CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES, FURNACES, AND BOILERS, PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JACOB
PERKINS, of Fleet Street, in the City of London, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Third day of December, in the seventh year of His reign, did,
for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Jacob
Perkins, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said Jacob Perkins, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Jacob Perkins, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES, FURNACES, AND BOILERS, PARTS OF
WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Jacob Perkins, 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 His 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Jacob Perkins, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say :-
My Invention relates, first, to that description of rotatory steam engine
which has been heretofore known as acting by a continuous flow of steam from
a revolving arm or apparatus, according to the principle known as "Barker's
Mill," and those parts of my improvements are also applicable as a water
engine; secondly, my Invention relates to a mode of arranging the ash-pit of
. furnaces, whereby the back end of the fire bars are supplied with a larger
quantity of atmospheric air than is supplied to the front or the part of the fire
bars nearer the fire door, whereby that portion of the fuel which lies on the
back part of the fire bars is kept in a greater degree of excitement than that
on the front part of the fire bars, and thus causing the vapours passing from
the front part of the furnace to be more effectually ignited than when the fire
bars and the fuel thereon are equally supplied with air; and, thirdly, my
Invention relates to an improvement in constructing steam boilers such as are
described in the Specification of my Patent, dated the Twelfth day of April,

page_text: issuing from an orifice it will be found that by bringing a surface or plate over
the orifice, in order to cover and stop the flow of steam, the pressure exerted in
order to completely stop the same must be greater than the pressure of steam
on an equal area of any part of the apparatus, and the force of the steam against
the surface will diminish in proportion to the distance the plate or surface is
removed from the orifice from whence the steam is issuing; it consequently
follows that in using steam in the description of engines above referred to,
wherein the steam has been permitted to flow out from orifices before which no
solid abutment has been employed, but on the contrary, the steam in flowing
has merely been resisted by the atmosphere or by steam contained in a steam
chamber. e, e, are a series of steam ways or passages from the axis, and fare
mouth pieces, the steam ways of which are inclined in such manner as to direct
the thin sheet of steam to act against the abutments 9, which are projecting
surfaces, cut or formed, as is clearly shewn in the Drawing, and they are set
in such manner as to constantly offer an abutment to the steam, and as close
as possible to the orifice from whence the steam issues, and there may be several
mouth pieces, by which the power of the engine will depend with a given
pressure of steam.
By the foregoing description aworkman will readily carry out the Invention,
and it need only further be remarked that the power thus communicated to the
shaft or axis may be applied by means of suitable bands and drums, or by
suitable wheel work, to the driving of machinery in manufacturing or propel-
ling the vessels and carriages. And further, in place of having the disc and
shaft to revolve they may be fixed, and the external case caused to revolve,
there being a suitable drum affixed thereto, or a cog wheel, for transmitting the
power; and it will be evident that a similar arrangement of engine will be
suitable for employing a constant supply of water from a considerable head or
elevated position to flow through in place of steam; the effect of water acting
against abutments such as are above described will greatly increase the power
from a given expenditure of water. Figure 3 shews a section of a boiler and
furnace arranged according to the second part of my Invention. a, a, are the
fire bars; b, the front ash-pit; and c, the ash-pit for the back end of the fire
bars, the ash-pit c being separated from the ash-pit b by the partition d, the
ash-pit 6 being open to the atmosphere, and hence that portion of the bars
which are over bare as heretofore supplied from the open atmosphere, but the
ash-pit cisa closed ash-pit,and is supplied with atmospheric air by any suitable
blowing apparatus, in order that there may be a larger supply to the fuel over
that part of the bars, in order to excite the fire and produce more perfect com-
bustion of the fuel above, and also thereby to ignite the vapours from the fuel

page_text: over b, as will readily be understood, and it should be remarked that there is
to be a suitable door and opening into the ash pit c to clear out the ashes
therefrom, which is shewn in the Drawing. Figure 4 shews the third part of
my improvements; it consists in the mode of obtaining strength to that con-
struction of boilers for which a Patent was granted to me, as above stated, and
the improvements consist in carrying up the tubes, of which the boiler is in a
great measure constructed, to the upper or top plate of the boiler, and screwing
through such plate, and when through are rivetted firmly, by which the tubes,
in addition to being the means of conducting heat from the furnace, also
become the ties or means of adding strength to the construction of the boiler.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I would have it understood that what I claim is, first, the
application of the abutments as herein described; secondly, I claim the mode
of constructing the ash-pits of furnaces as above described; and, thirdly, I
claim the mode of constructing steam boilers as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jacob Perkins, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Second day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand
year of our Lord 1837, the aforesaid Jacob Perkins came before our said Lord
the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and
all and everything therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute made for that purpose.