IMPROVEMENTS IN FEED APPARATUS FOR STEAM AND OTHER BOILERS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE RAISING AND FORCING OF FLUIDS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Jacques Giffard, Mechanician, of Paris,
Town in the French Empire, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
FEED APPARATUS FOR STEAM AND OTHER BOILERS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE
ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE RAISING AND FORCING OF FLUIDS."
Sealed the 7th December 1858, and dated the 23rd July 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Jacques Giffard
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 23rd July 1858.
I, HENRY JACQUES GIFFARD, Mechanician, of Paris, Town in the French
Empire, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN FEED APPARATUS FOR STEAM AND OTHER BOILERS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS
ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE RAISING AND FORCING OF FLUIDS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of
apparatus for supplying the feed water or other liquid to steam or other
boilers, and for raising and forcing fluids generally. According to this
Invention, the impulsive force of a steam jet or blast is made to raise and
force the fluid required. For this purpose an apparatus of a peculiar con-
struction, but having no working or moving parts, is employed. This appa-
ratus, which may be considerably modified without changing the principle of
its action, consists, according to one arrangement, as applied to a steam boiler,
of a steam jet or injection pipe, which receives the steam from the boiler, and
directs it in a continuous jet into a small passage, the lower end or mouth of
which is expanded sufficiently to admit of the entrance of a stream of water,
which, by surrounding the steam jet pipe, forms an annular jet of water with

page_text: the steam jet in the centre. The water is drawn from a well or tank in any
convenient situation. This arrangement of jets may, however, be reversed,
that is, the steam jet may be annular, and the water jet in the centre of it;
or two steam and water jets may be used in certain cases, such as where the
condensation of the steam is not sufficiently rapid, owing to the heated state
of the water in the hot well or tank of the engine. The water has an impulsive
force imparted to it by the steam jet, and simultaneously receives a con-
siderable amount of heat therefrom before it enters the boiler. On issuing
from the narrow passage above referred to, the jet of water enters a second
passage, which is expanded slightly at its lower end for a short distance, and
also at its upper end, such expansion of the upper portion being gradual from
the commencement of the lower expansion. This lower expansion or con-
vergence serves to maintain the entering jet compact, whilst the upper
diverging portion serves to diminish gradually, and without shock, the
impetus which has been imparted to the fluid. A small valve is interposed
between the boiler and the jet pipes, so as to prevent the escape of water
from the boiler when the feed apparatus is out of action. By making the
steam or water jet pipe moveable or adjustable in regard to each other, by
means of screws or other suitable regulating apparatus, the quantity of water
elevated and forced may be controlled to a great nicety. By a slight modi-
fication of this apparatus it may be made to serve as a cock.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Jacques Giffard in the Great Seal Patent Office on.
the 13th January 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
JACQUES GIFFARD, Mechanician, of Paris, Town in the French Empire, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of July, in the year of our Lord'
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,-give-and-grant_unto_me,
the said Henry Jacques Giffard, Her special license that I, the said Henry
Jacques Giffard, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Henry Jacques Giffard, my executors, administrators, or
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

page_text: lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FEED APPARATUS FOR STEAM AND OTHER BOILERS, WHICH
IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE RAISING AND FORCING OF FLUIDS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry Jacques Giffard,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 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 Henry Jacques Giffard, 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, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and
to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
My said Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of
apparatus for supplying the feed water or other liquid to steam or other
boilers, and for raising and forcing fluids generally. According to this
Invention, the impulsive force of a steam jet or blast is made to raise and
force the fluid required. For this purpose an apparatus of a peculiar con-
struction, but having no working or moving parts, is employed. This
apparatus, which may be considerably modified without changing the prin-
ciple of its action, consists, according to one arrangement as applied to a
steam boiler, of a steam jet or injection pipe, which receives the steam from
the boiler, and directs it in a continuous jet into a small passage, the lower
end or mouth of which is expanded sufficiently to admit of the entrance of
a stream of water, which by surrounding the steam jet pipe forms an annular
jet of water with the steam jet in the centre. The water is drawn from a
well or tank in any convenient situation. This arrangement of jets may,
however, be reversed, that is, the steam jet may be annular, and the water
jet in the centre of it; or two steam and water jets may be used in certain
cases, such as where the condensation of the steam is not sufficiently rapid,
owing to the heated state of the water in the hot well or tank of the engine.
The water has an impulsive force imparted to it by the steam jet, and simul-
taneously receives a considerable amount of heat therefrom before it enters
the boiler. On issuing from the narrow passage above referred to, the jet of
water enters a second passage, which is expanded slightly at its lower end for
a short distance, and also at its upper end, such expansion of the upper
portion being gradual from the commencement of the lower expansion. This

page_text: lower expansion or conveyance serves to maintain the entering jet compact,
whilst the upper diverging portion serves to diminish gradually and without
shock the impetus which has been imparted to the fluid. A small valve is
interposed between the boiler and the jet pipes, so as to prevent the escape of
water from the boiler when the feed apparatus is out of action. By making
the steam or water jet pipe moveable or adjustable in regard to each other
by means of screws or other suitable regulating apparatus, the quantity of
water elevated and forced may be controlled to a great nicety. By a slight
modification of this apparatus it may be made to serve as a cock.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood, I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall
refer to the several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts throughout all the
Figures.
Figure 1 of the Drawings represents a vertical section of a very simple
arrangement of my apparatus, which may be modified and varied in many
ways. b is the steam jet pipe, which is fitted with a contracted nozzle, and
receives the steam direct from the boiler, and discharges it in the form of a
constant or continuous jet into a species of small chimney c. This chimney is
expanded at the bottom so as to admit of the free passage of an annular jet
of water, which is drawn up through the pipe d, by the action of the steam
jet in the chimney from the hot well or other supply reservoir, and is thus
brought into immediate contact with the steam, which transmits an impulse to
it, and simultaneously raises its temperature; thus, there will issue from the
chimney into the air a jet of water only more or less heated. A short distance
above this chimney is a double mouthpiece e, the lower extremity of which
is gradually contracted inwards so as to unite or collect in one compact vein,
the liquid jet which issues from the mouth of the chimney c, in a more or less
broken or scattered state, whilst the upper portion of the mouthpiece is
expanded gradually, so as to cause the jet to lose successively and without
shock to the liquid, the speed which it has attained, so that it may arrive at
the upper portion of the apparatus at a pressure at least equal to that of the
boiler without possessing any notable speed, and consequently without loss of
"vis viva."
Above the expanded mouthpiece-e,-or_at_any other convenient
part of the apparatus, is fitted a small valve f, the object of which is to prevent s
the escape of water from the boiler when the apparatus is not at work. Above
this valve is the pipe g, which conducts the feed water to the boiler. Below.
the valve f is a branch pipe t, furnished with a stop-cock, upon which pipe a
manometer or pressure guage may be fitted when required for experiment.
!

page_text: The delivery, and the suitable proportion of water to be injected in relation to
the power of the steam jet, and to the smallest diameter of the double mouth-
piece e, is adjusted or regulated by means of the regulating screw h, the effect
of which is to increase or diminish the distance between the nozzle b and the
lower end of the chimney c, and thereby enlarging or contracting the annular.
jet of water. The regulation may be made by the apparatus itself, as shewn:
by Figure 3, for this purpose the nozzle is moveable, and free to slide within
the box a, a, being guided at the upper end by the partition m, and at the.
lower extremity by three or four guide arms n, n.
The lower aperture o is.
closed by any easy working packing, or by a species of metallic bellows o, o.
The steam pressure acting upon this apparatus will cause a helical or other
spring to be more or less compressed, such spring being adjusted to suit the
pressure of the steam employed, and the size of the annular jet of water at the
entrance to the chimney. This adjustment of the water jet inay also be:
accomplished in the manner shewn at Figure 4. In this arrangement the:
steam jet assumes an annular form issuing from the orifice q, and forces, con-
densing itself at the same time into the space r, s, a quantity of water
proportionate to the pressure, which water on entering the chimney receives
on the part of the nozzle a further impulsion. The whole of the apparatus
may be enclosed in an envelope such as is shown at i, i, (Figure 1,) which.
is fitted at the lower part with a small pipe J, descending again into the well
in case there should be any spirting of the water at the entrance to the
contracting mouthpiece e. It is also fitted with another pipe K, at the upper.
part, so that in case of the water from the well being drawn up too hot, and
the whole of the steam being thereby not condensed, the excess of the latter
may escape. Openings or windows may also be formed in the outer case for.
facilitating the examination of the state of the jet and general working of the
apparatus, which openings may be covered with glass, or an entire casing of
glass may be employed if found desirable. Below the atmospheric pressure,
water can condense steam only when its temperature is below 100° centigrade,
in case the initial temperature of the water in the hot well or reservoir or
tender (when applied to locomotive engines) should be too high, which
cannot always be avoided, to condense the entire quantity of steam issuing
from the nozzle, it would be requisite to divide the actuating steam jet into
two parts, as shewn in Figure 2, the first portion acting as above described,
drawing up the water and imparting to it only a fraction of the necessary
speed, and the second portion arriving by the pipe t, and having its annular
sectional form regulated by the screw W, would impart to the vein or jet a
fresh impulse in the diverging mouthpiece to any point where the ejected

page_text: water would still possess a portion of the pressure of the boiler. Now with
this portion of pressure above the pressure of the atmosphere, the water could
condense the fresh amount of steam, which would then no longer act except
with the difference of the total pressure already acquired, and would thus be
introduced into the boiler under the most favorable conditions. This principle
may be modified and worked out in various ways, in all cases the water may
also be made to flow in the centre, and the steam surrounding it for the first
impulse, and vice versa, but taking care always to be provided with an adjusting
arrangement for regulating the various sections of jets, and for acting also as a
stop-cock, as shewn in Figure 5. This apparatus may also be fixed in any
convenient position, whether horizontal, vertical, or oblique. The improved
feed injector may also be employed in feeding boilers, in which other liquids
than water are evaporated, such as ether, sulphuret of carbon, &c.
also be applied to wells of any depth for the purpose of raising water to the
surface, particularly when such water is required to be ulteriorly heated.
It may
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe in conclusion that I do not confine or restrict
myself to the precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion to
describe or refer to, as variations may be made therefrom, without deviating
from the principles or main features of my said Invention; but what I
consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured
to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Prtent is,―
First, the general constructions, arrangements, and combinations of apparatus
for raising and forcing fluids by the direct action of a jet or jets of steam, as
herein-before described.
Second, the application and use to and in the feeding or supplying of steam
generators or other boilers with water or other liquid, and to the raising of.
fluids generally, of a jet or jets of steam, in the manner herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Jacques Giffard, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of December, One thousand
HENRY JACQUES GIFFARD. (L.S.)