IMPROVEMENTS IN CONDENSERS
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edmund Alfred Pontifex, of Shoe Lane, in the
City of London Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
CONDENSERS."
Sealed the 2nd June 1868, and dated the 5th December 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edmund Alfred Pontifex
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
5th December 1867.
I, EDMUND ALFRED PONTIFEX, of Shoe Lanc, in the City of London,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, for "IMPROVE.
MENTS IN CONDENSERS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in condensers. Surface
condensers suitable for use with vacuum pans are according to this Invention
constructed with pipes bent round so as to form two limbs of equal or nearly
equal length. A number of these pipes are arranged horizontally, and one
below the other. Each pipe at one end is fixed to a box or case by a screw
and nut, or in other convenient manner, and the side or cover of the box or
case is removeable, so that access may readily be had to the pipes. The other
end of each pipe is similarly connected to another box or case alongside the
Near
first, or it may be to another compartment of the same box or case.
the bends the pipes rest on suitable standards, but leaving them free to
expand and contract. The steam from the pan is admitted to one box, case,

page_text: or compartment, and flows through the pipes to the other box, case, or
compartment; it is for the greater part condensed in its progress, the pipes
being cooled by water allowed to dribble over them.
Also according to my Invention I combine with the surface condenser at its
outlet end an injection condenser or a close chamber into which a spray of
water is thrown, and which is connected with an air pump. By this arrange-
ment I am able to combine the economy of cooling water, which is the
advantage of the surface condenser with the good vacuum resulting from the
use of the injection condenser. Surface condensers constructed as above
described are not liable to become leaky from expansion and contraction.
Condensers constructed according to my Invention may be used with
steam engines.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edmund Alfred Pontifex in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 4th June 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDMUND
ALFRED PONTIFEX, of Shoe Lane, in the City of London, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Edmund Alfred Pontifex, Her special licence that I, the said Edmund
Alfred Pontifex, executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Edmund Alfred Pontifex, 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN CONDENSERS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Edmund Alfred Pontifex, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 Edmund Alfred Pontifex, 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 thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in condensers. Surface
condensers suitable for use with vacuum pans are according to this Invention
constructed with pipes bent round, so as to form two limbs of equal or nearly
equal length. A number of these pipes are arranged one below the other.
Each pipe at one end is fixed to a box or case by a screw and nut, or in other
convenient manner, and the back or cover of the box or case is removable
so that access may readily be had to the pipes. The other end of each pipo
is similarly connected to another box or case alongside the first, or it may be
to another compartment of the same box or case. Near the bends the pipes
rest on suitable standards, but leaving them free to expand and contract. The
steam from the pan is admitted to one box, case, or compartment, and flows
through the pipes to the other box, case, or compartment; it is for the greater
part condensed in its progress, the pipes being cooled by water allowed to
dribble over them. Surface condensers constructed as above described are
not liable to become leaky from expansion and contraction.
Also according to my Invention I combine with the surface condenser at its
outlet end an injection condenser or a close chamber into which a spray of
water is thrown, and which is connected with an air pump. By this arrange-
ment I am able to combine the economy of cooling water, which is the
advantage of the surface condenser with the good vacuum resulting from tho
use of the injection condenser.
Figure 1 is a side view, and Figure 2 a plan of a surface condenser thus
constructed.
A is a box or case, which by a pipe connected with it at A' is put in com-
munication with the vacuum pan; B, B, are bent pipes, by preference of
copper, each of them is fixed at one end to the box or case A; the attach-
ment may be made by means of a screw thread cut upon a boss into which
he pipe is soldered, or other convenient means, and screw nuts within and
without the box or case; C, C, are standards supporting the pipes near the
end; D is another box or case to which the other ends of the pipes B are
onnected; D is the outlet passage, it may be connected directly with an air
ump, or it may be connected with an injection condenser, as heroin-after
escribed. The pipes B, B, are kept constantly moist by water trickling over
bem from a perforated water trough above. It will be observed that in this
rrangement very free passage is given to the steam into the surface condenser,

page_text: and thence (so far as it remains uncondensed) to the injection condenser or to
the air pump; as the current passes the same way through all the pipes each
pipe is available to carry the steam forward. When, as is preferred, tho
injection condenser is used in combination with the surface condenser, the
injection condenser may be constructed as heretofore. The area of con-
densing surface in the surface condenser may be greatly varied, and the larger
this surface the smaller will be the expenditure of condensing water.
Condensers constructed according to my Invention may be used with
steam engines.
What I claim is, the constructing surface condensers as above described
with pipes bent round so as to form limbs of equal or nearly equal length.
I also claim the combining surface condensers having pipes over which
water is caused to trickle with injection condensers as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edmund Alfred Pontifex, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this First day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
EDMUND A. PONTIFEX. (L.S.)