A METHOD OF ASCERTAINING OR INDICATING AND REGULATING THE HEIGHT OF WATER IN STEAM BOILERS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "A METHOD
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald Brooman
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd October 1855.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"A METHOD OF ASCERTAINING OR INDICATING AND REGULATING THE HEIGHT OF
WATER IN STEAM BOILERS," (communicated to me by a foreigner residing
abroad,) to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in adapting inside of a boiler, or in suitable con-
nection therewith, a hollow vessel or apparatus, in communication at bottom
with the water and at top with the steam in the boiler. The vessel is also
placed in communication with external signals, or with signals and apparatus.
whereby pumps may be set going and stopped for the purposes herein-after
explained. The vessel must be fixed in such manner that the level of the

page_text: water therein when full shall be on a line with or below that in the boiler, and
when such is the case no action takes place; but as soon as the water in the
boiler sinks below the level of that in the vessel, steam is generated or flows
therein, and affords a power for working any suitable external signals, and, if
desired, for putting pumps in gear to supply the deficiency in the boilers, and
for stopping them on the proper level being attained. It is important that
the supplementary vessel or apparatus be so placed with respect to the boiler,
that steam may be generated or admitted and condensed therein or expelled
therefrom by the action of the steam and water in the boiler.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 27th March 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, 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 A METHOD OF ASCERTAINING OR INDICATING AND REGULATING THE HEIGHT OF
WATER IN STEAM BOILERS," cominunicated to me by a foreigner residing
abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, 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, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say:-
This Invention consists in adapting inside of a boiler, or in suitable con-
nection therewith, a hollow vessel or apparatus, in communication at bottom
with the water and at top with the steam in the boiler. The vessel is also
placed in communication with external signals, or with signals and apparatus,
whereby pumps may be set going and stopped for the purposes herein-after
explained. The vessel must be fixed in such manner that the level of the
water therein when full shall be on a line with or below that in the boiler, and
when such is the case no action takes place; but as soon as the water in the
boiler sinks below the level of that in the vessel, steam is generated or flows
therein, and affords a power for working any suitable external signals, and, if
desired, for putting pumps in gear to supply the deficiency in the boiler, and
for stopping them on the proper level being attained. It is important that the
supplementary vessel or apparatus be so placed with respect to the boiler, that
steam may be generated or admitted and condensed therein or expelled there-
from by the action of the steam and water in the boiler.
In the accompanying Drawings, the apparatus is shewn as attached
externally to a boiler, of which a portion of the shell is seen at A, being the
proper water level. B is a shallow disc-shaped vessel, supported at the side of
the boiler so as to be in a horizontal position; it is made steam-tight and
water-tight. From its lower side a pipe c extends, terminating in the boiler
below the water level, while another pipe d extends from the top, and enters
the boiler above the said level, as shewn. Within B is a coil of pipe C, as
represented in the top view, Figure 2, one end of which passes out through a
tight joint in the edge, as at e, while the opposite end frises from the centre
and passes through the top in a similar tight joint. The manner of operating
will now be made apparent, by shewing how a force may be generated within
C by the different circumstances of water level in the boiler, whereby sensible
external indication or effect may be produced in accordance with those cir-
cumstances. Suppose the coil C be filled with water, and both the ends e and
f stopped up, and the water in the boiler is at b, then will the chamber B be
also filled with water, as the latter will find its level therein from the boiler.
The coil C being then immersed, no action will take place so long as that
level is maintained. It is now allowed to descend, as, say, to 6', the water in
B will flow out through c, and steam will enter instead through d, when the

page_text: temperature of the water in C will be immediately raised, and it will be con-
verted in whole or in part into steam, and of course exert a pressure tending
to burst the same. It will now be seen that the force thus obtained can be
employed in various ways as a signal; as, for instance, if the end e should
terminate in a syphon containing mercury, it would be pressed down in one
leg and elevated in the other, at once affording an indication in a manner well
known. Or a bell, steam whistle, or other approved signal may be started into
action. The feed pump also may not only be started but stopped by the
operation of this instrument, for which several devices may be employed to
receive the force derived from the generation of the steam therein.
As an
illustration, suppose in the end of the tube e there were a piston fitted, the
pressure of the steam would drive this forward, and of course the rod attached
to it could be made to move the necessary parts for throwing the pump into
gear; the water will now rise in the boiler, and the chamber or vessel B be
once more filled as before. As soon as this takes place, the steam in C is con-
densed because of the lower temperature of the water, and a vacuum is thereby
formed, by which means the piston in e is driven back, and in doing so
uncouples the pump gear, and arrests the feed until it is required again, and so
on. It must not be understood that the Invention is limited to the form
herein described; the coil of pipe and form of the chamber B being one of
convenience, other shapes and forms may with advantage be employed; the
main point being, that the part C of whatever form or size be so placed with
respect to the boiler, that steam may both be raised and condensed therein by
the action of the steam and water of the boiler, substantially as described.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, as constituting the
said Invention, the method of ascertaining or indicating and regulating the
height of water in steam boilers, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of March, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.