IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STEAM BOILERS AND GENERATORS, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Henry Adcock at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents; with his Petition; on-the-
4th January 1870..
I, WILLIAM HENRY. ADCOCK, of Kingstone Fields, in the County of
Nottingham, Farmer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention:
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STEAM BOILERS AND GENERATORS,
AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN, "to be as follows:-
.
My Invention has for its object the construction. of steam boilers or
generators which shall generate steam with greater economy and.
efficiency than those heretofore used..
The means by which I effect this object is by the division of the
interior water space of boilers into cells or compartments, the cells being
in most cases at right angles to the line of draught from the furnace. :
The effect is to prevent the current of convection within the water and
to prevent the heat of the fire diffusing itself equally within the water in:
the boiler. The cell walls do not rise above the water level into the steam
space above. I make them of iron or its equivalent covered with non-
conducting material to prevent too rapid transmission of heat through
the sides. In boilers fitted with tubes the tubes would pass through the

page_text: walls of each cell and through the contained water. The compartments
nearer the fire are made larger than those more remote from it. The
effect of heat passing through or underneath the above-described cellular
arrangements will be to cause the water to boil in the cells nearest the
source of heat. Those cells which are more remote remain at a lower
temperature, and are therefore better fitted for the abstraction of heat
from the passing heated air. The steam arising from the boiling cells
will spread over the upper surface of the whole of the other cells, the
water in the cells beneath them being at a lower temperature con-
densation will at first take place, but it will diminish or finally cease as
a larger and more heated and lighter water is formed, and upon which
it will finally rest. The feed water I inject into the colder cell most.
remote from the fire. In this cell it will displace the heated water and
cause a series of displacements. of heated water to take place over the
tops of the compartments until the cells in which the most rapid
evaporation is going on are reached. A water gauge or taps inserted
in this hottest cell will indicate the level of the water, and if it be
preserved high enough the others of necessity will be. This method of
feeding will, I believe, be advantageous, as preventing the sudden
reduction of heat which takes place when water is allowed to enter and
mingle at once with the whole volume. The pressure of steam being
equal over all the cells those which are remote from the fire cannot be
made to boil while the steam is confined, the hotter cells always
producing it at a pressure which is able to subdue any tendency to
ebullition in them. They thus contrive to store up heat from the
draught. When the pressure is taken off by allowing the exit of steam
the heat thus stored will become available and ebullition will take
place in all the cells whose heat exceeds that of the superincumbent
steam.
It is supposed that steam may in such a boiler as is here indicated
be raised in much less time than was usual heretofore, the whole of the
water not needing at once to be heated. The partition I employ will, in
fact, resist the passage of heat away from the fire and compel it to
assume the form of steam, the colder cells remaining for the abstraction
of heat from the flue draft.
The greater the pressure of steam within a boiler the higher the heat
in the water and contained steam; consequently the gases cannot be
reduced below this heat before being allowed to escape. But by this

page_text: method I believe that heat may be abstracted as far as may be desired,
at the same time that steam of any heat or pressure is being produced in
the boiler.
The main feature of the Invention consists in the insertion of cells to
prevent the conduction of heat by currents in the water within the boiler
away from the fire to colder places within the boiler.