CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON STEAM ENGINES, AND IN DISTILLATION
Year: 1810

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, STEDMAN
ADAMS, of the City of Hartford, in the State of Connecticut, in North America,
Esquire, at present residing in Carey Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the First day of February,
in the fiftieth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Stedman
Adams, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said Stedman Adams, my exors, adññors,
and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON STEAM ENGINES, AND IN
DISTILLATION;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said Stedman Adams, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be enrolled in
His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months after the
date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation being
thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Stedman Adams, do hereby declare that my said Inventions and improvements
are described in manner following (that is to say):-
My boiler differs in no way from the steam boiler now in use for steam
engines, as is designated in the Drawing hereunto annexed. By A from the
boiler A, I conduct the steam by the tube marked B, into a cylinder or box

page_text: air-tight, marked C, called the wheel cylinder. In the cylinder C I place a
wheel in form like wheels usually moved by water or other fluids in open air,
on which the steam operates by impulse, which I call the steam wheel. The
steam which I cause to move within its circumscribed cylinder without
touching its rim against the sides of the cylinder, either in a horizontal or per-
pendicular position at pleasure. The axle or shaft of the steam wheel, marked
in the Drawing D, passes through a stuffing box in one end of the steam
cylinder. On the part of the shaft without the cylinder I place a pinion,
marked in the Drawing E, having its diameter to that of the steam wheel
nearly as one to twenty. For the purpose of giving power to the engine I
exhaust the cylinder C of air that the steam wheel may revolve in a vacuum,
and to continue the vacuum in the steam cylinder perfect as possible, the
steam, after giving its impulse to the steam wheel, I conduct, by the tube
marked F, from the wheel cylinder C to a condenser in the form of a
cylinder tube or worm, marked G, and condense it by an injection of cold
water through the cock marked H; from the condenser G the air, condensed
steam, and and injection water is conducted by tubes marked in the Draw-
ing K, K, into two cylinders marked L, L, called exhausters or air pumps, at the
ends of the tubes marked K, K, and two chucks or valves, marked a, a, that open
upwards within the exhausters L, L, to prevent the return of the water and air
into the condensor. At the lower end of the exhausters are two valves that
open outward, marked k, k, through which the water and air is expelled from
all parts of the engine. To expel the air and water from the engine I admit
the steam into the exhausters alternately at the upper ends from the boiler by
the small tubes marked o, o; when the air and water are expelled, the steam is
condensed by a jett of cold water admitted by the tubes marked m, m, which
causes a vacuum to be produced in whatever apparatus is connected with the
said exhausters. The tubes o, o, m, m, are opened and shut alternately by
cocks or valves worked by the motion of the engine. For the exhausters
marked L, L, the air pump used in other steam engines may be substituted at
pleasure. The exhausters marked L, L, are also calculated for steam engines
whose motion is alternate, instead of the air pump now in common use, which
are in such cases to be worked by the same steam that is used to work the
steam piston of the engine before condensation takes place, which encreases the
working power of the engine by making the vacuum more perfect than the
common air pump, and by serving all the power necessary to work the same.
The heads or ends of the cylinders, when composed of metal, are made tight by
screws, as in other steam engines, and as represented in the annexed Drawing.
The proportions of the different parts of my engine are as follows, reserving

page_text: in all cases whatsoever shall pertain to my Inventions and improvements, all
or any proportionable increase or diminution of the several scales laid down
as further experiments shall suggest. I make the orifice of the tube B, where
the steam issues upon the steam wheel, the criterion of the engine's power,
and make said orifice equal half of one square inch for a power of five
horses, one square inch for a ten horse power, five square inches for a fifty
horse power, &c. The diameter of the steam wheel may be about five feet
or less; the cylinders for the exhausters and condenser may be about one fifth
of that of the steam wheel in diameter. For a general rule to proportion
machinery to be attached and moved by my engine, I take the motion of a
corn mill for a sample. To move the stone one foot the steam wheel
must move about twenty or twenty-five feet to give the stone its proper
velocity, which is about twenty-five feet per second. In Fig. 1 the safety
valve is placed in the tube x, which opens downward by the weight marked y,
and balanced by a buoy marked v, v, in tho tube marked z,, having a com-
munication with the bottom of the boiler. When the water is raised in the
tube,, by the pressure of the steam in the boiler so high as to float
the buoy v, v, the safety valve is opened by the weight y, and if by accident a
vacuum should be produced within the boiler, the air pressing through the
tube 2,2, will prevent any injury to the boiler from the pressure of the atmo-
sphere. The common safety valve is also used at pleasure.
Fig. 2 is a Drawing of the above described engine, with an additional appa-
ratus for warming factories or other houses with the steam of the engine. The
steam is conducted from the wheel cylinder of the engine by the tube marked
P, P. Another tube marked R, R, returns to the exhausters or air pump, or
to the condensor. In in the rooms to be warmed is placed a stove made in two
parts, one within the other, as represented by the section marked T, screwed
together at the bottom by flanges. The inner stove has a communication
with the room by a tube at the top marked N. The steam is conducted from
the tube P, P, between the stoves, by the tube marked W, and the condensed
steam is conducted to the return tube marked R, R, by the tube marked X.
The external air is admitted into the inner stove by the tube marked Q, and
being warmed by the surrounding steam ascends into the room by the tube N.
The stove marked M is a perspective view of the section niarked T. An
engine on a small scale may be used in dwellings for the purpose of warming
the apartments from the kitchen fire, and for such machinery as is necessary
there. By the effect of the engine the steam moves with such velocity that
tubes from one fourth to one half of an inch diameter will be sufficiently large
to conduct the steam to all the rooms of a common house.

page_text: Fig. 3 is a Drawing of an engine, with an additional apparatus for distilation
substituted for a condensor, and by which distilation is carried on in vaccus by
the steam of the engine endeavouring by the apparatus to render the fire gene-
rated by the fuel after its operation upon the engine equal in value to the
fuel consumed. The apparatus communicates with the wheel cylinder by the
tube in Fig. 3, marked P, P, through which the steam is communicated to all
parts containing materials to be distilled. The still marked R is set within a
case marked T, and the steam is made to pass between the case and still, and
the uncondensed steam is communicated to the other stills marked H, H, H,
not set in cases, passing from one to the other through the marsh until it
enters the great worm or condensor marked F, when condensed runs into the
receiver O, which has a communication with the exhausters by the tube
marked R, R. The receiver marked in Fig 3, z, receives the liquor
from the still marked R, after being condensed by the worm marked Y.
The cocks marked 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, &c., admit or exclude the steam from any
of the several stills at pleasure. The cistern marked K is for warming the
materials before distilled. The whole apparatus being connected from the wheel
cylinder round to the exhausters or air pumps becomes exhausted of air by the
operation of, the engine, and produces a vacuum in all parts of the aparatus
so connected, all which is sufficiently described to enable a mechanic, by the
aid of the annexed Drawings, to erect an engine and the other apparatus above
described.
In witness whercof, I, the said Stedman Adams, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Thirtieth day of July, in the year of our Lord