IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINE CONDENSERS
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Hamer, of Northwich, in the County of Chester,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINE CONDENSERS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Hamer at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 13th November 1876.
WILLIAM HAMER, of Northwich, in the County of Chester.
STEAM ENGINE CONDENSERS."
"IMPROVEMENTS IN
According to this Invention instead of the ordinary air pump applied to condensers
I arrange in connection with the condenser, and by preference directly under it, a
revolving piston formed with chambers, which communicate with the outside by
narrow slits or openings. This revolving piston works air-tight in a corresponding
outer chamber or box which communicates with the condenser proper and with the
waste or hot well below. The piston and its box are by preference cylindrical, but
may be made spherical or elliptical.
To ensure air-tight working fit I prefer to turn the revolving piston all round
and to make it work against packing pieces on each side of the opening to the
condenser proper; at the ends the piston revolves against packings or packing rings
in or on the end covers of the outer cylindrical box. The piston is caused to revolve
by worm wheel or other gearing. The condensed water falling in the uppermost
chamber of the piston is carried round by the revolution of the same and falls out.
below.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said William Hamer in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 12th May
1877.
WILLIAM HAMER, of Northwich, in the County of Chester.
STEAM ENGINE CONDENSERS."
"IMPROVEMENTS IN
According to this Invention instead of the ordinary air pumps applied to condensers
I arrange in connection with the condenser proper, and by preference directly under
it a revolving piston formed with chambers, which communicate with the outside
by narrow slits or openings. This revolving piston works air-tight in a corresponding
outer chamber or box which communicates with the condenser proper and with the
waste or hot well below. The piston and its box are by preference cylindrical, but
may be made spherical or elliptical.
To ensure air-tight working fit I prefer to turn the revolving piston all round and
to make it work against packing pieces on each side of the opening to the
condenser proper; at the ends the piston revolves against packings or packing rings
in or on the end covers of the outer cylindrical box. The piston is caused to revolve
by worm wheel or other gearing. The condensed water falling in the uppermost
chamber of the piston is carried round by the revolution of the same and falls out
below.
And in order that this my Invention may be more fully understood I will now
proceed to describe an apparatus constructed in accordance therewith, and illustrated
in the accompanying Drawings, of which Figure 1 is a vertical cross section through
a condenser air pump and hot well suitable for a stationary steam engine.
A is the condenser proper, which may be of any ordinary construction; B is the
box or shell of the air pump bolted thereto, and formed with a cylindrical chamber
fitted with a piston C, which is caused to revolve therein by means of worm wheel or
other gearing, the former being especially convenient if intended to work much
slower than the engine itself or other driving part; or instead of performing a
complete revolution therein the piston may be made to perform part of a revolution,
that is, to oscillate therein by any suitable crank, eccentric, or cam mechanisın,
worked from worm wheel or other gearing; in that case the chamber of the air
pump shell B may be made of a sector or part cylindrical form, and the piston C
instead of being fully cylindrical, as here shewn, would be of a corresponding sector
shape, but of course of a smaller angle than the chamber of the air pump shell, so
as to allow of the necessary stroke or movement of the piston therein; such a sector
piston may be made with but one chamber. D is the hot well, which is here shewn
below the air pump B, but which may in some cases have to be disposed more or
less to one side of the air pump. The piston C is here shown with eight sector-
shaped chambers, which at the outer circumference are formed with narrow openings
leaving sufficient overlap or wearing surface so as to make a joint with the interior
circumferential surface of the chamber, but more particularly air-tight joint with the
packing pieces c fitted to the said surface at each side of the inlet from the
condenser A. The ends of the piston C form air-tight joint against packing rings b
fitted to the end covers of the air pump shell B, which covers to a certain very
small but sufficient extent may be brought up against the piston ends as the wear
requires it, or one or more paper or other packing sheets, say of india-rubber, may
be put behind the ring b. For the same purpose the packing pieces c may be
brought closer in towards the centre, as required by the wear against the piston C,
by putting one or more thin pieces of paper, or it may be a thin sheet of india-rubber
behind it, in order to give a certain amount of elasticity; or a thin sheet of india-
rubber or other suitable elastic, packing may be put behind the packing pieces b
and c from the first, and as the latter wear the india-rubber slieets may be replaced
by thicker sheets, or the packing pieces b and c, whether fitted with elastic backing
or not, may be set up by means of set screws or other well-known adjusting appliance
as required.

page_text: And having thus fully described the nature of this Invention I declare that I
claim, the application of a chambered piston revolving or oscillating in a cylindrical
or part cylindrical chamber of an air pump shell and working against circum-
ferential and end packing pieces, all constructed and operating substantially as set
forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Hamer, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Third day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-seven.
WILLIAM HAMER. (LS.)