IMPROVEMENTS 'IN THE GENERATION OF STEAM AND IN THE ECONOMIZING OF HEAT
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Barnabas Russ at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th
August 1874.
I, BARNABAS Russ, of Little Ilford, in the County of Essex, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
'IN THE GENERATION OF STEAM AND IN THE ECONOMIZING OF HEAT,” to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to the utilization of the waste heat from the
sexhaust steam of high-pressure steam engines, whereby a great economy
in the consumption of fuel is effected, and the fouling of multitubular
or other boilers is greatly reduced.
'
The exhaust steam from the cylinder of the engine is conveyed
through a pipe into a box contained within the cistern which supplies
water to the boiler. By this means the water in the cistern is kept
constantly boiling, and a small part of the steam is condensed, and the
water thereby produced finds its way down a waste pipe into a drain.
The remainder of the steam is conveyed through a pipe to a series of
tubes or a coil of pipes placed above the boiler, and enclosed within a
casing. The space between the tubes is left open for the admission of
-

page_text: atmospheric air, which by playing upon the exterior of the series of
tubes or coil of pipes effects a further and almost complete condensation
of the exhaust steam. The water contained in the pipes, which is the
result of the condensation, is conveyed through a pipe having the
necessary gradient back into the cistern which supplies the boiler with
water. The ultimate result is that the boiler being constantly supplied
with the same water many times over, and which has been deprived of
any foreign mattter which it may originally have contained is prevented
from fouling by the deposit of these foreign matters, such as dirt, lime,
or other substances usually found in undistilled water.
The economization of heat is effected by the same apparatus. Close
to the top of the above-mentioned coil of pipes placed above the boiler
is an entrance for the admission of atmospheric air, which is supplied
by a small fan. The air thus supplied passes down between the series
of tubes or through the above-mentioned coil of pipes from which it
extracts a large amount of heat; and also serves to condense the steam
contained in the pipes. When the air has passed between the whole
series of pipes, and has thereby been raised to a high temperature, and
has therefore been considerably increased in volume, it passes.into a
cylindrical chamber of greater diameter than the chamber containing a
the series of tubes, so as to allow of more room for its increased volume.
This chamber is placed around the smoke box (which also is usually
exceedingly hot), and here the air is again greatly increased in tem-
perature. From the lower portion of this chamber it is conveyed by a
pipe of sufficient diameter to underneath the fire-bars of the furnace,
and gives off at this point a blast of hot air of considerable force, and at
a temperature very little below that of the fire itself. By this means a
'very considerable economy in the consumption of fuel is effected, as the
heat already extracted from the fuel is utilized over again. By means
of this hot blast I am enabled to utilize coal breeze or almost any kind a
of rubbish as fuel, thereby effecting a further economy in the cost of the
fuel.