IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR VENTILATING RAILWAY CARRIAGES, HOUSES, SHIPS, AND OTHER BUILDINGS OR STRUCTURES
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake,
"
& Co., Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, for the Invention of
IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR VENTILATING RAILWAY CARRIAGES, HOUSES,
SHIPS, AND OTHER BUILDINGS OR STRUCTURES." A communication from abroad
by William Henry St. John, of the City of New York, Mechanical Engineer,
and David Groesbeck, of Suffern, Gentleman, both in the State of New York,
United States of America.
Sealed the 31st March 1876, and dated the 12th February 1876.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said William Robert Lake at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 12th February 1876.
A
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR VENTILATING
RAILWAY CARRIAGES, HOUSES, SHIPS, AND OTHER BUILDINGS OR STRUCTURES."
communication from abroad by William Henry St. John, of the City of New York,
Mechanical Engineer, and David Groesbeck, of Suffern, Gentleman, both in the
State of New York, United States of America.
This Invention in its various modifications may be employed in securing the
improved ventilation of railway carriages, of stores, shops, warehouses, dwellings,
and other buildings, and of stean ships and other vessels.
For the purpose of ventilating railway carriages the said Invention comprises a
novel combination of a water tank or dip pipe, a fan blower, an air-conducting pipe,
and a donkey engine worked by steam froin the locomotive boiler, the whole so
arranged that air drawn from the external atmosphere may be forced in minute
subdivision through the mass of water, and thereby cooled and deprived of dust
and other impurities previous to its distribution under more or less pressure to the
interior of the carriages to be ventilated.
The said Invention further comprises a novel combination of the fan blower
aforesaid, the dip pipe, and the air-conducting pipe with a tank on a railway tender,
whereby the loss of space in the carriage to be ventilated and the general incon-
venience that would result from the canying of a tank of sufficient capacity on a
passenger carriage are effectually avoided.
The said Invention further comprises, in the Invention as applied in carriage

page_text: ventilation, also a novel combination with the fan blower, tank, dip pipe, and air-
conducting pipe of a system of distributing pipes provided within the carriage to be
ventilated, whereby the distribution of the purified air to and within the said carriage
is placed under absolute control, and the ventilation of the carriage rendered equally
effective, whether the same be run with one end foremost or the other.
The said Invention further comprises in the ventilation of buildings a novel
combination of the tank, the dip pipe, the fan blower, air-conducting pipe, and con-
nected inlet and outlet valves, controlling the ingress and egress of the cooled or
purified air to the building to be ventilated, and securing the equable and uniform
ventilation of the same.
The portion of the said Invention relating to the ventilation of buildings also
embraces a novel combination of an elevated water reservoir or source of water
supply with the tank, the dip pipe, the fan blower, and the air-conducting pipe,
whereby the purification of the air by water renewed at will, or as occasion may
demand, and consequently the prevention of any noisome taint to the air from the
stagnation of water in the tank, or from the accumulation of impurities therein, is
effectually provided against."
- F
The said Invention further comprises, applied to the ventilation of sea-going and
other vessels, a novel combination of a pump arranged to draw water from the sea,
lake, or river, as the case may be, and deliver the same to the tank, with the said
tank provided with a syphon or other outlet, the fan blower, the dip pipe, and one
or more air-conducting pipes, whereby the apparatus is enabled to operate with the
constantly renewed water of the sea, lake, river, or the like, in which the vessel
may be situate or traversing, thereby securing a cooling of the air to a temperature
much below the normal temperature of the atmosphere, and freshening the air in a
manner especially desirable in voyages by sea.
IN
* 1
The said Invention further comprises, in relation to the ventilation of vessels, as
aforesaid, a novel combination of a donkey engine with the tank and its pump,
as described, the dip pipe, the fan blower, and one or more air-conducting pipes,
whereby provision is made for the perfect ventilation of the vessel when the vessel
is in port or becalmed, or when a more rapid ingress of purified air is required than
under many conditions could be afforded on steamers going at a low or moderate
speed. This portion of the said Invention moreover embraces a novel combination
of a peculiarly constructed air inlet pipe with the fan blower (used in connection
with the tank, the dip pipe, and the air-conducting pipe, as described, and with
the smoke stack or mast of the vessel, whereby any interference with the operation
of the ventilating apparatus from the shipping of seas on deck is effectually
provided against.
'
.

page_text: engineer) with steam from the locomotive boiler. The hood or shell f of the fan
blower B has connected with it a dip pipe C, which projects downward into the
tank A nearly to the bottom thereof, said dip pipe therefore extending considerably
below the surface of the water in the tank. It is preferred moreover that the
lower portion of the dip pipe should be perforated with numerous small holes, as
shown at a', but when desired the said dip pipe may be simply left open at its
lower end. From the top of the tank extends the air-conducting pipe D. The
outer extremity of this pipe D connects by a detachable coupling 6 with a con-
necting pipe d, attached to and forming part of the distributing pipes E, F. The
pipe E extends around the upper part of the carriage G, as shown more fully in
Figure 2, and is provided at each end of the carriage with a connecting pipe d, in
order that the air-conducting pipe D may be connected with the aforesaid dis-
tributing pipes at either end of the carriage, according as the latter may be required
to run one or the other end foremost. From the horizontal pipe E aforesaid, at each
end of the carriage, depend the vertical pipes F, open at bottom, but each provided
near its lower extremity with a stop-cock g. When the carriage is in motion the
stop-cocks g for the rearmost of the pipes F are closed, and the air drawn from the
tank A, as herein presently explained, is caused to pass into the front of the
carriage G through the forward pipes F, said forward pipes being opened for the
purpose by having their stop-cocks g turned in the requisite direction.
When desired other vertical pipes F*, corresponding in character and purpose
with the pipes F, may be placed at the sides of the carriage G, the said pipes F*
being connected at their upper ends with the horizontal pipe E, and at their lower
ends with stop-cocks marked g*, but serving the same purpose as the stop-cocks g of
the pipes F. These supplemental vertical pipes F* may be used to secure the
distribution of the purified air to the middle of the carriage when desired, instead
of at the ends, for which latter the pipes F are designed, as herein-before set
forth.
In the operation of this apparatus the rotation of the fan blower forces air from
its shell down through the dip pipe into and below the surface of the water in the
tank A. The air escaping from the orifices, holes, or perforations a¹, or, as the
case may be, from the open lower end of said pipe, passes into the water, and,
becoming finely divided therein, rises (by its own buoyancy) to the air space or
upper part of the tank, and thence passes through the air-conducting pipe to the
connecting pipe d. From this latter it passes to the horizontal pipe E, from which
through the pipes F, F*, either or both, as may be desired, it is, as herein-before set
forth, distributed to the interior of the carriage.
It will be observed that the air being brought into intimate contact with the
water in the tank is effectually freed from dust and other impurities which are
separated from or dissolved out of the air by the water. It will also be observed
that the air is measurably cooled by its intimate contact with the water, which as a
rule will be several degrees cooler than the atmosphere. The air being under more
or less pressure as it enters the carriage, displaces therefrom the warm impure or
contaminated air previously contained therein, thereby rendering the carriage cool,
well ventilated, and wholesome. The extent to which the cooled and purified air
is admitted as well as the place of its admission are of course regulated at will by
a simple manipulation of the cocks g or g*, as the case may be; moreover, the com-
bination of the fan blower and its herein previously specified adjuncts with the
tank of the tender renders the use of a tank on the carriage G itself entirely un-.
necessary, and thereby not only saves the space on the carriage, that would otherwise
be required for the tank, and furthermore, materially lessens the cost of constructing
the apparatus, and removes from the carriage the extra weight that the carrying of
the tank thereon would involve.
It will be particularly noticed that by the use of the donkey engine, as herein-
before set forth, the said apparatus may be operated whether the carriage is in
motion or not.
In Figure 4, which represents this Invention as applied to the ventilation of

page_text: 11.
buildings, the fan blower, dip pipe, tank, and air-conducting pipe are indicated by
the same letters of reference as in the Figures herein previously described. The fan
blower is operated from a motor or engine H of any suitable kind, connected by a
countershaft pulley and belt with the pulley or band of the fan blower, The
tank is provided with an inverted syphon outlet which permits the outflow of
surplus water from the tank without permitting any escape of air therethrough.
The tank is supplied with water through a water pipe froin an elevated reservoir I,
the pipe being provided with a cock whereby water may be let into the tank
at will. By these micaris the water in the tank inay be renewed as, often as may be
required to avoid stagnation or the undue accumulation of impurities in the tank,
The air-conducting pipe enters the building designated, G* preferably at one end
thereof. The several apartments of said building are connected by passages m²,
which may be fitted with valves or doors ¹. The air outlet of the building is
shown at m, and in it is fitted a butterfly, valve; on this valve is a crank arm r
In the air-conducting pipe through which the air passes from the tank into the
building is provided a similar butterfly valves provided with a crank arm 31. The
crank arm of valve is connected by a rod u with the crank arm s¹ of the
valve 8,
and from the crank arm s depends a rod, cord, or other, device u¹, whereby
the valve s may be opened or closed to any required degree to increase or diminish
the inflow of air from the tank as circumstances may require. And inasmuch as
the movement of the valves, acting through the rod u, communicates a correspond-
ing movenient to the valve r, it follows that these, the inlet and outlet valves to
the building, are always identical in position, and the inflow and outflow of air to
and from the building being thus equalized, an equable and uniformn ventilation of
the building is secured. It is of course to be understood that the air from the
external atinosphere is forced by the fan blower through the dip pipe into and
through the water in the tank, and thence through the air-conducting pipe to the
place to be ventilated in the same manner as in the ventilation of carriages, as
herein-before set forth. As an equivalent for the tank on the tender a tank on a
separate truck immediately behind the tender might be used.
**
In Figure 5, which represents this Invention as applied to the ventilation of sea-
going and other vessels, the fan blower, dip pipe, tank, and air-conducting pipe are
indicated by the same reference letters as in Figures 1, 2, and 3, and as in Figure 4
the fan blower is actuated by a motor or engine H, which when the apparatus, is
used on steamers may be driven by steam from the boilers that work the propelling
engines. But the tank is supplied with water from the sea, lake, river,, or other
water, by a pump K actuated from the same motor H that operates the fan blower,
the pump K drawing the water from below the water line of the vessel through
the pipe w, and pouring it into the tank through the pipe w. The tank is provided
as in Figure 4 with the inverted syphon outlet i, through which the surplus water
is discharged, a continual circulation of water being thus maintained through the
tank, while the air is forced continuously through the said water to the air-con-
ducting pipe, from which it passes to distributing pipes that convey it to the place
to be ventilated, as for example, the steerage W of the vessel, said distributing pipes
in Figure 5 being indicated by R. Said pipes may be provided with suitable cocks
for governing the outflow of air therefrom.
In order to prevent the choking of the air passage to and through the fan blower
by water when the decks of the vessel are washed by the waves, an air inlet pipe $
is attached to the fan blower and extended up alongside of and supported by the
smoke stack R* of the steamer, or in a sailing vessel by a mast thereof, the said
pipe being turned over at its upper end into the gooseneck form shown at a*.
Having thus fully described the nature of the said Invention, as communicated
to me by my foreign correspondents, and the manner of performing the saíne, I wish
it understood that I claim,―
First. The combination of the water tank, the dip pipe, the fan blower, the air-
conducting pipe, and the donkey engine worked by steam from the locomotive
boiler, arranged as above described for the ventilation of railway carriages.

page_text: Second. The combination with a tank on a railway tender of the fan blower,
the dip pipe, and the air-conducting pipe, as above set forth and for the purpose
specified.
Third. The combination with the fan blower, the tank, the dip pipe, and the
air-conducting pipe of the air-distributing pipes, as above set forth and for the
purpose specified.
Fourth. The connected inlet and outlet valves in combination with the tank, the
dip pipe, the fan blower, and the air-conducting pipe, arranged as above described
for the ventilation of buildings.
Fifth. The combination of the elevated water reservoir or source of water supply
with the tank, the dip pipe, the fan blower, and the air-conducting pipe, as.above
described and for the purpose specified.
Sixth. The pump for drawing water from the sea, lake, river, or other water, as
the case may be, in combination with the tank, the fan blower, the dip pipe, and
one or more air-conducting pipes, arranged for the ventilation of vessels, as above
set forth.
Seventh. In the ventilation of vessels, as aforesaid, the combination of the
donkey engine with the pump, the dip pipe, the fan blower, and one or more air-
conducting pipes, arranged as above described and for the purpose set forth.
Eighth. The air inlet pipe of curved or gooseneck form at its upper end, and
supported by the smoke stack or mast, as the case may be, of the vessel in combi-
nation with the fan blower arranged in connection with the dip pipe, the tank, and
one or more air-distributing pipes, as above described and for the purpose set
forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
Witness,
JAS. EDWARDS,
8, Southampton Buildings,
London.
WM. ROBT. LAKE. (L.S.)