AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR FEEDING STEAM BOILERS WITH WATER
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Adam Whytlaw at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition; on the
25th January 1870.-A communication from abroad. by Matthew
Whytlaw and Duncan Sim, of Sydney, New South Wales.
"
"
I, ROBERT ADAM WHYTLAW, of Watling Street, in the City of
London, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR FEEDING STEAM BOILERS WITH WATER,
(a communication to me from abroad by Matthew Whytlaw. and Duncan
Sim, of Sydney, New South Wales,) to be as follows:-
'
The purpose for which this Invention is designed is to afford an easily
adaptable and convenient means for serving steam boilers with a regular
supply of water and to maintain the same at a constant level at any
desired point. The"feed" essentially consists of a peculiarly formed tap
(attached by screws or other convenient appliances to the outside or shell
of the boiler) of any suitable size according to the capacity of the boiler
to which it is to be applied; the plug of this tap has two ways, one of
which leads to the boiler and the other to the cistern. The plug is bored
(and it may be cored out when casting) so as to contain (if necessary)
a larger supply of water. The plug is either connected with a lever

page_text: worked by an eccentric in the manner heretofore practised or with
suitable gearing in such a manner that it may constantly and whenever
required be made to change its positions and so feed the boiler with
water. The direction of the bore in the plug of the tap is an obtuse
angle, thereby forming two ways which meet in or about the centre
of the plug. When one of these ways communicates with the cistern
the plug will be filled with water, the other way of the plug being
closed at its outer end, but when the plug is moved by the gear herein-
before referred to the second way is made to communicate with the
interior of the boiler into which flows the water from the plug, the body
of water from the same being replaced by steam. On the plug again
being caused to return to its former position and exposed to the column
of water from the cistern the steam in the plug will be immediately
condensed, and the water which has absorbed it will take back to the
boiler the heat of the steam so condensed, and so economise fuel. This
process will continue until the level of the water in the boiler rises
above the opening communicating with the "feed," when no more water
can enter until the level of the water again falls below the said com-
munication or opening, this arrangement thus maintaining a constant
level.
This result can also be effected by a modification of the above, the
essential difference boing the substitution of a D slide arrangement.
It will thus be evident that this improved mode of feeding a steam
boiler with water requires scarcely any actuating power; the feed being
of the simplest possible character and construction it can readily be
applied to any existing boiler with little expense, and by any simple
mechanical arrangement it may be made to feed if necessary during the
cessation of work of the engine or during any short time that the engine
is stopped or at rest.