IMPROVE. MENTS IN COOLING WARM WATER FOR USE IN CONDENSING STEAM."
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Cunningham, of Dundee, in the County
of Forfar, North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE.
MENTS IN COOLING WARM WATER FOR USE IN CONDENSING STEAM."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Cunningham
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 22nd December 1875.
J; WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM, of Dundee, in the County of Forfar, North
5. Britain, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for IMPROVEMENTS IN COOLING WARM WATER FOR USE IN CONDENSING STEAM,"
to be as follows, that is to say :—
...
This Invention has for its object to dispense with the large open hot.
water ponds with their attendant inconveniences which are commonly
employed for cooling water for use in condensing steam, and which
occupy large areas of valuable ground.
In carrying out the Invention any known arrangement of permeable
diaphragms, or of masses of tree branches, or other permeable materials
[Price 8d.]

page_text: may be employed, the warm water being supplied to the upper part of
such arrangement, and being allowed to drip down through the
permeable diaphragms or mareale
essential features of the
Invention are the enclosing or partial enclosing of the permeable
diaphragms or materials in a chamber or space through which air is
propelled at a suitable rate for the purpose in view. The air may be
forced through the chamber by a fan or pump, preference being given
to apparatus acting at a low pressure on large volumes in the manner
described in a Provisional Specification lodged by the present applicant
on the 19th October 1875 (No. 3621). The air with the vapor which it
takes up from the water. may be led off by a chimney stalk or in any
other way so as to avoid the great inconvenience of the vapor arising
from open ponds..
7
In a preferable modification of the permeable diaphragms each.
consists of a series of inclined slats, those of each diaphragm running at
right angles to the slats above; and below them; and the lower. edges of
the slats are by preference notched or otherwise formed with points or
projections with the view of subdividing the drippings of water.
The arrangement may be modified by employing vertical or inclined
surfaces for the water to flow down in thin films, or the chamber may
be without permeable diaphragms or materials, and the water be dropped
through it in the form of rain or spray from a perforated plate at the
top of the chamber; but it is believed the water will be more effectually
cooled by a given air current when it is made to drip through diaphragms
or permeable materials presenting a large amount of surface.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said "William Cunningham in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 19th June 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
CUNNINGHAM, of Dundee, in the County of Forfar, North Britain,
Engineer, send greeting.
:
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of December, in; the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
[1944]

page_text: thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said William Cunningham, Her
special licence that I, the said William Cunningham, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William'
Cunningham, 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 COOLING WARM WATER FOR USE IN CON-
DENSING STEAM," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
William Cunningham, 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 game 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 William Cunningham, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement in writing, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawings, that is to say:-.
My said Invention has for its object to dispense with the large open
hot water ponds with their attendant inconveniences which. are
commonly employed for cooling water for use in condensing steam, and
which occupy large areas of valuable ground..
02.
1000
In carrying out my Invention any known arrangement of permeable
diaphragms, or of masses of tree branches, or other permeable materials
may be employed, the warm water being supplied to the upper part of
such arrangement and being allowed to drip down through or over the
diaphragms or materials, but the essential features of my Invention
are the fenclosing or partial enclosing of the permeable diaphragms or
equivalent materials in a chamber or space through which air is pro.
pelled at a suitable rate for the purpose in view. The air may be passed
through the chamber by means of pumps or other suitable, air propelling
apparatus, preference being given by me to apparatus operating
1 q
25

page_text: positively and acting at a low pressure on large volumes in the manner
described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to me and dated
the 19th October, 1875 (No. 3621). The air with the vapor which it.
takes up from the water may be led off by a chimney stalk or in any
other way so as to avoid the great inconvenience of the wide spread
vapor arising from open ponds.
And in order that the said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood I hereunto append a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings, to be herein-after referred to, and representing
one of the many modifications of apparatus which may be adopted in
carrying out my improvements, the modification delineated being what
In
I at present believe to be the most advantageous and convenient.
these Drawings the same reference numerals are used to mark the same
or like parts wherever they are repeated.
""
Figures 1 and 2 of the Drawings are transverse and longitudinal
vertical sections of a building which with its contents forms my water
cooling apparatus; Figure 3 is a plan as with the roof 1 that covers
part of the building removed; and Figure 4 is a second longitudinal
vertical section.
Figures 5 and 6 are enlarged vertical sections as at right angles to
each other; and Figure 7 is a corresponding horizontal section.
Figures 8, 9, and 10 are views of portions of the air pump valves;
and Figures 11, 12, 13, and 14 are enlarged views of one of a number of
peculiarly formed boards over which the water drips whilst being
cooled.
**
The building is rectangular, and consists of two end walls 2, 3, two
outer longitudinal walls 4, 5, and an inner longitudinal wall 6, which
last divides the structure into two chambers 7, 8, one containing the
air pumping apparatus and the other being that in which the cooling
operation is effected; the division wall 6 is supported on pillars 9 and
r the air to pass from the
girders 10 so as to have openings beneath it for the
pump chamber 7. to the water. cooling chamber 8, the air enters the
pump chamber 7 through large openings fitted with louvre boards '11 in
the outer longitudinal wall 5. The pumping apparatus is substantially
the same as what is described in my earlier Patent Specification herein
before referred to, and comprises two pairs of rectangular piston
chambers 12, 13, 14, 15, with pistons worked vertically by ropes passing
15

page_text: over pulleys 16, 17, and with inlet and outlet valve casings 18, 19, at
their upper and lower ends. Figure 8 is a vertical section of one inlet
valve frame, and one half of Figure 9 is an outside view thereof; whilst
the other half of Figure 9 is an outside view of an o tlet valve frame
which is shewn in section in Figure 10.
3 !
addy
on its
other.
The arrangements represented as for working the pumps consist of a
continuously revolving first-motion shaft 20 driven by a belt, or in any
other convenient way, and having on it a pinion gearing with aspur
wheel on a second-motion shaft 21. This shaft 21 has fast
opposite ends two cranks 22, which are at right angles to each
and which have jointed to them connecting rods 23 formed with toothed
racks gearing with pinions fast on the shafts of one of each pair of
pulleys 16, 17. By the gearing that has been described the air pistons
are made to reciprocate, the two of each pair moving in opposite
directions, and one pair being at the ends of their strokes whilst the
other pair are at the middles of their strokes. The space between the
inner side of the pumps and the division wall 6 is boarded over, and
vertical partitions are erected at the ends to confine the air forced from
the pumps, so that it must pass through the openings under the division
wall 6 into the lower part of the water cooling chamber 8. This
chamber 8 is occupied excepting at its lowermost and uppermost parts
by a uniformly distributed number of dripping boards 24 (indicated by
red lines in Figures 1 and 2) which are shaped so as in combination
with suitable feeding apparatus, herein after described, to cause the
water to be presented to the cooling action of the upward current of..air
in a very uniform manner over a very large aggregate surface. The
shape of each dripping board 24 will be easily understood from
Figures 11 to 14, Figures 11 and 12 being end and side elevations and
Figures 13 and 14, views of the upper and under side respectively.
The
upper surface and also the middle of the under surface are formed
with transverse ribs, which prevent the water from running along the
Board is a little out of the true level, at which as nearly
as possible it should be placed. The water drops on the middle of each
board, and creeping round the longitudinal edges, passes towards, and
drops from the middle of the under side, inclined, surfaces being formed
mario reboot o
on the under side to lead the water to the middle. The dripping
boards, 24 are arranged in vertical rows, but the edges of each row enter
a short distance between those of the adjacent rows in such a wayithat
board when
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page_text: .
the air
currents do not pass directly upwards, but in zig-zag courses and
are thereby made to brush the water films more closely in passing.
:
For holding the dripping boards 24 four tiers of girders 25 are
fixed across the chamber 8, and between these are placed wooden
uprights 26 to which the dripping boards 24 are secured but without
nails. The uprights 26 are formed with notches to receive.. the ends of
the, dripping boards 24, the notches being deeper on one side to
facilitate the placing of the boards, which are finally secured by wooden
keysao The highest dripping boards 24 receive the water from a number
of short longitudinal troughs 27 carried by transverse girders 28. These
troughs 27 are made with their sides projecting below their bottoms, so
that the water overflowing from them drips from the bottom edges of
their sides down upon the boards 24 beneath, the boards 24 and
troughs 27 being arranged relatively to each other so that the middles.of
two boards are directly beneath the dripping edges of the two sides of
each trough. Notwithstanding their short length the troughs 27 are,
by preference, divided by transverse partitions 29, as shewn in Figure 5,
to prevent any slight deviation from a level position from causing the
overflow to take place all near one end of a trough. Above the longi-
tudinal troughs 27 there are a series of larger transverse troughs 30,
which are branches of a single longitudinal or main feeding trough 31,
the warm water to be cooled being admitted to one end of this main
trough 31 to the height of which it is raised by pumping or in any other
convenient way..
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The main trough 31 and its transverse branches 30 are supported on
girders, 32 resting on those 28 which carry the small longitudinal
troughs 27 and the water descends to the latter through tubes 33 made
of a metal or alloy which does not readily oxidize, the tubes being fitted
in holes formed in the bottoms of the main and branch troughs 31, 30,
in such positions as to distribute the water uniformly over the entire
series of small longitudinal troughs 27. The
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a tudinal use of the metal tubes 33
in this way secures equality of supply throughout the series, whilst each
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jet is directed down in a proper manner, and there is no liability, to
Os initi
partial choking or of the action becoming irregular, as there would be
with mere holes bored through the wooden bottom of the troughs
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page_text: F
from six to eightranches of water may be, maintained, in the main and
branch troughs 31, 30maz
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The top of the water cooling chamber 8cis showu open, astitisqat
such a height and is so small in comparison with the open pond that
would be required for the same, purpose that the vapor rising from it
will not cause inconvenience, but if preferred a stalk or
sufficient size might be erected to conduct the vapor
from the top of
the chamber to a higher point of discharge. The water which reaches
the bottom of the chamber 8. in a cooled state may be led, thence to a
tank or pond or be disposed of in any other convenient way, Or the
bottom of the chamber may be made to serve as a reservoird of
.
ALEGAT
+
The variations in the condition of the atmosphere as regards both
temperature and moisture will of necessity involve considerable variation
in the speed at which the air pumps should be driven to produce a
given cooling effect; but it may, be mentioned by way of guide that
the apparatus shewn in the accompanying Drawings has been designed
with the expectatiour that about 300 gallons of water entering the
apparatus per minute at about a temperature of 120 degrees Fahrenheit
will be cooled to the extent of between 30 and 35 degrees if the air
pumps are driven at the rate of between 20 and 30 single strokes per
minute, and if the external atmosphere is as on an average during the
summer months at a temperature of about 58 degrees.
"
330
Instead of the arrangement of dripping boards (24) shewn in the
accompanying Drawings a number of permeable diaphragms might be
arranged, each consisting of a series of slightly inclined slats, and those
of each diaphragm or tier running at right angles (in plan) the slats
above and below them. The lower edges of such slats should be
notched or otherwise formed with points or projections with the view
of subdividing the drippings of the water. Or by another modification
vertical or inclined surfaces may be employed for the water to flow
down in thin films; or again, the chamber (8) may be without per-
meable diaphragms or materials, and the water be dropped through it
in the form of rain or spray from a perforated plate at the top of the
chamber; but I believe that the water will be more effectually cooled
by a given air current when it is made to drip through diaphragms or
permeable materials presenting a large amount of surface.
In some cases it may be more convenient for the air current to be
passed through the chamber 8 in horizontal, or inclined, or various

page_text: directionis, instead of in a generally vertical direction, as herein-before
described with reference to the particular example or modification of
apparatus shewn in the accompanying Drawings ad te qe sdi
:
In some
cases it may be most convenient for the air pumping
orig
apparatus to be situated at a distance from the water cooling chamber 8,
the air being led from the former to the latter through a large flue or
passage.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict
myself to the precise details herein described and delineated, but that
what I believe to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
1130
First: The system or mode of cooling warm water for use in con-
densing steam, wherein the water is made to present a large aggregate
surface in a chamber through which air is propelled at a suitable rate,
substantially in the manner herein-before described.
7
Second. The cooling of warm water for use in condensing steam by
means of apparatus, constructed, arranged, and combined, substantially
reference to
as herein-before described with
the accompanying
"Drawings.
:
In witness whereof, I, the said William Cunningham, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of June, in the
od dyin
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
920rls bire
SIX.
atels eds o
1
'
WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM. (L.S.)¨*