AN IN- PROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1838

page_text: SEAWARD'S SPECIFICATION AND DISCLAIMER.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
SEAWARD, of the Canal Iron Works, in the Parish of Poplar, in the County
of Middlesex, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Tenth day of March, in the first year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said John
Seaward, Her ospecial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said John Seaward, my exors, aditiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said John Seaward, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, usc, exercise, and vend, within Eng-
land, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IN-
PROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso that I, the said John Scaward, shall cause a particular descrip-
tion of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Seaward, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention con-

page_text: sists in causing the steam which in condensing engines passes off from the
working cylinder after each stroke of the piston to pass through certain
passages or channels introduced between the working cylinder and the con-
denser, whereby it is made to impart to the feed water, in its passage from the
feed pump to the boiler, a considerable portion of its heat, and a proportionate
saving of fuel is effected.
And I declare that the manner in which my said Invention is performed is
by introducing a chamber or vessel of suitable size, in a convenient manner,
near to or between the eduction passage pipe or nozzle of the working
cylinder and the condenser, and placing within that chamber or vessel a coil
of pipe or tubing, or a system of pipes or tubes, through which pipe, pipes or
tubes, the feed water is forced by the feed pump or other means employed to
supply the feed water of steam engine boilers, while the exit or spent steam,
on leaving the steam or working cylinder, passes round between and among
the aforesaid coil of pipe or tubing system of pipes or tubes, and gives off a
portion of its heat to the feed water. If the arrangements and dimensions of
the steam engine will so admit, the separate chamber or vessel above described
may be dispensed with, and, instead thercof, the coil of pipe or tubing system
of pipes or tubes may be placed within the eduction passage or pipe itself of
the engine. Instead also of a coil of pipe or tubing, or system of pipes or tubes,
being made use of, the said separate chamber or vessel may be divided internally
into several smaller chambers or passages by means of flat metal plates, cor-
rugated or grooved or embossed or raised metal, taking care always that they are
so arranged that while one surface of each of the said plates is presented to
the steam in its passage from the working cylinder to the condensor, the other
surface of the said plates shall be presented to the feed water in its pas-
sage to the boiler. Moreover, instead of passing the feed water through the
pipes or tubes, and allowing the exit or spent steam to pass round between
or among the tubes, the reverse plan may be adopted, and the same made to
pass through the tubes in its way to the condenser, while the feed water is
forced through the spaces between the pipes or tubes in its way to the boiler.
It is also obvious that my improved mode of supplying the feed water required
for boilers of condensing steam engines is applicable to all steam engines where
a condensation of the steam is employed, whatever may be the way in
which the said condensation is produced, whether by an injection of cold water
into the condenser, or by an external application of cold water to the surfaces
forming the condenser, or by any other means.
My said improved mode of feeding or supplying the feed water to boilers
can be adapted in many ways, so as in each case to be made applicable and

page_text: suitable to the particular plan and arrangement of each steam engine (as will
readily be understood by any competent engineer); but, for the sake of illus-
tration, I have shewn in the Drawing hereunto annexed the mode in which
the same may in my judgment be best applied to a marine steam engine of
sixty horses power of the sort in general use, and having the ordinary slide,
well known from the shape of its section as the D slide. The Drawing repre-
sents a longitudinal or fore and aft section of such engine, drawn to a scale of
three quarters of an inch to a foot, such parts only of the engine being intro-
duced as are required to make the nature of my said improvement readily
understood. A is the working or steam cylinder of the engine; a, the piston
with the piston rod x; B, the condensor; b. the foot valve; C, the air pump;
c, the air pump bucket; D, the hot well; d, the head valve; E, the D slide;
F, F, the slide jacket; G, H, I, the separate chamber or vessel before
described, which is about twenty-two inches by twelve inches wide, and
placed between the slide jacket and the condenser, having three compart-
ments G, H, I. A lateral section of this chamber, through the line
y, %, is
shewn separately in Figure L. The large compartment G contains a number
of vertical tubes g, g, g, g, &c., about one half inch diameter and about five and
a half feet long, the open ends of which tubes pass through and are firmly
jointed to the two division plates k, l, by which means a communication is
formed between the two compartments of the chamber H and I..e is the
eduction passage which connects the upper part of the slide jacket with the
compartment G of the chamber, so that the exit or spent steam, after per-
forming its office in the working cylinder A, will pass through the slide jacket
and through the eduction passage e into the compartment G, and, passing
round and among the tubes 9, 9, 9, 9, &c., will finally escape into the con-
denser B by the passage f; a small portion of the exit or spent steam will
probably be condensed by giving out a portion of its heat to the feed water, in
which case the water arising from such partial condensation will escape with
the remaining steam into the condenser by the passage f, h, the pipe or
passage by which the feed water is admitted into the lower compartment I of
the chamber from the feed pump or other apparatus used for that purpose.
The feed water ascends through the tubes g, g, g, &c., and abstracts a portion
of heat from the steam which passes downwards through the compartment G
to the condenser, and the feed water, so heated or raised in temperature, fills
the compartment H, and finally passes off to the boiler by the feed pipe i.
The tubes or pipes or passages employed in the chamber G, H, I, may be
varied in number, size, and length, according to circumstances, observing only
that in every case it is desirable to employ as much heating surface as possible

page_text: to be acted upon by the exit or spent steam, as the greater the surface the
more effectually the temperature of the feed water will be raised.
And having now fully described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not claim
any part or parts of the apparatus singly; but that I claim as of my Invention
the causing the spent steam of condensing engines, before it
before it passes into the
condenser, to circulato by distinct and separate passages through the feed
water, and to give off a portion of its heat to the said feed water in the
mannor and acording to the plan herein described, and any modification of the
said plan or method to obtain the like economical and useful effects in the
same or a similar manner. And such my Invention being, to the best of my
knowledge and belief, entirely new, and never before used within that part of
Her said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called
England, Her said Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I
do hereby declare this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily
believe that this my said Specification doth comply in all respects, fully and
without reserve or disguise, with the proviso in the said herein-before in part
recited Letters Patent contained; wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain
exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Seaward, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Tenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Tenth day of September, in tho
year of our Lord 1888, the aforesaid John Seaward came before our said Lady
the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute made for that purpose.

page_text: In the Matter of a Patent granted to John Seaward, of the Canal
Iron Works, in the Parish of Poplar, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, for his Invention of "An Improvement or Improvements
in Steam Engines," bearing date the Tenth day of March, One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.
DISCLAIMER and MEMORANDUM OF ALTERATION entered by the said
John Scaward with the Clerk of the Patents of England, pursuant to
an Act passed in the fifth and sixth year of the reign of His late Majesty
King William the Fourth, entitled "An Act to amend the Law touching
Letters Patent for Inventions."
I, the said John Seaward, do hereby declare, that inasmuch as I claim
as new and of my Invention the application of the said improvement to con-
densing steam engines alone, and not to all steam engines, or to steam engines
generally, I hereby disclaim the words "or Improvements" in the title of my
said Patent, and insert the word "Condensing" before the words "Steam
Engines" in my said title, so that the title of my said recited Letters Patent
shall stand in the form following; (that is to say,) "An Improvement in
Condensing Steam Engines."
In witness whereof, I, the said John Seaward, have hereunto set my
hand, this Tenth day of September, One thousand eight hundred

page_text: Memorandum of Alteration, pursuant to the Statute passed in the sixth year
of the reign of His late Majesty, entitled "An Act to amend the Law touching
Letters Patent for Inventions."
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Tenth day of September, in the
year of our Lord 1888, the aforesaid John Seaward came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Disclaimer
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Disclaimer aforesaid was stamped according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.