IMPROVEMENTS IN MARINE STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Tomlinson Bousfield, of Loughborough Park,
Brixton, in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MARINE STEAM ENGINES."-A communication from Daniel Barnum, of
AL
Sealed the 20th August 1858, and dated the 11th June 1858.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said George Tomlinson Bousfield
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 11th June 1858, pursuant to the 9th Section of the
Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Loughborough Park, Brixton, in the County of
.Surrey, do hereby declare that the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MARINE STEAM ENGINES," (communicated to me by Daniel Barnum, of Jersey
City, County of Hudson, and State of New Jersey,) and in what manner-the
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
The Drawing represents a vertical section through the condenser,.channel
way, air pump, and hot well of a marine steam engine, and their usual.
accessories, and also a vertical section through the improvements in combina-.
tion therewith.
In condensing marine engines; as ordinarily used or constructed, and
by marine engines, I mean all such engines applied to the propulsion of vessels,

page_text: there are usually in connection with the condenser one or more pipes which
connect the interior of the condenser with the water outside of the ship, and
supply through their bore the injection water necessary for the condensation of
the steam which passes through the cylinder, and these pipes are furnished
with proper valve for regulating or entirely stopping the flow of water through
them. The water rushing through such pipes is used for condensation under
ordinary circumstances, but as vessels, from accident, severe straining, or age,
often leak more than their ordinary bilge pumps can remove, or ship seas, or
in other ways become incumbered with water which it is necessary to remove
promptly; these have been and are usually attached to marine engines one or
more pipes connecting the interior of the ship with the interior of the con-
denser. These pipes are provided with proper valves for checking or
controlling the flow of water through them, and when such valves are open
permit water that may have accumulated in the ship to be forced into the
condenser, there being a vacuum or partial vacuum in the condenser, and the
atmospheric pressure upon the water in the ship's hold. Such pipes are
usually termed bilge injections, and are used either in conjunction with the
ordinary injections or alone, as circumstances may require; the latter practice
being the proper one when so much water has accumulated in the hold that
the ends of the bilge pipes are continually under water. The use of these
injections is attended with several inconveniences.
First, they must be used in connection with the ordinary injection pipes,
(unless their ends are always under water,) and in such event they require
constant attention to their valves to prevent air entering into the condenser,
and cannot at any moment be permitted to deliver the whole quantity of
water which could be removed by the air pump.
Second, when their ends are constantly under water, and these pipes are
therefore used alone (the outboard injections being shut off), they can be
permitted to deliver into the condenser only a little more water than is
absolutely necessary for condensation, for the reason that too great a flow
chokes up the necessary space in the condenser, while the mechanically mixed
air entering with the water impairs the vacuum, and these bilge injections are
objectionable.
Thirdly, for the reason that all the coal, dirt, chips, and other accumulations
in the bottom of the ship must be kept out by a strainer or else enter the
.pipes. If strainers are employed there is danger of their stopping up when
so far under water that they cannot be cleared, if none are used these solid
accumulations must pass through the foot and butterfly valves, and generally
tend to impede and sometimes entirely stop their operation. In spite of these

page_text: objections bilge injections are in almost universal use, the demerits being more
than balanced by their utility, and this Invention remedies all their defects..
The nature of the Invention consists in combining with an ordinary air
pump a pipe leading from a point therein substantially such as is specified and
prolonged to some point near the bottom of the vessel substantially as herein-
after set forth, such pipe being provided with a proper valve or valves, and
the whole being for the purpose and acting substantially as herein-after
specified.
In the Drawings a is a condenser of any ordinary kind provided with an
ordinary injection pipe b, which may be led through the planking of the ship
at any convenient point. This condenser has a channel way c provided with
foot valves d, d, in connection with which is an air pump e, provided with a
piston or bucket f, having in it a proper seat and valve 9, 9; and this pump
is in connection with a hot well h, proper delivery doors j, j, being applied
between the two. This hot well is in connection with the outside of the ship
by a pipe k, commonly known as a discharge pipe, through which the air,
water, and vapor delivered by the air pump pass overboard.
These parts are drawn as now used in some constructions, but are meant by
me to serve as a type of all constructions as the kinds of valves, pumps, con-
denser, or buckets, or the position, relative or actual, of the parts have nothing
to do with the Invention, which is applicable to various ordinary constructions
of these parts or their equivalents. At or near the top of the pump a hole is
made in it, and this hole connects with a pipe 7 properly attached, and leading
to some convenient point at the bottom of the vessel or nearly so, the pipe
making a direct communication between the cavity of the hold and the air
pump. This pipe is in the present instance provided with three valves, one
only being absolutely necessary. These valves are lettered o, p, and g, the
former being what is technically termed a stop valve, and the other ball valves,
but any kind of stop valve may be substituted for that represented, or any
kind of valves that will open towards the air pump and shut at proper times
may be used in place of the ball valves. Now, in the ordinary action of the
engine the stop valve is kept shut, and it needs no explanation to shew that
the air pump will then act just as if neither pipe nor valves were there.
But when water accumulates in the bottom of the vessel the stop valve is to be
opened, the air-pump bucket then, after delivering the water above it, descends,
forming a vacuum or partial vacuum in the pump above the bucket; water
will then rise through the pipe, lifting the two ball valves and enter the pump,
and will continue to enter and fill the vacuum or empty spaces as fast as the
bucket descends, until the piston has compressed the vapor and air underneath

page_text: it to a pressure a little greater than that of the atmosphere, when the valve in
the bucket of the air pump will open, and the pump being filled the flow of
water through the pipe will cease, and the ball valves will fall and the piston
will descend below the condensing water drawn from the condenser, on its
preceding upward stoke completing its downward stroke, and when it again
ascends it will deliver all the water above it, both that received from the pipe
and that from the condenser into the hot well, and at the same time draw the
water and air from the condenser in the usual way, and in descending again will
leave a vacuum, as before, above the bucket, causing the water to flow from
the hold through the pipe, and fill the pump,.when the ball valves will again
fall and the pistons will complete its downward stroke by passing below the
water in the pump and channel way previously drawn from the condenser. It
will thus be seen that the pump fulfils its first office of an air-pump, and after
that is lone it performs the further office of a water-pump to nearly its full
capacity to free the hold of a ship when leaking at sea, and. this it does
without impairing the vacuum in the condenser, or without loss of power.
Now, it will be perceived as resulting from this combination that the air
mechanically mixed with the bilge water does not enter the condensor, neither
does the rubbish accompanying that water, so that the vacuum is not in any way
impaired and the foot valves are not liable to be choked. Secondly, that even
if the bottom of the pipe be uncovered by water for a longer or shorter time,
permitting air instead of water to pass through it, that even this would not
injure the vacuum in the condenser. Third, that there may be delivered
through the pipe a quantity of water much larger than is absolutely necessary
for condensation, and I intend to use this combination in conjunction with an
ordinary bilge injection, so that water sufficient for condensation may be
furnished by the latter when its end is wholly immersed, and then I can run
the engine with a certainty of unimpaired vacuum, and with the effect of
throwing out of the bilge or hold of the vessel the greatest quantity of water that
the engine is capable of delivering with a given capacity of air-pump. All these
improved results flow from connecting an independent suction pipe from the
hold of the ship directly with, the air-pump. The precise point of connection
of this pipe may be varied without varying the result or departing from the
principles of the Invention.; for instance, it may be connected at a point below
the highest position of the piston, so that the piston shall pass over its orifice
as it moves back and forth, but in such event care must be taken so to place it
that the air-pump bucket will move far enough to free the condensor properly
at each stoke before it can take any suction through the pipe connected with
the hold of tho.vessel, the object being that the pump shall at all events perform

page_text: its usual duty of freeing the condenser, and when that is done, act to the
extent of its remaining capacity as a bilge pump. I have said, that only one
valve in the pipe is absolutely necessary, and proceed to explain the reasons:
The stop valve is to prevent unnecessary action of the apparatus, the upper
ball valve to prevent the water from being driven back into the hold, and the
lower ball valve to act. in place of the upper, if rubbish should for a time
prevent it from-seating itself, and to serve as a foot valve to keep the pipe
charged with water, and this is the best arrangement that I know of; but the
apparatus will work nearly or quite as well with one valve only opening towards
the air-pump, and located in any part of the pipe; such a valve should be
fitted with a screw or some equivalent, for the purpose of holding it upon the
seat when the apparatus is not in use, and by relieving it from the pressure of
this screw, the apparatus would be put in ordinary working order. A self-
adjusting pressure upon this valve may be arranged to be operated by a float
at the bottom of the hold, so that the accumulation of water in the hold will
raise the float and relieve the pressure on the valve, and it would then act
as a bilge pump at all times, and keep the hold of a ship always free from
water.
:
When the Invention is applied in engines provided with solid piston air-
pumps, either single or double acting, the best plan to connect the pipe to the
pump is, at about the middle of the length of the pump cylinder, in double
acting pumps, and in single acting pumps at about six-tenths of the length of
the stoke, measuring from that end connected with the condenser. In the
former case the pump will supply itself with air, vapor, and water from the
condensor, until the piston passes over the pipe's mouth, water from the hold
will then rush in, and fill not only the rest of the capacity of the pump, but
also the additional space obtained by condensation of the vapour in the pump
and compression of the contained air to that of the atmosphere, or nearly so.
When the piston arrives at the end of the cylinder the valve or valves in the
pipe will fall, and as the piston returns it will discharge all the contents of the
cylinder, at the same time drawing from the condensor air, vapor, and water,
until it again passes the mouth of the pipe, when the pump will again take
suction from the hold.
The same effect will take place in the single-acting solid piston pump, but it
will take water from the condenser or hold when the piston is travelling in
one direction only, and will discharge its contents only when travelling in the
opposite direction. The Invention attains the best results when applied to
engines baving single-acting pumps with buckets or pistons having valves in
them; such as are ordinarily used in marine engines applied to paddle-wheels,

page_text: as this pump, even when the pipe is supplying water from the hold, affords its
whole capacity to the clearing of the condenser in the same manner and to the
same extent as if it were acting as it usually does, and drawing no water at all
from the hold of the vessel; but although this is the best way of using the
Invention, other ways in which it is applied in connection with solid piston air-
pumps are highly useful; I therefore wish it distinctly understood, that the
Invention of combining an independent suction pipe with an air-pump in
addition to the ordinary connection with the condenser, is a combination with
any and all kinds of marine or condensing engine air-pumps, and is not limited
to the precise kind of pump shown in the Drawing.
What I claim as the Invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is,
combining with an air-pump of a marine or condensing steam engine, whether
single or double acting, or having a solid piston, a bucket with a valve, an
independent or separate suction pipe connecting the hold of a vessel or other
place from whence the water is required to be taken with the air-pump
directly and not through, the channel-way or condenser, such pipes being
connected, and the combination being substantially as herein-before set
forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of June, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
W. S. HARRISON,
New Court,
St. Swithin's Lane.
GEO. T. BOUSFIELD. (L.S.)