IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Edward Newton at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd March 1881. A communication
from abroad by Louis Marie Joseph Genoud, of Paris, in the Republic of
France.]
HENRY EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND
APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER." [A communication from abroad
by Louis Marie Joseph Genoud, of Paris, in the Republic of France.
The object of this Invention is to provide for more effectually superheating,
the steam used in steam engines than heretofore, and the Invention consists
essentially in replacing the ordinary steam jacket by a liquid jacket, the liquid
being such as will not boil, except at a higher temperature than water.
This liquid jacket circulating around the cylinders and maintaining them at a
high temperature will have the effect of superheating the steam which is to act in
the cylinders.
It is known that the force of steam augments with the temperature, but at
a greater ratio; the use therefore of high pressure steam offers numerous
advantages to employers of steam.
Up to the present time this use has to some extent been limited by the amount
of resistance of which the steam generator is capable, but also for the reason that
it is difficult to obtain steam at a constant temperature, and even if obtained the
feeble calorific capacity of this fluid renders the result almost illusory.
In carrying out this Invention the superheating of the steam is effected in the
cylinders where it is to act.
The steam is made to act gradually as the superheating takes place in a series
of cylinders of increasing volume, which ought to obviate any fear of accidents.
As an example of a practical application of the Invention let us suppose a vessel
containing, say, oil (which boils in general at about 250 degrees) placed above a
furnace, and communicating by a pipe with a second vessel placed above it.
Extending laterally in a parallel direction from these two vessels are two tubes or
pipes, between which are placed three vertical cylinders of increasing dimensions;
the jackets of these cylinders communicate with these two pipes.

page_text: The apparatus is filled with the proper liquid, which is heated in the lower
vessel. The heated liquid passes to the upper vessel, its place being taken by a
colder portion of the liquid. All the parts being in communication a thorough
circulation of the heated liquid is thus kept up.
The liquid should not be heated to boiling point, but should it become heated to
an extent sufficient to give off vapour this latter may be passed to a condenser;
thus the same quantity of liquid will serve a long time.
The working of the apparatus may be explained as follows:-Let us suppose
the liquid jacket to be heated to, say, 200 degrees, steam is introduced into the
smallest cylinder during a fifth part of the stroke of the piston, and is allowed to
act by expansion, during which it will naturally lose almost all its force. On
contact however with the heated sides of the cylinder it will gain in heat, and
consequently in elastic force.
Supposing that the time employed by the piston in finishing its stroke will be
sufficient to reheat the steam, an expenditure of steam equal in volume to one
fifth of the cylinder will give the same results as five times its volume in an
ordinary engine without expansion.
If then the steam at its entrance into the cylinder has a force equal to five
atmospheres, it will be found at the end of the stroke of the piston at the same
pressure, notwithstanding it occupies a space five times greater. It can therefore
be used in a second cylinder much larger than the first, where the same effect will
be produced, and if at the end of the stroke of the second piston the steam has not
attained the temperature of the liquid jacket it may be passed to a third cylinder,
where it will attain its maximum of heat and expand to its fullest extent before
escaping to the air or to a condenser.
In the case of compound engines the liquid jacket is applied to a receiver inter-
mediate between the two cylinders, and the superheating will be effected much
more rapidly than heretofore, and the speed of the engine may thereby be
consequently increased.
This Invention is capable of a general application, and can be employed with
engines at present in use, whether rectilinear or rotary, as well as to hot air
engines.
The heating of the liquid may be effected by a special furnace or by the steam
generator furnace, the position and form of which will depend upon the machine
to which it is to be applied.