IMPROVEMENTS IN SURCHARGING OR REGENERATING STEAM, AND IN THE APPLICATION OF THE SAME TO STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1858

page_text: |{imis invention received Provisional Protection, but notice to proceed with the
application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd March
1858. A communication from John J. G. Collins, William A. Rhodes,
and Thomas Drake, all of the City of Philadelphia, in the United States
of America.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, and of 166, Buchanan Street, in the City of Glasgow, North
Britain, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SURCHARGING OR REGENERATING STEAM, AND IN THE APPLICATION
OF THE SAME TO STEAM ENGINES," a communication from John J. G., Collins,
William A. Rhodes, and Thomas Drake, all of the City of Philadelphia, in the
United States of America, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a system or mode of economizing steam and fuel
by the employment of suitable means of regenerating or surcharging the
steam after it has exérted its power upon the piston of an ordinary steam
engine, and consists in the combination of a cooler and regenerator with a steam
engine of any ordinary construction in such a manner that the supplies of
steam after having exerted their pressure on the piston or pistons of the
engine shall pass to the cooler, thence to the regenerator, to be there confined
antil surcharged, then to pass again to the engine in a surcharged state, and
inally after acting upon the piston or pistons to re-enter the cooler, and so on
ontinuously as long as the surcharging of the steam-takes-place, and the
ngine continues to revolve. The cooler consists of a steam-tight vessel of a

page_text: cylindrical or other convenient form, constructed of boiler plate and connected
respectively by means of suitable pipes with the exhaust of the engine, the
body of the boiler, and the interior of the regenerator. The exhaust pipe is
fitted with a valve capable of allowing the exhaust steam to be either dis-
charged into the atmosphere or into the cooler, as required. The regenerator
consists of two steam spaces, each subdivided into a number of compartments,
but having in all cases one central compartment, into which at one end of the
regenerator the steam enters from the cooler, and at the opposite end passes
to the engine. This central compartment in both ends of the regenerator is
furnished with a number of valves corresponding to the number of surrounding
compartments, and opening therein so as to bring each of the surrounding
compartments when requisite into successive communication with the central
compartment. This is effected by imparting a rotatory motion to the
regenerator from the engine, and by connecting the spindle of each valve with
a fixed circular guiding slot or groove, which is made slightly eccentric at one
part so as to open and close each valve as it arrives at that particular portion
of the slot or groove. This opening of a valve at one end of the regenerator
allows steam to pass from the cooler and central compartment to one of the
surrounding compartments, whence it passes along a series of tubes which
connect the two ends of the regenerator to the corresponding compartment of
'the opposite end of the regenerator. In passing along these tubes the steam
is superheated by the action of a furnace, over which, the regenerator rotates,
and the superheated steam then discharges itself into the central compartment,
whence it passes direct to the engine; having exerted its power upon the
piston or pistons it is allowed to exhaust into the cooler, whence it again
passes thro' the regenerator to the engine, and so on as long as the
surcharging takes place and the engine continues to work. The revolving
regenerator works inside a boiler, having an annular water and steam space
which surrounds the regenerator, and the same furnace which heats the boiler
heats also the tubes of the regenerator. A steam pipe leads from the boiler
to the cooler for the purpose of supplying any deficiency of steam in the
cooler occasioned by loss from leakage or stoppage of the engine.
This combined apparatus is equally applicable to marine and land engines,
and requires no modification whatever in the construction of the engine, as
any steam engine will answer the purpose; provided the regenerator and
cooler are placed in suitable connection therewith.