IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CLEANING TUBES OF STEAM BOILERS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Wilhelm Sylvester Von Essen, Engineer, of
Hamburg, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
CLEANING TUBES OF STEAM BOILERS."
Sealed the 4th August 1874, and dated the 7th February 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Wilhelm Sylvester Von
Essen at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 7th February 1874.
I, WILHELM SYLVESTER VON ESSEN, Engineer, of Hamburg, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
Apparatus for Cleaning Tubes or STEAM BOILERS," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is cleaning the tubes of ships' boilers and
other boilers by means of steam without opening the tube doors or any
part of the smoke box.
At one end of the lower part of the smoke box, just before the end of
the boiler tubes, rows of horizontal tubes are arranged. These horizontal
tubes are supported above and between the boiler tubes, so that the

page_text: flame of fire does not meet them generally. These horizontal tubes are
turnable upon cranks or centres, and so that each of them can be
brought before the openings of a row of boiler tubes. At one end the
horizontal tubes are closed, and at the other end they communicate
through pipes with the steam of the boiler.
When necessary to clean the boiler tubes one or more of the horizontal
tubes are turned in front of the mouth of the corresponding boiler tubes
and the steam inlet is opened. The steam then rushes through borings
or passages which are cut in the horizontal tubes into the corre-
sponding boiler tubes, and by its power cleans the tubes from all
impurities.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Wilhelm Sylvester Von Essen in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 7th August 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILHELM
SYLVESTER VON ESSEN, Engineer, of Hamburg, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Wilhelm Sylvester Von Essen, Her
special licence that I, the said Wilhelm Sylvester Von Essen, my exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Wilhelm
Sylvester Von Essen, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CLEANING TUBES OF STEAM BOILERS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Wilhelm Sylvester Von
Essen, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed

page_text: in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Wilhelm Sylvester Von Essen, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
The object of this Invention is cleaning the tubes of ships' boilers and
other boilers by means of steam without opening the tube doors or any
part of the smoke box.
At one end of the lower part of the smoke box, just before the end of
the boiler tubes, rows of horizontal tubes are arranged. These horizontal
tubes are supported above and between the boiler tubes, so that the
flame of fire does not meet them generally. These horizontal tubes are
turnable upon cranks or centres, and so that each of them can be
brought before the openings of a row of boiler tubes. At one end the
horizontal tubes are closed, and at the other end they communicate
through pipes with the steam of the boiler.
When necessary to clean the boiler tubes one or more of the horizontal
tubes are turned in front of the mouth of the corresponding boiler tubes
and the steam inlet is opened. The steam then rushes through borings
or passages which are cut in the horizontal tubes into the corre-
sponding boiler tubes, and by its power cleans the tubes from all
impurities.
The accompanying Drawings represent a few of the different con-
structions or arrangements of my apparatus.
Figures 1 and 2 show a marine or a ship's boiler in sections, of which
a, a, a, are the fire-tubes. A is the chimney, and B the smoke box.
Before the openings of the fire-tubes I arrange small horizontal tubes d, d,
in a manner as shown in Figures 1 and 2. These tubes communicate by
an arrangement turnable upon cocks, as shown on larger scale in
Figure 3, through pipes C and D with the steam of the boiler.
When the apparatus is out of work the tubes are brought in the
position of the under rows of tubes as in Figure 1, in which case the
communication with the boiler is shut off and the tubes are not exposed
to the flames.

page_text: When necessary to clean the fire-tubes one or more of the tubes of
my apparatus are turned before the openings of the corresponding fire-
tubes, as shown in the two upper tubes of Figure 1. After opening the
cock E the steam rushes into the pipes d, d, and through the holes g, I,
Figure 3, into the fire-tubes. All impurities of the fire-tubes are
removed by the power of the steam and blown out of them. After
having thus cleaned the corresponding row of fire-tubes the steam tubes
are turned back to their original position, and the operation is repeated
for the next row of tubes, and so on.
As the cocks and part of the tubes of my apparatus are arranged 1
outside the chimney the operation of cleaning the fire-tubes can be
attained without opening the doors of the smoke box, and this is an
important part of my Invention. There are small sheet iron sliding
shutters n, n, Figure 2, which have to be removed before the tubes can
be turned.
Figures 4 and 5 are modifications of my apparatus. Figure 4 shows
the section of a common ship boiler. a, a, are the fire-tubes; B is the
smoke box. The cleaning apparatus consists in this construction of the
bent pipe D, D, which communicates through the valve E and pipes F, F,
with the steam of the boiler. At the lower horizontal portion of the 2
pipe D the small holes g, g, are arranged, according to the openings of
the fire-tubes. When the fire-tubes are to be cleaned the pipe D, D,
is lifted by the lifting apparatus H, I, K, level with the openings of one
row of fire-tubes, and then the steam valve E is opened. For cleaning
the next row of fire-tubes the apparatus is further lifted to the centre of
the next row by pulling down the bar K, in which the holes for stop
pins are made according to the distances apart of the rows of tubes.
By then opening the valve E the steam rushes into the fire-tubes and
cleans them.
In Figure 5 my apparatus is shown as constructed for a boiler with:
three fires. D, D, is the tube system; H, I, K, is the lifting arrange-
ment; E, the steam valve; and F, F, the pipes to the steam of the
boiler.
According to the construction of the boiler the form of the tube D, D,
must be modified. I do not therefore limit myself to the arrangements
before explained, but what I claim as my Invention of "Improvements
in Annaratus for Cleaning Tubes of Steam Boilers is. -

page_text: Firstly. The employment of one or more horizontal tubes, or of a tube
bent according to the construction of the boiler and the arrangement of
the fire-tubes, in each case fitted inside the smoke box, for the purpose
of cleaning the fire-tubes by steam.
And Secondly. I claim the arrangement of apparatus as herein-before
specially described and shown, which allows the cleaning of fire-tubes
by jets of steam without necessarily opening the door of the smoke box
of boilers.
In witness whereof, I, the said Wilhelm Sylvester Von Essen, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Third day of August One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
WILHELM SYLVESTER VON ESSEN. (L.S.)