IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CONDENSING STEAM OR VAPOUR, AND APPLYING TO USEFUL PURPOSES THE Liquid Of CondeNSATION AND THE CONDENSING MEDIUM, BY WHICH HEAT HAS BEEN ABSORBED OR TAKEN UP
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Auguste Lacordaire at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th
December 1874.-A communication from abroad by Monsieur Emile
Fourlinnic, of Lille, France.
I, AUGUSTE LACORDAIRE, of Barnes Villas, Lonsdale Road, Barnes,
in the County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CONDENSING STEAM OR
VAPOUR, AND APPLYING TO USEFUL PURPOSES THE Liquid Of CondeNSATION AND
THE CONDENSING MEDIUM, BY WHICH HEAT HAS BEEN ABSORBED OR TAKEN UP,” (a
communication to me from abroad by Monsieur Emile Fourlinnie, of
Lille, France), to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the method of and
apparatus for condensing steam or vapour, and applying to useful
purposes the liquid of condensation, and the condensing medium, by
which heat has been absorbed or taken up, and is designed to obviate wastę
of heat attending systems of condesing at present commonly practised.
Steam which has done its work in a steam engine has lost since its
production but a comparatively small proportion of the heat taken up in

page_text: its generation. Not only has the heat remaining after work been in a
large measure non-utilized up to the present time, but in the most
economical machines of the day, those with condensers, this heat as soon
as the work is over becomes troublesome and hurtful, and must be
eliminated as quickly as possible by the copious aid of cold water
obtained in most cases with great labor. And the steam thus condensed
is carried off with the condensing water, thus wasting not only the heat
it has received from the fire, but also the water (now distilled) taken
from the boiler. To compensate for these losses the fire is aided by new
supplies of cold air which it has to heat at considerable cost in fuel to
ruise it to burning temperature. The boiler on the other hand demands
fresh water, which being fed to it in a very impure, muddy, or limy state
incrusts the interior portions of the boiler. To obviate these evils, steam
which has exerted force in machines, is according to this Invention
brought into direct contact in a suitably formed condensing apparatus
with a blast or current (or currents) of cold air or combustion supporting
elastic fluid, whereby licat is taken up from the steam or vapour, which
is thus caused to assume a liquid form, in which state it is returned to
the boiler or steam generator, whilst the air or clastic fluid whose
temperature has been raised by the heat taken up from the steam or
vapour is applied to support combustion in the furnace of the boiler or
steam generator, whence the steam it has condensed was originally taken,
it may be utilized in any other furnace.
or
In carrying out this Invention I use several forms of apparatus
arranged to operate on the novel principle above described, one plan is as
follows:-
A tube or nozzle in communication with the exhaust steam pipe of the
engine conducts the exhaust steam into a space or chamber, into which
cold air or elastic fluid is forced by a pump or other suitable forcing
apparatus. Thus the exhaust steam and the blast of air are caused to
meet in the space or chamber above mentioned, which is surrounded by
a number of concentric annular divisions arranged to form a series of
annular spaces, the inner one communicating at one end with the central
space or chamber, and at its other end with the next annular space or
chamber outside of it, and so on. The outer annular space or chamber
communicates at or near.its upper part by a pipe with the closed ash pit
of the furnace. At its lower part the outer annular space communi-
cates with a vessel or reservoir for the water of condensation. This

page_text: vessel or reservoir is provided with a water gauge, and with an overflow
outlet, a syphon arrangement being employed so that water only may
cscape.
:
By the arrangement above described, the steam and cold air having
met and commingled are compelled to pass along the series of annular
spaces, and in their course to travel to and fro from one end of the
apparatus to the other, until on reaching the outer annular space the
heated air finally passes off to the furnace, and the water of condensation
to the vessel or reservoir provided for it, whence it may be fed by ordinary
means to the boiler.
I modify the above arrangement to suit circumstances, the apparatus
being in all cases constructed with an inlet or inlets for the steam or
vapour to be condensed, an inlet or inlets for cold air or clastic fluid to
effect the condensation spaces or chambers wherein the same are caused to
commingle; an outlet or outlets, and conduit or conduits, for conducting
the heated air or clastic fluid to a furnace or furnaces; and an outlet or
outlets for conducting the liquid of condensation to a vessel or reservoir,
or vessels or reservoirs.