IMPROVED METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR UTILIZING THE WASTE STEAM OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Arthur Dillon, of the City of Dublin,
Ireland, for the Invention of "IMPROVED METHODS OF AND APPARATUS
FOR UTILIZING THE WASTE STEAM OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES."
Sealed the 11th September 1869, and dated the 31st March 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Arthur Dillon
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 31st March 1869.
I, THOMAS ARTHUR DILLON, of the City of Dublin, Ireland, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED METHODS OF AND
APPARATUS FOR UTILIZING THE WASTE STEAM OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES," to be as
follows:--
This Invention relates to the utilization of the waste steam of
locomotive engines, and consists in taking the same from the steam
cylinder, breeches pipe, or chimney, and introducing it, combined with
atmospheric air, into the fire-box, grate, or tubes, whereby the oxygen
contained in the steam and atmospheric air is caused to come in contact
with and promote the combustion of the carbonic oxide evolved from the

page_text: burning fuel, thus greatly increasing the heating powers of the furnace.
The waste steam may be conveyed to the fire-box, grate, or tubes by
means of a simple steam way consisting of a tube furnished with a
suitable cock, or by apparatus arranged as follows:-An exhaust and
pressure pump consisting of a cylinder, with its necessary and well-
known adjuncts, is placed on the fore or aft port of the engine, and
worked thereby. As much waste steam as is required is thus drawn
from the steam cylinder, breeches pipe, or chimney after each stroke,
and is carried up the chimney or into the fire-box, or from the fire-box
through the boiler tubes as may be desired, or it may be pumped or
driven into the water tank. If preferred more than one pump may be
employed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Arthur Dillon in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 29th September 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
ARTHUR DILLON, of the City of Dublin, Ireland, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent bearing date the Thirty-first day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Arthur Dillon, Her special
licence that I, the said Thomas Arthur Dillon, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Arthur Dillon,
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
"IMPROVED METHODS OF AND APPARATUS POR UTILIZING THE WASTE STEAM OF
LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Thomas Arthur Dillon, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
scals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,

page_text: 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Arthur Dillon, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, that is to say :-
My said Invention relates to the utilization of the waste high-pressure
steam and heat of locomotive engines, and thereby increasing the
heating power of the furnaces and effecting an important saving
in fuel, whilst at the same time the waste heat of the engine is also
utilized.
By the term "waste steam," I mean the steam which is given off from
the cylinders through the blast pipe after its initial work is done, or the
waste steam from the safety valves, and by "waste heat" is to be
understood the heat which is carried off by the steam blast after
heating the boiler, and also that heat which ordinarily acts injuriously
on the fire-bars and other parts of the furnace, and which is of such little
value in the generation of steam. The results of the arrangements
which I employ are that the oxygen contained in one portion of the
waste steam and the atmospheric air which is induced or impelled by
another part of such steam is caused to come in contact with, and
either prevents the formation or promotes the combustion of the
carbonic oxide, which is so frequently and so detrimentally evolved
from the burning fuel, thus greatly increasing thic heating powers of
the furnace; whilst at the same time the steam which is brought to bear
upon the furnace bars has the effect of cooling the same, thus preventing
the adherence of clinkers, as herein-after mentioned.
The apparatus which by preference I adopt for effecting these pur-
poses is as follows:-A bell-mouthed steam pipe leads from the side of
the blast pipe to the fire-box, where it is formed into a zig-zag coil
beneath the fire-bars, and terminates in some convenient part of the fire-
box or water tank. The pipe of which the coil under the fire-bars is
formed is perforated with small holes alternating (that is to say, that no
two steam jets shall be directly opposite cach other) through which a
portion of the waste steam rushes. The steam jets thus produced aro
caused by the arrangement of the coil to play partially on the fire-bars
and partially into the fire, the effect whereof is, first, to abstract from

page_text: and utilize the excessive heat of the fire-bars and keep them cool, thus
preventing the accumulation and adherence of clinkers thereon; second,
the steam is thus forced into contact with the heated bars, the incan-
descent part of the fuel and the carbonic oxide (which may be generated
therefrom) it (the steam) is decomposed into its elements, and free
hydrogen is liberated. In order to supply a sufficient quantity of oxygen
for the combustion of the hydrogen thus liberated, I cause atmospheric
air to be brought into contact and mingled therewith, either by the
steam which issues from the rear end of the coil of pipe, or from any
other convenient part of the coil itself, by any of the well-known methods
of induction or impulsion.
The form of the coil may be varied, and it may be made so as to rock
or vibrate by means of well-known mechanical arrangements, or be in
a fixed position, and it may be constructed of hollow perforated bars in
lieu of present fire-bars, and in the gridiron form, and with the requisite
clack or other valves or cocks necessitated by such variations in form,
as will be well understood by persons conversant with mechanical
arrangements of an analogous nature, whilst at the same time the prin-
ciple of my said Invention and the methods of its application remain
substantially unaltered.
The steam pipe and the tubes for the admission of atmospheric air
may, if desired, be jacketed or be passed through the boiler to act
directly on the incandescent carbon and carbonic oxide, or one or both
may pass where the hand rail of the engine is now fastened, or through
the upper part of or round the fire-box. The steam pipes and air pipes
may lead conveniently and satisfactorily from the blast pipe through the
boiler. The waste steam and heat are both effectually utilized in this
way, as by increasing the quantity of metal at the point where the
heated gases issue from the boiler tubes into the chimney the waste heat
superheats both the steam and air, the steam generates free hydrogen on
meeting the incandescent gases at the bridge, and the air tube supplies
the oxygen to unite with the hydrogen. The coil pipe may be used
with or without this arrangement. I sometimes fill the waste steam
and heat pipes with charcoal fragments and other substances capable of
generating hydrogen.
The requisite arrangement of cocks and valves, as will be well under-
stood, is, of course, provided to enable the engine driver to admit or shut
off the waste steam for the purposes before mentioned.

page_text: Having thus declared and ascertained the nature of
the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which it is to be performed, I would
observe in conclusion that I do not confine or restrict myself to the
precise arrangements or details of mechanism herein-before described,
inasmuch as variations may be made therefrom without departing from
the principle of my said Invention, and that I claim as constituting the
Invention secured to me by the said herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent are, the methods and combination and arrangement of
apparatus and mechanism, substantially as and for the purposes herein-
before described and set forth, or any mere modifications thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Arthur Dillon, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of September,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine.
THOMAS ARTHUR DILLON. (L.S.)