CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN AND UPON A. MACHINE FOR EXTRACTING FRESH WATER FROM THE SALT WATER OF THE OCEAN (BY DISTILLATION), AND OTHER PURPOSES, AT SEA AND ELSEWHERE
Year: 1806

page_text: LAMB'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
LAMB, of the State of New York, in North America, at present residing in
King Street, in the City of London, Merchant, send greeting.
-
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-fifth-day of
July, in the forty-sixth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the. said
John Lamb, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence
that I, the said John Lamb, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN AND UPON A. MACHINE FOR
EXTRACTING FRESH WATER FROM THE SALT WATER OF THE OCEAN (BY DISTILLATION),
AND OTHER PURPOSES, AT SEA AND ELSEWHERE;" in which said Letters Patent there
is contained a proviso obliging me, the said John Lamb, by an instru
ment in writing under my hand, and to cause a particular description of
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one
calendar month after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and
by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: the particulars hereunder written.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Lamb, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-third day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and six.
JOHN LAMB. (L.S.)
First, my machine or machinery, which I call a hearth or camboose, for
the use of ships and vessels, or otherwise, for the purpose of cooking at sea, as
also supplying from the evaporation and condensation, or distilation of sea or
salt water, a sufficiency of good fresh water for the ship's use. The hearth
or camboose is to be made of cast or wrought iron, or any other proper metal
or material, of either a square, oblong, or other convenient figure.
Secondly, the front range or fireplace, where the fuel is introduced, to be in
one or two parts, and one or two dampers or douters, made so as to raise up
and slide down on to the front grate; or a door or doors, oval or bulk, or any
other convenient shape, so as to close or shut up the front, and confine the
heat arising from the fuel consumed.
Thirdly, the oven to be about the length of the whole front range or fire-
place, and at a suitable distance back from the front, with a door at one end as
usual, and (if required) a partition across, and a door at the other end.
Fourthly, two dampers, made to be raised, and, when necessary, to fall
perpendicularly on to the top of the oven, by which the whole front fire is com-
manded; (that is to say) by raising both dampers the fire draws under and com-
municates to all the kettles, boilers, or coppers for the purpose of cooking, and
also to supply, from the evaporation and condensation or distillation of sea
or salt water, good fresh water for the ship's use at the same time of cooking.
By raising up one damper the fire communicates to two or more boilers, or to
one boiler only as may be required by raising up the other damper; when no
fire is required in the front the dampers are to be down, and the fuel intro-
duced (into a small door made by the side of the oven) directly under the
two or more cooking boilers. All the boilers are to be placed in the back part
of the hearth or cambouse, and by drawing out a horizontal damper to be
made in the back side of the hearth or camboose, and to draw out from
between the cooking boilers and the distilling boiler, will admit the fire to
draw under the distilling boiler, which boils it the most rapidly by the draught
of heat, which otherwise would be lost by going out at the flew or common
smoke nine

page_text: Fifthly, the hearth or camboose and boilers, and all belonging thereto, must
in capacity be proportioned to the size of the vessel and number of people.
Sixthly, on part of the top of the distilling boiler (where the sea or salt
water only is introduced) is to be fitted a moveable cover, to shut steam-tight,
by the end or side of which (to cover the other part) is to be fitted a perma-
nent cover, steam-tight, in the center of which is to be a hole with a collar
convenient for fitting on (steam-tight, permanent or moveable) a pewter (or
other proper material) still head, into which the steam rises and passes along
a pipe, tube, or worm (to be made for that purpose) into a refrigerating or
condensing vessel, to be made square, oblong, or round, or of any other
convenient shape, to fit apertures in any convenient place. In this refrigerat-
ing or condensing vessel is to be fitted a worm, pipe, or tube, which is to wind
or turn therein, along which the steam must pass, and where, by the effect of
cold sea water with which the refrigerating or condensing vessel is to be filled,
the steam is condensed, and the fresh water flows out of the lower end of the
worm (outside of the condensing. vessel) into a reservoir placed underneath
for the reception of the fresh water.
Seventhly, on the top of one or more of the cooking boilers is also to be
fitted covers, still head, and pipe, tube, or worm, to communicate with a separate
worm, pipe, or tube to be fitted in the same refrigerating or condensing vessel
(along which the steam must pass and condense, and the fresh water flow out
of the lower end of the said worm into a separate reservoir, all to be made
and to operate exactly in the same manner as is mentioned in the making
and operation of the still, boiler, covers, head, pipe, tube, or worm, and the steam
condensed by the sanic means in the refrigerating or condensing vessel, as
before mentioned, with this addition (that is to say), in the centre of the
moveable cover of one or more of the cooking boilers is to be a hole in
which is to be fitted a steam kettle for cooking with steam when necessary.
Eighthly, in the cover or top of the refrigerating or condensing vessel is to be
a hole to admit a steam kettle of sufficient size for cooking with steam when
necessary, the steam to be let into the said kettle by a pipe or tube leading
from the head, pipe, or tube fitted to the cooking boiler, and the steam to pass
out of the said kettle into a pipe or tube fitted thereto, and leading directly
into the said worm fitted in the refrigerating vessel; in this vessel is to be
fitted a hand pump or any other conveniency for the purpose of throwing out
or drawing off the water when it becomes hot, so as to admit cold sea-water
for condensing the evaporation, as before mentioned.
I, the said John Lamb, do hereby further declare, that from frequent
experiments since the First day of January, One thousand eight hundred and

page_text: three, in the operation of the aforesaid machine or machinery at sea and on
land, the great utility consisteth in confining the whole of the heat arising from
the fuel consumed to the purposes of cooking, as also to extract fresh water
from salt water for the ship's use, the consumption of fuel will be lessened,
and a greater effect produced than in the usual mode; whether the condensa-
tion be in a vessel of the kind or shape above mentioned, or by passing along
in pipes or tubes in trunks filled with cold sea-water, or in part under the
surface of the sea, I consider it as my improvement or Invention, and on the
principles I have here adopted.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-third day of
August, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid John Lamb came before
our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Twenty-fifth day of August, in the year above written.