Improvements in Locomotives.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 5th Aug., 1890-Accepted, 11th Oct., 1890
ס ערגענר\
Improvements in Locomotives.
I, FRANKLYN JEREMIAH DRAKE, of 14 Fountain Street, in the City of Providence,
in the County of Providence, and State of Rhode Island, United States of America,
Lieutenant in the United States Navy, do hereby declare the nature of my invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVES," and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement :-
Numerous devices have heretofore been invented, constructed, and used, to arrest
the sparks of locomotives; some of these have been partially successful, but none of
them have, in practice, retained all the sparks and cinders. The danger to property,
near the line of a railroad, of being set on fire by the sparks from the locomotive
still exists and the passengers are still subjected to danger and annoyance from
flying cinders and sparks. After careful investigation and numerous tests, I find
that the combustion in a locomotive fire-box can be regulated and made practically
efficient under all the varying conditions by the use of live steam in a vacuum-
tube, by which artificial or forced draught is produced and the products of com-
bustion are removed.
I find that a continuous partial vacuum in such tube will supply all the air
required for the most rapid possible combustion, and that with such a continuous
partial vacuum few sparks or cinders are carried into the vacuum tube.
The object of this invention is to prevent the discharge of sparks and cinders
from the locomotive.
Another object of this invention is to more perfectly control the combustion in the
locomotive fire-box.
Another object of the invention is to economize the fuel.
And still another object of the invention is to relieve the back pressure on the
locomotive engine.
To this purpose my invention consists in the peculiar and novel construction and
arrangement, in connection with a locomotive chimney, of a draught-tube and steam-
jets, constructed to draw the air into the fire-box and the products of combustion
through the tubes of the boiler and the draught-tube, to extinguish all sparks and
discharge the products of combustion near the rails, as will be more fully set forth
hereinafter.
Figure 1 is a side view of a locomotive and tender provided with my improved
exhaust or vacuum tube.
Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view through the centre of the forward end of the
locomotive-boiler, the chimney, and the exhaust or vacuum tube.
Figure 3 is an end view of the locomotive-boiler, showing the cab, the exhaust
or vacuum tube, and the connection from the boiler to the jets in the vacuum-tube.
Figure is a top view of the locomotive and tender, showing the vacuum-tube in
connection with the chimney and extending to the rear of the tender.
Figure is a sectional view of the ball and socket joint in the vacuum-pipe.
Figure 6 is a sectional view of the vacuum-pipe, showing the connection of the
steam jet.
Figure 7 is a sectional view of the discharge end of the vacuum-tube.
Similar numbers of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout.
The construction of the locomotive boiler, with the grate in the lower part of the
fire-box, the furnace below the barrel, the combustion-chamber with or without the
tire arch, or divided from the furnace by a water arch, and the barrel filled with tubes
through which the heat and products of combustion pass, is so well known that any
further description or drawings are deemed unnecessary, as the present invention,
Price 87

page_text: 1
although affecting the combustion of the fuel in the furnace, does not relate to nor is
it limited, by the form or construction of the fire-box end of the locomotive boiler.
Referring now to Figure 2, the number 10 indicates the smoke-box end of the
tubes in the barrel of the locomotive-boiler, 11 the extension of the shell of the boiler-
barrel, 12 the end cover of the extension, 13 the steam-pipe connecting one of the
engines with the steam-supply main, 14 the exhaust-pipe of one of the engines. The
exhaust-pipe 14, as shown in Figure 2, is provided with a wide trumpet-shaped nozzle
or end in place of the contracted nozzle heretofore used on locomotives; the object of
the enlarged nozzle is to relieve the engine of the back pressure caused by the
contracted nozzle and to allow the steam to be discharged without causing the
intermittent, violent pulsation of the draught. 15 indicates the horizontal partition
in the extension now used to deflect the products of combustion, the forward portion
of which usually consists of wire screens through which the smoke passes to the
chimney. The chimney is provided near its upper end with the centrally pivoted
butterfly-valve 17. The vacuum-tube 18 is connected with the chimney by a curved
gradually enlarging up-take connection, which, at the junction with the chimney, is
of as large or larger internal area as is the chimney; this curved oval up-take
gradually contracts to form the round vacuum-pipe 18, which, before it reaclics the
steam-dome of the locomotive, branches into the two pipes or tubes 19, as is shown
in Figures 3 and 4. The tubes 19 are firmly supported, on the cab of the locomotive,
in the brackets 20, and immediately beyond the cab of the locomotive the spherical or
ball and socket coupling 21, shown enlarged in Figure 5, connects the tubes 19
extending over the cab with the tubes 19 extending over the tender to the elbow 22,
to the lower end of which another ball and socket coupling is secured from which the
tubes 19 extend downward to the socket 23 firmly secured to the tender. The socket 23
is provided with the spiral-spring 24 which bears on the flange 25, which flange is
secured to the tube 19 giving to the tube a yielding flexible support. The curved
trunipet-shaped discharge-tube 26 is provided with the annular projection 27 by which
it is supported in the socket 23, so that it may be turned into such position as
experience will prove to be best suited to facilitate the discharge of the smoke and
gases from the locomotive under the various conditions of speed and wind. With the
spherical or ball and socket coupling 21 placed in the bifurcated tube on the horizontal
and also in the vertical portions of the tube, the tube can adjust itself freely to the
ever-varying independent oscillations and changes in level as well as direction of the
locomotive and tender. The tubes 19 are strengthened by the rings 28 to resist
the atmospheric pressure and prevent the collapsing of the tubes.
In the tube 18 and in the bifurcated-tubes 19 a partial vacuum is created by
discharging a continuous jet of live steam from a series of nozzles, one of which
is shown in Figure 6, in which the nozzle 29 is shown connected with the steam-
pipe 30 in Figures 1, 3 and 4, the positions of these steam nozzles are indicated
in broken lines. Referring to Figure 3, the steam-pipe 30, extending through the
locomotive boiler into the steam-dome, has its open end located as high as con-
venient in the steam-dome, so that only dry steam will enter the said steam-pipe.
The valve 31 controls the flow of steam through the pipe 30 which supplies steam
to all the jet-nozzles 29 and connects with all, as is shown in Figures 1 and 4. Two
jets are placed near the junction of the tubes 19 with the tube 18, two near the end
of the cab, two over the tender, and two near the end of the elbow 22.
The valve or damper 17 in the chimney is connected by rods and bell-crank levers
with the cab, so that the same may be opened and closed by the engineer. The
discharge-pipes 26. are connected each by the rod 32 with the lever 33 on the lower
end of the rod 32, on the upper end of which the band-wheel 34 is secured, so that
the discharge-pipe can be turned by the engineer in the direction most effective under
: the existing conditions of speed or wind.
The operation of a locomotive, constructed in the manner above described, is as
follows The locomotive being fired, with steam up ready to draw the train from
the station; the engineer opens the valve 31 sufficient to produce induced air-
currents in the tube 18 and the bifurcated tube 19. He now starts the engine

page_text: and closes the valve or damper 17, so that the products of combustion and steam
pass through the tube 18 and are conducted by the tubes 19 to the end of the
tender. The engineer now regulates the valve 31 so that the draught is sufficient
to secure the rate of combustion required to maintain the steam-pressure,-to
increase the steam pressure if he is approaching an up grade, or to allow the
pressure to gradually fall if he is about to approach a long down grade or long
stop. The engineer will have complete control of the combustion as he has the
complete control of the steam jets by which the air is drawn through the fuel on
the grate. The intermittent impulses, by which the incandescent fuel was drawn
from the fire through the flues and ejected from the chimney, caused by the
intermittent discharge of the steam from the engine through the contracted nozzles,
are avoided by the enlarging of the outlets of the exhaust-pipes and very little
incandescent fuel is carried from the furnace into the tube 18 by the continuous
draught and what little is so carried into the tube 18 is surrounded by the steam
from the exhaust nozzles and the steam-jets in the tubes so that it will be at once
extinguished and discharged with the products of combustion from the discharge
ends 26 at the rear of the tender.
As the locomotive and tender are practically one and are never separated when in
use, this arrangement does not interfere with the making or breaking of the train. The
in-draught under a train running at the high rate of speed used on most passenger
trains draws the products of combustion under the train and does not distribute the
products of combustion and the ashes or cinders over the train when once delivered on
the track, as is the case when the same are delivered from the chimney. A
train drawn by a locomotive provided with the draught-tube, as herein shown and
described, will be free from the smoke and cinder nuisance to which trains are now
subjected.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The combination with the smoke-box of a locomotive and the chimney, of a
tube, connected with the chimney, provided with ejector nozzles connected with the
steam space of the boiler by a pipe having a valve for regulating the discharge of
steam into the tube, constructed to draw the products of combustion from the smoke-
box and discharge the same near the road-bed, as described.
2. The combination with the smoke-box of a locomotive and the chimney, of a tube
connecting with the chimney and extending rearward, said tube being provided with
steam injector-nozzles connected by a steam-pipe with the steam space of the boiler,
and a valve constructed to close the chimney above the inlet to the rearward extending
tube, constructed to draw the products of combustion through the tube and discharge
the same near the road-bed, as described.
3. The combination with the smoke-box and the chimney of a locomotive boiler and
the exhaust pipes of the engine, of a tube, connected with the chimney, extending
rearward, bifurcated and terminating in outlets placed near the road-bed, a valve in
the chimney above the connection with the rearward extending tube, a steam-pipe
extending from the steam space of the boiler to a regulator valve, and a steam-pipe
extending from the said regulator valve to the ejector nozzles placed into the rear-
ward extending tube, constructed to draw the products of combustion through the
tube and discharge the same near the road-bed, as described.
4. The combination with the fire-box, the barrel, the beating tubes, and the smoke-
box of the locomotive boiler, of a rearward extending bifurcated tube, having outlets
near the road-bed, forming a continuous passage from the smoke-box to the outlets,
constructed to discharge the products of combustion near the road-hed, as described.
5. The combination with a locomotive and tender, of the tube 18 and the tubes 19
provided with the ball and socket couplings 21 at the horizontal and the vertical
portions of the tubes, and the discharge outlets 26 having capacity of axial adjustment,
as described.

page_text: 6. The combination with the smoke-box and the chimney of a locomotive, of the
valve 17, the tube 18, the branch tubes 19,. the steam-jets 29, the steam-pipe 30,
and valve 31 to regulate the steam supply to the jets, constructed to draw the air
into the fire-box and the products of combustion from the smoke-box, as described.
Dated this First day of July A.D. 1890.
FRANKLYN JEREMIAH DRAKE.
Signed in presence of
JOSEPH A. MILLER, Jr.,
Patent Solicitor.
Haseltine, Lake & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, Agents for the Applicant.