to boil, ranging from 206 to
212 degrees according to Fahrenheit's thermometer, according to the particular
state of the still at the moment the condensed vapour from the still runs off in
an abundant stream at or seldom differing more than a few degrees from the
temperature of the water at its entrance. It is therefore quite certain that
under no circumstances could the cooling agent be made to act with greater

page_text: effect, since all condensation must cease when the cooling agent has attained
ts maximum temperature, which is under ordinary circumstances for water
212 degrees of Fahrenheit.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Saunders, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Eighteenth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-four.
WILLIAM (L.B.) SAUNDERS.
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the
within named William Saunders, in
the presence of
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Nineteenth day of September,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid William Saunders came before
our Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Nineteenth day of September, in the year above written.