IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Barnard William Farey, of the Firm of Bryan
Donkin and Company Bermondsey, in the County of Surrey, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES,"
Sealed the 25th September 1869, and dated the 14th April 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Barnard William
Farey at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 14th April 1869.
I, BARNARD WILLIAM FAREY, of the Firm of Bryan Donkin and
Company Bermondsey, in the County of Surrey, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES," to
be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in steam engines. In
steam engines in which the steam after having been worked in one
cylinder is caused to pass into a second cylinder, as in what is known
at Woolf's engine, I find that a considerable economy results from
heating the steam as it passes from one cylinder to the other. This I do
[Price 8d.]

page_text: by causing the steam as it is conveyed from one cylinder to the other to
be divided into numerous small streams by heated metal surfaces.
With this object I prefer to construct the conductor leading the steam
from one cylinder to the other of a number of cast metal plates. The
plates are cast with corrugations, except at their edges or margins where
they are thicker than elsewhere, the thickness exceeding the depth of the
corrugations. Each plate is planed on both sides, and in this way the
edges or margins are trued, whilst on one side of the plate the tops of the
corrugations are simultaneously levelled. The plates thus prepared are
placed one over the other so as to form a pile of numerous plates, and
they are held together by screw bolts. In arranging the plates they are
placed face to face and back to back (I call the surfaces on which the
ridges of the corrugations are planed the faces), and by suitable
connections the spaces between the backs of the plates are supplied with
hot steam, whilst the cooler steam which has been worked in the first
cylinder is caused to pass by the numerous channels between the faces
of the plates in its passage to the second cylinder. Should more than
two steam cylinders be employed in succession the steam is similarly
caused to be heated at each passage from one cylinder to the other by
dividing the channel which conveys it into numerous small passages
more or less isolated the one from the other by means of heated surfaces.
It is not essential that the surfaces should be heated by means of steam
from the boiler, but I believe this to be the readiest and most convenient
arrangement. I further purpose, whether it be in a double or single
cylinder engine, not only to steam jacket the cylinders as is usual, but
also to corrugate or furrow the inner surfaces of the cylinder covers so
as to increase the amount of heated surface presented to the steam in the
cylinder, and with a similar object I corrugate or furrow the surfaces of
the piston and supply hot steam to the back of such surfaces. All the
passages leading the steam to the cylinder and which are to be steam
jacketted or heated may also be corrugated or furrowed on the surfaces
with which the working steam comes in contact. I also purpose to
divide the steam in its passage to the cylinder into numerous small
streams by means of heated surfaces

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Barnard William Farey in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 14th October 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BARNARD
WILLIAM FAREY, of the Firm of Bryan Donkin & Co., Bermondsey,
in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
year
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of April, in the 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 Barnard William Farey, Her special
licence that I, the said Barnard William Farey, my executors, ad-
ministrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Barnard
William Farey, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Barnard William Farey, my executors
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one
of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, 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..
or
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Barnard William Farey, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
In
This Invention has for its object improvements in steam engines.
steam engines in which the steam after having been worked in one
cylinder is caused to pass into a second cylinder, as in what is known as
Woolf's engine, I find that a considerable economy results from heating
the steam as it passes from one cylinder to the other. This I do by
causing the steam as it is conveyed from one cylinder to the other to be
With
divided into numerous small streams by heated metal surfaces.
this object I prefer to construct the conductor leading the steam from

page_text: one cylinder to the other of a number of cast metal plates. The plates
are cast with corrugations, except at their edges or margins where they
are thicker than elsewhere, the thickness exceeding the depth of the
corrugations. Each plate is planed on both sides, and in this way the
edges or margins are trued, whilst on one side of the plate the tops of
the corrugations are simultaneously levelled. The plates thus prepared
are placed one over the other so as to form a pile of numerous plates,
and they are held together by screw bolts. In arranging the plates they
are placed face to face and back to back (I call the surfaces on which
the ridges of the corrugations are planed the faces), and by suitable con-
nections the spaces between the backs of the plates are supplied with
hot steam, whilst the cooler steam which has been worked in the first
cylinder is caused to pass by the numerous channels between the faces
of the plates in its passage to the second cylinder. Should more than
two steam cylinders be employed in succession the steam is similarly
caused to be heated at each passage from one cylinder to the other
by dividing the channel which conveys it into numerous small passages
more or less isolated the one from the other by means of heated
surfaces.
I further purpose, whether it be in a double or single cylinder engine, not
only to steam jacket the cylinder as is usual, but also to corrugate or furrow
the inner surfaces of the cylinder covers, so as to increase the amount of
heated surface presented to the steam in the cylinder, and with a similar
object corrugate or furrow the surfaces of the piston and supply hot
steam to the back of such surfaces. All the passages leading the steam
from the slide box to the cylinder and which are to be steam jacketted or
heated may also be corrugated or furrowed on the surfaces with which
the working steam comes in contact.
I also propose to divide the steam in its passage from the slide
box to the cylinder into numerous small streams by means of heated
surfaces.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood
and readily carried into effect I will proceed to describe the Drawings
hereunto annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a transverse section of the cylinders of a compound or
Woolf's engine with apparatus arranged according to my Invention for
heating the steam as it passes from the one cylinder to the other.

page_text: a is the high-pressure cylinder, and 6 the low-pressure cylinder, both
enclosed in one jacket supplied with steam from the boiler; ' is the
slide valve of the high-pressure cylinder, and 6 the slide valve of the
low-pressure cylinder; a² is the exhaust passage from the high-pressure
cylinder leading the steam to the heater c; b2 is the admission passage
to the valve box of the low-pressure cylinder, which receives the exhaust
steam from the high-pressure cylinder after it has passed through the
heater. Figure 2 is a side view of the heater to a larger scale, a portion
of the outside plate is broken away. Figure 3 show one of the faces of
the heater, either that at which it receives the steam from the high-
pressure cylinder or that at which it delivers the steam to the low-
pressure cylinder. Figure 4 is a top or edge view of the heater; it
consists of a number of plates d, d, cast of a corrugated form with a
margin all round, exceeding in thickness the depth of the corrugations.
This margin
is planed or brought to a true surface on both sides, and in
the same operation the tops of the ridges of the corrugations on one side
of the plate are brought truly to the plane of the surface of the margin. On
the other side or back of the plate the ridges remain lower than the margin.
A strengthening rib d¹ may be formed down the centre of each
plate d at the back, as is shewn at Figure 2, and this is faced to the
same plane as the margin. The plates d thus prepared are put together
in pairs face to face, as is seen at Figure 3. e, e, are the outside plates;
they are provided with flanges on two sides to bolt up to the faces at
the entrances of the passages a² and 62, Figure 1; the plates d, d,
and e, e, are held together by the bolts f, f. The outside plates e, e,
are each formed with a socket into which a pipe is inserted; in the
one case it is the steam pipe g which admits the steam to keep up the
temperature of the heater, and in the other the drain pipe h for leading
away the water condensed from this steam back into the boiler, or
otherwise to dispose of it as may be convenient. Passages are formed
through all the plates d in their margins to correspond with the pipes g
and h, and small branch passages in connection with these put the
pipes g and h in communication with the spaces at the backs of the
plates ., i, are the bolts which connect the heater with the faces
at the ends of the passages a² and 62, Figure 1; k, k, are bars through
which some of the bolts i are passed; these bars extend across the series
of plates d, e, they bear against the side flanges of the plates e and on
lugs or projections from the corners of the plates d. The working

page_text: steam in passing from the high-pressure
cylinder to the low-pressure
cylinder traverses the diamond form passages (some of which are
marked d) of the heater. The steam admitted to the heater by the
pipe g may be of the boiler temperature, or may be superheated.
A heater such as above described may also be used to heat the
steam as it passes to the cylinder of a single cylinder engine or to the
first cylinder of a compound engine.
Figure 5 is a longitudinal section of a steam cylinder and piston in
which the surfaces of the piston and the cylinder ends or covers are
corrugated or forrowed and steam heated according to my Invention.
a, a, is the cylinder enclosed in a jacket b, which is supplied with
hot steam. The bottom end or cover a¹ of the cylinder is cast in one
piece with it, and is corrugated or furrowed with a number of annular
corrugations or grooves; a² is the top cover of the cylinder similarly
corrugated or furrowed on its inner face and cast double so as to form a
steam jacket to receive hot steam supplied by the pipe c to heat the
back of the corrugated surface; d is the piston; it is cast hollow and
corrugated or furrowed or both its faces. Steam is supplied to the
interior of the piston by the pipe e fixed to it and sliding through a
boss a formed on the cover a, which it fits accurately. f is another
pipe fixed in the piston d and working in a similar manner through a
boss a¹ in the cylinder end a', by it the water resulting from any
condensation taking place within the piston is led back to the boiler or
otherwise disposed of.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood that I do
not confine myself to the exact details described; but what I claim is,
the so constructing compound or Woolf's steam engines that the steam
as it passes from cylinder to cylinder is divided into numerous small
streams by metal surfaces, which are heated by means of steam to a
higher temperature than the working steam thus brought into contact
with them.
I also claim the so constructing steam engines that the steam
immediately before entering the cylinder in which it works is divided
into numerous small streams by metal surfaces which are heated by
means of steam to a higher temperature than the working steam thus
brought in contact with them.

page_text: I also claim the constructing heaters for heating steam in steam
engines in the manner herein described.
I also claim the corrugating or furrowing and the steam jacketting or
heating of the cylinder ends and the pistons of steam engines as above
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Barnard William Farey, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of October,
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine.
BARNARD WILLIAM FAREY. (L.s.)