IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES, AND IN FEEDING STEAM BOILERS
Year: 1860

page_text: Sealed the 7th December 1860, and dated the 11th June 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Salmon at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 11th
June 1860.
I, PETER SALMON, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, Merchant, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNACES,
AND IN FEEDING STEAM BOILERS," to be as follows:-
My Invention with reference to furnaces relates to the furnaces for
stationary and marine purposes, and consists, in the first place, in adapting
and applying thereto a self-acting arrangement for regulating the admission of
air to such furnaces. At the furnace door is fitted an air cylinder with a cock
at the lower end for the exit of air, the admission being by a valve underneath.
The cylinder also has a piston fitting its interior, which piston is raised by
means of a lever in connection with the fire door, thereby admitting air into
[Price 8d 1

page_text: the cylinder under the piston, the piston being pressed downwards by the
weight of cross head and slides for covering the apertures in the door, the air
being pressed out of the cylinder, escaping by a cock, and the slides made to
cover the apertures of the door. Combined with this mechanism at the door
is an air chamber at the bridge of the furiiace, such chamber being fur-
nished with a valve worked by a rod in connection with a lever in front of
the door, so that the air cylinder, above mentioned, is made to regulate the
admission of air both at the door and at the bridge.
My Invention with reference to furnaces consists, secondly, in using bars
in the form of an inverted trough, with a narrow aperture extending a con-
siderable portion of their length.
And my Invention with reference to feeding boilers relates to the boilers of
locomotives and those of marine engines, and consists in the admission of air,
cold or hot, which air may be heated in its passage to the boiler, the pipe through
which it passes from the force pump or other mechanism having a jet of steam
introduced into it, in order to preserve it from injury by the heat applied
to it in passing through fire box, smoke box, furnace flues, or chimney,single
or in a coil; also in having only a sufficient quantity of water forced into the
boiler by this or another pipe to protect it from injury from the fires, flues,
or tubes through a plate perforated with small holes, which water may also
be heated in the manner above described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Peter Salmon in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
10th December 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
SALMON, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
-Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Peter Salmon, Her special license that I, the said Peter Salmon my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Peter Salmon,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term

page_text: 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 FURNACES, AND IN
FEEDING STEAM BOILERS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Peter Salmon, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Peter Salmon, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
:-
My Invention of "Improvements in Furnaces, and in Feeding Steam
Boilers," relates, with reference to furnaces, to the furnaces for stationary and
marine purposes, and consists, in the first place, in adapting and applying
thereto a self-acting arrangement for regulating the admission of air to such
furnaces. At the fnrnace door is fitted an air cylinder with a cock at the lower
end for the exit of air, the admission being by a valve underneath. The
cylinder also has a piston fitting its interior, which piston is raised by means
of a lever in connection with the fire-door, thereby admitting air into the
cylinder under the piston, the piston being pressed downwards by the weight
of the cross head and slides for covering the apertures in the door; the air
being thus pressed out of the cylinder, and escaping by a cock, and the slides
being made to cover the apertures of the door. Combined with this mechanism
at the door is an air chamber at the bridge of the furnace, such chamber being
turnished with a valve worked by a rod in connection with a lever in front of
the door, so that the air cylinder, above mentioned, is made to regulate the
admission of air both at the door and at the bridge.
My Invention with reference to furnaces consists, secondly, in using bars
in the form of an inverted trough, with a narrow aperture extending a con-
siderable portion of their length.
And my Invention with reference to feeding boilers relates to the boilers
of locomotives and those of marine engines, and consists in the supply thereto
of air, cold or hot, which air is or may be heated in its passage to the boiler,
the pipe through which the air passes from the force pump or other mecha-
nism having steam introduced into it, when required, in order to preserve it

page_text: from injury by the heat applied to it in passing through the fire box, smoke
box, furnace flues, or chimney, such pipe being either single or in a coil; or
this feed pipe may be made to enter a heating chamber placed in either the
fire box or smoke box. Only a sufficient quantity of water is forced into the
boiler to protect it from injury from the fires, flues, or tubes through a plate
or plates, pipe or pipes, perforated with small holes, which water is also heated
in the manner above described.
Having thus stated the nature of the said Invention, I will proceed to
describe more particularly in what manner the same is to be performed by
reference to the accompanying Drawings, in which Figures 1 to 6 represent
my improvements in or applicable to furnaces; and Figures 7 to 9, my
improvements in the mode of feeding steam boilers,
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 represents the furnace door, with the self-acting mechanism, above
referred to, for admitting air applied thereto. A is the door, with apertures
B, B, as shewn; C, C, are slides, for covering the apertures; these slides
move vertically between guides D, D, and are connected in their action by the
cross head E fixed to the piston rod F; the slides thus connected with the
cross head are made to press the rod F downwards, and thereby to act on
the piston contained within the air cylinder G. This cylinder has a valve at
the bottom opening upwards for the admission of air, and a cock H for its
exit; I is a lever, one end of which is connected with the cross head E, and
the reverse end is acted upon by a fixed incline K, against which it is pressed
by the opening of the door. By this action on the lever one end of it becomes
depressed and the reverse end raised, and with it the cross head, slides, and
piston within the cylinder G, and as the piston rises air is admitted under it
through the valve at the bottom of the cylinder. As soon, however, as the
door is closed, the cock H being open to the extent required, the weight of the
cross head E and slides C, C, press the piston downwards in the cylinder G,
close the air valve at the bottom thereof, and the air escaping through the
cock H, the piston will gradually descend, and with it the cross head E and
slides C, C, the latter being thereby made to cover the apertures B, B, in the
door plate. In this manner it will be evident the admission of the air through
the apertures B, B, is regulated by the extent to which the cock is opened.
The mechanism above described may be connected with a valve opening
from the ash-pit into a heated chamber at the bridge of the furnace, so that
on the raising of the piston in the air cylinder the said valve may be opened

page_text: and be gradually closed by the descent thereof. Fig. 2 represents such
chamber with a connecting rod from the mechanism to open the valve ; but I
do not claim as of my Invention this chamberand valve separately considered.
Fig. 3 is a top plan view; Fig. 4, an underneath plan; and Figs. 5 and 6,
cross sections of my improved fire-bar for furnaces. It will be seen that it is
in the form of an inverted trough, and that it has a slot extending through a
considerable portion of its length on each side of the centre, through which
slot the air is capable of passing from the ash-pit into the fuel on the bar;
Fig. 5 is a section through the slot; and Fig. 6,a section through the closed
end of the bar.
Fig. 7 is a section of the smoke box of a locomotive engine, with two feed
pipes L, L, for air and water applied thereto. These pipes are in com-
munication at one end with the force pump (shewn detached) or other
mechanism, and at the other end with the boiler, and this latier mentioned
end of the pipes is perforated, as shewn by the detached portion in the
Drawing. By this means it will be seen that air and water on being forced
into the pipes L, L, will become heated by passing along these pipes, which
form a coil or coils in the smoke box surrounding the chamber or space
immediately in front of the fire tubes of the boiler before entering the boiler
through the perforations at the inner ends of the pipes. But the mode of
arranging these pipes or coils and the heating chambers into which they are
made to enter (whether such chambers be in the smoke box, fire box, or
chimney) may be varied. V,V, are two pipes, through which steam may be
admitted from the boiler into the coils P, in order to protect them from injury,
when required, and also for superheating the steam.
Fig. 8 is a section of a marine engine boiler; and Fig. 9 is an elevation of
the same, with a portion of the boiler casing removed, in order to shew the
pipes in the interior; P is the main feed pipe extending along the lower part
of the boiler, with a stop-cock Q for the purpose of shutting off the counect
tion between the force pump or other mechanism and the pipe, when
required; R,R,are branch feed pipes, one to each furnace, leading, as shewn,
through the ash-pit, returning through a fire tube or flue to the sinoke box,
then ascending the up-take to the superheater S (shewn detached in plan
view), which is a vessel placed in the up-take containing smoke tubes T,T.
The branch pipes R, R, extend upwards to some distance in this vessel, and
have their ends perforated, as shewn, in order that they may be capable of
emitting the water and air forced into them in drops or small streams, which
passing into the short pipe or channel U open the valve, and pass thence into

page_text: the boiler; V is a steam pipe leading from the steam space in the boiler with
a stop-cock and conical valve in it, which pipe communicates with the main
feed pipe P. The use of this pipe V is to admit steam into the feed pipes P
and Rand superheater S,when air only is being forced into them, by which
means the pipes and superheater are protected from injury and the steam is
superheated; W is the ordinary feed pipe, into which the air and water may
be forced by opening a valve in its upper part when shut off from the main
feed pipe P,by means of the stop-cock Q but with this exception the pipe is
kept closed by the said valve. This pipe W is intended to be used only as a
reserve in case of necessary repairs being made in the main pipe and apparatus
connected with it. It will thus be seen that on air and water being forced
into the main feed pipe P by means of the force pump, shewn detached,or by
other means, such air and water will become heated as it passes through the
several branch pipes R, R, into the superheater S, and will be emitted in
streams in a heated state through the perforations of the pipes R, and will
thence pass through the pipe or channel U into the boiler. It will also be
seen that by opening the cock in the pipe V when required, steam will be
admitted from the steam space in the boiler to the feed pipes and superheater;
also that by closing the stop-cock Q, when required, the air and water impelled
by the force pump will be shut off from the feed pipes P and R, and allowed
to be forced into the reserve feed pipe W. I would remark that the hot air
may also be taken direct from the smoke box without any heating coils or
chambers.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
wanner the same is to be performed, I do hereby declare that I claim as of
my Invention with reference to furnaces (for stationary and marine purposes
only),―
First, the self-acting apparatus herein-before described, by means of which
the admission of air is regulated by a cock previously opened to the required
extent.
Secondly, the combination of the self-acting apparatus at the door with
the air chamber at the bridge of the furnace, as described.
And, thirdly, the form of fire-bars represented and described.
And with reference to feeding boilers (of locomotives and marine engines
onlp), I claim as of my Invention, the mode or modes herein-before described
of supplying air and water to the boiler in heated streams, such air and water
having been previously forced into and made to pass through feed pipes and
coils or chambers arranged as herein-before described,so as to receive heat,

page_text: and also, in the case of marine boilers, through a superheater in the up-take
with the provision for directing steam through the said feed pipes and super-
heater to protect them from injury when required.
In witness whereof, I, the said Pete Salmon, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the First day of December in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty.
Witness,
WILLIAM SPENCE,
50, Chancery Lane, W.C.,
Patent Agent.
PETER SALMON. (L.S.)