IMPROVEMENTS IN PREVENTING INCRUSTATION IN AND CORROSION OF STEAM BOILERS AND OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Primerose Howard Vaughan, of 54,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent; for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREVENTING INCRUSTATION IN AND
CORROSION OF STEAM BOILERS AND OTHER VESSELS."-A communication
from abroad by Charles James Adolphus Dick, of Paris, in the
Empire of France.
Sealed the 27th June 1871, and dated the 31st December 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Primerose
Howard Vaughan at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with his Petition, on the 31st December 1870.
I, EDWARD PRIMEROSE HOWARD VAUGHAN, of 54, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREVENTING INCRUSTATION IN
AND CORROSION OF STEAM BOILERS AND OTHER VESSELS," being a communication
to me from abroad by Charles James Adolphus Dick, of Paris, in the
Empire of France, to be as follows :-
For the purpose of preventing incrustation in and corrosion of steam
boilers, zinc and other metals more readily oxidizable than that of

page_text: which the boiler is constructed have been employed, as for instance,
by Benjamin Grey Babington, under Letters Patent granted to him,
bearing date the 7th Day of November 1850, No. 13,322, but it has
been found in practice, that the method employed is not successful,
inasmuch as the zinc becomes insulated from the water in a very short
time by the formation thereon of layers of oxide or scale, or is entirely
destroyed. The voltaic action, upon which the success of the arrange-
ment is dependent is consequently of short duration.
The present Invention consists in feeding into the boiler or vessel
whilst under pressure, or heated, either continuously or intermittently,
a wire or ribbon of zinc or other metal or alloy more readily oxidizable
than the metal of which the boiler is composed, or capable of acquiring
when thus applied the same electrical properties as zinc, when used
under such circumstances. A regular and continuous voltaic current
or tension is thus produced, and incrustation on and corrosion of the
metal of the boiler or vessel is thereby prevented. The wire or ribbon
is fed automatically or otherwise into the boiler or vessel, through an
ordinary or insulated stuffing box or otherwise, into the water or other
liquid contained in the boiler or vessel, and is brought on the other
hand into electrical contact with the metal of the boiler or vessel itself,
the speed of feeding being regulated according to the qualities of the
feed water or liquid, and so that the wire or ribbon always remains
in sufficient electrical contact with the water or liquid into which it
is fed. Continuous voltaic action can be thus maintained, and the
boiler or vessel efficiently protected. Similar results may be produced
with partial efficacy by feeding the wire or ribbon into the water or
liquid, without on the other hand connecting it clectrically with the
metal of the boiler or vessel, and also by feeding the wire or ribbon into
the steam space without its touching the water or liquid, and connecting
it on the other hand electrically with the shell of the boiler or vessel.
This Invention is applicable to all boilers or other metallic vessels
in which water or other liquid is heated, and may be applied to feed-
water heaters, or other vessels or chambers in electrical communication
with a boiler.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edward Primrose Howard Vaughan in the Great
Scal Patent Office on the 29th June 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
PRIMEROSE HOWARD VAUGHAN, of 54, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy, in the
thirty-fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Edward Primerose Howard
Vaughan, Her special licence that I, the said Edward Primerose Howard
Vaughan, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Edward Primerose Howard Vaughan, 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 ex-
pressed, 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 PREVENTING INCRUS-
TATION IN AND CORROSION OF STEAM BOILERS AND OTHER VESSELS," being a com-
munication to me from abroad by Charles James Adolphus Dick, of
Paris, in the Republic of France, upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Edward Primerose Howard Vaughan, 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 dato
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edward Primerose Howard Vaughan,
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, reference being had to the Drawing
hereunto annexed and to the letters marked thereon, that is to say: :-
For the purpose of preventing incrustation in and corrosion of steam
boilers, zinc and other metals more readily oxidizable than that of
which the boiler is constructed have been employed, as for instance,

page_text: by Benjamin Grey Babington, under Letters Patent for the United
Kingdom granted to him bearing date the Seventh day of November One
thousand eight hundred and fifty, No. 13,322, and under Letters Patent
granted to him in the Empire of France, bearing date the Twenty-
eighth day of November One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
one, No. 52,082.
It has been found in practice that the method hitherto employed
is not successful, inasmuch as the zinc or other metal becomes coated
in a very short time with layers of oxide and scale, by which it is com-
pletely insulated from the water. The voltaic action is consequently of
short duration, and when applied to boilers the feed water of which is
acidulated, or from some other cause possesses corrosive propertics, the
metal used for protecting the same is either destroyed or becomes
insulated as above mentioned in an equally short space of time. In
order to obviate this difficulty a wire or ribbon of zinc or other metal
or metallic alloy more readily oxidizable than the metal of which the
boiler or other vessel is constructed, or acquiring when thus applied the
same electrical properties with respect to such metal as those possessed
by zinc, is fed either continuously or intermittently into the boiler or
vessel, so as to produce a regular and continuous voltaic current
or tension. Thus one end of a coil of wire or ribbon of zinc, or of such
other metal or metallic alloy, as before mentioned, is so secured to the
shell of the boiler or vessel above the water line as to ensure its being
in electrical contact therewith, the other end of such coil being passed
through a small stuffing box which is secured to the shell of the boiler
or vessel and into the latter, so that it shall project below the water
line. The wire or ribbon should be slowly fed into the boiler, cither
continuously or intermittently, and may be so fed, for instance, by and
between rollers which are caused to revolve slowly, or it may be fed
automatically by other appliances adapted for the purpose as well under-
stood, or it may be moved from time to time through the stuffing box
by hand. The speed with which the wire should be fed into the boiler
cannot be stated determinately, as such speed must necessarily vary in
accordance with the feed water, some qualities of which will cause more
rapid oxidation of the wire and deposit of scale thereon than others, and
consequently demand a faster feed of the wire, so as always to ensure
sufficient electrical contact between the wire and the water into which
it is being fed. The continuous voltaic action thus maintained efficiently

page_text: prevents the formation of scale on the metal of the boiler or other vessel
and removes such as has been already formed. When the feed water is
acidulated or corrosive, the presence of the wire and the consequent
voltaic current or tension will prevent corrosive action of the water on
the metal of the boiler or other vessel.
It is preferred so to construct the stuffing box and to make it of
such material or materials that where the wire passes through the same
it shall be insulated from the metal of the boiler, as this will enable a
galvanometer to be applied to the wire for testing the voltaic action
within the boiler or vessel.
Although results partially effective may be produced even when a
continuously closed voltaic current, as above indicated, is not maintained
such, for instance, as that obtained by feeding the wire through an
insulated stuffing box into the water without its being on the other
hand in electrical communication with the shell of the boiler (except
through the water into which it is being fed), or also by feeding the wire
into the steam room of a boiler without its touching the water, and
connecting it on the other hand electrically with the shell of the
boiler, by far the best results are obtained under the circumstances abovo
stated.
The arrangements herein-before described will be more clearly under-
stood by reference to the annexed Drawing, in which A represents a
portion of a steam boiler, and a the level of the water therein; B is a
coil of wire or ribbon of zinc or such other metal or metallic alloy as
before mentioned, one end of which is so secured to the shell of the
boiler at bas to insure its being in electrical contact therewith, the other
end being passed through the small stuffing box d, (which is secured
to the shell of the boiler,) and so that it shall project below the water
line.
This Invention is capable of being applied to steam boilers, and also
of being used in connection with other metallic vessels, in which water
or other liquid is heated, for the purpose of preventing incrustation and
corrosion, and it may be applied to appropriate auxiliary vessels or
chambers of a boiler, a feed water licater for instance, or a vessel or
chamber specially constructed and used, the necessary electrical con-
nections being made so as to affect the metal of the boiler itself in the
same way as if the wire or ribbon of zinc or other metal were fed direct
into the same.
'

page_text: Having thus described and ascertained the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I would observe in
conclusion that what is considered novel and original, and is therefore
claimed as being the Invention secured by the said herein-before in
part recited Letters Patent is, preventing incrustation in and corrosion
of boilers and other vessels containing water or other liquids, by con-
tinuously or intermittently feeding into the same while under pressure or
heated, or into any appropriate vessel or chamber in connection therewith
as aforesaid, a wire or ribbon of zinc or other equivalent metal or
metallic alloy, and the combination and arrrangement of apparatus for
effecting such purpose, substantially as herein-before described and set
forth.
In witness whercof, I, tho said Edward Primerose Howard
Vaughan, have hercunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-
ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-one.