CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN RENDERING CON- DENSING STEAM ENGINES PORTABLE AND APPLICABLE AS A MEANS OF GENERAL TRANSPORT ON RAIL AND OTHER ROADS
Year: 1835

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
WILSON NICKOLL, of Elham, near Canterbury, in the County of Kent, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty William the Fourth, did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at Westminster, the
Tenth day of August, in the sixth year of His reign, give and grant unto
me, the said Samuel Wilson Nickoll, my executors, administrators,; and
assigns. His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said Samuel Wilson. Nickoll, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
during the term of years therein mentioned, 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 RENDERING CON-
DENSING STEAM ENGINES PORTABLE AND APPLICABLE AS A MEANS OF GENERAL
TRANSPORT ON RAIL AND OTHER ROADS;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso that I, the said Samuel Wilson Nickoll, shall cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next immediately after the date of the said in part recited
Letters Patent, reference being thereunto had, may more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Samuel Wilson Nickoll, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be known and performed,
are particularly described and ascertained in and by the following description
thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the
figures and letters marked thereon:-
Figure 1 exhibits a longitudinal section of my improvements as arranged
or the purpose of steam locomotion on rail roads, and Figure 2 exhibits a
cross section of parts of the same improvements at the line a, b, (Figure 1).
The same letters refer to similar parts on the different Figures. A (Figure 1)
is the section of a boiler made under a Patent granted to Joel Spiller, of
date Twenty-fourth September, One thousand eight hundred and thirty-five.
C is the condenser; B, B, (Figure 2) two steam engine cylinders, the piston
rods of which are united by a cross-head E; F, the air pump, worked by
the cross-head E; G, the ejection pipes of the air pump; H, the force
pump supplied from the condenser, and also worked by the cross-lead E.
D (Figure 1) the engine room. Two endless chains with suitable gear commu-
nicate any required velocity from the shaft M to the axle of the hind wheels O;
P, the cold water tank; R, a revolving hood furnished with a vane to main-
tain the hood always in the direction of the wind; S, the refrigerator. The
refrigerator consists of several series of layers of hair cloth or other cloth,
metal, or other suitable material extended on metal rods horizontally or in any
other convenient position. Each layer of the refrigerator is placed at such a
distance from the layer or layers above or below, or above and below it, that a
current of air from the hood R may pass freely and rapidly through, between,
and among its various strata. The condensed steam and condensing water
are discharged from the ejection pipes G, G, of the air pump F (Figure 2)
upon the upper layer of the refrigerator S (Figure 1), so that in its passage
through that and the inferior layers of the refrigerator, the water so descending
is rendered by evaporation sufficiently cool for all the purposes of a condensing
steam engine. The refrigerator must be made very rough and not too
porous, lest the water transmitted into the refrigerator should not be detained
long enough exposed to the refrigerating process. I, a chamber perforated
with several small apertures in its posterior portion for the purpose of more
equally distributing successive currents of air supplied from the hood R
through the refrigerator. U, a pipe conducting the air from the refrigerator
to the furnace. The superficial area of the refrigerator that I should recom
mend would be about one hundred square feet per horse power. And I
hereby claim to maintain the exclusive right and privilege to make or use a

page_text: refrigerator constructed as above specified, together with its apparatus, as also
above specified, for directing, maintaining, or distributing currents of air
through, between, or among its various strata or compartments, for the
purpose of reducing the temperature of water which has been heated in or by
the condenser or condensers of a portable steam engine or engines. Further,
I claim to maintain the exclusive right and privilege to make or use certain
parts of portable condensing steam engines for steam boats, according to
either or both the following arrangements, videlicet, I unite the piston rods of
two steam engine cylinders and the piston rods of the air pump and of such
other pump or pumps as may be required to the same cross-head, or I unite
the piston rods of the said pump or pumps to a distinct cross-head, which
distinct cross-head I connect through the medium of a forked connecting rod
with a crank on the paddle shaft. And I claim either of such last claimed
arrangements, or both of them, wherever they or either of them can be applied
to portable condensing steam engines.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Wilson Nickoll, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six