IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF MARINE BOLLERS AND FUNNELS OP STEAM BOATS AND VESSELS
Year: 1849

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ARTHUR
HOWE HOLDSWORTH, of the Beacon, Dartmouth, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Ninth day of August, One thousand eight hundred and
forty-nine, in the thirteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Arthur Howe Holdsworth, my
exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Arthur Howe Holdsworth, ny exors, adñiors, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Arthur Howe Holdsworth, my exors,
admors, 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, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF MARINE BOLLERS AND FUNNELS OP STEAM BOATS AND VESSELS;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Arthur
Howe Holdsworth, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instru-
inent in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited 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
Arthur Howe Holdsworth, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully

page_text: described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference
being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters
marked thereon (that is to say):-
My Invention relates to a mode of constructing steam boilers and funnels
for steam vessels where it is desirable to obtain greater security against fire,
and to relieve.the men employed near such funnels and boilers from the effects
of that unwholesome atmosphere which iron heated by fire immediately in
contact with it produces, and I effect my proposed object as to the funnell by
causing the lower portion of it to be made double, and extending upwards as
high as may be deemed desirable, according to the number of decks through
which it has to pass, or such other local circumstances as its position in each
particular ship may render désirable; such casing being placed about three-
quarters of an inch from the funnell, but this may be varied and so secured to
the funnel by rivets or otherwise at the upper and lower extremities of the
casing, as to render it capable of being filled with water, which I cause .to
enter near its base by means of a pipe leading either from a cistern in the
paddle box, which may be filled by the wheel when in motion, or from a force
pump in the engine room, which may be driven by the steam engine, or by a
donkey engine, if there be one for filling the boilers, or by any suitable means,
so that the water may flow off through a pipe or pipes near the upper ex-
tremity of the casing, the object being to keep a constant circulation of water
through the space formed between the casing and the funnel, by which the
temperature of the metal of the casing and funnel will be kept at a compatively
low degree.
.
With regard to my improvements applicable to boilers, I will, as an.
example, mention a part against which much complaint has been made:
I refer to the smoke-box doors of tubular boilers. The doors are attached by
hinges to portions of the boilers which have water within them, such doors
being made of single sheet iron. These doors I construct of thin plates of
iron, double, and secured together around the outer edges by rivets, and.
_strengthened by stays to keep the two sides at the proper distance from each
other, which I prefer to be from a half-to-three-quarters.of an inch; thus each
door would form a vessel of such thickness as may be deemed desirable.
I then cause these doors to be filled with water from within the boiler by
means of hollow hinges or pipes, which can be best understood by Fig. 1 of
the Drawing annexed. These pipes may serve for the hinges on which the doors
nay move, or hinges as already in use may be employed in addition to the
circulating pipes. Or screens, of similar construction to the doors above-
mentioned, may be erected in front of the fire-doors of such boilers, and of such
:

page_text: height as may be deemed most convenient for the purpose and locality, secured
to the boiler by similar hinges and pipes, the lower pipe of such door being fed
from the feed pipe of the boiler, which pipe is attached to the lower hinged
pipe by a flange, as Figures 2 and 3; 'the upper pipe communicating with
the boiler, as Figure 1, by means of which doors, so fed, the heat will be
intercepted from the firemen, and when taken up by the water will be returned
by it to the boiler. These doors must be opened when anything is to be done
to the fires or front of the boiler, and to facilitate this, each door is to be
furnished with a castor or wheel running on the floor of the stoke-hole to bear
the weight from the upper pipe or hinge. The lower edge of the door is kept
from six to twelve inches above the floor to admit a current of air to pass into
the ash-pit, and may stand about six inches from the front of the boiler doors,
or at any distance deemed more desirable. I have not thought it necessary
minutely to describe the means of putting the parts together, nor the means of
resisting the pressure of the water within the spaces; neither do I confine
myself to any particular mode of supplying or causing water to circulate in
such water spaces; these will be readily supplied by the workman according to
the circumstances of the particular case, and the requirements of the vessel in
which they are used. What I claim is, the so arranging smoke box, or fire
doors, or screen doors to the fire doors of marine steam boilers, that water may
be caused to circulate therein as described. And I also claim the circulation of
water in spaces within metal casings to funnels of marine steam boilers.
In witness whereof, I, the said Arthur Howe Holdsworth, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand night hundred and ca