IMPROVEMENTS IN ARRANGING STEAM BOILER AND OTHER FURNACES, IN ORDER AND LIVE OILS TO RENDER THEM MORE SUITABLE FOR BURNING
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles James Richardson, of No. 34, Kensington
Square, Kensington, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN ARRANGING STEAM BOILER AND OTHER FURNACES, IN ORDER
AND LIVE OILS"
mo REED MUTH WARD GRADER BAD REDNING DUMBOLDIM
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles James Richardson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th May 1864.
I, CHARLES JAMES RICHARDSON, of No. 34, Kensington Square, Kensing-
ton, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ARRANGING STEAM BOILER AND OTHER FURNACES,
IN ORDER TO RENDER THEM MORE SUITABLE FOR BURNING PETROLEUM AND LIKE OILS,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in arranging steam boiler
and other furnaces, in order to render them more suitable for burning petro-
leum and like oils. For these purposes the bed or lower part of a furnace is
constructed in such manner as to receive compressed charcoal or other porous
matter, either as a single complete layer, or in sections, so as to allow of

page_text: atmospheric air passing between the sections. Underneath the bed, or sections
of the bed, there is a space or spaces supplied to any required height with
petroleum or like oil, and the petroleum or oil, or the vapour thereof, percolates
upwards through the porous material in the bed or sections of the bed of the
furnace, and it burns at the surface of such porous material. By these means
petroleum and like oils may with safety and with great utility be burned as
fuel in steam engine and other furnaces.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles James Richardson in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 3rd Nevember 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
JAMES RICHARDSON, of No. 34, Kensington Square, Kensington, in the County
of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Charles James Richardson, Her special licence that I, the said
Charles James Richardson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Charles James Richardson, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 ARRANGING STEAM BOILER AND OTHER
FURNACES, IN ORDER TO RENDER THEM MORE SUITABLE FOR BURNING PETROLEUM AND
LIKE OILS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles
James Richardson, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 Charles James Richardson, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to

page_text: be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in an 1 by the fol-
lowing statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in arranging steam boiler
and other furnaces, in order to render them more suitable for burning petro-
leum and like oils. For these purposes the bed or lower part of a furnace is
constructed in such manner as to receive compressed charcoal, or other porous
matter either as a single complete layer, or in sections, so as to allow of
atmospheric air passing between the sections. Underneath the bed, or
sections of the bed, there is a space or spaces supplied to any required height
with petroleum or like oil, and. the petroleum or oil, or the vapour thereof, per-
colates, upwards through the porous material in the bed or sections of the
bed of the furnace, and it burns at the surface of such porous material. By
these means petroleum and like oils may with safety and with great utility
be burned as fuel in steam engine and other furnaces.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention I will proceed more fully to
describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1, plan of grate with four bars; Figure 2, section of grate on the
line; A, Figure 1; Figure 3, section of grate on the line B, Figure 1; Figure
4, section of grate on the line C, Figure 1; Figure 5, section of grate on the
line D, Figure 1; Figure 6; section of grate on the line E, Figure 1; Figure 7,
front of grate on the line F, Figure 2.
a, a, are the oil chambers; b, the oil cistern with five openings to admit
the oil into the chambers; c, the space filled with water from the. boiler; d,
the vapour chamber; e, the pipe, conveying the vapour to the perforated tube.
permitting its escape; f, the perforated tube; g, air tubes conveying air to
mix with the vapour. Figure 8, section of cover. Figure 9, section of one bar
to a larger scale, showing the filling in with the porous material; h, the porous.
material. Figure 10, the same porous material lengthways. i, the pipe by.
by which the oil enters the grate; tap No. 1, regulating the flow; k, the pipe
by which the oil is drawn off; l, glass indicator. showing height of oil in the
grate, two lines are drawn across it, when the oil stands at the upper the fire
will burn fiercely, when at the lower the grate is fully served; m, descending
tube conveying water from, boiler to grate, by preference from upper part of
boiler; n, ascending tube returning water from grate to boiler, by preference.
to lower part. of boiler; o, filling tube to boiler, the water passing through:
grate; p, p, bars attached to boiler permitting grate to slide over them..
The operation is as follows:-The oil chambers are packed tightly with

page_text: porous material, the oil enters quickly; ascends, and completely soddens the
porous material which soon shews an oily surface; when paper pressed upon
it becomes saturated it can be lighted, the oil on the surface vaporizes as soon
as it becomes warm, the vapour takes fire, and will continue to burn as long
as there is any oil in the chambers; if sufficiently hard the porous material
remains uninjured; the flame is continued at pleasure by admitting the oil.
The vapour chamber is placed in the hottest part of the grate, it collects and
forms vapour; this is conducted to a perforated tube and allowed to escape,
taking fire from the flame of the grate, it gives additional heat and tends to burn
the smoke; air is admitted to aid the operation. To prevent the grate getting
too hot, as well as to obtain all the heat given out by the combustion of the oil,
the water from the boiler circulates through grate and returns. q, Figure 2,
is a shield to prevent the air and vapour tubes becoming too hot; this shield is
not shown in the other Figures. The porous material goes to the bottom of
the oil chambers, it sucks up the oil, otherwise the latter would boil and produce
too much vapour which would escape to the vapour tube. The kind of porous
material to be used, its thickness and depth, whether it should be of one, two,
or more sorts, must be according to the work required, and to the nature of the
oil. There are several kinds of porous material, thin slices or blocks of porous
brick, pumice stone, lime, charcoal, or moulded carbon, bath brick, natural or
artificial porous stone, loam, or sand core, used in foundries, lime, charcoal, or
such like in powder, either placed upon or between solids sponge when placed.
below other porous material; the thinner and more open the material the
fiercer the combustion and the greater the smoke; mineral salt with a thin
top of moulded carbon or charcoal makes a good packing, but the salt by itself
soon burns to cinder and will not last. The bottom of the oil chambers.
inclines downwards to the cistern to allow any thick matter to descend to be
taken out. When the flame is to be extinguished the cover is to be put over
it, the vapour being permitted to burn itself out. The upper surface of the
grate should be 6 or 7 inches only under boiler.
The Figures 1 to 10 show it adapted to a tubular boiler; Figure 11 on a
smaller scale shows it placed under a waggon or other formed boiler.
The petroleum oils I have used in the apparatus have been the Penu-
sylvanian, Wallachian, Rangoon, and the English coal oil crude. The Rangoon,
as thick as half melted snow, requires to be mixed, the first one or two gallons
with a little petroleum spirit, and well stirred to make it fluid; when the grate
is well warmed the oil in its natural state can be put into the cistern in any
convenient way.
I do not confine myself to the forms shown and described as the form of the

page_text: apparatus and arrangement of the porous materials may be greatly varied
according to the nature of the furnace.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles James Richardson, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Third day of November, in the year
of our Lord, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
C. J. RICHARDSON. (L.S.)