AN IMPROVED CONDENSING APPARATUS ADAPTED FOR HIGH-PRESSURE STEAM ENGINES, ESPECIALLY LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Piddington at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 25th February
1862. A communication from abroad by William Winter, of
Charlottenburg, near Berlin, in the Kingdom of Prussia.
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I, JOHN PIDDINGTON, of No. 52, Gracechurch Street, in the City of London,
Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED CONDENSING APPARATUS ADAPTED FOR HIGH-PRESSURE STEAM ENGINES,
ESPECIALLY LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES," (a communication to me from abroad by
William Winter, of Charlottenburg, near Berlin, in the Kingdom of Prussia,)
to be as follows:-
This Invention is designed for effecting the following principal objects:―First,
to prevent incrustation in the boiler; secondly, to economize water; thirdly, to
supply the feed water into the boiler at a temperature of 60° to 70° Reaumur;
and, lastly, to increase the effective power of high-pressure engines, and to econo-
mize fuel. I propose to effect these objects by the use of improved apparatus of
the following construction:-For the sake of example, I will describe the said
apparatus as applied to the boiler of a locomotive engine, in the smoke box of
which I adapt a bent pipe. To this pipe I connect by a flange the condensing
apparatus, which consists of a hollow copper vessel formed circular, hori-
zontally, with a dome-shaped top, from which proceeds a pipe having a flange
for connecting said copper vessel to the before-mentioned pipe in the smoke
box. The bottom of the said copper vessel is formed with a flange, to which is
connected another copper vessel formed with openings, to which are affixed

page_text: three pipes; one pipe leads to the tender of the engine, and is employed to
convey cold water into the condenser, and the other two pipes branch right
and left, and are connected to the feed pumps of the engine for conveying the
heated water from the condenser into the boiler. The upper part of the
condenser or copper vessel aforesaid communicates by two pipes with the
cylinders of the locomotive. A valve box furnished with a valve is fixed to
the bottom of the condenser; said valve opens downwards, and is connected by
a rod passed through the centre thereof to a piece of metal formed with four
arms bent downwards, their lower end being fixed to a hollow ring or float.
The upper part of the valve box aforesaid has perforations formed therein for
the admission of water from the tender into the condenser.
The operations of this improved condensing apparatus are as follows:-The
valve and float being down, the water from the tender passes through the
perforations in the valve box, and fills the lower part of the condenser, the
float rising lifts the valve and closes it, when the water in the condenser
reaches the bottom of the pipes leading to the cylinders of the engine. At
each stroke' of the engine the waste steam enters the condenser, and the
greater part is condensed, the uncondensed steam passing off up the chimney
of the locomotive. The heated water is removed from the condenser by the
feed pumps aforesaid, and the boiler thus supplied with water of a temperature
of 60° to 70° Reaumur, instead of cold water, as heretofore practised; and as
the heated water in the condenser is removed the float descends, and thus
opens the valve and allows another supply of cold water to enter the
condenser from the tender of the engine, and so on at each stroke. of the
engine.
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