IMPROVEMENTS IN BLOWERS OR APPARATUSES FOR SUPERHEATING STEAM AND OTHER GASES, AND FOR PROJECTING THEM COMBINED WITH ATMOSPHERIC AIR UPON IGNITED COMBUSTIBLE MATTER
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street, in
the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
BLOWERS OR APPARATUSES FOR SUPERHEATING STEAM AND OTHER GASES, AND FOR
PROJECTING THEM COMBINED WITH ATMOSPHERIC AIR UPON IGNITED COMBUSTIBLE
MATTER." A communication from abroad by Felix Alexandre Testud
de Beauregard, of Paris, France.
Sealed the 11th June 1862, and dated 13th December 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents with his Petition,
on the 13th December 1861.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London,
Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN BLOWERS OR APPARATUSES POR SUPERHEATING STEAM AND OTHER GASES, AND
FOR PROJECTING THEM COMBINED WITH ATMOSPHERIC AIR UPON IGNITED COMBUSTIBLE
MATTER," (communicated to me from abroad by Felix Alexandre Testud de
Beauregard, of Paris, France,) to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the generation and employment of dry and super-
heated steam, at a temperature of about 390° Fahrenheit, or of a gas fixed or
not, the pressure of which shall be equal to what may be necessary for the par-
ticular application for which it is to be used. This steam or gas is caused to

page_text: escape from an orifice, by virtue of its compression into another orifice
calculated according to the quantity of air required in a given time. The
mixture of steam or gas and air is projected upon ignited combustible matter.
There is then produced the phenomenon of double decomposition, the air yields
its oxygen to the combustible matter to assist its combustion, and the steam
already divided, will become decomposed into oxygen and hydrogen, so as to
produce the highest combustion.
The apparatus invented for carrying the Invention into effect, is called
aërhydric blower. This blower is applicable to various industrial uses.
1st, it is an advantageous and economical substitute for the blowers of forge
fires, blast furnaces, and other uses, as at present made.
2nd, when used with steam generators, fire bars may be dispensed, no smoke
will issue, and a great development of caloric will result.
3rd, for locomotives the blower acts either for drawing in air, and allows of
a measurable quantity according to requirement, or as a supply of combustible,
the steam transformed into bydrogen and oxygen aids as an economical and
powerful caloric agent..
4th, by its employment pure and carburetted hydrogen gas may be obtained
which may be used as a heating or as a reducing agent.
This method of superheating steam or gases to a high temperature may be
employed in the reduction of metals, in the desulphuration of ores and coke;
in the firing of china and earthenwares and glass, in the baking of bricks
and plaster, and in the burning of lime, incarbonization, distillation, and
otherwise.
The blower or apparatus consists of a superheating vessel placed in and s
across a furnace; horizontal steam tubes are placed in this vessel while other
vertical tubes allow of the gases and products of combustion passing through
them. Steam to be superheated, enters through a pipe furnished with a
cock into a drying chamber from which a pipe conducts it into the super-
heating vessel, in traversing the horizontal tubes in which it becomes super-s
heated; it issues from the superheating vessel into an outlet pipe, the nozzle
of which enters a tube, the mouth of which is funnel shaped. The section
of the outlet pipe is calculated according to the quantity required in a unit
of time; its nozzle should be removed so much further from the mouth of
the funnel shaped tube as the pressure is to be increased. The mouth
of the funnel is also calculated according to the quantity of air to be intro-
duced concurrently with the steam or gas in the same unit of time ; the
smallest opening is a section, which will allow of the addition of the quan-
tities or air, and of steam or gas, which are to be projected under. the

page_text: pressure necessary to the combustion to be obtained.
There are cups in
the superheating vessel, containing metals or alloys of different degrees of
fusibility, which answer as pyrometers, and are for the purpose of enabling
the person in charge to regulate the fire. A pipe furnished with a cock
is carried from the superheating vessel and enters another, the outlet from
which is under the fire bars. Thus a blower is provided to the apparatus
itself. For heating gases for blast furnaces the apparatus is slightly
modified.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 13th June 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of No. 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence, that I, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, ny executors,. admi-
nistrators, 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 BLOWERS OR APPARATUSES FOR
SUPERHEATING STEAM AND OTHER GASES, AND FOR PROJECTING THEM COMBINED WITH
ATMOSPHERIC AIR UPON IGNITED COMBUSTIBLE MATTER," (communicated to me
from abroad by Felix Alexandre Testud de Beauregard, of Paris, France,)
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard Archibald
Brooman, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, 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, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed (that is to say) :-
This Invention relates to the generation and employment of dry and super-
heated steam at a temperature of about 390° Fahrenheit, or of a gas fixed or
not, the pressure of which shall be equal to what may be necessary for the
particular application for which it is to be used. This steam or gas is caused to
escape from an orifice by virtue of its compression into another orifice,
calculated according to the quantity of air required in a given time. The
mixture of steam or gas and air is projected upon ignited combustible matter.
There is then produced the phenomenon of double decomposition; the air
yields its oxygen to the combustible matter to assist its combustion, and the
steam already divided will become decomposed into oxygen and hydrogen, so
as to produce the highest combustion.
The apparatus for carrying the Invention into effect is called aërhydric
blower. This blower is applicable to various industrial uses.
1st, it is an advantageous and economical substitute for the blowers for forge
fires, blast furnaces, and other uses as at present made.
2nd, when used with steam generators fire bars may be dispensed with; no
smoke will issue, and a great development of caloric will result.
1
3rd, for locomotives the blower acts either for drawing in air, and allows of
a measurable quantity according to requirement or as a supply of combustible;
the steam transformed into bydrogen and oxygen aids as an economical and
powerful caloric agent.
4th, by its employment pure and carburetted hydrogen gas may be obtained,
which may be used as a heating or as a reducing agent.
This method of superheating steam or gases to a high temperature may be
employed in the reduction of metals in the desulphuration of ores and coke
in the firing of china and earthenwares and glass, in the baking of bricks
and plaster, and in the burning of lime, in carbonization, distillation, and
otherwise.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a vertical section of this blower;
Figure 2 is a plan of the superheater.
b
a is a pipe provided with a tap 6 for conveying the superheated steam or gas
into a chamber c, where the steam is dried or deprived of its watery portion.
The steam leaves the chamber c for the superheater, which is made of cast
iron or fire clay, and consists of a superheating vessel d placed in and across a

page_text: furnace; horizontal steam tubes e, e, are placed in this vessel through which
the steam circulates, is superheated, and escapes by the pipe f. 9, 9, are
vertical tubes, indicated by dotted lines in the superheater to allow of the gases
and products of combustion passing through them from the grate a to the
chimney i; is a pipe, one end of which is in connection with the super-
heating vessel.d, and the other with a passage m, whereby steam is led under the
grate before or after being superheated, to act as a blower to the furnace and
and superheater. Steam to be superheated enters through the pipe a, furnished
with the cock b, into the drying chamber c, from which a pipe conducts it into
the superheating vessel d, in traversing the horizontal tubes e, e, in which it
becomes superheated; it issues from the superheating vessel into an outlet
pipe f, the nozzle of which enters a tube n, the mouth of which is funnel
shaped. The section of the outlet pipe f is calculated according to the quantity
required in a unit of time; its nozzle should be removed so much further from
the mouth of the funnel-shaped tube n as the pressure is to be increased. The
mouth of the funnel is also calculated according to the quantity of air to be
introduced concurrently with the steam or gas in the same unit of time. The
smallest opening is a section which will allow of the addition of the quantities
of air and if steam or gas which are to be projected under the pressure
necessary to the combustion to be obtained. There are cups in the super-
heating vessel containing metals or alloys of different degrees of fusibility,
which answer as pyrometers, and are for the purpose of enabling the person
in charge to regulate the fire. A pipe furnished with a cock is carried from
the superheating vessel and enters another, the outlet from which is under the
fire bars. Thus a blower is provided to the apparatus itself.
The arrow drawn in red ink, Figure 1, indicates the projection of the gas or
superheated steam. The arrows drawn in blue ink indicate the introduction of
air by the funnel, where the steam and air are mixed is indicated at the part
colored violet.
For heating gases for blast furnaces the apparatus is slightly modified.
Figure 3 shows the blower applied to a furnace of this description. The
whole of that portion of the Drawing to the left of the furnace p is a repro-
duction on a smaller scale of the blower before described. Similar letters of
reference in this Figure refer to corresponding parts in Figure 1. That
portion to the right of the blast furnace p is somewhat modified.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the construction
and employment of blowers or apparatuses for superheating steam and other
gases and for projecting them combined with atmospheric air upon ignited

page_text: combustible matter, as herein-before described and illustrated in the accom-
panying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of June, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-two.
R. A. BROOMAN. (L.S.)