IMPROVE- MENTS IN STEAM ENGINES, AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Henry Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields,
in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN STEAM ENGINES, AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH."―A
communication from abroad by Richard Bristol, of Chicago, in the
County of Cork, and State of Illinois, United States of America.
Sealed the 12th April 1864, and dated the 20th November 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th November 1863.
"
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES, AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH,"
a communication to me from abroad by Richard Bristol, of Chicago, in the
County of Cork, and State of Illinois, United States of America, to be as
follows:-
This Invention has reference partly to the slide valves of steam engines, and
consists in grooving or recessing the face of the valve to a considerable extent
of its surface, into which grooves or recesses are placed rollers or their
equivalents, in order that the surface in contact with the face may readily
wear away so as to leave the principal load upon the rollers, and be con-
tinuously self-fitting. The valve itself is extended at the several points in the
line of the several series of rollers, so as to give greater length for each series,

page_text: and afford room for a greater number of rollers, so that the load upon the
valve will not too much overhang the rollers when the valve is moved to its
extreme travel in either direction. One or more bridges are placed or formed
across the ports of the cylinder, and corresponding divisions are made in the
valve furnished with additional series of rollers, so as to better support the
valve when of very large dimensions. It is further proposed to employ in
combination with a valve supported on rollers bearing pieces made separate
from the cylinder face, and lying thereon, or let into the casting, and other
bearing pieces made separate from the valve, and attached thereto in any
convenient manner, whereby such bearing pieces may be made of a harder
and more durable material, and can be repaired or renewed without
necessitating the renewal of either the cylinder face or the valve. It is
further proposed to heat the feed water for the boiler by distributing it
through the heating chamber in broken jets or streams by means of a series
of perforated plates arranged one above another in combination with the
circulating of the exhaust steam in contact with the feed water by the same
or similar means, so that it passes over and through the plates, and thus heats
both the plates and the feed water. The heated feed water is taken off from
the heater at a point below the surface of the body of the water in the lower
part of the heater, by which arrangement any oil or grease floating upon the
feed water is not discharged with the water in the boiler. A passage or exit
is provided, controlled by a valve, to allow any desired portion of the steam to
escape from the heater, and thereby reduce the resistance or back pressure due
to the contraction of the exhaust nozzles. This feature of the Invention is
designed more particularly for use in locomotive steam engines.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Henry Johnson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
20th May 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Henry Johnson, Her special license that I, the said John

page_text: Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said John Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators, or 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 "Iμ-
FROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES, AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH," a
communication to me from abroad by Richard Bristol, of Chicago, in the
County of Cook and State of Illinois, United States of America, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Henry Johnson, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, or under the hand and seal of one of them, 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 date of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Henry Johnson, 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 accompanying Drawings, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:
The said Invention has reference partly to the slide valves of steam engines,
and partly to a feed-water heater. According to the first part of this Inven-
tion it is proposed to groove or recess the face of the valve to a considerable
extent of its surface, in which grooves or recesses are placed rollers or their
equivalents, in order that the surface in contact with the face may readily
wear away, so as to leave the principal load upon the rollers, and be con-
tinuously self-fitting. The valve itself is extended at the several points in the
line of the several series of rollers, so as to give greater length for each series,
and afford room for a greater number of rollers, so that the load upon the
valve will not too much overhang the rollers when the valve is moved to its
extreme travel in either direction. One or more bridges are placed or formed
across the ports of the cylinder, and corresponding divisions are made in the
valve furnished with additional series of rollers, so as to better support the
valve when of very large dimensions. It is further proposed to employ in
combination with a valve supported on rollers bearing pieces made separate
from the cylinder face and lying thereon, or let into the casting, and other
bearing pieces made separate from the valve and attached thereto in any con-
venient manner, whereby such bearing pieces may be made of a harder and

page_text: more durable material, and can be repaired or renewed without necessitating
the renewal of either the cylinder face or the valve.
According to the second part of this Invention, it is proposed to heat the
feed water for the boiler by distributing it through the heating chamber in
broken jets or streams by means of a series of perforated plates arranged one
above another in combination with the circulating of the exhaust steam in
contact with the feed water by the same or similar means, so that it passes
over and through the plates, and thus heats both the plates and the feed
water. The heated feed water is taken off from the heater at a point below
the surface of the body of the water in the lower part of the heater, by which
arrangement any oil or grease floating upon the feed water is not discharged
with the water into the boiler. A passage or exit is provided, controlled by a
valve, to allow any desired portion of the steam to escape from the heater,
and thereby reduce the resistance or back pressure due to the contraction of
the exhaust nozzles. This feature of the Invention is designed more parti-
cularly for use in locomotive steam engines.
And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood, I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall
refer to the several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts throughout all the
Figures.
Fig. 1 of the Drawings is a section of a slide valve constructed according to
this Invention, on the line x, x, in Figure 3; Fig. 2 is a section of the same
on the line y, y, in Figure 3; Fig. 3 is a face view, or a representation of
that side of the valve which is presented towards the face of the cylinder;
Fig. 4 is a section of the same on the line, z, in Figure 3; Fig. 5 is a section
of a feed beater constructed according to the said Invention.
A (Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4) represents the steam chest; B, the cylinder face,
and b, b, b, the ports therein; C is the slide valve, which caused to recipro-
cate by means of a rod, not represented; D, D, D, are bars of hardened steel
confined in recesses in the valve, and E, E, E, are corresponding bars lying
upon or recessed into the cylinder face B; G, G, G, is a series of rollers of
uniform diameter, and which I prefer to make also of hardened steel. The
rollers are free to traverse backward and forward between the bars E and D,
and are adapted to support the pressure of the steam.
Sufficient space is
provided to allow them considerable motion in the direction in which the valve
reciprocates.
It will be observed that the valve applies very nearly to the ends of the
rollers, so as to maintain them in their proper position; that the rollers are

page_text: divided into three series, one at each end, and the other at an intermediate
position under the valve, and that the channels or spaces in which the rollers
traverse are made longer than would otherwise be allowable by widening the
valve at the points where these series are carried.
Small valves succeed well with only two series, one at each end; and very
large ones may, if desired, be provided with two or more series intermediate
between the end series. The conditions in this respect, as also the diameter
of the rolls, may be varied within reasonable limits according to the judgment
of the constructing engineer. When one or more series of rolls are intro-
duced between the end series, the cylinder face must be constructed in
accordance therewith by dividing the steam ports to correspond with the divi-
sion of the valve. I propose to accomplish this by simply bridging across the
ports to a sufficient width and depth to afford the necessary strength, and lay
the bar E so that it extends across thereon. I provide in the broad rubbing
surfaces on the face of the valves shallow grooves or recesses indicated by c, c.
These must be narrower than the spaces between the ports on the cylinder
face, and I introduce two or more of these grooves along each of the broad
bearing surfaces, distributed as represented, so as to reduce the wearing sur-
faces on the faces of the valves to a very small amount. I construct the valve
by making a single casting of the necessary form to contain the ways and the
rollers. The valve is smoothly planed to be a little full in height, so that
when put on it will not bear upon the rollers, but will soon wear down to
them, and be self-fitted without the necessity of scraping the face of the
valve or its seat. When there are more than two series of rollers the valve
may, if preferred, be made in more than one casting, so as to serve as two
valves side by side. I prefer, as before intimated, to make the ways and
rollers of steel hardened. If the ways are not too thick, they can be straight-
ened after hardening. The room for the rollers in line of travel must be
slightly in excess of one-half of the greatest travel of the valve, in addition to
their aggregate diameters. The diameter of them should be such that they
will make a full revolution in the shortest travel of the valve. It is not well
to make them more than one and a half inches in diameter in any case.
Provision should be made that the valve cannot lift from its seat so far as to
let the rollers or ways get out of place.
I will now proceed to describe the improved feed heater and the means of
providing a variable escape for the exhaust steam.
Into a cylindrical or other shaped heating chamber H (Figure 5) I insert
several horizontal partition plates I, which are placed a short distance apart, and
are finely perforated as indicated at i, i. The holes are arranged in the respective

page_text: plates so that those of one plate are not in line with those of the next plate,
and thus the feed water is compelled to flow and circulate in broken and
circuitous courses. The arrows illustrate the course of the water and steam.
The feed water is drawn or forced in at J, while the heated water is allowed
to pass to the feed pump from the discharge K, said pump standing on a
plane below the heater. The exhaust steam may be taken in and out at any
desirable point. It may be well in some cases to admit the steam at the top
and to allow the portion uncondensed to escape through a pipe near the
bottom, but above the water line. I prefer, however, in cases where con-
tracted exhaust nozzles are employed, to introduce and take out the steam
above the plates by branches L from the exhaust pipes, because the pressure
due to such contractions will readily fill the heater with steam. Through the
pipe M, regulated by the valve N, I allow as much as may be desirable of the
exhaust steam to escape freely for the purpose of reducing at will the blast
through the nozzles, and consequently reducing the back pressure against the
piston. It will be seen that the plates present a large amount of surface to
be heated by the steam, and the water being spread generally over the same,
and being caused to flow down in thin broken currents, will be thoroughly
presented to the steam and be heated by it, and the plates I will have very
nearly the temperature due to the steam. In this way a very small vessel
will answer the purpose, and very little water will have to be carried. By
examining the Drawing it will be observed that the outlet and discharge of
my heater is placed in a well R below the bottom of the cylinder H. This
arrangement or its equivalent with such engines as use small boilers relatively
to the amount of heating surface is important, as it has been found that when
the exhaust steam and feed water have been brought in contact in the
ordinary heaters, the oil from the engine was fed to the boiler so as to
cause the water in the boiler to foam in such a degree that this mode of
heating feed water was impracticable. To avoid this I have provided a bent
discharge pipe K, K', K', with a vent pipe k in the highest portion of the
curve. This pipe has its receiving end K2 always below the surface of the
water in the heater, this being regulated either by the waste pipe P of the
heater, situate as shown, or by having the capacity of the feed pump equal to
or in excess of the quantity supplied. The curved pipe K, K', K², may be
arranged directly on the cylindrical heater H by making it (the heater) some-
what higher in proportion than is shewn in the Drawings, and thus making
more room below the bottom plate of the series of the plate I; but I prefer, in
order to avoid this increase in size of the heater, to attach the well R to one
end of the cylinder H, as represented, and to have the curved pipe placed in it:

page_text: This well communicates with the interior of the cylinder H, and it may extend
to any desired depth below the bottom of the same. It will be observed that
the curve K of the pipe in this arrangement is somewhat above the bottom of
the cylinder, and as the depth of water at any time in the cylinder H cannot
rise much above the line S, S, the water will enter the pipe at K³, circulate
by reason of the pressure of the bead of water around the curve K¹, and
escape at K, passing therefrom to the feed pump of the boiler; and by reason
of thus taking the water from a point below the line S, S, the oil will remain
behind on the surface of the water in the heater, escaping into the waste pipe
whenever by any accident there chances to be a surplus of water; so long as
the water maintains a height such as indicated by the dotted line S, S, it will
continue to flow, but when it falls below the bottom of the curved part of the
pipe the head of water will be insufficient to carry the water up over the
curve K', and the steam flowing freely in at k will prevent any vacuum
forming in the curved pipe, and the flow will cease. The oil and water may
be removed entirely by opening a cock in the pipe T when necessary.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel and
original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
First, the employment of the grooves or cavities c, c, in combination with
the rollers G, G, or their equivalents, substantially in the manner and for the
purpose herein-before described.
Second, the extending of the valve at the several points in the line of the
ways for the rollers substantially as and for the purpose herein-before
described.
Third, the employment of one or more bridges across the ports of the
cylinders, and correspondingly dividing the valve in combination with three or
more series of rollers, substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein-
before described.
Fourth, the application and use in combination with the rolling supports
G, G, of bearing pieces or ways D, D, adapted to be removed and repaired
or renewed, substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein-before
described.
Fifth, the combination of plates perforated to a greater or less extent over
their surfaces with the shell or case of feed water heaters of steam boilers for
the purposes herein-before described.
Sixth, the combination of the tube K, K', K², or its equivalent, with a feed-

page_text: water heater for steam boilers for the purpose of taking the water from a
point below the surface, substantially as herein-before described.
Seventh, the application and use to and in locomotives or other engines
having contracted exhaust nozzles of the combination of the aperture M
and controlling valve N with the shell or case H of a feed-water heater,
substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
J. HENRY JOHNSON. (L.S.)