IMPROVEMENTS IN GENERATING STEAM FOR STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
FARQUHAR, of George Street, in the Precincts of the Tower of London,
Chronometer Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Thirteenth day of February, in the first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Farquhar, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said William Farquhar, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said William Farquhar, my exors, admors, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN GENERATING
STEAM FOR STEAM ENGINES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that I, the said William Farquhar, shall cause a particular description
of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Farquhar, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,

page_text: and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof (that is
to say):
My Invention and improvement consist in the application of coal, tar,
petroleum, pitch, vegetable tar, rosin, turpentine, asphalt, and other resinous
and bituminous substances, as fuel for the generation of steam in the boilers of
marine engines, and in a process or arrangement by which I employ those
substances as applicable to the generation of steam in marine engines par-
ticularly and in steam engines generally. I describe my said process and
arrangement as follows, and as more particularly delineated in the Drawings
referred to and attached :-
The substances to be used as fuel being reduced into a fluid state, I employ
a boiler of such material, shape, and dimension as the ship, vessel, or circum-
stances require. The said boiler is filled with tube furnaces, in number, diameter,
and length proportioned to the size of the boiler, communicating at the back
with a common flue or chimney; at the mouths of such tube I attach by screw
and nuts, or otherwise, metal frames with furnace doors in front; at the upper
part of such frames I provide apertures for the admission of streams of the fuel,
and at the lower edge of the face are apertures for the admission of the
requisite draught of air. From the receptacle of the fuel I lead pipes to such
upper apertures, with cocks or valves regulating the supply; and the stream,
falling upon burning coals or other substances heated to the required tempera-
ture, and supplied with the requisite draught of air from the lower apertures, will
produce a powerful combustion within the chambers of the furnace tubes, and a
consequent rapid generation of steam in the boiler. The fuel may also be injected
upon or combined with coal, tanner's bark, turf, peat, or other substances in
common furnaces duly regulated and supplied; care being in all cases taken
that too much tar be not permitted to enter the furnace at once, which injures
the combustion and waste the fuel in smoke; and other means may be sub-
stituted for those herein described to facilitate such regulation of fuel and air.
Now, as regards my said Invention and improvement, I do not claim as my
Invention the application of coal tar and other substances mentioned as fuel,
and I am aware that attempts have been made to burn water in conjunction
with tar and other such matters as a fuel for boiler furnaces; I do not there-
fore claim the same. But I do claim as my Invention the application of coal
tar, petroleum, pitch, vegetable tar, rosin, turpentine, asphalt, and other
bituminous substances, as fuel for steam boilers employed for purposes of
steam navigation, and of the process, arrangement, and combination of apparatus
for the application of such fuel for steam engines generally, whether employed

page_text: for steam navigation or otherwise, whereby I am enabled to effect a rapid
generation of steam with a great diminution in the weight and bulk of the
fuel hitherto consumed to produce an equal result. And in addition hereto I
claim my Invention the further condensation in the quantity or bulk of the fuel
required for long voyages by steam navigating, by the fitting of iron or other
tanks of most convenient forms, and filling them with coal, and then adding tar
to fill up the interstices, thereby encreasing the quantity of fuel in a given
space two fifths of the whole contents.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Farquhar, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eleventh day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.