IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Prince, of the Office for Patents,
4, Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross, in the County of Middlesex, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES."-A communication from
abroad by Francois Joseph de Bayelt, resident at Lyons, in the Empire of
דד
Sealed the 11th June 1861, and dated the 15th December 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Prince at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 15th
December 1860.
I, ALEXANDER PRINCE, of the Office for Patents, 4, Trafalgar Square,
Charing Cross, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES," (a communication
to him from abroad by Francois Joseph de Bayelt, resident at Lyons in the
Empire of France), to be as follows:-
These improvements apply to the condensation of the waste steam of non-
condensing engines, and the heating of the water arising from such con-
densation before it enters the boiler.
The waste steam is conducted into a vessel surrounded by cold water, where
it is condensed, and the condensed water is extracted therefrom by a pump.

page_text: which forces it into a tube passing the boiler; the tube which leads from the
pump to the boiler is made to pass through the flues, so that the condensed
water is heated before entering the boiler.
In some cases two pumps may be used for extracting the condensed water
from the condenser and forcing it into the boiler. The first pump which
extracts it from the condenser discharges it into a high tube, where the air,
mingled with the water of condensation, separates itself, and is discharged freely
into the atmosphere. The second or feed pump, which may be the ordinary
feed pump of the engine, draws its supply from this tube and forces the water
into the boiler as above described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander Prince in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
15th June 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
PRINCE, of the Office for Patents, 4, Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Alexander Prince, Her special licence that I, the said Alexander Prince, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alexander.
Prince, 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 STEAM ENGINES,"
(a communication from abroad by François Joseph de Bayelt, resident at Lyons,
in the Empire of France), upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Alexander Prince, 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 in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alexander Prince, do hereby declare
the nature. of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, that is to say:
This Invention relates to the condensation of the waste steam of non-
condensing steam engines, and the heating of the water arising from such
condensation before it enters the boiler.
In order to explain the said Invention as completely as possible I now
proceed to describe the best means I an acquainted with for carrying the
same into practical effect, reference being had to the illustrative Sheet of
Drawings hereto annexed, and to the numeral figures and letters of reference
marked thereon respectively as follows:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS..
The apparatus consists of a wrought-iron cylindrical receiver A, in which is
another smaller one B.
The apparatus for twenty horse-power consist of a receiver A in wrought
iron of a cylindrical form, in which is another smaller one B of the same
kind and of the same metal which is fastened to the bottom of the receiver.
This interior cylinder is open at the top and to which is fixed with bolts a tubular
bracket of cast iron C, covered over with a plate D, pierced with fifty-two holes,
through which fifty-two tubes are made to pass, and are screwed at top and at
bottom to the plate D and d; these tubes, except one in the centre, are each
full one inch and three quarters in diameter, increasing in size, according to
the number of horse-power. The bottom plate is fitted to the cast-iron box F,
which receives the cold water through the centre tube E, which is encased in
the cylinder B. The centre tube E is two inches in diameter, and intended
for the introduction of the cold water necessary for condensation into the
box F, from whence it ascends through the fifty-one smaller tubes to fall
round the cylinder B into the receiver A. To the right of the receiver A is a
curved pipe O, which conveys the water to the lower reservoir H, and which
is afterwards drawn up by the pump I through the pipe J, in the top receiver K,
through which the water goes back through the pipe E, supplied with a stop-
cock G fixed to the same centre tube E communicating to the box F. To the
left of the receiver A is the escape pipe L, for the steam which has already
been used coming from the steam engine after it has been put in motion; the
said pipe is joined to the pipe M, which is supplied with two stop-cocks N,N',
Underneath the stop-cock. N¹, the curve pipe O' is fastened by stays forming

page_text: joints lengthened out, and conveys the steam into the interior cylinder B,
where it enters at a height of twenty inches, to be there condensed, producing
a considerable vacuum in the interior cylinder B.
The pneumatic pump (either of cast iron or other metal) is made into two
pieces put together forming a joint, by means of which it is fixed to the right
of the reservoir A; it is then that it is put in motion by the steam engine
through a pulley to work the eccentric q. Its function is to aspire the
water and the steam contained in the cylinder B through the curved tube q',
to drive it back again through the pipe R, supplied with a stop-cock S; the
said pipe lengthens out and forms a curve and communicates with the pipe T
and T. The pipe T¹ towards the left forms a curve in front and by the side
of the boiler through which it is introduced at a distance of seven inches from
the bottom of the boiler, and consequently where the steam is produced in
steam engine. The pipe T lengthening to the right forms an elbow by the
side of the box, to which is fixed a valve U, and joined to a second pipe V,
which is bent, and joins the pipe X, extending in length to four feet eight
inches in the regenerating cylinder Y, and placed in the middle of the floating
of the steam boiler. This cylinder is made of wrought iron or brass six feet in
length-and-seven-inches-in-diameter, in which the steam is brought rapidly to
a higher pressure than that which is produced in the boiler where precipitating
itself through the pipe Z supplied with a stop-cock Y¹, produces a vacuum,
the effect of which is immediately felt through the entire length from the boiler
to the pneumatic pump, the whole being free from all pressure aspires
instantaneously the water and steam sent back by the pneumatic pump P
towards the pipes R, T, and T as well as a portion of the water taken from
the boiler through the pipe T, with which it communicates, both being
regenerated in the regenerating cylinder Y, to be again introduced in the
boiler, and from thence in the pipe A', above the stop-cock E¹ of the steam
boiler, to be made use of again indefinitely in the cylinder of the steam
engine B, which works the piston rod. The regenerating cylinder Y is fixed
to a cast-iron plate C', which is joined to the boiler, and covered over with a
corniere or bracket D' fastened to the plate C¹.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention for "Improvements
in Steam Engines," and the manner in which the same is to be performed,
I would remark in conclusion that I do not confine or restrict myself to the
precise details herein described and shewn by the accompanying illustrative
Sheet of Drawings, as many slight modifications and alterations may be made
therein without at all departing from the principle of the Invention, but what

page_text: is claimed as the Invention intended to be secured by the herein in part
recited Letters Patent is, the construction of steam engines in the manner
herein described and shewn by the accompanying Drawings, for the purposes
set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Prince, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
Witness,
L. J. WETHERELL,
Clerk to Messrs. Prince & Co.,
4, Trafalgar Square,
Charing Cross.
ALEX. PRINCE. (L.s.)