Im- PROVEMENTS IN STEAM AND OTHER BOILERS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Smart, of East End Boiler Works,
Bromley, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN STEAM AND OTHER BOILERS,"
Sealed the 15th June 1869, and dated the 22nd December 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Smart at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd December 1868.
1, SAMUEL SMART, of East End Boiler Works, Bromley, in the County
of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM AND OTHER BOILERS," to be as follows:-
The Invention relates, firstly, to improvements in longitudinal
multitubular boilers, in the furnace of which I suspend one
suspend one or more
horizontal water tubes closed at both ends, and of such diameter as to
enable me to insert into them from end to end a number of fire tubes
communicating at one end with the furnace of the boiler, and at the
other end with a smoke box at the firing end of the boiler. A number

page_text: of fire tubes pass from this smoke box through the water space of the
boiler into another smoke box at the opposite end the boiler com-
municating with the chimney, and I thus make the hot gases first play
around the suspended horizontal water tubes, and then pass from the
furnace through the suspended horizontal water tubes into the front
smoke box, and thence through the second series of fire tubes into the
chimney. I hold the horizontal water tubes suspended in the furnace
by means of water tubes forming a communication between the hori-
zontal water tubes and the boiler at the upper and lower ends of the fire-
box. Each of the horizontal water tubes is fitted with one or more mud.
holes for the purpose of cleaning them internally when required. The
upper part of the furnace is made of increased strength, into which is
fastened a series of chain tubes, into which are inserted inner tubes
hereafter described. By these means I obtain increased heating surface
and better circulation of the water in such boilers, and further an
equalization of expansion and contraction of the water tubes by making
the fire act on them equally on the outside and inside, and consequent
prevention of . 8.
My second improvement refers to boilers having either vertical or
inclined water tubes attached to the crown of the furnace, and extending
into the fire-box or flue. A great drawback to these boilers is that when
they are blown off the vertical or inclined tubes remain filled with water,
offering a great obstacle to the effectual cleaning of the tubes, and no
means have ever yet been employed to remove the water from the tubes
in a self-acting manner. I effect this object by inserting into each water
tube of the kind described and also into the chain tubes before mentioned
a syphon reaching to within about an inch from the bottom of the water
tube, and the outer leg of the syphon extending into a water space with
which I surround the fire box, and near the bottom of which water
space the blow-off cock is placed. It is to be distinctly understood that
this outer leg must extend just to the length to which the water tube
extends down into the fire-box, or a little longer, but not to a shorter
length, so that the syphon shall effectually empty the water tubes
without raking up the mud which settles at the bottom of the water
space. When the boiler is at work the syphon will act as an efficient
circulating tube, having moreover the following advantages over other
circulating tubes, namely, that surface scum cannot be sucked down into

page_text: the water tubes by the current in the inner tube, which makes this
system more applicable than other water tube boilers to marine purposes.
The syphons may either rest flat on the crown plate or be raised to any
suitable height above it, either below or above the water line so as to
enable them to clear one another, and further so as not to obstruct the
upward current of steam and heated water issuing from the water tubes.
In boilers where outside water spaces cannot be made available, such as
plain cylindrical boilers, or light steam carriage or fire engine boilers, I
collect the inner legs of the syphons above the edge of the water tubes
into a tubular vessel, or into a vessel of any convenient shape situated
above the crown plate of the furnace, either above or below the water
level; to this vessel I attach one or more two-way cocks, which I work
from the outside of the boiler through stuffing boxes in the shell or
otherwise; the cock or cocks may be entirely outside the boiler suitably
connected with the tubular or other shaped vessel inside. The action of
the two-way cock or cocks is as follows, namely, when they are turned
one way a communication between the water above the crown of the
fire-box and the interior of the tubular vessel is established through the
cock or cocks, and consequently a free circulation of water down the
inner syphon tube and up the water tubes can take place, but when the
cock or cocks are turned the other way the communication through
them between the main body of water and the interior of the tubular
vessel is shut off, and a communication established through the cock or
cocks between the tubular vessel and a blow-off pipe or pipes, which
pipe or pipes I carry from the cock or cocks to the outside of the boiler,
and generally they will terminate at a lower point than the ends of the
water tubes hanging from the crown of the fire-box, in this case forming
the outer legs of the syphon, the inner legs of which are placed in the
water tubes, and in blowing the 'boiler out the water tubes will be
emptied; it is not however necessary in all cases to extend the blow off
pipe or pipes in this manner, as any steam pressure existing in the boiler
above atmospheric pressure will empty the water tubes by driving
the water through the inner tubes, through the tubular vessel, and
through the cock, even if no pipe is attached to the latter outside
the boiler; this system will nevertheless apply to boilers having a water
casing.

page_text: ends of the hanging water tubes in steam boilers, so that the fire shall
surround the tubes on all sides without exerting its intensity upon the
ends of the tubes and burning them. This baffle plate is supported by
suitable brackets in the fire-box, and consists of a wrought-iron or
cast-iron plate of such shape as to suit the arrangements of the tubes;
for instance, in a vertical circular boiler with central flue its shape
will be annular, so as to allow the fire to pass up all around it,
between its edge and the fire-box plate, and also up in the centre.
This plate becoming red hot will at the same time act as an efficient
smoke consumer, and will conduce materially to the durability of
the tubes, and such a baffle plate will effect a considerable saving
in fuel.
The inprovements above described are also applicable to boilers for
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Samuel Smart in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 22nd June 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
SMART, of East End Boiler Works, Bromley, in the County of Middlesex,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Samuel Smart, Her special licence that
I, the said Samuel Smart, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Samuel Smart, ny executors, adminis-
trators, 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 AND
OTHER BOILERS," upon the condition (amongst others) that 1; the said
Samuel Smart, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in

page_text: 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Samuel Smart, 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 relates, firstly, to improvements in longitudina
multitubular boilers in the furnaces of which I suspend one or more
horizontal water tubes closed at both ends and of such diameter as
to enable me to insert into them from end to end a number of fire
tubes communicating at one end with the furnace of the boiler and
at the other end with a smoke box at the firing end of the boiler. A
number of fire tubes pass from this smoke box through the water space
of the boiler into another smoke box at the opposite end of the boiler
communicating with the chimney, and I thus cause the hot gases first
to play around the suspended horizontal water tubes, and then to pass
from the furnace through the suspended horizontal water tubes into
the front smoke box, and thence through the second series of fire tubes
into the chimney. I hold the horizontal water tubes suspended in the
furnace by means of short water tubes forming communications between
the horizontal water tubes and the boiler at the upper and lower ends
of the fire-box. Each of the horizontal water tubes is fitted with one
or more mud holes for the purpose of cleaning them internally when
required. The upper part of the furnace is made of increased strength
into which is fastened a series of chain tubes into which are inserted
nner tubes herein-after described. By these means I obtain increased
heating surface and better circulation of the water in such boilers,
and further an equalization of expansion and contraction of the water
ubes by making the fire act on them equally on the outside and inside,
and consequent prevention of leaks.
My second improvement refers to boilers having either vertical or
nclined water tubes attached to the crown of the furnace, these water
ubes extending into the fire-box or flue and being closed at the lower
nd. A great drawback to such boilers without my improvement

page_text: here referred to is, that when they are blown off the vertical or inclined
tubes remain filled with water offering a great obstacle to the effectual
cleaning of the tubes, and no means have heretofore been employed to
I effect this
remove the water from the tubes in a self-acting manner.
object by inserting into each water tube of the kind described, and
also into each chain tube as before mentioned, a syphon reaching to
within about an inch from the bottom of the water tube and the outer
leg of the syphon extending into a water space which surrounds the fire-
box, and near the bottom of which water space the blow off cock is
placed, or in cases where no external water space is available a water
space may be constructed in the centre of the furnace of vertical
boilers in the following manner:-The central smoke flue is extended
downwards below the grate, and around this lower part of the flue
is constructed a cylindrical or by preference a conical shell up to the
crown plate of the furnace. The water space thus formed is pierced
with short lateral tubes to allow the smoke to pass from the furnace
into the smoke flue, and into this central water space the outer legs
of my syphons may be taken where no external water space is available.
It is to be distinctly understood that these outer legs must extend at
least to the length of the inner ones, but I prefer to carry them a short
instrument commonly known
distance beyond that length so that an
as a syphon is formed, and by which means the water contained in
the vertical or inclined water tubes will be drawn off every time the
boiler is emptied in the usual manner. The syphons not being per-
manently fixed are easily removeable, and free access is then gained
to the interior of the tubes for cleaning. When the boiler is at work
a current in the contrary direction takes place through the syphons
the heat of the furnace causing the water and the steam formed to
rise in the water tubes which replenish themselves through the syphons
from the water contained in the water space of the boiler; and in order
that the current when flowing in this direction shall not disturb the
mud collected at the bottom of the water space, I prefer to make the
outer legs of the syphons not more than a few inches longer than the
inner legs. When the boiler is at work the syphons act in the manne
described as efficient circulating tubes, having moreover the following
advantages over other circulating tubes previously patented, namely
that surface scum cannot be sucked down into the water tube by th
currents which makes this system more applicable than other water tub

page_text: boilers of similar construction to marine purposes; secondly, that they
cause the heat to be more equally distributed through all parts of the
boiler, thus avoiding inequality of expansion; and thirdly, that it is not
necessary that a certain minimum quantity of water should always
be kept over the tube plate, as the action of the syphons will not cease
till the water level in the boiler has actually fallen so low as to leave
the shorter legs of the syphons bare. Till this takes place the tubes
will never be boiled dry, which constitutes a great point of safety in
this system. Each syphon may either consist of one bent tube or they
may be constructed of pieces of tubing joined steam-tight in any
suitable manner, and they may either be single syphons or a number
of inner legs may be connected to one single outer leg as shown in
the Drawings hereunto annexed and herein-after described, and they
may either rest flat on the crown plate or be raised to any suitable
height above it, either below or above the water line, so as to enable
them to clear one another, and further so as not to obstruct the upward
current of steam and heated water issuing from the water tubes. In
boilers where neither outside nor central water spaces, such as described,
can be made available, as for instance, plain cylindrical boilers or
light steam carriage or fire engine boilers, I collect the inner legs of
the syphons above the edge of the water tubes into a tubular vessel,
or into a vessel of any other convenient shape, situated above the crown
plate of the furnace or tube plate, either above or below the water level.
To this vessel I attach one or more two-way cocks, which 1 work from
the outside of the boiler through stuffing boxes in the shell, or otherwise,
the cock or cocks may be entirely outside the boiler suitably connected
with the tubular or other shaped vessel inside. The action of the two
way cock or cocks is as follows, namely, when they are turned one
way a communication between the water above the crown plate of
the furnace or tube plate and the interior of the tubular vessel is
established through the cock or cocks, and consequently a free circula-
ion of water down the inner syphon tubes and up the water tubes
an take place, but when the cock or cocks are turned the other way,
he communication through them between the main body of water
nd the interior of the tubular vessel is shut off and a communication
stablished through the cock or cocks between the interior of the
ubular vessel and a blow off pipe or pipes, which pipe or pipes I
arry from the cock or cocks to the outside of the boiler, and generally

page_text: they will terminate at a lower point than the ends of the water tubes
hanging from the crown of the fire.box, these pipes in this case forming
the outer legs of the syphons, the inner legs of which are placed in
the water tubes, and in blowing the boiler out the water tubes will be
emptied. It is not however necessary in all cases to extend the blow
off pipe or pipes in this manner as any steam pressure existing in the
boiler above atmospheric pressure will empty the water tubes by driving
the water contained in them through the inner tubes through the
tubular vessel and through the cocks even if no pipe is attached to
the latter outside the boiler. This system of collecting all the syphons
into one or more tubular vessels with cocks as described will also be
applicable to boilers having water casings.
My third improvement consists in placing a baffle plate below the
ends of the hanging water tubes in steam boilers so that the fire shall
surround the tubes on all sides without exerting its intensity upon
the ends of the tubes and burning them. This baffle plate is supported
by suitable brackets in the fire-box and consists of a wrought-iron or
cast-iron plate of such shape as to suit the arrangement of the tubes,
for instance, in a vertical circular boiler with central flue its shape
will be annular so as to allow the fire to pass up all around it between
its edge and the fire-box plate and also up in the centre. This plate
becoming red hot will at the same time act as an efficient smoke con-
sumer, and will conduce materially to the durability of the tubes, and
such a baffle plate will effect a considerable saving in fuel.
And in order that my Invention may be more clearly understood and
readily carried into effect I will proceed, aided by the accompanying
Drawings, more fully to describe the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is an outside front elevation of a longitudinal multitubular
boiler having the smoke-box doors removed; Figure 2 is a transverse
section; and Figure 3 is a longitudinal section through the same boiler.
A. is the furnace door, and B, B, the interior of the furnace; C, C, are
horizontal water tubes passed through the front plate D of the boiler
closed at both ends and connected with the water space of the boiler
by the water tubes E, E; F, F, are smoke tubes inserted in the water
tubes C, C, from end to end, the hot gases passing through them from

page_text: so that
the furnace into the front smoke box G. From the smoke box G
the
gases pass through a series of smoke tubes H, H, to the smoke box I
and into the funnel J. Hanging water tubes y may be fixed to the
furnace crown; these I call "chain tubes" when they are U-shaped
and arranged in the manner shown at K, K, in Figures 2 and 3,
their ends resemble the links of a chain; into these water tubes y I
insert syphons y', shown more in detail in Figures 4 and 5, which
represent respectively a sectional elevation and plan of a vertical water
tube boiler. y are the water tubes suspended from the crown of the
furnace B, and the syphons y may be arranged either singly, as shown
at L, or connected, as shown at M. in Figures 4 and 5, and as also
shown in Figures 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. The inner legs of the syphons y¹
terminate at a sufficient distance from the bottom of the water tubes.
to allow the water a free and unimpeded passage from the water tube
into the syphon, and vice versa, and the outer legs terminate at a point
not higher than the ends of the inner legs, but I prefer to make them a
few inches longer without allowing them to extend far enough to disturb
the mud settled at the bottom of the water space.
The red arrows in Figures 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 show the direction of the
current of water when the boiler is being emptied, and the blue arrows
in the same Figures show the direction in which the syphous replenish
the water tubes when the boiler is at work. N is a cast-iron baffle
plate which serves to diffuse the heated gases equally throughout the
furnace before they pass up the flue O; and P is a lever with chain and
weight, by which the baffler N can be raised or lowered as circumstances
may require; Q is a cast or wrought-iron baffle plate supported by the
angle iron ring, R, R, or other suitable brackets, which baffle plate
preserves the ends of the water tubes from the intensity of the heat, and
as it becomes red hot acts as a smoke burner.
Figures 6 and 7 are respectively a sectional elevation and plan of a
portable boiler, in which the syphons are collected into tubular
vessels S, S, which are furnished with the two-way cocks T, T. When
the plug of the cock T is turned so that its lateral opening comes opposite
the passage U, and the boiler is at work, the current of the water
passes along the passage U through the body of the cock T into the
interior of the vessel S down the syphons y¹ and up the water tubes y
by the action of the heat in the furnace, but when the plug of the

page_text: cock T is turned so that its lateral opening comes opposite the pipe or
outlet V, then the steam pressure or head of water in the boiler will
drive the water down the water tubes y, up the syphons y', into the
vessel S, and through the body of the cock T into the blow-off pipe V.
As it is very desirable to have in these light portable boilers an artificial
blast I place at the bottom of the flue O a casting W forming an annular
tube, and with which the exhaust pipe x from the engine is connected.
Through the central opening in this annular tube the rod of the
baffler N passes, and the tube is provided with a number of outlets Z,
through which the waste steam blows up the chimney. The aunular
tube W may either be a malleable casting or it may be made of wrought-
iron piping or in any suitable manner.
Figures 8 and 9 are respectively a sectional elevation aad a plan of
a portable or stationary boiler having a central water casing. The Aue O
is continued below the fire-bars 6, and a shell c, c, is constructed around
it connected with the furnace crown at d, d, and forming the water
space e, e, into which the syphons y terminate. ff, are short lateral
smoke tubes connecting the furnace B, B, with the flue O, and is the
exhaust pipe from the engine, which in this case is in a simple manner
led up from underneath the, boiler.
Figure 10 shows a transverse section of a common Cornish boiler,
into the flue O of which water tubes y are inserted and fitted with my
syphous y terminating in the water space surrounding the flue O, and
the action of the syphons will in this case be precisely similar to what
takes place in the vertical boilers already described.
The improvements above described are also applicable to boilers for
other purposes besides generating steam.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the mode
in which the same is carried into effect, I would have it understood
that I do not confine myself to the precise details herein shown and
described; but what I do claim is,-
Firstly. Placing horizontal suspended water tubes containing returu
fire tubes into the furnaces of steam and other boilers, substantially as
herein shown and described.
Secondly. Placing syphons into the vertical or inclined water tubes of
steam and other boilers for the purpose of emptying such tubes when
the boiler is blown off, substantially as herein shown and described.

page_text: Thirdly. Placing a baffle plate under the closed ends of water tubes
in the furnaces of steam and other boilers for the purpose of protecting
the ends of such tubes from the action of the fire, and to act as a smoke
consumer, substantially as herein shown and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Smart, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of June, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine.
SAMUEL SMART. (L S.)