IMPROVEMENTS IN SURFACE CONDENSERS
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SURFACE CONDENSERS."-A communication
from abroad by Alban Crocker Stimers, of the City and State of New
Vited Stater f
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd June 1865.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
5 in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SURFACE CONDENSEES," to be as
follows:-:
It is well understood by engineers that the intermittent admission of steam
to the condenser of a steam engine causes the tubes to be expanded at each
O influx of the steam by the elevation of their temperature, and that they con-
tract again by the reduction of temperature by the absorption of the heat by
the condensing water. Unless this expansion and contraction is provided for

page_text: in the construction of the apparatus the joints made between the ends of the
tubes and the tube plates will be destroyed and the benefits to be derived
from surface condensation will be lost.
The object of the present Invention is to arrange and adapt the tubes of
surface condensers in such a manner that the alternate expansion and con-
traction of the tubes shall not injuriously affect the joints. This object may
be effected in various ways, examples of which I will now describe. For
instance, the tubes may be fitted accurately into holes made and reamed in a
top and bottom plate, but not rigidly and immoveably fixed at either end; or
they may be firmly and rigidly secured at one end and expanded out so as to
prevent them from moving in one of the plates, but yet leaving them room to
expand and contract when required. The best plan of fixing the tubes is to
screw one of their ends into one plate and fit the opposite ends to holes
made in the other plate. I would observe that in all cases the plate in which
the tubes are allowed to move should be thick enough to prevent leakage
through the joint.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 21st December 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Edward Newton, Her special licence that I, the said William
Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such,,others
as I, the said William Edward Newton, my.executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at 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 SURFACE CONDENSERS," being a communication to him
from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William
Edward Newton, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing

page_text: 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 William Edward Newton, 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, reference.being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :—
.
*It is well understood by engineers that the intermittent admission of steam
to the condenser of a steam engine causes the tubes to be expanded by each
influx of the steam by the elevation of their temperature, and that they con-
tract again during the intervals by the depression of their temperatures due
to the absorption of the heat by the condensing water, and that unless this
expansion and contraction be provided for in the construction of the apparatus
the joints made between the ends of the tubes and the tubė plates will be
destroyed and the benefits to be derived from surface condensation will be
lost.
In Hall's arrangement of condenser a stuffing box is placed around each
tube which has an independent gland; by Ericsson's plan one of the tube
plates is united to the outer case by a broad elastic flange, thus permitting
the entire plate to vibrate with the pulsative expansion and contraction of
the tubes. Pirsson's method consists in making one tube head independent
of the outer casing, and thus permitting it to vibrate. By Sewell's Invention
an india-rubber ferrule is placed around each tube, the whole number being
pressed upon by a single plate of the same dimensions as the tube plate, thus
permitting each tube to expand and contract independently of the others
through what is really a stuffing box, as in Hall's arrangement.
The present. Invention has reference to this question of the expansion and
contraction of the tubes, and realizes the advantages of the independent stuffing-
box system without its first great cost or its complex details, which add so
materially to the labour of attendance and repair. Experiments and general
observations in hydraulics have shown that the flow of water through pipes
is directly as the area of the pipe, multiplied into the square root of the
pressure, and inversely as the wetted perimeter multiplied into the length of
the pipe.
Now if a simple round hole be drilled through a plate and a tube be inserted
which is of the precise diameter required to permit of its easy movement,

page_text: there will practically be a small space around the outside of the tube within
the hole. The area of this space will, however, be very small compared to:
the surface forming the wetted perimeter'; a thickness of plate and consequent
length of crescent-shaped pipe may be conceived which will give a coefficient
of friction equal to the area multiplied into the pressure, and there would
consequently be no flow of water whatever, that is to say, no leakage. If,
now we conceive this hole through the plate to be reamed with the care
usually bestowed upon such work in a steam-engine establishment, and the
tube expanded lightly within it by a cylindrical expander, we can readily see
that with the present perfection of such workmanship the tube plate would
not require to be inconveniently thick to give friction enough, compared with
the area of the space remaining between the tube and the interior of the hole,
to prevent any flow of water and consequent leakage. In the experimental
condenser which was made upon this plan the tube plate was made one and a
half inch thick for five-eighths of an inch tubes, and it was found quite suf-
ficient. This has therefore been adopted in practice, but it is obvious that every
person can use his own judgment with regard to the exact thickness which
would be required in any given case by keeping in view the considerations
herein-before given.
In the accompanying Drawing, Figs. 1, 2, and 3 represent sections through
a condenser made upon the plan showing the tubes longitudinally; and
Figs. 4, 5, and 6 shew a section through such a condenser, exhibiting the tubes
transversely; the different Figures illustrating the different manners in which
it is proposed to embody the Invention.
The tubes may be fitted at each end in the manner already explained, as
shewn in Fig. 1, or they may be secured at one end, as shown in Figs. 2
and 3, or in any of the well-known methods for making a fixed joint between
a tube and the tube plate, such as expanding them as at b, Fig. 2, in the
accompanying Drawing, or they may be screwed in, as at c, Fig. 3. This
last method is the preferable one.
Among the advantages growing out of this method of securing the tubes
may be enumerated cheapness, simplicity, and little liability to derangement.
I do not, however, wish to be understood as claiming a water or air tight slip
joint made by merely extending the length of the joint irrespective of its
application for the improvement of any manufacture, except when this prin-
ciple is applied to the construction of surface condensers, that is to say, I
claim as the Invention secured to me by Letters Patent as aforesaid, making
the tube plate of a surface condenser so thick that a water-tight slip joint
can be made around the tubes by a simple parallel expansion of them in

page_text: the plate, and without the aid of stuffing boxes or other similar devices, as
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.S.)