IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Paterson, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN STEAM ENGINES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Paterson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st December 1863.
. I, ROBERT PATERSON, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN STEAM ENGINES," to be as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention has for object to obtain in steam engines an improved
vacuum, with at the same time a reduction of the surface or size of the con-
denser, or in the quantity of cold injection water if a jet condenser is used;
whilst the feed water is delivered at a comparatively high temperature.
The improvements are applicable whether a surface condenser or a jet con-
denser be used, and they consist in causing more or less of the water due to
the condensation of the steam itself to be injected or re-injected into the
steam at or near the part where the steam enters the condenser. The water
so injected is warm, but is able to effect considerable condensation in the
steam at the part, where it is injected or re-injected on account of the steam
being the hotter at that part. The condenser is formed with a pocket or

page_text: pockets to separately catch or collect the water or a portion of the water thus
injected or re-injected into the hot steam, and it is from the water thus sepa-
rately collected, and which is hotter than the other water of condensation,
that the supply is drawn for feeding the boilers.
The details of the arrangements may be modified in various ways, thus the
feed water may be taken from the hot well in the ordinary way; the hotter
water separately collected being pumped into the hot well, and the water
for re-injection being taken thence. Or arrangements may be made for
re-injecting and separately collecting the water at two or more different parts
of the condenser. In some cases the water may be separately collected at 1
different parts of the condenser without there being any additional injection.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Paterson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
20th June 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
PATERSON, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of December, 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 Robert Paterson, Her special licence that I, the said Robert Paterson, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert
Paterson, my executors, administrators, and 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM
ENGINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Robert
Paterson, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Paterson, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement in writing, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and
to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My said Invention has for object to obtain in steam engines an improved
vacuum, with at the same time a reduction in the surface or size of the con-
denser, if a surface condenser is used, or in the quantity of cold injection water
if a jet condenser is used; whilst the feed water is delivered at a comparatively
high temperature.
My improvements are applicable to either a surface condenser or a jet con-
denser, and they consist, according to one modification, in causing more or
less of the water due to the condensation of the steam itself to be injected or
re-injected into the condenser amongst the steam at or near the part where
the stram enters the condenser. The water so injected is warm, but is able to
effect considerable condensation in the steam at the part of the condenser
where it is injected or re-injected on account of the steam being hotter or
denser at that part. The condenser is formed with a pocket or pockets to
separately catch or collect the water or a portion of the water thus injected or
re-injected into the hot or dense steam; and it is important that such pocket
or pockets be arranged so as not in any way to impede the current of the
exhaust steam towards the further parts of the condenser. The supply of
water for feeding the boilers is drawn from the water thus separately collected,
which is hotter than the other water of condensation.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing the
same may be properly understood, I have hereunto appended two Sheets of
explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and representing examples
of my improved arrangements.
Figures 1 and 2, on Sheet 1, are vertical sections at right angles to each
other of a surface condenser for a marine engine. An enlargement 1, 1, is
formed in the top of the condenser to receive the parts in such a way as
not to impede the flow inwards of the steam, which enters from the cylinders
by the passage 2 in the top of one side thereof. The water enters by a
pipe 3, and is first received by a perforated dish 4, from which it falls in a
shower across the entering steam. This water, heated by thus passing
through the steam, together with what may condense therefrom, falls into and
is received by a dish or pocket 5 formed across the condenser, whilst the
uncondensed steam passes freely over the two sides of the dish 5, and amongst
the condensing tubes 6, the under side of the dish 5 being rounded, as shown,

page_text: to permit the steam to spread freely over the tubes. A pipe 7 communicates
with the bottom of the dish or collector 5, and the water collected thereby
passes off by this pipe to the feed pump 8. It is important to diminish the
exposed surface of the water in the collector 5, in order as much as possible
to prevent the water from giving up again what heat it may have acquired.by
passing through the steam, and this may be conveniently done by means of a
series of floats 9 of wood suitably varnished or painted, or of any suitable
material, and either solid or hollow. The top sides of the floats are by pre-
ference inclined, as shown, in order that the water falling upon them may
rapidly find its way down between them. The floats may be in pieces of
convenient size or length, and may be kept slightly apart by suitable connec-
tions, such as strips of leather fixed across the bottoms of two or more.
Instead of using floats to diminish the exposed surface, the collector 5 may be
covered by double-incline strips of metal set with narrow spaces between them
for the water to fall through; the floats, however, have the advantage of rising
and falling with the level of the water. The quantity of water injected by the
pipe 3 may be adjusted by means of a simple stop-cock, but I prefer to have it
regulated by an automatic valve 10, such as is shown in section in Figure 2.
This valve 10 is acted upon by a diaphragm 11, sustaining the atmospheric
pressure on its outside in a space protected by a cover 12, whilst the water
from the hot well 13 acts against its inner side and tends to open the valve 10,
and pass through it into the injection pipe 3. A screw stop 14 is provided for
closing the valve by hand when necessary, or for limiting the extent of
opening. An air vessel 15 is applied near the feed pump 8 to the pipe 7
leading to it from the collector 5, as without it the pump is found to act
improperly in consequence of the heat of the water and the length of column
set in motion at each stroke, the pump under such conditions tending, when
there is no air vessel, to form a partial vacuum, which is occupied with vapour
from the hot water.
Figure 3, Sheet 2, is a vertical section of a surface condenser, showing a
slightly modified arrangement of the parts, but which will be easily understood
as the corresponding parts are marked with the same reference numerals as
in the modification already fully described.
It will be obvious that the form of the parts may be variously modified
provided the essential features of my Invention are retained. In some cases
the feed water for the boilers may be taken from the hot well in the ordinary
way; the hotter water separately collected being pumped into the hot well,
and the water for re-injection being taken thence. Or arrangements may be
made for re-injecting and separately collecting the water at two or more

page_text: different parts of the condenser. In some cases the water may be separately
collected at different parts of the condenser without there being any additional
injection.
Figure 4, Sheet 2, is a vertical section of an engine to which this modifi-
cation is applied, and the condenser 16, shown in this case, is also a jet con-
denser, such condenser being of an elongated form common in screw-propeller
engines, and on that account well suited for my improved arrangements. A
channel 17 is formed spirally round the upper part of the condenser, and ter-
minates in a pocket 18, from which a pipe passes to the feed pumps. This
channel catches the earlier and hotter products of condensation, whilst the
remainder passes off by the air pomp 19 in the usual way. The air pump is
not dispensed with in any of my improved arrangements.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is or may be performed, I have to state that I do not restrict
myself to the precise details berein described or delineated, and that I do not
recommend nor claim the heating of the feed water of a steam engine by
means of the exhaust steam in a separate vessel or passage between the
cylinder and the condenser proper; but that what I believe to be original and
claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent, is, the collecting and drawing of water from one or more parts
of a steam-engine condenser near the inlet and distinct from the passage
leading to the air pump in order to obtain more efficient condensation and
hotter feed water, substantially in the manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Paterson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.