IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STEAM GENERATORS
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for
Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION
OF STEAM GENERATORS." -A communication from abroad by Albert
Michel Jouet-Pastré, Representative of the Société Nouvelle des
Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, of Paris, in the Republic
of France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 24th November 1871.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION
OF STEAM GENERATORS," to be as follows:-
:―

page_text: above the fire-place, so that the flame and heated gases arising therefrom
may ascend and circulate between and around the small boilers (in the
spaces which separate them) and pass from thence to a common chimney
or flue.
Each of these small boilers contains its volume of water and
volume of steam. The upper parts of all of them containing the
steam communicate with each other and with a common reservoir or
All
steam space from which the steam is taken in the usual manner.
the lower parts of the small boilers are also in communication with each
other and with the water supply pipe so that the level of the water is the
same in all the boilers throughout the series.
It will be found convenient, although not absolutely necessary, to
connect the steam chamber (into which the steam is discharged from
the small boilers) with a supplementary steam chamber, so that in the
event of the boiler priming the water may be discharged from the
steam chamber into the supplementary chamber and be conveyed
back again to the lower part of the boilers. A large and powerful steam
generator may be composed of a number of these groups of small
boilers connected together, and these groups may be so arranged and
connected together that any one or more of them may be temporarily
disconnected for the purpose of cleaning or repairs without necessarily
stopping the action of the others. Steam generators constructed in this
manner will offer a very large amount of heating surface and will be
very strong, so that serious accidents from explosion will be rendered
almost impossible.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 24th May 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the
thirty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,

page_text: give and grant unto me, the said William Edward Newton, Her special
licence that I, the said William Edward Newton, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Edward
Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STEAM GENERATORS," being
a communication to me from abroad by Albert Michel Jouet-Pastré,
Representative of the Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de
la Mediterranée, of Paris, in the Republic of France, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Edward Newton,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 William Edward Newton, 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 Drawing here-
unto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is
to say) :-
A generator constructed according to this system for the purpose of
obtaining a required power of evaporation consists in the justaposition
of a number of small vertical boilers or water tubes placed alongside of
each other above the grate, so that the flame and the products of com-
bustion are free to circulate around the small boilers or tubes in the
spaces which separate them.
The gases then pass to the common
chimney or flue. These small boilers or tubes have each their volume
of water and their volume of steam. All their upper parts, which
contain the steam, communicate with each other, as also with a common
reservoir from which issues the steam supply of the group. The orifices
and tubes which form these connections are made large, so that even
should the feed pipe be wide open the water level will be the same in the
reservoirs as in the small boilers or tubes. The lower parts containing

page_text: the water submitted to evaporation also communicate with each other
and with the common feed pipe, so that under the influence of the
expansion of the steam the level of the water will be the same. It is
therefore only necessary to know the level of the water in one of the
parts to regulate the feed for the entire group, in the same manner as an
ordinary boiler is fed.
Taps or valves are adapted to the apparatus, and serve to connect the
lower parts of the small water tubes and to fill or empty the same when
it is desired to dry, clean, or repair them.
The safety valves are placed upon the steam reservoir, which is in
constant communication with all the water tubes. As a supplementary
but not indispensable arrangement and to characterise this system of
generator, the arm of the common steam reservoir is placed in com-
munication with the water collector of the small tubes by means of a
large vertical pipe in which the water rises to the same level as that of
the water in the groups, so that if any or all of these small tubes were
from an excess of ebullition simultaneously to boil up so as to force the
water into the common steam reservoir, this water would tend to fall
through the aforesaid pipe, and by reason of its own weight return to the
boilers. The system of generator here described admits of the plates of
the boilers resisting with the greatest security the greatest pressure of
steam that may be required, using at the same time but a moderate
thickness of metal such as that employed in all systems of serpentine
boilers, which contain water and steam in tubes heated externally. The
characteristic advantage of this system is to ensure amongst other results
that a suitable volume of water shall be submitted to evaporation, an easy
method of constantly observing the level of the water, and being thereby
able to regulate the feed in the ordinary manner.
The accompanying Drawing represents one mode of carrying out
this Invention. The boiler consists of a group of a hundred small
cylindrical vertical water tubes seventeen centimeters in external
diameter, and two meters thirty centimeters in height placed above a
grating of four square meters superficies.
Fig. 1 is an outside front elevation of the generator when put together;
Fig. 2 shews a top or plan of the same; and Fig. 3 represents a vertical
and transverse section taken in the line 1, 2, of Fig. 2.

page_text: The vertical boiler tubes a constitute the small boilers which severally
communicate with each other by means of the tubes 6 and c. The
tubes 6 lead to a water reservoir e, which is common to the whole group
of boiler tubes, and the tubes c communicate with the steam reservoir d,
which is also common to the whole group. A junction is formed between
the boiler tubes a and the horizontal tubes by means of rings or collars f
upon the tubes 6, each being furnished with a short tube. The collars g
upon the tubes c have each two short tubes, one of which serves as a
junction for the top of the boiler tubes and the other to obtain access to
the interior of the tubes; h is the water level common to all the boiler
tubes a and to the reservoir e. Openings i, Fig. 3, are provided for
inspecting the tubes b, and; those for inspecting the boiler tubes a.
At K is seen the steam pipe for conducting steam from the generator,
which is also furnished with the necessary apparatus for indicating the
water level as at m, also with the safety valve and the gauge cocks n.
The apparatus is supplied with water through the pipe and valve o,
Fig. 1, and the generator can be emptied when required by drawing off
the water by the tap and pipe p. The whole group of small boilers or
water tubes is situate above the fire-grate q, Fig. 3, of which is the
ash-hole. The casing 8, which is composed of sheet iron and fire-brick
encloses the ash-hole, the hearth, and the heated gases. These gases pass
off through the chimney hood t to the chimney u.
The whole group of small boilers contains about eight hundred gallons
of water, forming for this surface of grate a regulator capable of pre-
venting the too sudden variations of pressure. This combination is
furnished, as has already been shewn, with the usual adjuncts of an
ordinary single boiler as regards the feed, the outflow, the emptying,
the cleansing, the water level, the steam pipes, and the safety valves.
It will be evident that two or more series or groups of these tubes
may be arranged in combination so as to constitute capacious steam
generators for the use of ships or factories. They may also be made
of a greater or less number of tubos, and these latter of greater or
smaller dimensions than those indicated by the Figures on the accom-
panying Drawing.
I would here observe that I reserve to myself the right of this mode
of constructing steam gencrators, whether the water tubes or small
boilers between which circulate the products of combustion be placed
vertically or be made of other than cylindrical form, as, for instance, if

page_text: they be composed of plain or flat-faced tubes held together by cross bars
or stays. Moreover I do not intend to confine myself rigidly to the
precise means shewn in the accompanying Drawing for forming a
communication between the several water tubes or small boilers and
the water and the steam spaces.
Having now described the Invention that has been communicated to
me by my foreign correspondent, and having explained the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I claim as the Invention secured to me by
Letters Patent as aforesaid, the combination of the vertical tubes a with
the horizontal water tubes 6 below and the steam tube c above, as herein
set forth, for the purpose of generating steam.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Eighteenth day of May,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-two.