CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING POWER FROM STEAM AND OTHER ELASTIC VAPOURS OR FLUIDS, AND FOR THE MEANS EMPLOYED IN GENERATING SUCH VAPOURS OR FLUIDS, AND ALSO FOR USING THESE IMPROVEMENTS IN CONJUNCTION WITH DISTILLATION OR EVAPORATION AND OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1840

page_text: WILLIAMS SPECIE
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
ROBINSON WILLIAMS, of Cheapside, in the City of London, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fifteenth day of April, in the third year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas
Robinson Williams, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Thomas Robinson Williams, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said Thomas Robinson Williams, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times during the term of years therein mentioned,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, the Town of Berwick upon Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies
and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING
POWER FROM STEAM AND OTHER ELASTIC VAPOURS OR FLUIDS, AND FOR THE MEANS
EMPLOYED IN GENERATING SUCH VAPOURS OR FLUIDS, AND ALSO FOR USING THESE
IMPROVEMENTS IN CONJUNCTION WITH DISTILLATION OR EVAPORATION AND OTHER
USEFUL PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said Thomas Robinson Williams, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and cause the same
to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar

page_text: months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Robinson Williams, do hereby declare that the nature of my said In-
vention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures
marked thereon (that is to say):-
My Invention consists in different arrangements of machinery both for obtain-
ing power from steam or other elastic vapours in their passage from the boilers
or vessels in which they may be generated or produced to the cylinders of common
engines, as is also applicable with nearly the same arrangement to being usefully
employed as a simple, distinct, and separate engine. These arrangements may
be applied to all kinds of boilers or generators, but it is believed will be found
most advantageously used in conjunction with the form of boiler herein-after
described. A, Fig. 1, may be supposed to be the circular top of a common
boiler. a is the water line therein. At the top of this boiler is inserted the
cylinder B, having two ends C and D forming the chamber E, which should be
about half or two thirds the capacity of the cylinder of the steam engine with
which it communicates by the steam pipe F. This engine is supposed to be
working expansively and to be furnished with the usual slide valves for that
purpose. G is a wheel having cycloidal detent teeth upon its periphery; and
b is its axis or arbor, which is supported at its lower end upon a steel point at
c secured in the bottom plate D, and the upper end d of the shaft b is made to
pass through the upper plate C and common stuffing box e. f is a small but
strong bevilled pinion fixed upon the end of the shaft b above the stuffing
box e, and communicates or transmits the power of the wheel G to the bevil
wheel g, which may be of such size as to give any required velocity to another
shaft h. It will be seen that the bottom end of the cylinder B is cast of greater
thickness than the other parts, forming a rim i, i, around its lower inside edge
somewhat wider perpendicularly than the thickness of the detent wheel G.
The inner side of this rim is to be accurately turned out before the plate D is
screwed to it, so that the detent wheel G shall be made to fit nicely within it,
but without touching in any part. The description and intention of this will
be better seen by reference to Fig. 2, where the lower end of the rim i, i, upon
the cylinder, together with the detent wheel G, are shewn in a horizontal posi-
tion, with the plate D removed. Through this rim i, i, are a convenient number
of very narrow or rather thin slits 1, 2, &c., (the number and width of which

page_text: depend upon the quantity of steam intended to pass through them). These slits
are sawed or cut in a slanting direction, nearly tangental to the periphery of the
wheel G and opposed to its detent teeth. m, m, m, are screw holes by which the
plate D is attached to the rim i, i. By returning again to Fig. 1, it will now be seen
that the steam in its passage from the boiler to the chamber Eand the steam pipe F
must pass through the slits or orifices 1, 2, 3, &c., in the direction of the arrows,
and impinge with great force upon the teeth of the wheel G, thereby commu-
nicating a high velocity and great amount of power before the steam in the
cylinder E arrives at the same degree of pressure as in the boiler A, and the
time again arrives for the slide valve to open for the admission of steam from
the chamber to the cylinder of the steam engine. It will readily be seen that
this chamber E may be made of any required size, so as to become a proper
measure of quantity for steam to be let into the cylinder of the engine attached
thereto so as to work the steam in it with any degree of expansibility desired.
If it be desired to stop the machinery attached to the wheel G, this may be done
by a clutch box situated in any convenient manner. Besides the great addi-
tional amount of power which may be derived from all boilers and engines in
thus taking advantage of the current of steam in its passage to the engine, by
this arrangement another considerable object is attained, (viz*, by placing the
safety valve H, Fig. 1, (or valves) in connexion with the chamber E instead of
immediately in the boiler A, and connecting the pump of the engine for supplying
the boiler with water to the shaft h; whenever the engine is necessarily stopped,
and steam may be blowing off at the safety valve, it is at the same time being
made use of by its still acting upon the wheel G, and therefore pumping into
the boiler. This in locomotive engines will be found of great advantage when
a carriage or engine may be necessarily delayed, as there is no adequate means
of supplying the boiler except when in motion. From what has now been
described, I think it will be readily seen that this simple arrangement may also
be advantageously applied to many other useful purposes, either as a separate
engine and unconnected with any other by allowing the steam to pass off freely
from the cylinder E after imparting its power to the wheel G, or in distillation, or
whenever steam or elastic vapours are necessarily to be raised. No inconsiderable
power may be gained by placing this engine in connexion or between the still
head and the condensing worm or other means of condensation; also when
steam is raised or water heated for the purpose of warming buildings a power
may be evidently gained by taking advantage of its current. There are several
other modes of taking advantage of this current, such as placing a spiral screw,
fan, or vanes of metal upon axes in the cylinder E (or other formed cylinders),
or as the one represented at Fig. 3, where A, B, is the steam pipe from the

page_text: boiler to the engine C, the arbor or axis of a float or detent wheel enclosed in
the case D, forming a part of the square steam pipe with a lid or cover on one
side; the arbor C has a stuffing box at one end, the other end has no need of
any, being within the box. The front end, which passes through the stuffing
box, carries a pinion as in Fig. 1, but the arbor being horizontal in this case, a
spur wheel pinion is used communicating with another large spur wheel upon a
shaft conveniently placed for carrying the power to be applied to any useful
purpose. But I may say I have found none to succeed so well in practice as
the one described under Fig. 1, or as it is again represented in connexion with
the boiler before mentioned and described in Fig. 4. Fig. 4, A, B, represents
a long bent tubular boiler extending from the man-hole 1 to 2, where it terminates
above the brickwork in the steam chamber C, inclosing the apparatus or engine D,
similar to the one represented in Fig. 1 (adapted there to a common boiler).
This form of boiler, by its extended length and diminished diameter, allows of
'greater strength with equal capacity when required than those generally in use.
It is enclosed in brickwork when intended for a fixd engine, and surrounded
from end to end by a flue which passes into the chimney E; 3, being the water
line in the boiler, the fire never reaching above this water line; 4 is the fire
door; 5, the fire bars; 6, the ash hole; and 7 the fire, which I prefer being
very long and narrow, so that the fresh coals be always fed at the mouth of the
furnace, and the fire being occasionally pushed back upon the grates to receive
them. The smoke from these having to pass over those already in ignition is
better consumed than in any other way with which I am acquainted. The
boiler is suspended in the middle of the flue by bands of iron between the ends
of the boiler plates, as shewn in the Drawing, and those are secured by plates
and fastenings upon the stone work above. Above the fire door 4 is another
door to prevent the cold or external air from acting upon the end of the boiler
or man-hole 1; when this is opened the man-hole is easily reached, and is very
conveniently situated for cleaning the boiler. 8 is the waste steam pipe as it
enters the chimney; f, the pinion for conveying the power to the large bevilled
wheel g, as represented before in Fig. 1. In Fig. 4, n is a cock and waste pipe
for letting off the steam from the boiler into the chimney or in any other direc-
tion when the engine is not required to work. I claim in the first place the
making use of and obtaining power from the currents of steam or other elastic
vapours in their passage from the boilers or vessels in which they are generated
or produced to the cylinders of steam engines. And I also claim the several
arrangements or combinations of machinery herein-before described for effecting
that purpose. And I claim as well these severally described arrangements or
combinations as separate and distinct means or engines for producing or obtain-