An Improvement in Surface Condensers.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 10th Mar., 1891
Complete Specification Left, 25th Nov., 1891-Accepted, 2nd Jan., 1892
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improvement in Surface Condensers.
We, EDWARD BONAR CAIRD, and THOMAS JAMES RAYNER both of No. 777
Commercial Road, Limehouse in the County of London, Coppersmiths, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
Our invention relates to surface condensers of the kind in which steam or other
vapour is condensed by being passed through pipe coils surrounded by cooling
water caused to circulate through a vessel containing the coils. We employ
several concentric coils arranged in an upright cylindrical vessel having a com-
partment at the top by which the steam or vapour to be condensed enters the
several coils, and having a compartment at the bottom to receive the condensed
liquid.
This compartment may be arranged to act as a filter. As the concentric coils
are necessarily of different diameters they are consequently of different lengths, so
that the steam or vapour has a greater distance to travel along the outer coils than
along the inner. We therefore make the sectional area of the pipes constituting
the outer coils greater than that of the inner pipes, approximately proportioning
the area for passage of the steam or vapour to the distance which it has to travel,
and thus approximately equalising the condensing efficiency of the different coils.
We joint the coils to the upper and lower tube plates in the following manner.
On a straight part of the pipe forming the coil we braze or solder a sleeve which
has a square or hexagonal collar let into a corresponding recess of the inner side of
the tube plate, so that the sleeve cannot turn and the neck of this collar is coned;
the sleeve projects through the tube plate and the projecting part is screw threaded
to receive a nut, which, being screwed up, strains the coned neck of the collar
against the edge of the hole through the tube plate, and thus makes a tight joint
of metal to metal without packing. Instead of making the neck of the sleeve
coned to bear against a square edge of the tube plate hole, the sleeve may have a
square edged collar to bear against a conical mouth of the tube plate hole.
Dated this 10th day of March 1891.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicants.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improvement in Surface Condensers.
We, EDWARD BONAR CAIRD, and THOMAS JAMES RAYNER, both of No. 777
Commercial Road, Limehouse, in the County of London. Coppersmiths, do
bereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
Our invention relates to surface condensers of the kind in which steam or other
vapour is condensed by being passed through pipe coils surrounded by cooling
water caused to circulate through a vessel containing the coils.
We employ several concentric coils arranged in an upright cylindrical vessel
having a compartment at the top by which the steam or vapour to be condensed
enters the several coils, and having a compartment at the bottom to receive the
condensed liquid.
This compartment may be arranged to act as a filter. As the concentric coils
are necessarily of different diameters they are consequently of different lengths, so

page_text: that the steam or vapour has a greater distance to travel along the outer coils than
along the inner. We therefore make the sectional area of the pipes constituting
the outer coils greater than that of the inner pipes, approximately proportioning
.the area for passage of the steam or vapour to the distance which it has to travel,
and thus approximately equalising the condensing efficiency of the different coils.
Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings is a vertical section, and Fig. 2 is a plan
with cover removed of a surface condenser according to our invention..
Fig. 3 is a part section and Fig. 4 a part plan (looking from below) to an
enlarged scale shewing the jointing of one of the coil tubes to the lower tube
plate.
A is the upright cylindrical vessel with inlet A' and outlet A2 for circulating
water.
Within the vessel are several, in this case three, pipe coils D, E, F of which the
outermost D is of greater sectional area than the middle E, and this is of greater
sectional area than the innermost F, the respective sectional areas being pro-
portioned approximately to the length of travel through cach coil. The coil pipes
are jointed through a tube plate B at the bottom and a corresponding plate B' at
the top in any known manner, but preferably in the manner shewn in Figs. 3 and 4,
that is to say the coil tube F has a straight part on which is brazed or soldered a
sleeve S, screw threaded at its lower end to receive a nut N, its upper end having
a hexagonal or polygonal collar S' with a coned neck S².
The tube plate B is made with a hexagonal or polygonal recess to receive the
collar S which is thus prevented from turning when the nut N is turned straining
the coned neck S2 on the edge of the hole in the plate which is thus indented in it
and makes a tight joint of metal to metal without packing.
Obviously the mouth of the hole in the tube plate under the polygonal
recess might be internally coned, the sleeve being made with a sharp shoulder
to be drawn into it and indented in it by the tightening of the nut.
Under the lower tube plate B is a receptacle C for receiving the condensed
liquid, which receptacle may be arranged as a filter.
Above the upper tube plate B' is a compartment H to which is admitted the
steam or vapour to be condensed.
The tube plates B B as shewn in Figs. 14 and 24 may be fixed inside, this
arrangement allowing the casing A. to be removed exposing the coils.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is
1. A surface condenser having several concentric coils of pipe arranged in a
vertical vessel, the pipes of the outer coils of larger sectional area than those of
the inner coils, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.
2. The herein described mode of jointing a coil pipe to the tube plate by means
of a sleeve on the pipe strained by a nut so as to indent a sharp edge of the one in a
coned part of the other, substantially as described.
Dated this 25th day of November 1891
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicants.