Improvements in the Arrangement of Stations for the Generation of Electricity.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 2nd June, 1893
Complete Specification Left, 28th Feb., 1894-Accepted, 19th May, 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Arrangement of Stations for the Generation of
Electricity.
I, The Honourable CHARLES ALGERNON PARSONS, of Heaton Works,
Newcastle-on-Tyne, in the County of Durham, Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to the arrangement of stations for the generation of
electricity, and its object is to so improve the said arrangement as to enable the
efficiency of the station as to fuel consumption and output of electricity to be
maintained at or near the maximum notwithstanding great variations in the
output.
It is a matter of common experience in all stations for the generation of electricity
that the consumption of fuel greatly exceeds the theoretical quantity to be expected
from the efficiencies of the engines and boilers.
This discrepancy arises chiefly from the following causes :-
The machinery is working at reduced output for the greater portion of the time
it is in action and the losses by radiation of heat, leakages of steam and other
causes which at full load are small become under light loads relatively large.
Another loss is present when superheaters and economisers are used and it is due
to the fact that at light loads radiation from the flues built on the ordinary system
is considerable, and the unavoidable ingress of cold air from the plants not in use
at the time absorbs the small excess of heat remaining in the products of
combustion and thus often preventing superheating and reducing the efficiencies of
the economisers.
The present invention consists in a new system of arranging the plant whereby
it is divided into distinct and complete units, each unit comprising boiler, engine,
dynamo, and other appliances required to produce electricity economically. Each
boiler, engine, dynamo or other appliance of a unit is also complete in itself and is
so arranged as to pipe and other connections that any constituent part such as a
boiler, engine, dynamo may be applied to work or operate with any suitable part of
another unit.
When superheaters are used I place one superheater close to each boiler so as to
minimize loss of heat between the boiler and superheater, and I sometimes also
subdivide the economiser and place a section of it close to each boiler each section
being suitably controlled by valves on the feed pipes.
The connecting steam pipes I may arrange on any well known system, but I
prefer the following plan:-On each boiler I place the usual steam pipe mounting
as close as possible to the superheater, and I place the steam engine as close as is
admissible to the superheater. 1 connect boiler, superheater and engine by a pipe
and valves of sufficient area to serve one plant only. When the engines are
condensing engines, a condenser suitable to one unit plant goes with each set, a pipe
with connections to each exhaust cross connects the exhaust pipes in case of
emergency when one plant is required to run on another unit's condenser, or two
engines on one condenser and so forth.
In order to enable any engine on the station to be worked from any boiler of
another unit, a connecting pipe of sufficient area to serve one, two, or more plants
is connected to each steam system by suitable valves opening into each. These
connecting valves preferably connect to the supply pipes at some convenient
point between the superheater and engines, but the position may be modified
according to the peculiarities and circumstances of any particular station.
The

page_text: connecting valves are of area sufficient to serve one plant only. In the case of the
plant being divided into sectional parts of different sizes, which division is
sometimes preferable to division into equal unit plants, I modify the proportions
of the parts, pipes, valves, heaters etc. accordingly, arranging the station as herein-
before described but modifying the proportions in a manner well understood by
engineers.
Forced or induced blast may be applied to the units or sections arranged
according to my system.
Separate fires may be used to increase the heating of the feed water or the
superheating one fire may be used for more than one heater, suitable flues being
provided, or one fire may be applied to each heater.
I sometimes adopt an arrangement of dampers so placed as to allow the hot gases
from the boiler furnace to pass directly to the superheater without having
previously passed through the full extent of the boiler flues. By such dampers the
heat reaching the superheater or the feed heater can be controlled so that under
the varying rates of output of the plant the desired degree of superheating can be
obtained. In a Lancashire boiler these bye pass dampers may be placed at the
end of the boiler flues so that the flame may pass to the superheater after having
passed the length of the boiler once only instead of as usual three times.
A similar arrangement may be applied to any boiler.
One or more separate fires may be employed as hereinbefore described either in
conjunction with or separate from the products of combustion to supply heaters or
superheaters separate from or combined with any plant.
Steam turbines may be adopted as the power engines in such stations, as their
small bulk is advantageous in a station arranged as hereinbefore described.
Dated this 1st day of June 1893.
MARKS & CLERK,
13, Temple Street, Birmingham, Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Arrangement of Stations for the Generation of
Electricity.
I, The Honourable CHARLES ALGERNON PARSONS, of Heaton Works,
Newcastle-on-Tyne, in the County of Durham, Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
My invention relates to the arrangement of stations for the generation of
electricity, and its object is to so improve the said arrangement as to enable the
efficiency of the station as to fuel consumption and output of electricity to be
maintained at, or near the maximum, notwithstanding great variations in the
output.
It is a matter of common experience in all stations for the generation of
electricity, that the consumption of fuel greatly exceeds the theoretical quantity to
be expected from the efficiencies of the engines and boilers.
This discrepancy arises chiefly from the following causes :-
The machinery is working at reduced output for the greater portion of the time
it is in action and the losses by radiation of heat, leakages of steam and other
causes which at full load are small, become, under light loads, relatively large.
Another loss is present when superheaters and economisers are used, and it is due
to the fact that at light loads radiation from the flues built on the ordinary system
is considerable, and the unavoidable ingress of cold air from the plants not in use
at the time, absorbs the small excess of heat remaining in the products of
combustion, and thus often preventing superheating and reducing the efficiencies of
the economisers.

page_text: ૧
1
The present invention consists in a new system of arranging the plant whereby
it is divided into distinct and complete units, each unit comprising boiler, engine,
dynamo, and other appliances required to produce electricity economically. Each
boiler, engine, dynamo, or other appliance of a unit is also complete in itself and is
50 arranged as to pipe and other connections that any constituent part such as a
boiler, engine or dynamo, may be applied to work or operate with any suitable part
of another unit.
When superheaters are used I place one superheater close to each boiler, so as
to minimise loss of heat between the boiler aud superheater, and I sometimes also
subdivide the economiser and place a section of it close to each boiler, each section
being suitably controlled by valves on the feed pipes.
The connecting steam pipes I may arrange on any well known system, but I
prefer the following plan:-On each boiler I place the usual steam pipe mounting
as close as possible to the superheater, and I place the steam engine as close as is
admissible to the superheater. I connect boiler, superheater and engine by a pipe
and valves of sufficient area to serve one plant only. When the engines are
condensing engines, a condenser suitable to one unit plant goes with each set, a
pipe with connections to each exhaust cross connects the exhaust pipes in case of
emergency when one plant is required to run on another unit's condenser, or two
engines on one condenser and so forth.
In order to enable any engine on the station to be worked from any boiler of
another unit, a connecting pipe of sufficient area to serve one, two, or more plants
is connected to each steam system by suitable valves opening into each. These
connecting valves preferably connect to the supply pipes at some convenient point
between the superheater and engines, but the position may be modified according to
the peculiarities and circumstances of any particular station. The connecting
valves are of area sufficient to serve one plant only. In the case of the plant
being divided into sectional parts of different sizes, which division is sometimes
preferable to division into equal unit plants, I modify the proportions of the parts,
pipes, valves, heaters etc. accordingly, arranging the station as hereinbefore
described, but modifying the proportions in a manner well understood by
engineers.
Forced or induced blast may be applied to the units or sections arranged
according to my system.
Separate fires may be used to increase the heating of the feed water or the
superheating; one fire may be used for more than one heater, suitable flues being
provided, or one fire may be applied to each heater.
I sometimes adopt an arrangement of dampers so placed as to allow the hot
gases from the boiler furnace to pass directly to the superheater without having
previously passed through the full extent of the boiler flues. By such dampers
the heat reaching the superheater or the feed heater can be controlled so that under
the varying rates of output of the plant the desired degree of superheating can be
obtained. In a Lancashire boiler these bye pass dampers may be placed at the
end of the boiler flues so that the flame may pass to the superheater after baving
passed the length of the boiler once only instead of as usual three times.
A similar arrangement may be applied to any boiler.
One or more separate fires may be employed as hereinbefore described either in
conjunction with or separate from the products of combustion, to supply heaters or
superheaters separate from or combined with any plant.
Steam turbines may be adopted as the power engines in such stations as their
small bulk is advantageous in a station arranged as herein before described.
Referring to the three accompanying sheets of drawings which show a generating
station arranged in accordance with my invention―
and
Figure 1 is a vertical section through such a station.
Figure 2 is a plan of the boiler room of the station corresponding to Figure 1,
.
Figure 3 is a plan of the engine room of the station.

page_text: The plant of the station is in this instance composed of three units; each unit
comprising a steam boiler; a superheater; an economiser; an air pump and
condenser; a steam turbine and dynamo.
In the arrangement shown, the turbines, dynamos and air pump engines are
mounted upon the first floor of the building above the boiler room, but they might
of course be arranged on the ground floor. The three boilers are marked
respectively AA'A'; the three superheaters B B¹B; the three economisers CC¹C';
the three air pumps and condensers F F' F', and the three steam turbines M M' M².
The steam engines for actuating the air pumps are marked F3 F* F³.
The steam from the boiler A passes by way of the stop valve a to the steam
pipe b whence it enters the superheater B and then passes to the pipe ³ which
pipe supplies the first steam turbine M. In the same way the boiler A¹ supplies
the second turbine M' by way of the stop valve a', pipe b', superheater B₁ and
pipe b; the stop valve a pipe 62, superheater B² and pipe similarly supply the
third turbine M from the boiler A². A cross pipe connects the pipes 636 and b
and stop valves are placed at the points of junction of this pipe with the said three
steam pipes 66 and 6; stop valves are also placed at the points of junction of
the three pipes with the superheaters. The object of the cross pipe b is to
allow any one of the three turbines or engines M M' M³ to be connected through
any one of the superheaters B B' B' with any one of the boilers A A¹ A. By so
connecting ample provision is made against breakdown of any part of the plant.
The steam after acting in each turbine passes to the three condensers F F F³, one
condenser serving for one turbine, but here also provision is made against possible
accident by coupling the three condensers together by a pipe G and suitable stop
valves so arranged as to allow any condenser F F¹ or F2 to be connected up to
work in conjunction with any turbine M M' M'.
The steam pipe connections to the three engines actuating the air pumps are
similarly arranged. The boiler feed pumps are shown at H H and they are
arranged to pump cold feed water or water from the hot well into the pipe N;
from the pipe N the feed water passes through the feed water heater K into the pipe D
flowing in the direction shown by the arrows. From the pipe D the water enters
the economisers C C₁ C' by suitable branches controlled by stop valves and passes
through the said economisers by other branches into the pipe E along which it
flows in the direction of the arrows to a pipe O connected to the boilers along the
boiler fronts by stop and back pressure valves. The boilers A A' A³ are thus fed
with hot water from the economisers as desired by means of the stop valves which
open into the said pipe O.
One of the boiler front feed valves is shown at Q Figure 1.
Suitable stop valves are provided to enable any one economiser to be cut out of
the system and yet to allow of all or any of the boilers to be fed with water from
the others.
The pipe E readily permits of this.
Stop valve arrangements are also made to allow water to be pumped through
the heater K and into the pipes E and O without passing through the economisers
at all.
Valve arrangements are also made to allow the feed pumps H H' to force water
into the pipe P and thence to P' along the boiler fronts and the pipe P' is also
connected to each boiler by stop and check valves so that each boiler has two stop
and check valves from which it can be supplied independently.
A bye pass pipe L and pipe I are also provided to allow water to be pumped
into the pipes D or E without passing through the heater K and so provision is
made to prevent interference with the operation of the plant when it is desired to
clean the heater K.
The superheaters and economisers are placed in a chamber into which lead the
boiler flues in the usual manner and dampers are arranged to enable any particular
set to be isolated from the others.
The whole arrangements are made as hereinbefore described to enable any part

page_text: or portion of each unit of the plant to work in combination with any required part
or portion of another.
It is to be distinctly understood that although I have described a steam turbine
as my main engine, yet other types of steam engines may be employed without
departing from my invention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The arrangement of the plant of a station for the generation of electricity in
such manner as to divide it into distinct and complete units, of which each unit
contains in itself all the machinery and appliances necessary, substantially as
hereinbefore described.
2. In an electric generating station consisting of several unit plants as claimed
in the preceding claim, the method of connecting together by suitable cross pipes
and valves the portions forming each unit plant so that any portion such as the
boiler, superheater, economiser, or condenser may be used to work in conjunction
with any engine, turbine, or other complementary part of another unit in order to
provide against accident to any separate part of the system, substantially as
hereinbefore described.
3. In an electric generating station as claimed in the first claim having
superheaters for the steam and economisers for the feed water or either super-
heaters or economisers, the use of separate superheaters or economisers or
superheaters and economisers divided up and applied to each separate boiler,
substantially as hereinbefore described.
4. In an electric generating station as claimed in the third claim, arranging
special dampers to allow the hot gases to flow from the boiler fires to the super-
heaters or superheaters and economisers without traversing the whole of the boiler
flues, substantially as and for the purposes herein before described.
5. The use of separate fires in combination with sectional or unit plants as
claimed in the preceding claims to assist the products of combustion or to heat
separate heaters to increase or give extra superheating.
6. The special arrangement of an electric generating station as hereinbefore
described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings consisting of several unit
sets of plant and comprising-steam boiler, superheater, economiser steam turbine
and dynamo, air pump and condenser, feed pumps and cross pipes and valves to
ensure cross connection of the complementary portions of each unit.
Dated this 28th day of February 1894.
MARKS & CLERK,
13, Temple Street, Birmingham, Agents for the Applicant.