Improvements for the Safe Conveyance of Petroleum or like Liquids in Ships.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 20th Sept., 1894
Complete Specification Left, 19th June, 1895-Accepted, 27th July, 1895
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements for the Safe Conveyance of Petroleum or like Liquids
in Ships.
A communication from abroad by John Dick Murray, Engineer, stationed at
Singapore.
I, CHARLES CRAWFORD MURRAY, of 12, Mitchell Lane, in the County of the
City of Glasgow, North Britain, Yarn Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of
this invention to be as follows, that is to say :-
This invention has for its object to provide in a better manner than heretofore,
for the safe conveyance in ships, of crude petroleum or like liquids such as are liable
to evolve vapors or gases which are inflammable or will form explosible mixtures
with air.
In carrying out the invention a number of separate tanks are provided in a ship,
such tanks being of a vertical-cylindrical or other convenient simple form, and
having manhole doors bolted on their tops. Each tank is enclosed in an outer
casing or jacket shell the space between which and the tank is kept filled with
water when the tank is in use; and the water is made to circulate and be
continually or frequently renewed by means of pumps, so that not only is leakage
of petroleum through the shell of the tank resisted, but also any actual leakage is
carried off with the water and discharged from the ship and its vaporisation within
the ship prevented.
The water is pumped into a cistern at a higher level than the tanks and passes
thence to the tank jackets by main and branch pipes fitted with stop valves,
other pipes conveying the water to the discharge outlet. The petroleum is
filled into and delivered from the tanks by means of suitable pipes fitted with
stop valves; and the several tanks are connected by pipes with stop valves by
means of which the petroleum can be made to have the same level in several tanks.
When delivering or discharging the oil from any tank such tank is cut off from
others by closing the stop valves of the connecting pipes and opening a valve with
which the bottom of each oil tank is fitted, to admit water from the jacket. The
water thus admitted to the bottom of an oil tank displaces the oil and causes it to
flow off from the top through the piping provided for the purpose. The water
thus used for displacing oil from a tank is pumped out again before refilling the
tank with oil.
Dated this Nineteenth day of September 1894.
EDMUND HUNT,
Applicant's Agent.

page_text: improvements for the Safe Conveyance of Petroleum or like Liquids
in Ships.
A communication from abroad by JOHN DICK MURRAY, Engineer, stationed at
Singapore.
I, CHARLES CRAWFORD MURRAY, of 12, Mitchell Lane, in the County of the
City of Glasgow, North Britain, Yarn Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of
this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement, that is to say :-
This invention has for its object to provide in a better manner than heretofore,
for the safe conveyance in ships, of crude petroleum or like liquids such as are
liable to evolve rapors or gases which are inflammable or will form explosible
mixtures with air.
In carrying out the invention a ship is provided with tanks of any convenient
simple form and enclosed in outer casings or jacket shells, the spaces between the
outer casings and. the tanks being filled with water when the tanks are in use.
The water in the jacket spaces is continually or frequently renewed, so that not
only is leakage of petroleum through the shells of the tanks resisted by the
pressure of the water, but also any actual leakage is carried off with the water
and discharged from the ship, and its vaporisation within the ship prevented.
The petroleum or other liquid may be filled into or delivered from the tanks in
any convenient way; and provision may be made for keeping the depth of the
petroleum or other liquid uniform in a number of tanks. The petroleum or other
liquid may be delivered from the tanks or from any one of a number by admitting
water to displace it.
And in order that the said invention and the manner of performing the same
may be properly understood I hereunto append three sheets of explanatory
drawings to be hereinafter referred to in describing examples of the improved
apparatus.
Figures, 1, and 2, on Sheet, 1, of the drawings are a plan and an elevation of a
set of eight connected tanks; and
Figure, 3, on Sheet, 2, is an enlarged view of two tanks one of which is in
vertical section.
Figures, 4, and 5, on Sheet, 3, are a sectional plan and a vertical section of a
second example of the apparatus.
In these drawings the same reference letters and numerals are used to mark the
same or like parts wherever they are repeated.
The apparatus shown in Figures, 1, 2, and 3, comprises eight vertical cylindrical
tanks enclosed in outer casings or shells, A, one actual tank or inner shell, B,
being shown in the sectional part of Figure, 3. Each tank is provided with a
manhole door, C, at the top; or when the bottoms of the tanks are conveniently
accessible the manhole doors may be arranged at the bottoms with some advantage
for cleaning purposes. The water to fill the jacket space between the outer and
ianer shells, A, B, of each tank, is, according to one modification pumped into a
cistern, D, at a higher level than the tanks and thence passes to the tank jackets by
a main pipe, E, and branch pipes, Ei, fitted with stop valves, E 2, other pipes
conveying the water to the discharge outlet, and consisting of branch pipes, F,
communicating between the lower parts of the jacket shells, A, and main
pipes, F 1, F 2. The pipe, F 2, is connected to a valve box, F 3, provided with
an air vessel, F 4, and having connected to it a
of the ship. The petroleum is filled into and delivered from the tanks by means
pipe, F 5, extending to the outside

page_text: of suitable pipes connected to stop-valve boxes, G, at each side of the ship,
pipes, G1, extending from these boxes, G, down to a main pipe, G. 2, from which
branch pipes, G 3, each having a stop valve, G 4. extend. through the bottoms of
the tanks to the lower ends of central vertical pipes, H, the upper ends of which
are open. When being filled in, the petroleum overflows from the top of the
pipes. H, into the tanks; and, in the example which is being described the
petroleum also leaves the tanks by the pipes, H; but separate delivery pipes
might be connected to the bottoms of the tanks if considered desirable in any case.
Pipes, J, provided with stop valves, J 1, connect the bottoms of the tanks with
the lower parts of the water jacket spaces between the outer and inner
shells, A, B; and through these branch pipes, J, the tanks can be completely filled
with water.
are open.
In the apparatus as shown in Figures, 1, and 2, water is used to deliver
petroleum or any liquid lighter than and not miscible with water, the water when
admitted to any tank pressing up the petroleum and causing it to pass off through
the pipe, H, if the stop valves through which it has to pass when being delivered
With the described arrangements air may be completely excluded from
the tanks when petroleum is in them or to be filled into them. Thus before com-
mencing to fill in petroleum the tanks may be made full of water which may be
withdrawn as the petroleum enters, or if the petroleum is pumped in with suitable
pressure it will displace the water. And if when petroleum is in, or being filled
into, the tanks, the valves, J1, of all the water connecting pipes, J, are open and
also all the valves, G 4, of the branch petroleum pipes, G 3, the depths respectively
of the water and petroleum will become equalised in all of the set of connected
tanks. If desired any tank of a set may be dealt with separately from the others
by closing the stop valves appertaining to the other tanks and opening only those
appertaining to the particular tank.
Instead of the pipe connections for water or petroleum being arranged precisely
as hereinbefore described, they may be arranged in any other convenient way
provided the arrangement is such that water can be led or pumped into and out of
the jacket spaces between the shells, A, B, and petroleum can be led or pumped
into and delivered from the tanks. The elevated cisteru (D) may be dispensed
with, the water pipes being in that case arranged as a closed system with suitable
stop valves to control the distribution and discharge of the water.
In the example shown in Figures, 4, and 5, on Sheet, 3, of the drawings, a tank
(with compartments) is formed by constructing pairs of vertical bulkheads, K, L,
completely across from side to side of a ship. The tank space is also covered by a
ceiling or roof, M, with a space between it and the deck, N, and this space, and
the spaces hetween the bulkheads, K, L, at the fore and after ends of the tank
The tank space is
space are to be filled with water when the tank space is in use.
divided into compartments by fore-and-aft partitions, P, which will prevent incon-
venient transverse movements of the contents of the tank space when the ship rolls.
The compartments are by preference unconnected with each other excepting by
branch pipes provided with stop valves, and communicating with main pipes
outside of the tank space. The pipe connections may be substantially such as are
hereinbefore described or referred to; so far as shown in Figures, 4, and 5, they
are marked with the same reference letters and numerals as the corresponding parts
shown in Figures, 1, 2, and 3.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The improved apparatus for the safe conveyance of petroleum or like liquids
in ships and consisting of a tank or tanks enclosed by a water space or water spaces
or separated thereby from other internal parts of ships, the various parts of the
apparatus being constructed, and arranged or combined substantially as and for
the purposes hereinbefore described.

page_text: 2. The combination of the subject matter of the first claim with pipe and stop
valve connections arranged for using water to displace petroleum or like liquids
from the tank or tanks, substantially as hereinbefore described.
Dated this Eighteenth day of June 1895.
EDMUND HUNT,
Applicant's Agent.