IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1858

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Knowelden at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th March
1858.
I, JOHN KNOWELDEN, of Southwark, in the County of Surrey, Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER," to be as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to save fuel, and I effect this by economizing
and utilizing the heat and gases from a fire or furnace so as to obtain a rapid
generation of steam, and also by employing the said gases as well as the
steam as agents for the production of motive power. I make a boiler of any
convenient form, and I attach to it or within it the fire-place or box, which is
so constructed as to be capable of being entirely closed and of sustaining any
desired amount of internal pressure. Instead of discharging the gases generated
by the combustion of the fuel in the ordinary manner through a flue and
chimney, I cause them to pass by means of one or more pipes, which may be
fitted with valves, into the water or steam in the boiler or other generator.
In order to continue the combustion of the fuel and to keep up the requisite
pressure within the fire-place, I force in, by means of a pump or other appa-
ratus, the requisite amount of atmospheric air through one or more pipes
properly secured, and affixed to apertures in the fire-box. And in order to
supply the requisite fuel I arrange a pipe or chamber with two valves or taps;
I keep the lower valve closed and fill the space between it and the top valve
with fuel, I then close the top valve and open the lower one, and so pass the

page_text: fuel into the fire-place; or. if the fuel be in a gaseous or liquid form I may
force the same through pipes, as required, or supply the fuel in any other
convenient manner. The fire-place may be so formed and placed that the
water in the boiler will surround it, or nearly so.
The mixture thus generated on the water in the boiler or other generator
will consist of steam, carbonic oxide, carbonic acid, nitrogen, atmospheric air,
and other gas or vapour, or some of them, and may be passed from the boiler
to operate on an engine in the ordinary manner of steam; or I arrange the
boiler in the ordinary manner with tubes or flues, for the purpose of generating
steam only, and this steam is made to work in a cylinder of an engine, and
from thence the steam is passed into a regenerator, where the gases from the
combustion of the fuel are made to enter, and this mixture of steam and gases
is made to operate on a piston in another cylinder. The pump to force and
supply the air to the fuel may be worked by the engine or by hand. A pipe
with a suitable valve may be affixed to the fire box, so as to act as a chimney
in the ordinary manner if required, and the fire box should be fitted with a
door or lid capable of being screwed or fastened tight. Any accumulation of
carbon or other solid matter in the water in the boiler or other generator may
be passed off by means of a cone or other settling place at the bottom of the
boiler with a blow-off pipe and tap.
I use as fuel coal, coke, wood, charcoal, or other solid combustible, or a
stream or streams of carburetted bydrogen, or hydrogen gas, or naptha, oil,
tar, or other bydrocarbon or gaseous or liquid combustible.