TOOLS AND APPARATUS FOR CLEANING THE INTERIOR OF STEAM BOILERS AND OTHER TUBULAR STRUCTURES
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Jefferies and Charles Thomson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 31st July 1883.
JOHN JEFFERIES of Luddesdown Gravesend in the County of Kent and CHARLES
"IMPROVEMENTS IN
THOMSON of Kings Road Peckham in the County of Surrey.
TOOLS AND APPARATUS FOR CLEANING THE INTERIOR OF STEAM BOILERS AND
OTHER TUBULAR STRUCTURES
"
This invention has for its object improvements in tools and apparatus for cleaning
the interior of steam boilers and other tubular structures.
For the purpose of cleaning the surfaces of the tube plates between the tubes
tools with serrated teeth are employed, these tools are made of different lengths
and with the longest, the lowest part of the tube plate can conveniently be reached.
The stem of the tool is by preference oval in section and it is able to pass freely
between the tubes. The end is bent round to form the head of the tool and the
serrations which serve as teeth are formed in it. Or the tools may be made with
double or T heads having teeth on either side. The teeth should be about an
eighth of an inch wide with intervals of the same width. In the double tool the
teeth on one side of the head should correspond to the intervals on the other side.
These tools are used in connection with a fulcrum consisting of a bar laid upon
the top of the tubes in the boiler at a convenient distance back from the face of
the tube plate. The fulcrum bar is secured to the tubes by clamps of a tee form;
the head of the clamp is entered between the tubes and turned ono quarter round
and its stem which passes through the fulcrum bar has a nut serving to tighten the
clamp upon the tubes. A key or wedge may be substituted for the nut.
For cleaning in between the tubes spring scrapers are used, they are of a fork
like form and the two prongs are at a distance apart about equal to the interval
between the tubes where they approach each other most closely. Each limb or
prong of the scraper is armed with teeth like those of the scraper previously
described. The spring-fork like scraper is employed especially to prepare the way
for another tool by which a further cleaning of the tubes is effected. This tool
consists of a stem which at its end has a cutter formed of steel. The cutter is of a
cross like form and corresponds to the interval between four adjacent tubes. The
cutter which is serrated on its edges fits the spaces between the tubes easily when

page_text: the tubes are clean. The stem of the tool receives a flanged collar upon it intended to
rest upon the tubes of the upper row and a pin passed through the stem above the
collar holds the tool in position with its cutter in the interval from which the scale
has to be removed. The cleaning is effected by turning the tool round by a lever
applied at its upper end or in the event of the deposit being slight or of a soft
nature the same tool may be used by driving it from one end of a row of tubes
to the other end. There are several holes in the stem of the tool so that the
cutter of the tool may be moved from one row of tubes to another row as the work
progresses.
The tools also are made of several lengths.
The forward movement of the tool may be caused to take place automatically
if desired by means of a scrow and nut. When the stem of the tool is turned
round by the operator as already described the nut by suitable gear takes a slow
movement from it which causes the nut to traverse along the screw which is
stationary and the nut in its movement carries. the tool-along with it.
To clear the scale from the face of the tube plates beneath the tubes where it
cannot be reached by the tools first described we employ tools like those used for
cleaning the intervals between the tubes or the same cross shaped tool which is
used for cleaning the space between the tubes may be fitted with steel spikes or
points on their faces and with hammer like strikers jointed to them. The tool is
brought into contact with the scale on the face of the tube plate and then the
striker being raised and allowed to fall so as to strike the head of the tool the
spikes or points are driven against the scale and chisels. it off.
To remove the scale from the under side of the curved fire box or from any
confined space difficult to be got at we employ a tool somewhat similar to that
first described but to serve the purpose of the fulcrum bar tlie stem of the tool is
bont or formed so that it may take a bearing upon the outer shell or other convenient
part of the boiler as requisite which whilst the tool is driven forward serves as a
fulcrum to keep the teeth of the tool_up to_the_surface-from-which-the-scale-is-to
-be removed.