IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM FIRE ENGINES
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Wellington Lee and John Gano
Winter at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 3rd June 1863.- A communication from abroad by
Joseph Garnett Larned, of the City, County, and State of New York,
United States of America.
We, WELLINGTON LEE, of New York, now of No. 23 Sumner Place, Onslow
Square, in the County of Middlesex, and JOHN GANO WINTER, of New
York, now of No. 73, Great Suffolk Street, in the County of Surrey, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM
FIRE ENGINES," a communication from abroad by Joseph Garnett Larned,
of the City, County, and State of New York, United States of America, to be
as follows:-
These improvements relate chiefly to the novel construction of a boiler and
pump, and to so forming and arranging the different parts of a steam fire
engine as to combine strength, durability, and efficiency with lightness and
simplicity, and consequently cheapness of construction. For convenience we
employ an upright boiler of the tubular description. The tubes terminate at
a considerable distance from the upper end of the boiler, in a chamber upon
which is fixed the smoke pipe or flue, the bottom of which is submerged. The
cover or top of said chamber is secured to its circular sides by means of screw
bolts, and has a central perforation to admit the smoke into the flue.
cover or top of the boiler is fixed to its sides and to the smoke pipe by similar
The
This form of construction economizes heat, while the covers may be

page_text: readily removed for the purpose of repairing or replacing the tubes. The
pump is constructed of an interior and exterior cylinder. The annulus or
space between them is divided into two parts, or an induction and educ-
tion chamber. A valve or cock is placed in the partition between the
chambers, so as to enable the engine to be run at a higher rate of speed than
is demanded by the amount of water delivered at the nozzle, the surplus
returning through said cock. By this arrangement a large engine may be
used to throw a small stream of water, when run at a rate of speed sufficiently
high to secure an uniform motion without the use of a large fly wheel, a result
especially desirable when there is a deficiency in the supply. Cast to the
exterior cylinder is a vacuum chamber so arranged that it may be bolted to
the boiler, and answers the purpose of a pillow block bearing for the rear end
of the crank shaft; forming also, as well as the cylinder, a part of the
supporting frame. The steam cylinder and the valve box are comprised in the
same casting, the valve box being secured directly to the boiler, by which
arrangement the necessity for steam pipes is avoided, and these boxes also
become a part of the said frame. Branching off from the steam box and the
pump cylinder and extending forward are two hollow arms, which terminate
in a hollow standard. The lower part of this standard contains a spring
which rests on the axle and the upper part is enlarged to form an air chamber.
The said arms are a part of the frame and answer the further purposes of a
pipe for conducting the water from the pump to the discharge hose and of
supporting the pillow block bearing of the forward end of the crank shaft.
To the rear of the boiler is fixed the fuel box, the latter being secured to the
hind axle in any convenient manner.