CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON STEAM ENGINES, AND THE APPARATUS NEEDFUL OR EXPEDIENT TO BE USED WITH THE SAME;
Year: 1812

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, ROBERT
WERE Fox the younger, of Falmouth, in the County of Cornwall, Merchant,
and JOEL LEAN, then the younger, of the Parish of Bridock, near Falmouth
aforesaid, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS 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 Tenth day of December, in the fifty-third year of His
reign, give and grant unto us, the said Robert Were Fox and Joel Lean, our
exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that we, the said Robert Were Fox and Joel Lean, our exors,
admors, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of years
therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Colonies and
Plantations abroad, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON STEAM
ENGINES, AND THE APPARATUS NEEDFUL OR EXPEDIENT TO BE USED WITH THE
SAME;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that if we,
the said Robert Were Fox and Joel Lean, or one of us, shall not particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under our hands and
seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, and cause the same to be
inrolled in the King's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said

page_text: Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted,
shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same (relation
being thereunto bad) may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Were Fox, do bereby declare
that the nature of our said Invention, and manner in which the same is to
be performed, are particularly described and ascertained as follows, that is
to say:-
Firstly, in the construction of the fire-place to be used with steam engines,
instead of having the bottom or lower part thereof open for admitting air to
the fire in the usual way, we do construct the same with one or more fit and
suitable openings to receive air, which we do inject or force in thro' a pipe or
pipes or tuyer or tuyers by any of the well-known mechanical means for pro-
ducing or affording a blast; and we do, if required or needful, make and use
within the said pipe or pipes, tuyer or tuyers, or each of them, a cock or
other stop or piece, for the purpose of regulating the quantity of air so to be
injected, and we do work or give effect to the said means of injecting or
forcing and of regulating as aforesaid by forming a connection with the steam
engine itself, or with any other operative agent or first mover.
And, secondly, instead of suffering the whole of the steam to pass imme-
diately from the working cylinder to the condenser or into the open air, we do
apply a vessel of any convenient size and dimensions, which we call a steam
reservoir, and into which we suffer the steam to expand itself at the end of each
working stroke, and do cause that portion only which after such expansion
remains in the cylinder to pass off to the condenser (after having previously, by
the working connections or otherwise, shut off the communication with the said
reservoir); or we avail ourselves of the diminished power of the rarefied steam
to allow the piston to make its working stroke without using the condenser,
and to drive that remainder also into the said reservoir; and we do use and
apply the steam so expanded or introduced into the said reservoir to act again
in another cylinder or cylinders of a steam engine in the usual way, or to heat
liquids, or to any other of the purposes in manufactures to which steam can be
or is commonly applied.
And, thirdly, we do use and apply the heated air, smoke, and vapors (which
in the methods of constructing furnaces hitherto in use) would and must be
suffered to pass up the chimney (in that heated state, in order to produce draft)
to the reservoir, before mentioned, to communicate or maintain heat in the
same.
And for the more effectual elucidation of the manner in which the steam is

page_text: or may be adınitted or introduced into the said reservoir, we have hereunto
annexed the Drawings Fig. 1 and Fig. 2; but do at the same time expressly
declare that the said admision or introduction of steam may be made and
regulated by various other well-known methods, by cocks, sliding pieces, or
otherwise, and that the relative situations and dimensions of the several parts
connected with the cylinder and elsewhere may also be varied, according to the
several constructions and improvements now in use, and to the circumstances of
local or other convenience, as will with perfect facility be understood by all
persons conversant and acquainted with steam engines.
Fig. 1 represents the manner of applying, annexing, and using the steam
reservoir to and with an engine of single power or action upon the construc-
tion of Boulton and Watt. a, b, is the steam reservoir, under and about which
the smoke and heated air from the furnace, after having acted upon the boiler,
are or may be introduced; i is part of the steam pipe leading from the boiler,
and when the piston is at the bottom of the cylinder (the steam valve k and
exhaustion valve n being both closed) the valve e is opened to suffer the steam
to pass underneath the piston, and that steam is allowed also to expand into
the steam reservoir through the pipe c, and the valve d prevents its return,
when the exhaustion valve is opened to begin another stroke; but if it be
intended to convey the whole of the steam into the steam reservoir, the pipe c
may be omitted, and the communication of steam to the reservoir may be made
through g, insted of to the condenser.
Fig. 2 shews the manner of applying the steam reservoir to an engine of
double power. i, i, is the steam pipe; a, a, the steam valve; b, b, the exhaus-
tion valve; e, e, apertures through which the steam enters the cylinder; m, m,
the exhaustion pipe; d, d, parts of two pipes leading to the steam reservoir, as
in Fig. 1; c, c, two valves, each of which is so connected by a loose piece with
the exhausting valve beneath, that this last valve is raised a short time after
the former has quitted its seat; when the piston is near the extremity of the
stroke (the steam valve being shut) the valve c is raised, which suffers the steam
to pass through the pipe d to the steam reservoir. The valve c continuing to
rise still further, the exhaustion valve is also raised by means of the piece by
which it is connected to the valve c, and the remainder of the steam passes off*
to the condenser through the pipe m, and is condensed in the usual way. In
this case also, if it be intended to discharge the whole of the steam into the
steam reservoir, the valves c, c, and pipes d, d, may be omitted, and the pipe
m, m, made to discharge itself into the steam reservoir instead of the condenser;
and the said steam reservoir may or may not contain water, but in most cases