Improvements in and Pertaining to Liquid Fuel-supplying Arrangements for Marine Steam Boilers.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 4th Dec., 1899
Complete Specification Left, 2nd May, 1900-Accepted, 21st July, 1900
Improvements in and Pertaining to Liquid Fuel-supplying
Arrangements for Marine Steam Boilers.
We, Sir JAMES FORTESCUE FLANNERY, of 9, Fenchurch Street, in the City of
London, Naval Architect and Marine Engineer, and WILLIAM BOYD, of North
House, Longbenton, in the County of Northumberland, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
In the Specification of a former patent granted to us No. 15791 of the year 1898
we described and claimed apparatus having for object to enable liquid fuel to
be stored in ballast tanks on board ship, with, or alternately with, water ballast;
to be utilized as ballast; and to be supplied to and consumed in the ship's boiler.
furnaces without the risk of serious accidents that had theretofore been found to
arise in consequence of the liability of water that had remained in the ballast
tanks being conveyed to the service tanks, fed to the furnaces, and, by sudden
conversion into steam, producing dangerous explosions.
For the purpose mentioned, there are provided, in connection with the apparatus
whereby liquid fuel is actually projected or introduced into a furnace or set
of furnaces (hereinafter for distinction called the feeding apparatus"), two sets
(or there might be more) of liquid fuel supplying appliances, so constructed and
arranged that, whilst the one set is supplying liquid fuel to the feeding apparatus,
the other set may receive a supply of liquid fuel from a ballast tank or tanks,
and the liquid fuel so supplied may have separated and removed from it, any
water that may have passed with it from the ballast tank or tanks into the said
supplying appliance.
The invention may be carried out in various forms. Usually, such an arrange-
be
ment will comprise, for each furnace or set of furnaces, (a set of furnaces may
distributed over one or more boilers) two or more separate and independent service
tanks or chambers or sets of service tanks or chambers (they might be separate
compartments of one tank or chamber) each provided with suitable communica-
tion with the ballast tank or tanks, constituting the main liquid fuel reservoir
or reservoirs; with means for pumping or transferring liquid fuel from such
ballast tank or tanks to the service tanks or chambers, and, likewise, with means
for indicating the presence of water, and for enabling such water to be with-
drawn, and each, furthermore, capable of being readily shut off from communi-
cation with the ballast tank or tanks, and of being readily placed in communi-
cation with, so as to supply liquid fuel to, the feeding apparatus, which may
conveniently be some type of injector or injectors adapted for spraying liquid
fuel into the furnace or combustion chamber or furnaces and combustion
chambers, whether by means of steam or otherwise, as well understood.
Heretofore the oil has been allowed to stand cold in the service tanks and it
has usually taken a long time, to get rid of the water artificially introduced into
the oil in the ballast tanks; but we have discovered that by raising the tem-
perature of the oil in the service tanks, the process of separating and removing
the said water from the oil can be greatly accelerated, and our present inven-

page_text: tion has reference to the raising of the temperature of the oil in the service
tanks to expedite the removal of the water for which purpose we combine with
the service tanks or chambers in apparatus such as referred to means whereby
heat can be conveniently applied to the oil in such tanks or chambers.
This invention may be carried out in various ways.
According to one arrangement there is or are combined with each service tank
or chamber a coil or coils with suitable connection to a boiler or boilers steam
pipe or pipes or it may be exhaust steam pipe or pipes and outlet, and with
controlling cock so that when needful steam may be caused to flow in suitable
quantity through such coil or coils and thereby raise the temperature of the
surrounding oil contained in the tank or chamber for the purpose specified.
We have found that within the limits of temperature due to steam pressures
usually obtaining in marine boilers the greater the degree of heat applied to
the oil in the service tanks, the more quickly is the water deposited.
Where a suitable supply of hot water can be obtained we may, in some cases,
avail ourselves thereof for heating the oil by passing such hot water through
coils in a similar manner to the steam referred to above.
In some cases in lieu of or in addition to means such as above described we
may contrive to avail ourselves for the purposes of our invention of heat radiating
from boilers.
Improvements in and Pertaining to Liquid Fuel-supplying
Arrangements for Marine Steam Boilers.
We, Sir JAMES FORTESCUE FLANNERY, of 9, Fenchurch Street, in the City of
London, Naval Architect and Marine Engineer, and WILLIAM BOYD, of North
House, Longbenton, in the County of Northumberland, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
---
In the Specification of a former patent granted to us, No. 15791 of the year 1898
we described and claimed apparatus having for object to enable liquid fuel to
be stored in ballast tanks on board ship, with, or alternately with, water ballast;
to be utilized as ballast; and to be supplied to and consumed in the ship's boiler
furnaces without the risk of serious accidents that had theretofore been found to
arise in consequence of the liability of water that had remained in the ballast
tanks to being conveyed to the service tanks and fed to the furnaces, and,
through sudden conversion into steam, producing dangerous explosions.
"
For the purpose mentioned, there are provided, in connection with the
apparatus whereby liquid fuel is actually projected or introduced into (or burned
in) a furnace or set of furnaces (hereinafter for distinction called the feeding
apparatus"), two sets (or there might be more) of liquid-fuel supplying
appliances, so constructed and arranged that, whilst the one set is supplying
liquid fuel to the feeding apparatus, the other set (or sets) may receive a supply
of liquid fuel from a ballast tank or tanks, and the liquid fuel so received may

page_text: (before it is fed to the furnace or furnaces) have separated and removed from
it, any water that may have passed with it from the ballast tank or tanks into
the last mentioned set (or sets) of supplying appliances.
The invention may be carried out in various forms. Usually (but not always)
such an arrangement will comprise, for each furnace or set of furnaces (a set
of furnaces may be distributed over one or more boilers), two or more separate
and independent tanks or chambers or sets of tanks or chambers (they might be
separate compartments of one tank or chamber) serving the two-fold purpose of
settling and service tanks but hereinafter for distinction called settling tanks,
each provided with suitable communication with the ballast tank or tanks con-
stituting the main liquid-fuel reservoir or reservoirs; with means for pumping
or transferring liquid fuel from such ballast tank or tanks to the settling tank
or chamber or set of settling tanks or chambers; and, likewise, with means for
indicating the presence of water and for enabling such water to be withdrawn;
and each, furthermore, capable of being readily shut off from communication
with the ballast tank or tanks, and of being easily placed into communication
with, so as to supply liquid fuel to, the feeding (or burning) apparatus, which
may conveniently be some type of injector or injectors adapted for spraying
liquid fuel into the furnace or combustion chamber or furnaces or combustion
chambers, whether by means of steam or otherwise, as well understood.
Heretofore the liquid fuel, which we will call oil, has been allowed to stand
cold in the settling tanks and it has usually taken a long time to get rid of water
artificially introduced into the oil in the ballast tanks; but we have discovered
that by raising the temperature of the oil in the settling tanks or chambers, the
process of separating and removing the said water from the oil can be greatly
accelerated, and our present invention has reference to the raising of the tem-
perature of the oil in the settling tanks to expedite the removal of the water, and
for this purpose we combine with the settling tanks or chambers in apparatus
such as referred to means whereby heat can be conveniently applied to the oil
in such tanks or chambers.
This invention may be carried out in various ways.
According to one arrangement there is or are combined with each settling tank
or chamber a coil or coils with suitable connection to a boiler or boilers, steam
pipe or pipes, or it may be exhaust steam pipe or pipes, and outlet, and with control-
ling cocks, so that when needful steam may be caused to flow in suitable quantity
through such coil or coils and thereby raise the temperature of the surrounding
oil contained in the tank or chamber for the purpose specified.
The accompanying drawings correspond to those of the Specification aforesaid
and indicate, by way of example, such apparatus provided for each of the arrange-
ments shown therein. Like reference numerals in the accompanying drawings
and in the drawings of the aforesaid Specification refer to the same parts.
In each of the arrangements shown, each settling tank 2 (or 15 or 15) has
combined with it a pipe coil a fixed within the tank, a regulating valve b, a
steam-supply pipe c, an outlet-valve d, and a drain pipe e. The two steam-supply
pipes c of each arrangement, are connected by a common steam-supply pipe f with
a boiler provided with a steam valve h for controlling the supply of steam to
the pipes and and the coil a. In like manner, the two drain pipes e of each
arrangement, are connected by a common drain pipe i, either to a condenser k
(Figs. 1 and 3) or otherwise, according to the desired disposal of the waste steam
or resulting water of condensation.
t
In order to raise the temperature of the oil whilst standing in a tank 2 (or 15
or 15) for the purpose of allowing the water to separate from the oil by settling,
the cocks h and band are opened so as to permit steam to flow through the
coil a and to allow steam that has done duty in the coil, as well as any water of
condensation, to escape either to the condenser or otherwise, as may be
arranged.
When a set of liquid-fuel supplying appliances comprise more than one settling

page_text: tank, the coils of all the settling tanks of a set may be connected together so as
to receive heating fluid from a common source.
We have found that within the limits of temperature due to steam pressures
usually obtaining in marine boilers the greater the degree of heat applied to the
oil in the settling tanks, the more quickly is the water deposited.
Where a suitable supply of hot water can be obtained, such water may, in some
cases, be used for heating the oil by passing it through coils in a similar manner
to the steam referred to above.
In some cases in lieu of, or in addition to, means such as above described, use
may be made of heat radiating or conducted from boilers to raise the temperature
of the liquid fuel in settling tanks for the purpose set forth.
Although it is usually convenient to store liquid fuel in ballast tanks and
consequently the invention has been described as applied to the separation from
oil of water obtained from such tanks, the invention is obviously equally
applicable where oil is otherwise, stored and for accelerating the separation of
water whose presence in the oil is not due to the use of ballast tanks as reservoirs.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is:-
1. In apparatus for supplying liquid fuel to furnaces wherein provision is
made for preliminary removal of water from the fuel as set forth, expediting the
separation of the water from the fuel by the application of heat to the fuel during
the settling process, substantially as described.
2. Apparatus for expediting the settling of water in the settling tanks or
chambers of appliances of the kind referred to, comprising for each settling tank
or chamber a coil or coils, a connection to a boiler or other source of heated fluid,
as steam or hot water, and controlling valves so that heated fluid may be caused
to flow in suitable quantity through such coil or coils and thereby raise the
temperature of the liquid fuel in the tank or chamber, the said apparatus being
constructed, arranged, and operated substantially as described.
3. The several improved arrangements of apparatus for supplying liquid fuel
to marine boiler furnaces respectively illustrated in Figs. 1 to 3 inclusive, in
Figs. 4 and 5, in Figs. 6 to 8 inclusive, in Figs. 9 to 11 inclusive, in Figs. 12
and 13, in Figs. 14 and 15, and in Figs. 16 and 17 and hereinabove described.
Notod the 2nd dox of Alex P4211
Doted the 2nd day of
For the Applicants,
W. LLOYD WISE,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Chartered Patent Agent.