IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILERS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Wye Williams, of Liverpool, in the County
of Lancaster, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILERS."
Sealed the 23rd December 1859, and dated the 25th June 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Wye Williams
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
25th June 1859.
I, CHARLES WYB WILLIAMS, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM
BOILERS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in introducing into the tubes or flues of boilers a
series of annular or semi-annular rods or bars of iron or other metal arranged
at certain distances apart, and employed for the purpose of breaking the
current of heated products passing through said tubes or flues so as to
counteract the onward course thereof, thus causing a continued mixing of the
hotter with the cooler portions of the aforesaid heated current; the hottest
portion at the upper part being thus commingled with the cooler portions,
thereby producing a more uniform temperature of the mass of heated products.
The motion thus produced in the current of heated products will be neither
spiral nor circular, but the current will have a horizontal wave-like or
undulatory course. For effecting the objects of this Invention I propose to
leave a space of about
to inch or more, according to the area of the tube

page_text: or flue between each of the rings or semi-rings, and the upper part of the
tubes or flues in which they are placed. When the draught is good the
aforesaid rings, instead of being made of round or square rods or bars, may be
of the shape of angle iron. By this shape the wave of hot products passing
between the rings and the interior surface of the tubes or flues, will be
enlarged in volume, say to an inch section instead of of an inch. The
intervals between the aforesaid rings or semi-rings, and the tubes or flues, as
also the width of the angle-iron flange, and the spaces between each of the
rings, semi-rings, and angle-iron flanges will entirely depend on the amount of
draught, and must therefore be adjusted accordingly. If the draught be good,
then the rings, &c: may be brought within about two inches of each other, thus
making the waves about 2 inches long. By the use of semi-rings the main
passage through the tube for the current of heated products passing to the
chimney will be comparatively unobstructed, whereas when entire rings are
employed, they necessarily contract the area for the draught; and I would
here observe that as in practice the heat in the upper section or portion of
tubes or flues horizontally placed is the greatest, consequently the lower
portion of such rings are comparatively of less value, and operate rather as
an obstruction to the draught. In such cases I prefer the use of the semi-
rings as above stated, but in cases where the draught is very good, as for
example, in the boilers of locomotive engines entire rings may then be used
with good effect, a space being always left between the rings and the tubes
or flues.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Wye Williams in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 24th December 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
WYE WILLIAMS, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Charles Wye Williams, Her special licence that I, the said Charles
Wye Williams, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Charles Wye Williams, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at

page_text: all times thereafter 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
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILERS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Charles Wye Williams, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause
the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Wye Williams, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention consists in introducing into the tubes or flues of boilers a
continued series of current agitators of a part semicircular or horse-shoe form,
by which the course of the heated products passing through them shall be
made to strike with a greater and more direct action against the upper part
and sides of the interior of the tubes, and through a space left between them
and the upper part of the tubes. The motion produced in the current will be
neither spiral nor circular, but in a horizontal wave-like course; the space to
be left may be from to inch in a three inch tube, or more in the case of
larger tubes. The intervals between the agitators may be from 2 to 4 inches,
according to the diameters of the tubes and the strength of the draught
passing through them; the more numerous and nearer they are the greater
will be the effect, the distances being determined by the size of the tubes and
the amount of draught through them. These agitators may conveniently be
made of a single bar or rod of iron or other suitable material, bent in an
arched form from side to side, the lower part of the rod running horizontally,
forming legs on which the whole series rests, or the said agitators may be
made of cast iron in separate pieces, and held together at such distances apart,
as in practice may be found most efficacious, by a connecting rod running
through a series of lugs or projections formed on the top of each agitator as
hereafter described, and which said lug will be found useful in preventing the
too near approach of the arched part of the agitators to the tubes, thus
preserving the required distances between them.
In order to explain my said Invention as completely as possible, I now
proceed to describe the best means I am acquainted with for carrying the
same into practical effect, reference being had to the illustrative Sheet of

page_text: Drawings wereunto annexed, and to the numeral ngures and letters of refer-
ence marked thereon respectively, as follows:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 represents a longitudinal view in perspective of a section of a tube
with my improvements adapted thereto, consisting of a series of agitators
formed in the shape of a horse-shoe, and of a single rod of iron, and shewing
the spaces a, a, a, at the top between the aforesaid agitators and the crown of the
tubes. Figure 2 represents a longitudinal geometrical section of Figure 1,
shewing the course of the wave-like current impinging against the upper part
of the tube. Figure 3 represents a longitudinal vertical section of a tube
fitted with agitators unconnected, except by the rod b, b, b, passing through
the lugs formed on each, as before stated. Figure 4 represents a cross section
of one of the horse-shoe agitators as described in Figure 2, the horizontal
continuation of the iron rod d, d, forming legs, which, resting on the lower
portion of the tube assist to keep the agitator in proper position in the tube.
Figure 5 represents a cross section of one of the agitators before described
and represented at Figure 8, shewing the lugs or projections e, through which
the connecting rod b, b, b, passes, each of the agitators resting on the lower
part of the tube. Figures 6, 7, and 8, represent sections of different shaped
rods drawn to an enlarged scale of which the series of agitators may be made,
as exhibited at Figures 1 and 2. I prefer the shapes exhibited at Figures 7
and 8 as being well calculated to cause a larger portion of the heated products
to strike or impinge against the tube, and thereby necessarily producing a
greater heating effect.
In reference to the object to be accomplished it is to be observed that as
the temperature of the current of heated products will always be greatest at
the upper part thereof, the agitators will more effectually utilize the heat
of such upper section of the current, the practical effect being to force the
upper and hotter portion of the current between the agitators and the upper
portion of the tubes, while the centre and lower portions of the current will be
left unobstructed in their passage to the chimney.
I would remark in conclusion that in cases where the draught is very good,
as for example, in the boilers of locomotive engines, in such cases agitators
formed of entire rings, may then be used with good effect, a space being
always left between the rings and the tubes or flues in which said rings are
placed.
Having now fully described and set forth the nature and object of my said
Invention of "Improvements in Steam Boilers," together with the best means

page_text: I am acquainted with for carrying the same into practical effect, I hereby
declare that what I claim as my Invention intended to be secured to me by
the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is as follows:-I claim the
adaptation of curved or bent rods or bars or castings of metal which I call
current agitators to the tubes of boilers, and the placing of such said agitators
in such a position as to cause the current of heated products to pass with an
active and impinging effect between them, and the upper part of the tubes in
which they may be placed, as above particularly described and represented by
the accompanying Drawings, as constituting improvements in steam boilers.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Wye Williams, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
CHARLES WYE WILLIAMS.
(L.S.)