IMPROVED MEANS FOR SECURING THE JOINTS OF STRAM BOILERS AND THRES" PROVISIONAL SP
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Howard, of Bedford, in the County of
Bedford, Agricultural Engineer, and Edward Tenney Bousfield,
of Bedford, aforesaid, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVED
MEANS FOR SECURING THE JOINTS OF STRAM BOILERS AND THRES"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Howard and
Edward Tenney Bousfield at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 6th December 1870.
We, JAMES HOWARD, of Bedford, in the County of Bedford, Agri-
cultural Engineer, and EDWARD TENNEY BOUSFIELD, of Bedford, afore-
said, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVED MEANS, FOR SECURING THE JOINTS OF STEAM BOILERS AND TUBES," to
be as follows :-
The object of this Invention is to render available the elasticity of
india-rubber and its compounds or equivalent elastic substances for
making secure steam and water-tight joints that are intended to be
exposed to great pressure.

page_text: The india-rubber packing rings as at present constructed are found to
soften under great pressure and exude from the joints to which they
are applied and leave the same leaky. To prevent this we propose
to clothe the rings with thin metal which will not materially detract
from the yielding property of the india-rubber or its equivalent, but
will effectually prevent its discharge from the joint it is intended to
close.
The mode of carrying out the Invention may vary, but a satisfactory.
plan will be to enclose the elastic washer between two annular covers of
sheet metal, one being made slightly larger than the other so as to fit
tightly the one over the other and to enclose the elastic washer securely
between them. These covered rings are applicable to joints generally
where great fluid pressure is required to be resisted.
'
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Howard and Edward Tenney Bourfield in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 6th June 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, JAMES
HOWARD, of Bedford, in the County of Bedford, Agricultural Engineer,
and EDWARD TENNEY BOUSFIELD, of Bedford, aforesaid, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said James Howard and Edward Tenney
Bousfield, Her special licence, that we, the said James Howard and
Edward Tenney Bousfield, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, tho said James Howard and Edward Tenney
Bousfield, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there.
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention

page_text: The washer A is inserted in an annular groove formed in the nozzle B
of a vertical pipe of one of our boiler sections, and it is intended to
secure the connection between that vertical pipe and the water supply
pipe C which runs transversely across the front of the boiler. This pipe in
order to give ready access to the lowest row of tubes of the sections is cast
with openings on its outer side corresponding to the nozzles B, which
openings are covered with caps D, and to ensure tight joints at the
fitting of the caps ordinary india-rubber washers have hitherto been used.
In place of these we now substitute the covered washers shown at A',
and we thus make all the joints of the water tube permanently secure.
In a similar way we propose to secure all the butt joints of our tubular
boilers wherever they may occur

page_text: clothing elastic packing rings and washers with metal in the manner and
for the purpose above set forth.
In witness whercof, I, the said James Howard, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
WAW
I