IMPROVEMENTS IN MECHANISM OR ARRANGEMENTS APPLICABLE TO STEAM BOILERS AND THEIR FURNACES, THE SAID MECHANISM OR ARRANGEMENTS BEING ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE TO THOSE BOILERS AND THEIR FURNACES WITH WHICH GAS IS THE COMBUSTIBLE USED
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Ritchie at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd October
1867.
I, CHARLES RITCHIE, of Brixton, in the County of Surrey, Gentleman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MECHANISM OR ARRANGEMENTS APPLICABLE TO STEAM BOILERS AND THEIR FURNACES,
THE SAID MECHANISM OR ARRANGEMENTS BEING ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE TO THOSE
BOILERS AND THEIR FURNACES WITH WHICH GAS IS THE COMBUSTIBLE USED," to be
as follows:-
This Invention consists in the adoption in steam boilers of arrangements
of mechanism, whereby a float or other equivalent contrivance may be used
in connection with a damper or other such like appliance in or appertaining to
the flue or passage for carrying off the products of combustion and heated
air, thus controlling the generation and pressure of steam, with suitable
provision for regulating in an automatic manner the supply (of gas for
boilers heated by gas) and of air and water to boilers heated by gas or other
means.
The following is a statement of the details of the mechanism referred to,
which I give as illustrative of the means that may be adopted in carrying out
my said Invention. Within the boiler I have a float with or without guides
to which a rod is attached which projects through the boiler and is provided
with teeth to gear with the teeth of wheels one of which actuates a rack which
moves a damper in the flue, and another such wheel actuates a damper in tho

page_text: pipe or passage which supplies atmospheric air to the furnace. One or both of
said racks may be provided with friction rollers for facilitating motion.
Other toothed wheels gear with the rod attached to the float, and these
wheels respectively actuate the tap or taps, valve or valves used for regulating
tbe supply of gas, and in the case of a gas furnace such as Gores' the supply
of atmospheric air also, and one similar wheel gearing as aforesaid may be
provided for the purpose of actuating a tap or valve in the pipe or duct for
supplying water to the boiler. Or the float within the boiler may actuate
a tap, valve, or plug for regulating the supply of water; instead of racks and
toothed wheels, as above mentioned, any mechanical equivalents may be used
that will fulfil their office as herein described. For the purpose of governing
the pressure of steam as a means of regulating the supply of water to the
boiler I can use a piston or plunger working in a cylinder connected with
the boiler, and acted upon by a spring or springs, weight or weights, such
piston being connected by its rod with the tap or valve which in the case
of a boiler beated by gas regulates the supply of gas, and with the tap or
damper or dampers (or any two or more of them) that introduce asmospheric
into or conduct away heated air and the products of combustiou from the
furnace, or analogrons arrangements in accordance with the character of the
boiler may be used.