Improvements in Packings for Stuffing Boxes, Applicable for Triple Expansion Engines.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 2nd Oct., 1888
Complete Specification Left, 2nd July, 1889-Accepted, 21st Sept., 1889
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Packings for Stuffing Boxes, Applicable for Triple
Expansion Engines.
I, JESSE KIRKMAN, of Chorley, in the County of Lancaster, Packing Manufacturer,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:
.
This invention has for its object a species of packing which shall withstand high
pressures such as those in triple expansion engines. In these engines it is found
that ordinary asbestos packing is liable to be driven out of the stuffing boxes as a sort
of pulp.
Now this invention is designed to hold the asbestos or other material well in place
and prevent it from working out in this way; also to make a combined asbestos or
other fibrous and metallic packing which shall be more durable than the ordinary
type now in use.
I prevent the asbestos from working out in the form of pulp by covering the
asbestos strand or strands wholly or partially with soft wire wrapped or twisted round
it or them. This wire is wrapped round the asbestos or other core. The wires
passing round and round the asbestos or other fibrous material on the outside.
There are various forms of carrying this invention into practice. I may either
make an asbestos or other core surrounded with wire and this after passing through
a bath of melted paraffine wax is afterwards covered with a braided fibrous coating
or otherwise, or 1 may form a rope of an elastic core formed of indiarubber or
asbestos or mixed asbestos and fibre. This core may be covered wholly or partially
with soft wire. Outside this core a series of smaller cores wound round with wire or
wire strands with any desired material inside for a core are plaited in an ordinary
plaiting machine.
This main central core I prefer to be oblong in section and so arrange the plaiting
machine that the plaits of wire rope or asbestos and wire rope shall when placed
round the oblong core form a packing of decidedly oblong section.
The packing after being finished is passed through rollers or other machinery so as
The
to form it into as near as practicable a rectangular form with rounded corners.
small strands plaited round the larger ones above mentioned can be either entirely
covered with wire or formed mainly of asbestos and partially covered with wire.
This form at present I think likely to be better than the absolutely covered one, as
the asbestos fibres will be held in place by the wire yet have a chance of bulging out
to some extent and filling up all interstices.
In some cases I may make a packing entirely of these small strands or otherwise
plaiting them into a square or oblong form.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Packings for Stuffing Boxes, Applicable for Triple
Expansion Engines.
1, JESSE KIRKMAN of Chorley, in the County of Lancaster, Packing Manufacturer,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
This invention has. for its object a species of packing which is adapted to withstand
high pressures such as those in triple expansion engines. In these engines it is found

page_text: that ordinary asbestos packing is liable to be driven out of the stuffing boxes as a sort
of pulp.
Now this invention is designed to hold the asbestos or other material well in place
and prevent it from working out in the above manner. The object of the invention
is also to make a combined asbestos (or other fibrous) and metallic packing which
, shall be more durable than the ordinary type now in use.
The manner in which the invention is carried into effect may be understood by
reference to the accompanying drawings, in which,
Figures 1 and 2 are respectively an elevation and transverse section of one form of
my improved packing.
Figures 3 and 4 are similar views showing a modified construction of the packing.
To prevent the asbestos, etcetera, from working out in the form of pulp, I cover
the asbestos or other fibrous strand or strands wholly or partially with soft wire A
(such as lead or soft brass) wrapped or twisted in a volute form round it or thein.
In Figures 1 and 2 this wire is shown wrapped in a volute form as a continuous
coating round a central strand or core, formed partly of an inner portion B of ordinary
fibrous material such as hemp, and partly of an outer portion B¹ of asbestos. This
wire coating is afterwards covered with an outer fibrous coating C of asbestos or
other suitable fibrous material, either plaited, as shown, or otherwise formed. This
outer plaited coating may again be covered by further alternated wire and fibrous
coatings repeated as many times as may be desirable.
In Figures 3 and 4, the core B' is shown formed of mixed asbestos and fibre, and
the coatings A and C are combined so as to form a single plaited coating A C of
wire and asbestos or other fibrous material. Each strand of this latter coating
consists of a core C of asbestos (or other fibre) around which metallic wires A are
wound in a volute form at intervals, as shown. The cores C may, if desired, be
entirely covered with wire, but I prefer the form shown, as the asbestos or other
fibres, while being held in place by the wires, are yet enabled to bulge out between
the same to some extent and so to fill up all interstices. Instead of simply winding
the wire A round the asbestos cores C, both wire and asbestos may be twisted together
promiscuously to form the combined strands as shown, by way of illustration, in
Figure 4.
In some cases I may make a packing entirely of small combined strands such as
A C, the said strands being plaited, twisted or otherwise formed into a packing of
any suitable shape in cross section.
The central core of the packing may be permeated with a powdered mineral
lubricant such as French chalk, plumbago, etcetera. The central core may also
contain one or more strands or cores of india rubber or other suitable elastic material.
Also the packing may, at one or more suitable stages in its construction, be passed
through a bath of melted paraffin wax or other lubricating material.
The plaiting may be formed in an ordinary plaiting machine. When the combined
wire and fibrous strands AC are employed as an outer plaited coating, the central
core is preferably formed oblong in section as in Figure 4, and the plaiting machine
is so arranged that, when the strands AC are placed round the core, a packing is
formed which is more or less oblong in cross section.
The packing, whether oblong or round, after being finished as above described,
may be passed through rollers or other suitable machinery to bring it as near as
desirable to a rectangular or square form with rounded corners.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that. I
do not claim a combined fibrous and metallic packing with volute metallic strands
like those produced in à braiding machine, in as much as in my packing the metallic
strands do not cross or intersect one another, but I declare that what I claim is :-
1. A packing for stuffing boxes or the like, in which an inner fibrous, or partly
fibrous, core is protected and held in place by an outer coating or coatings formed

page_text: partly of soft metallic wire twisted or wrapped in a volute form and partly of a
fibrous material, substantially as and for the purposes described.
2. The improved packings for stuffing boxes or the like, each constructed as a
whole substantially as described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
Datel +
T1
1000
JESSE KIRKMAN,
Steam Packing Manufacturer, Chorley, Lancashire.
Wm. P. Thompson & Co.,
Of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, Patent Agents for the Applicant.