IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILERS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Adcock, of the City Road, in the County. of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM
BOILERS."
Scaled the 3rd July 1857, and dated the 11th April 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Adcock at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on tho
11th April 1857.
I, HENRY ADCOCK, of the City Road, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN STEAM BOILERS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in steam boilers. For these
purposes a boiler is, by means of diaphragms or partitions, divided into several
compartments, such diaphragms having suitable openings through them for
the free passage of water and steam from compartment to compartment; and
where the diameter is not sufficient to admit of man-holes being made through
the partitions or diaphragms, suitable man-holes are made in the shell of the
boiler for each compartment of the boiler. The partitions or diaphragms are
affixed at their circumferences by angle-iron rings to the shell of the boiler,
and they are also affixed to angle-iron rings around the flues which pass
through the boiler and through the fixed partitions or diaphragms. In order
to prevent the effect of bursting of steam boilers, and to prevent their being
blown into the air when they do burst, the lower parts of boilers are con-
structed with external cases, into which the bursting takes place, so that there
will be produced a counteracting pressure.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the, conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Adcock in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
10th October 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, J, HENRY
ADCOCK, of the City Road, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Henry Adcock, Her special licence that I, the said Henry Adcock,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Henry Adcock, 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN STEAM BOILERS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Henry Adcock, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, tho said Henry Adcock, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in steam boilers. For these
purposes a boiler is, by means of diaphragms or partitions, divided into several
compartments, such diaphragms having suitable openings through them for
the free passage of water and steam from compartiment to compartment; and
where the diameter is not sufficient to admit of man-holes being made through
the partitions or diaphragms, suitable man-holes are made in the shell of the
boiler for each compartment of the boiler. The partitions or diaphragms are
affixed at their circumferences by angle-iron rings to the shell of the boiler,
and they are also affixed to angle-iron rings around the flues, which pass
through the boiler and through the fixed partitions or diaphragms. In order

page_text: to prevent the effect of bursting of steam boilers, and to prevent their being
blown into the air when they do burst, the lower parts of the boilers are con-
structed with external cases, into which the bursting taking place, there will be
produced a counteracting pressure.
These improvements will be more clearly understood by reference to the
Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, Figures 1, 2, and 3. Figure 1 repro-
sents a longitudinal section of a portion of a boiler, bisected by a red line into
two parts, A and B; Figure 2, a transverse section, as taken on the longi-
tudinal section A, at a, b, shewing a continuous circular diaphragm, formed of
one or more sheets of iron, having apertures for the two flues c, d, the man-
holef for the free circulation of the water and steam from compartment to
compartment e, e, e, and for the passage of the longitudinal stays h, h.
Figure 3, a transverse section, as taken on the longitudinal section B at m, n,
shewing, as in Figure 2, anglo-iron rings passing round the inner circum-
ference of the boiler, but not having a continuous circular diaphragm, as in
Figure 2. In Figure 3 the free passage of water and steam from compart-
ment to compartment is produced by uniting the shell of the boiler to the two
flues by separate and independent plates of metal x, x, x, x, x, x, x, leaving
the apertures w, w, w, w, w, between them for the circulation of water and
steam from compartment to compartment. In Figure 2 the continuous
circular diaphragm is secured to the flues by rivets; or, in either of the
Figures 2 and 3 the diaphragms may be secured to the shell of the boiler and
to the flues by nuts and screws instead of rivets.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which it is to be carried into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not
confine myself to the precise forms and modes of construction as exhibited by
the Sheet of Drawings and herein explained, but avail myself of all other
forms and modes of construction as in mechanics are equivalent thereto. .
In witness whercof, I, the said Henry Adcock, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
JOHN PETRIC,
Rochdale.
HENRY ADCOCK. (L.S.)