IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM GENERATORS
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Newton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 27th
December 1861.-A communication from abroad by Rafael Rafael, of
the City of New York, United States of America.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM GENERATORS," to be as
follows:
:
This improved steam generator is constructed on the principle of injecting a
small quantity of water on to a heated metallic surface, thereby flashing it
into steam.
The principles upon which it operates will be understood by the following
explanation:-The first thing to be accomplished is the almost instantaneous
evaporation of the water injected at every stroke of the piston avoiding the
sudden pressure which is created when there is too great a difference between
the temperature of the water thus injected and that of the surfaces against
which it impinges, and which is particularly dangerous when the capacity of
the vessel is very small. But if the water on entering the vessel comes in
contact with surfaces of a temperature comparatively low, and thus has its
own temperature gradually raised by contact with these surfaces until it comes
in contact with those that are hottest, it will already be in the form of very
hot steam. In order to relieve the generator, and to prevent the accumulation
in it of very great pressure, the communication with the engine cylinder is
opened at the moment of injecting the water, and thus the pressure is exerted

page_text: against the piston of the engine. Suppose the generator to consist of the
ordinary spiral coil placed vertically upon the furnace. The lower turn will
be the hottest, and every succeeding one will have less temperature as they
recede from the fire, the difference being very considerable between the lowest
and the highest turns. Indeed, this difference in the temperature of the
different turns of the coil may be regulated at pleasure, by giving them any
desired distance between each other. Now, instead of injecting the water in
the lowest part of it, which is the hottest, and causing the steam to ascend and
issue from the apparatus through the highest part of it, which is the coldest,
the water is to be injected in the highest part, which being heated to a
moderate degree is most favourable for its rapid evaporation and conversion
into steam; it is caused to descend towards the furnace, and come successively
in contact with surfaces heated to higher temperatures each higher than the
previous one, thus gradually superheating itself in its passage downwards, until
at the moment of issuing from the apparatus through the opening at the lowest
part of it it has acquired the highest possible degree of heat. As the com-
munication between the generator and the cylinder of the engine opens at the
moment of the injection of the water into the generator, the steam formed
would lose a great part of its temperature, and therefore of its elastic force
by the expansion thus suddenly opened to it if this loss of temperature were
not made good by the superheating above described, it being impossible for
any particle of the steam generated to enter into the cylinder of the engine
without sweeping the whole superheating distance before described. The
downward current of the steam prevents the deposit of any sediment and the
formation of incrustations. Substances held in solution in the water when
separated from it by its evaporation in ordinary boilers descend, by their own
gravity, and accumulate mostly. in the lowest part of the boiler or steam
generator. But in the improved generator the rapid downward current of the
steam coinciding with the natural tendency of the particles that would form a
deposit prevent by necessity. its formation.. The water when injected is divided
into minute particles, each one of which by falling upon a distinct portion of
the heated metallic surface is acted upon by the heat contained in it, and con-
verted speedily into steam. To accomplish this, the water enters a long
metallic tube of small diameter almost closed at the end, and which for the
length of about 12 or 14 inches, according to the size of the generator,
is perforated with very small holes placed at some distance apart from each
other. This tube is introduced into a larger tube, forming the upper end
of the generator, leaving an annular space between the outside of the
inner tube and the inside of the outer tube. At the mouth of the outer

page_text: tube this space is closed, so as to make it steam-tight, and then the inner tube
is connected with the feed pump. The length of the stroke of this pump being
regulated so that the required quantity of water will be thrown in at every
stroke and no more, and the generator being brought to a convenient degree
of heat, the pump is put in operation, forcing the required quantity of water
up the inner tube, and through the small apertures before mentioned, forcing
it in drops or very thin jets on the inner surface of the outer tube.
The essential features of novelty in the present Invention are, first, the
gradual heating of the water by causing it to come successively in contact
with metallic surfaces heated to different degrees of temperature, each
succeeding one that the water comes in contact with being hotter than the
one which it has just left, thus causing a gradual and easy change, and at
the same time a rapid one from cold water to highly superheated steam, for
the purposes above set forth, whether the surfaces so heated at different
degrees are continuous, as in a spiral or in any other form.
2nd, the imparting of an inverted or downward current to the water and
steam, whereby their gradual heating is accomplished in a more easy, natural,
and perfect manner, and all sediments are carried away, so that the apparatus
when in the form of a spiral coil is kept clean and free from incrustations.
3rd, the introduction of the water into the apparatus, whether in a spiral or
any other form, at a point at or near the top, and the issue of the steam from
it at a point at or near the bottom, whether the apparatus contains or not any
chest or reservoir for steam, for the purposes before set forth.
4th, the use of a rectilinear form of the circuits, for the purposes before
described.
5th, the use of small perforated tubes enclosed concentrically within other
tubes, or enclosed between the plates of the circuit.
6th, the attachment of the generator to air or other thermo-dynamic
engines, for the purpose of increasing their power.
7th, the introduction of steam as an auxiliary power into caloric or air
engines, when the steam is produced or in any manner acted upon by the
same fire of the engines.