CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF HEAT, BY THE APPLICATION OF WELL-KNOWN PRINCIPLES NOT HITHERTO MADE USE OF, IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FURNACES OF STEAM ENGINES, AND OF AIR FURNACES IN GENERAL, WHEREBY A CONSIDERABLE SAVING IN THE EXPENDITURE OF FUEL IS OBTAINED, AND THE TOTAL CONSUMPTION OF SMOKE MAY BE EFFECTED
Year: 1822

page_text: .
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
HOLWORTHY PALMER, of the Royal Mint, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twelfth day of February, in the fourth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
George Holworthy Palmer, His especial licence, that I, the said George
Holworthy Palmer, my executors, administrators, or assigns, or such others
as I, the said George Holworthy Palmer, my executors, administrators, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
aud at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England and Wales, and
the Town of Berwick upon Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE PRODUCTION OF HEAT, BY THE APPLICATION OF WELL-KNOWN PRINCIPLES NOT
HITHERTO MADE USE OF, IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FURNACES OF STEAM ENGINES, AND
OF AIR FURNACES IN GENERAL, WHEREBY A CONSIDERABLE SAVING IN THE EXPENDITURE
OF FUEL IS OBTAINED, AND THE TOTAL CONSUMPTION OF SMOKE MAY BE EFFECTED;" in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said
George Holworthy Palmer, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next

page_text: and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by
the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Holworthy Palmer, have executed this instrument, by which I do
declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in which the
same is to be used and put in practice, are particularly described and ascertained
in manner following (namely) :-
My said improvements consist in the invention, use, and employment of a
new hydraulic rotative machine for the purpose of blowing air upon or
exhausting it from the burning fuel in furnaces, and also consist, indepen-
dently of the machine, in a new mode of creating a draft through a furnace,
or of applying air to burning fuel in a steady uniform blast of any required
strength, and to any part or parts of the furnace. My new hydraulic rotative
machine consists of three distinct parts.
First, a cast-iron tank or cistern containing a sufficient quantity of water and
made air and water tight everywhere but at the top, where it communicates
with the external air by means of a pipe.
Secondly, a wheel or blower made of sheet iron, copper, or tin plate, and
containing three or more curved air conductors alternately over-wrapping each
other, and arranged about the circumference of the wheel, with the axis of
which they are connected by iron arms. The space between the axis of the
blower and the air conductors is partly filled with water, and that part of it
which is above the water is called the chamber. The blower or wheel is
placed vertically in the tank with its axis below the level of the water, and
there are openings in the centre of the blower on each side, affording a free
communication between the water and the tank, and that which is within the
blower.
Thirdly, an elbow air pipe which opens into the chamber of the blower as
high as conveniently above the level of the water, and passing through the
side of the tank, in such a way as not to obstruct the revolution of the blower,
proceeds to the furnace. The blower may be made to revolve by the hand or
by any of the usual contrivances for the like purpose; and according to the
direction in which the rotation is made to take place, the machine will act as
a condensing or an exhausting machine. The annexed Figure represents a
vertical section of the machine, and various modes in which the air pipe may
be connected with the furnace, and by reference to it the construction and
action of the apparatus will be clearly explained. M is the machine; A, A, A,
the tank, filled with water to the level; v, w, is a pipe opening from the upper
part of the tank to the external air; a, a, a, the air conductors arranged about

page_text: the circumference of the blower. By means of the openings from the center
of the blower to the tank, the water, when the machine is at rest, is at the
same level in the tank and in the blower. Q, the space above the water in
the blower is the chamber. B, B, B, B, is the elbow air pipe, having its
opening into the upper part of the chamber sheltered by a cap or hood, which
protects it from the drippings of water from the air conductors as they revolve.
If the blower be turned in the direction of the arrows, the machine acts as a
condenser and blower, for as each conductor enter the water in the tank at v,
its other extremity escapes from the water at a, and the body of air which it
contained is forced into the chamber, and there condensed until the condensation
impels a current into the pipe B, and the like process taking place as each
conductor successively enters the water, a constant and uniform blast is
sustained, and in proportion to the velocity of the rotation the strength of the
blast will be increased. If the blower be turned in a contrary direction the
machine acts as an exhauster and pump, for as each conductor escapes from
the water at P, it is filled with air from the chamber, and, being so filled, as
the conductor again enters the water at æ, the same air is forced out at the
other end of the conductor, and begins to be delivered into the tank at v, and
by this means the quantity of air in the chamber is exhausted by the amount
so conveyed away. The deficiency is immediately supplied by a current of air
which enters the chamber through the pipe B, and the like process being repeated
as each conductor successively escapes from and returns to the water, a con-
tinual exhaustion or suction is preserved, and thereby a continual current of air
is forced into the chamber from the pipe B, and in proportion to the velocity
of the rotation, the strength of the suction and consequent current of air is
increased. The air pipe B is continued to the furnace, and by making it
proceed in different directions, as through the branches I or L, represented in
the Figure, it may be made to go to such part or parts of the furnace as may
be made to go to such part or parts of the furnace as may be most convenient;
and when the machine is employed as a condenser or blower, it will inject any
given or desired quantity of air into the furnace in a steady regulated blast by
any number of openings, which may be of any form or size. The opening or
openings into the furnace may enter either in front, at the side, on the bridge,
or underneath the fire bars, reserving in the latter case the greatest proportion
of the fire bars for the entrance of air in the usual way, but the mode of application
must be determined by the form and extent of each particular furnace to which
this machine and contrivance may be applied. And it is to be observed that
if the air pipe is made to enter the furnace underneath the fire bars, as in the
direction L in the Figure, the pipe ought to be made to terminate in a box or

page_text: air chamber, which in the Figure is represented at C. The top of this box
forms one of the fire bars with an aperture running its whole length to admit
the air to pass through into the furnace; the bottom of the box is furnished
with an air-tight door at 2, to let out the cinders and ashes which fall from the
furnace. At the first firing of the furnace, and until the natural draft operates
to admit air through the fire bars to inflame the smoke, there is a very imper-
fect combustion, and consequently a great loss of fuel. It is at this time
that my machine used as a blower is particularly useful; if put in motion and
turned with sufficient velocity, it will supply air enough to consume all the
smoke. Moreover, every furnace to which my machine is applied as a blower
becomes a compound furnace, being supplied with air from two independent
sources; first, in the usual way through the fire bars; and secondly, by injection
through the machine; and by these means all the combustible products are so
completely ignited that the heat obtained will be in direct proportion to the
quantity of fuel consumed. The rapid evolution of heat is ascertained by the
effects produced, and the complete combustion of the combustible products
appears from the absence of soot and smoke from the flues and chimney. It is
obvious that one machine may be employed as a blower for more furnaces than
one by opening and cutting off the communications from the pipe B by cocks;
when the machine is employed to act by exhaustion or as a pump, the air pipe
ought to be made to communicate with the extremity of the furnace, which is
beyond the part in which the heat is required to be expended, as in the Figure.
The pipe B ought to be continued in the direction E, E, E, to meet the back
part of the furnace, and no other branch ought then to communicate with the fur-
nace. The machine being then turned in the direction which produces exhaustion,
a current of air in the direction E, E, B, is immediately excited, and this current
being supplied from the furnace, and from the external air through the fire
bars, a constant and rapid draft through the furnace is created. The consumption
of the ignitable products of burning fuel is greatly increased, and the elastic
fluids which do not ignite pass through the pipe B into the chamber of the
blower, and thence through the air conductors into the upper part of the tank,
from whence they might be suffered to escape into the external air through a
simple pipe, as at the top of D in the Figure. But when the machine is
employed in this way it sometimes happens that the smoke is not entirely
consumed at the first lighting of the fire, for want of sufficient degree of heat;
to remedy this inconvenience, the exit pipe in the upper part of the tank may
be made to pass on to a vessel of water in which the unconsumed smoke, if
any, will be deposited as in the Figure, for the pipe K, at the end is connected.
to a wash plate which terminates in the vessel F, which vessel is filled.. with

page_text: water up to the dotted line e, about one inch above the wash plate, and the
elastic fluids passing along the pipe K to the water box F, and blowing through
the water finally escape along the pipe H free from any smoke, and in this
way the smoke of furnaces may be intirely suppressed without resorting to
lofty chimneys. Whether the condensing or exhausting process is employed
to ignite the smoke or steam engine, retort furnaces, or the furnaces of sugar
bakers pans, &c., the furnace may be fed with fuel by the stoker in the usual
way, or by the introduction of a hopper. My new hydraulic rotative machine
may be made of different sizes adapted to the magnitudes of the furnaces to
which it is to be applied. If the blower be made with a diameter of about
five feet and a half, and a width about two fect and a half, and the conductors
are made about four inches deep, the power of the machine will be found
sufficient for general purposes.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Holworthy Palmer, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, the Twelfth day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-two.