IMPROVE- MENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN."
A communication from abroad by Jean Fiot, of Orleans, France.
Sealed the 26th June 1866, and dated the 28th December 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 28th December 1865.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED
THEREIN," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to substitute ammonia for steam in
motive-power engines; the Invention consists in the construction and.
employment of an apparatus which may be called a dissolving apparatus,
and which works in a continuous manner, permitting the same ammonia to
be constantly used. The apparatus is not intended to supersede or do
away with existing apparatus, but to be annexed or fitted to ordinary
engines, for the purpose of substituting the action of ammonia for that of.
steam as the motive power. The dissolving apparatus consists of a dissolver,
a condenser, an extractor, a feeder, an expansion chamber, and a compart-
-ment containing a serpentine coil in which the temperatures of two

page_text: currents of liquid are changed, all as hereafter described. I annex the
apparatus to any ordinary steam boiler and fill the boiler up to about half
of its height with an ammoniacal solution; the dissolver at the commence-
ment of the working contains water. I heat the boiler in order to
disengage the gas from its solution; this gas mixed with a little steam acts
in the cylinders of the engine and then enters the expansion chamber of
the dissolving apparatus; it expands in this chamber and deposits a part
of the fatty and other impurities it contains, and then passes by a pipe into
the condenser; it traverses the condenser tubes, in which it is cooled and
the steam mixed therewith condensed; it is next led from the condenser
by a pipe to the dissolver, in-order to be dissolved in the water therein.
In order to facilitate the dissolving the gas is caused to enter the water
through numerous slits or apertures in a continuation of the conducting
pipe. When the water in the dissolver is completely saturated, the gas
lödges at the upper part, and acting on the surface of the water causes it to
rise through a pipe furnished with a valve into the feeder above. As soon.
as the liquid level in the dissolver is below the entrance of the pipe last
mentioned, which level is indicated by gauges 'outside, I perform the
feed, and at the same time I replace the liquid drawn from the dissolver
by water from the boiler. This water is taken from the lower part of the
boiler, where the solution is much weakened; the exit orifice is regulated
by a cock; the water traverses the annular space of a serpentine coil with.
a doublé passage, the interior of which conducts to the boiler the saturated
feed water which is discharged therein by the feed pump. In the passage
through the serpentine coil, which is traversed in opposite directions by the
two currents, the water coming from the boiler gives up nearly all its heat
to the feed water. The water from the boiler remains in the compartment
containing the coil, from which it is afterwards sent into a serpentine coil:
in the extractor. The water is completely cooled in the extractor and
issues therefrom by a pipe which conveys it to the lower part of the
dissolver, into which it is discharged through apertures or slits in a
continuation of the conducting pipe. All the water withdrawn from the
boiler is not discharged at this point; about one-fourth is discharged in
the form of spray or drops at the upper part of the dissolver, in order to
redissolve the small quantity of gas which is disengaged from the solution
and to maintain the vacuum as perfect as possible.
The method above described of feeding and withdrawing water from
the boiler is intermittent, but this feeding and withdrawal may be made
.continuous by simultaneously regulating the feed and exit cocks, so that:

page_text: the feeder is always filled up to the middle of its height, the feed valve
being consequently always open. It is necessary to cool the dissolver to
carry off as it is produced the latent heat of the solution; also the
condenser, in order to condense the steam mixed with the gas, and to
bring the gas to a sufficiently low temperature to allow of its being
rapidly absorbed in the dissolver; it is also necessary to cool the serpentine
coil contained in the extractor, in order that the water discharged into the
dissolver may be at the temperature of the solution. For this purpose I-
force cold water by a pump into a series of horizontal superposed tubes in
the dissolver, and after traversing these tubes the water is led by a pipe
into the condenser, the tubes of which it surrounds; it next passes
through an opening in the upper part of the condenser into the extractor;
from which it is finally discharged from the apparatus. The feeder is.
furnished with a valve by which the air escapes. When the apparatus
commences to work the air in the boiler, the cylinder, the inlet and outlet
pipes, and the dissolving apparatus is drawn by the ammoniacal gas into
the dissolver; it then enters the feeder and issues by the valve last
mentioned. A pipe puts the boiler in direct communication with the
top of the dissolver and allows of the air therein being driven out.
The vacuum thus produced is indicated by a manometer. The gases
which escape by the safety valves are led into the expansion chamber.
The feed water before or after its passage through the serpentine coil
may be heated by the escape gases by adopting any of the well-known.
methods of heating feed water. Air may be employed instead, of water as.
the cooling agent.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by Amelia Susannah Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office on the-
28th June 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AMELIA
SUSANNAH BROOMAN, of Twickenham, in the County of Middlesex,
Widow and sole Executrix of Richard Archibald Brooman, late of 166,
Fleet Street, in the City of London,. Patent Agent, deceased,, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of December, in the year of
qur Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth

page_text: year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs. and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Amelia Susannah Brooman, Her special licence that
I, the said: Amelia Susannah Brooman, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Amelia Susannah Brooman, 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 OBTAINING
MOTIVE POWER, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," (communicated to the
said Richard Archibald Brooman from abroad by Jean Fiot, of Orleans,
France,) upon the condition (amongst others) that 'I, the said Amelia
Susannah Brooman, 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, the said Amelia Susannah Brooman, 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, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, that is to say →
:
The object of this Invention is to substitute ammonia for steam in
motive-power engines; the Invention consists in the .construction and
employment of an apparatus which may be called a dissolving apparatus,
and which works in a continuous manner, permitting the same ammonia
to be constantly used. The apparatus is not intended to supersede or do
away with existing apparatus, but to be annexed or fitted to ordinary
engines, for the purpose of substituting the action of ammonia for that of
steam as the motive power.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is an elevation, Figure 2 a
longitudinal section, and Figures 3 and 4 transverse sections of an
apparatus constructed according to this Invention,
The apparatus
consists of a dissolver A, a condenser B, an extractor C, a feeder
D, an expansion chamber E, and a compartment F, containing a ser-
pentine coil in which the temperatures of two currents of liquid are
changed, all as hereafter described. This compartment F is shown
detached on a larger scale in Figure 5. I annex the apparatus to any

page_text: ordinary steam boiler and fill the boiler up to about half of its height with an
ammoniacal solution; the dissolver A at the commencement of the working
contains water. I heat the boiler in order to disengage the gas from its
solution; this gas mixed with a little steam acts in the cylinders of the
engine and then enters at a the expansion chamber E of the dissolving
apparatus; it expands in this chamber and deposits a part of the fatty.
and other impurities it contains, and then passes by a pipe into the con-
denser B; it traverses the condenser tubes b, in which it is cooled and the
steam mixed therewith condensed; it is next led from the condenser by a
pipe c to the dissolver A, in order to be dissolved in the water therein:
In order to facilitate the dissolving the gas is caused to enter the water
through numerous slits or apertures in a continuation e of the conducting
pipe c. When the water in the dissolver is completely saturated the gas
lodges at the upper part, and acting on the surface of the water causes it
to rise through a pipe u, h, furnished with a valve j, into the feeder D
above. As soon as the liquid level in the dissolver is below the entrance
of the pipe u, which level is indicated by gauges x, y, outside, I perform
the feed, and at the same time I replace the liquid drawn from the dissolver
by water from the boiler. This water is taken from the lower part of the
boiler, where the solution is much weakened; the exit orifice is regulated
by a cock; the water traverses the annular space of a serpentine coil with
a double passage, the interior of which conducts to the boiler the saturated
feed water which is discharged therein by the feed pump. In the passage
through the serpentine coil F, which is traversed in opposite directions by
the two currents, the water coming from the boiler gives up nearly all its
heat to the feed water. The water from the boiler remains in the com-
partment containing the coil, from which it is afterwards sent into a
serpentine coil in the extractor C. The water is completely cooled in the
extractor, and issues therefrom at n by a pipe which conveys it to the
lower part of the dissolver at q, into which it is discharged through aper,
tures or slits in a. continuation of the conducting pipe. All the water
withdrawn from the boiler is not discharged at the point q; about one-
fourth is discharged in the form of spray or drops at the upper part of the
dissolver at p, in order to redissolve the small quantity of gas which is
disengaged from the solution and to maintain the vacuum as perfect as
possible.
The method above described of feeding and withdrawing water from the
boiler is intermittent, but this feeding and withdrawal may be made
continuous by simultaneously-regulating the-feed and exit cocks, so that

page_text: the feeder is always filled up to the middle of its height, the feed valve
being consequently always open. It is necessary to cool the dissolver A,
to carry off as it is produced the latent heat of the solution; also the
condenser B, in order to condense the steam mixed with the gas, and to
bring the gas to a sufficiently low temperature to allow of its being rapidly
absorbed in the dissolver; it is also necessary to cool the serpentine coil
contained in the extractor C, in order that the water discharged into the
dissolver may be at the temperature of the solution. For this purpose I
force cold water by a pump in connection with the inlet z into a series of
horizontal superposed tubes g in the dissolver, and after traversing these
tubes the water is led by a pipe f into the condenser, the tubes 6 of which
it surrounds; it next passes through an opening in the upper part of the
condenser into the extractor C, from which it is finally discharged from
the apparatus at l. The feeder D is furnished with a valve i by which
the air escapes. When the apparatus commences to work the air in the
boiler, the cylinder, the inlet and outlet pipes, and the dissolving apparatus
is drawn by the ammoniacal gas into the dissolver A. It then enters
through the valvej into the feeder D, and issues by the valve i.
A pipe
puts the boiler in direct communication with the top of the dissolver A,.
and allows of the air therein being driven out. The vacuum thus produced
is indicated by a manometer. The gases which escape by the safety
valves are led into the expansion chamber E. The feed water before or
after its passage through the serpentine coil may be heated by the escape
gases by adopting any of the well-known methods of heating feed water.
Air may be employed instead of water as the cooling agent.
•
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim; the
construction and employment of what I have herein-before termed a
dissolving apparatus, arranged and working substantially as herein-before
described and represented in the accompanying Drawings, for the purpose
of employing ammonia as the motive power in engines.
In witness whereof, I, the said Amelia Susannah Brooman, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of June,
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
A. S. BROOMAN. (L.S.)