AN APPARATUS FOR REGULATING THE SUPPLY OF WATER, IN STEAM BOILERS AND OTHER VESSELS POR CONTAINING WATER. OR OTHER LIQUIDS: LIQUIDS
Year: 1823

page_text: JEAKES SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
JEAKES, of. Great Russell Street, in the Parish of St. George, Bloomsbury, in
the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
ار
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George 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 Twenty-fourth day of July, One thousand eight hundred and twenty-three,
in the fourth year of His reign, give and grant, unto me, the said William
Jeakes, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said William Jeakes, my exors, adñiors,
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 "AN APPARATUS FOR REGULATING THE
SUPPLY OF WATER, IN STEAM BOILERS AND OTHER VESSELS POR CONTAINING WATER.
OR OTHER LIQUIDS:
LIQUIDS; in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
that if I, the said William Jcakes, shall not particularly describe and ascertain
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, and cause
the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent, that then the said Letters Patent and all liberties and advantages
whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void,
as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, will more fully, and at
large appear.
..
BJ

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the said
William Jeakes, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, and particularly
described and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed and the
following description thereof (that is to say):-
The advantages of my apparatus for regulating the supply of water in steam
boilers, &c., will be best understood by cousidering in the first place an
inconvenience to which apparatus for a similar purpose have been hitherto
subject; one mode of regulating the supply of water admitted into a tank,
cistern, boiler, or other vessel, and of shutting it off as the vessel becomes
full, has been by attaching a hollow metal ball as a float to the cock of the
supply pipe by means of an arm or lever, which rising with the float closes
the cock of the supply pipe as the water ascends to the top of the vessel.
When this sort of hollow ball is introduced as a float into a steam boiler for
the purpose of regulating the supply of water, the very considerable heat
of the steam expands the air within the hollow ball, and frequently rends
it open, under which circumstance the water gains access to the interior
of the ball and thereby destroys its buoyance, and renders the apparatus of no
effect. To remedy this I have made the arm or lever that carries the ball
hollow and communicating with the interior of the ball, by which means as
the temperature becomes raised, the rarified air within the balls finds vent
through the hollow arm into the atmosphere, and as the temperature lowers
the atmosphere finds its way into the ball.
Fig. 1 in the annexed Drawing represents a section of the improved
apparatus consisting of a supply cistern with its pipes, float, lever, and other
appendages, as connected to the boiler of a cooking apparatus.
A is a
reservoir of water placed in any convenient situation; and B is the supply
pipe. From this pipe the water flows into the supply cistern C, and
thence through a valve D into the cylinder E, where the ball F floats.
At the bottom of this cylinder a pipe G is attached, which conveys the
water into the boiler H; to the stern of the float F the disc I is affixed,
and by its rising and falling the valve D is opened or closed; as the water
flows in the cylinder E to the same height as in the boiler H, it follows
that whenever the water is low in the boiler H, the float F will descend
and the valve D be opened so as to permit the water from the supply cistern
to flow through the valve into the cylinder, and thence through the pipe G
to the boiler. By these means the water will soon raise to its proper level
in the boiler, and the float at the same time rising also in the cylinder,
will close the valve and prevent any further accession of water. To K, the

page_text: upper part of the stem of the float, a long lever L is connected, which moves
upon a fulcrum pin in the arm M; the shorter end of this lever acts against a
pin with a conical top N, and as the float ball descends, opening the valve D,
the longer arm of the lever L descends also, and causes its shorter arm to
lift the valve N, and permit the water to flow from the pipe B into the supply
cistern C, and thence through the valve D to the cylinder E, and ultimately
to the boiler; but, when the float ascends, the cone N is permitted to fall
and close the valve. O is a stopcock for shutting off the current of water in
the pipe B whenever the apparatus may require to be moved for any purpose.
The pressure of the steam within the boiler acting upon the surface of the
water, will sometimes by its force cause the water to return through the
pipe G and fill the cylinder E; the valve D, however, being at this time
closed, the water will rise in the pipe P until the weight of its column exactly
balances the pressure of the steam; supposing the boiler to be heated so that
the steam shall exert a pressure of one pound on every superficial inch, then
the column of water P will rise to the altitude of thirty-six inches, under these
circumstances the hollow metal ball or float F will be enveloped in boiling
water, by the heat of which the air within will be expanded. The ball, how-
ever, having an opening through the hollow stem K to the atmosphere, the air
will be permitted to escape without injuring the ball, which, if confined, would
probably have burst it open. In order to guard against the water filling
the supply cistern C by any accidental leakage of the valve N, a small waste
pipe Q is introduced, the open top of which is a little above the ordinary
level of the water in the supply cistern.
Figure 2 shews a similar cylinder E, float ball F, and valve D, to those
represented in Fig. 1, the supply cistern C varying slightly in form from
that in the preceding Figure. This is to exhibit a different mode of regulating.
the flow of water from the supply pipe B to that adopted in Figure 1. Here
the water passes from the pipe B through an ordinary cock, upon the plug or
key of which the lever R is fixed, and passing through the mortice in the
stem K rises and falls with the float ball, by which means when the level of
the water in the cylinder rises sufficiently high, the valve D is close by the
disc I, and also the cock of the pipe B shut by the rising of the lever R, and
opened again by its descent.
Fig. 3 represents my improved 'ball cock when placed within a boiler; and
Fig. 4 is a section of the pipes and cock as in the preceding Figure, shewing
their internal passages (the same letters referring to the same parts respec-
tively in these two Figures. A, the reservoir of water which supplies the
boiler; B, the supply pipe, which should be of such height that the column of

page_text: water, contained therein would at all times overcome the force of the steam
within the boiler C; D is the cock; E, the arm or lever which turns the
cock; F, the hollow metallic ball float. The rising of the surface of the water
in the boiler causes the float F to lift the arm E and shut the cock D as
in ordinary ball cocks; but as the air within the ball will be expanded by the
heat of the steam surrounding it, there would be a tendency of the ball to
burst, as before mentioned. This, however, is prevented by the hollow. arm E
through which the rarified air escapes from the ball, and passes by means of
longitudinal passage in the cock D, to the vent pipe G placed by the side
of the supply pipe B, and opening into the atmosphere.
Having thus described the modes of constructing my newly invented
apparatus for regulating the supply of water in steam boilers, I proceed to
state particularly in what my claim of Patent right consists, viz* :—
1st, in forming a communication from the interior of the float ball to the,
atmosphere, by which the rarified air may escape without bursting the float.
2d, in preventing the water from overflowing the supply cistern when
acted upon by the pressure of the incumbent steam in the boiler,
And, 3d, in a manner of insuring a certain and more speedy supply of
water to the boiler by means of a column raised and balanced by the pressure
of the steam.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Jeakes, have hereunto set my.
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.