IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OR METHOD OF APPLYING MINERAL OILS FOR GENERATING STEAM AND HEAT
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Wladislaus Zbyszewski, at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 25th
July 1865. Partly a communication from Alexandre Szpis, of Inver-
keithing, Scotland.
I, WLADISLAUS ZBYSZEWSKI, of.Greenock, Scotland, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for " IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OR METHOD OF
APPLYING MINERAL OILS FOR GENERATING STEAM AND HEAT;" the same -being
partly the result of my own Invention and partly the Invention of Alexandre
Szpis, of Inverkeithing, Scotland; to be as follows:-
This Invention-relates-to certain-improved means of utilizing or applying
petroleum or other mineral oils to the purpose of generating steam and heat,
the object being' to afford a substitute for coal or coke. The Invention will
be especially adaptable for generating steam in ocean vessels, so as to
economize space and permit of greater freight being carried. I am aware
that it has heretofore been proposed to use mineral oil for the purpose of
generating steam, but the methods have been more or less objectionable.
I propose by my Invention to aid the combustion of mineral oils in steam
boilers by an incombustible medium, such as bricks, pumice stone, asbestos,
or any other porous material or materials, which are to be employed as
recipients or absorbents of the mineral oil, and to form a substitute as a

page_text: moderating wick. The materials employed are to be saturated with the
mineral oil, and when they are sufficiently supplied therewith the furnace is
covered with a quantity of the saturated incombustible materials, when by
the application of flame the whole is caused to ignite; when after a certain
time the mineral oil is partly consumed, a fresh supply of oil is fed into the
furnace by means of a force pump worked by hand, by a spring, by steam - or
other power capable of producing a jet of oil more or less continuous, and also
capable of being moderated or increased at will by suitable throttle valves.
It is not therefore by any special adaptation of pump or furnace grate that the
Invention depends, but upon the saturation of earthy or porous incombustible
materials with mineral oils, and their application to any suitable form of
boiler furnace and grate or hearth. The oils to be employed, by preference,
should be freed from their volatile elements so as to avoid all risk of danger
from sudden ignition and explosion. The pump is to be provided, by
preference, with several small pipes for forcing into the furnace the mineral
oil in a number of very fine jets. By means of the saturated materials the
bydrocarbon is supplied in a more scattered or disseminated condition, and is
consequently rendered capable of a ready, regular, and complete combustion;
the flame and heated products acting upon the surface of the boiler, or
through the numerous tubes of a locomotive will generate steam, forming a
substitute for coal or coke, and numerous advantages will result from the
use of mineral oil, as described. Atmospheric air is to be supplied to the
interior of the furnace by means of a common, rotary, centrifugal fan or blast,
in connection with a number of small pipes or jets systematically disposed in
the furnace. The Invention, that is to say, the employment of saturated
porous material as described, is also applicable to generating steam, hot
water, or heated air for warming houses, and other useful purposes, such as
for smelting and for every other purpose where, coal or coke is used..