IMPROVEMENTS IN MARINE STEAM ENGINES, AND IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THERE- WITH
Year: 1860

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Roberts and Thomas
Edward Symonds at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 16th October 1860.
We, RICHARD ROBERTS, of Adam St., Adelphi, Consulting Engineer, and
THOMAS EDWARD SYMONDS, of Adam St., Adelphi, Captain in the Royal Navy,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MARINE STEAM ENGINES, AND IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THERE-
WITH," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a novel construction, arrangement, and mode of
applying apparatus for supplying boilers with fresh water, and also to certain
novel apparatus for and method of regulating the supply of feed water to
boilers.
Instead of employing a surface condenser of any of the ordinary forms,
applied in the ordinary modes and methods of fixing and working surface
condensers on board of ships and other vessels we employ for each engine one
or more surface condensers of the novel form and arrangement as herein-after
described, by which the external water in which the vessel is floating, is made
or caused to abstract the heat from the steam contained within a series of
pipes, and by which advantage is taken of the external action of a constant
current of cold sea or river water upon the external surfaces of metallic tubes
for the purpose of abstracting the heat from the exhaust steam.
We prefer to construct the external casing of our surface condenser of a
circular or cylindrical form, although any other convenient shape may be given

page_text: thereto, and we construct the outer case in metal, having at each end a tube
plate, and in addition thereto (thereby forming a reservoir. for the condensed
water), a gland or stuffing box casing, by which a central opening is secured
for the admission at one end and the escape at the opposite end of the con-
densing water, whilst a chamber or annular space is also formed for the
purpose of receiving the exhaust steam at the one end, and at the opposite end
the vapour and condensed water resulting from the refrigerating process, which
is carried off at the lowest level, and to a suitable reservoir in any convenient
position, from which it may be pumped for the purpose of supplying steam
boilers. By means of this compound gland and chamber a perfect joint is
secured free from leakage, and a source of loss of vacuum is prevented, whilst
ready access is given to the interior of every part of the condensing apparatus
either for the purpose of examination or repair.
We place within the central longitudinal passage through which the con-
densing water is admitted, a series of metallic deflectors for the purpose of
ensuring the proper distribution of the water to the several rows or series of
tubes.
We place one or more condensers, constructed as described, in the after part
of a ship, or by preference as near the stern as may conveniently be arranged,
and in every case where the natural flow of the condensing water can be
taken advantage of, instead of having recourse to pumps we place them below
the external water level or water line, and by making an opening through the
ship's side under each quarter, and applying thereto a suitably large inlet pipe,
we are enabled to supply the outer casing and the external surfaces of the con-
denser pipes with the water, which after passing through the condenser, is
permitted to again escape from out of the vessel.
The tubes are each fitted with great accuracy into the tube plates in the
surface condenser, and by withdrawing the gland, or external end or cover
from one or from each end of the surface condenser, each or the whole of the
tubes may most readily be removed and replaced for examination, cleaning, or
repair.
For the purpose of feeding with accuracy steam boilers, and with the minimum
of power and frictional wear and tear, we employ a novel contrivance for this
purpose, which may be operated upon, changed, or regulated with the greatest
accuracy without stopping the action of the pump, or strangulating the flow or
emission of the water. For this purpose instead of working the feed pump or
pumps direct or through the intervention of an ordinary beam or lever, we
interpose a "grasshopper" beam or lever having a vibrating column or ful-
crum, by which the necessary paralellism of motion is secured. And by means

page_text: of a sliding bearing in the beam or lever, the position of the fulcrum may be
readily changed by a screw and nut acting upon the brasses or bearing block
in which the upper end of the vibrating column or fulcrum is made to work.
Thus, the position of the fulcrum being changed the stroke of the plunger or
bucket is varied, and the amount of feed injected into the boiler or boilers
thereby regulated.
We prefer in ships of war, and other vessels, to employ two screw propellers,
one under either quarter, and to drive such screws by means of horizontal engines
working separately, or they may be geared and work together, but capable of
being worked separately, and when necessary in opposite directions for the
purpose of more readily manoeuvring the vessel. We prefer to place the
boilers and coal bunkers before the engines, and to employ cylindrical multi-
tubular boilers, with internal furnaces mounted in suitable framework, and by
means of suitable flues connecting them with a common funnel or funnels.
The surface condensers, as previously herein referred to, we place in the after
part of the ship and behind the engines, and by preference, dispose or arrange
them in a fore-and-aft direction with the forward end of each inclined down-
ward, by which the cold condensing water enters at the colder end of the
condenser, and is permitted to escape at the warmer end whilst the steam is
admitted at the upper end, and the hot water resulting from the condensation
of the steam is collected at the lower end, or permitted to flow from thence.