IMPROVEMENTS IN THE FEEDING OF STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1885

page_text: I, FERDINAND CARRÉ, Engineer, of 48 Rue de Reuilly, Paris, in the Republic of
France do hereby declare the nature of my invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
FEEDING OF STEAM ENGINES and in what manner the same is to be performed, to
be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement -
-
The object of my invention is to improve the conditions in which the feeding of
steam engines is done and to render the said feeding easy with feed water at a
temperature of 100 degrees Centigrades or nearly so.
Its principle consists in acting independently from the atmospheric pressure and
only requiring for its action the use of the mere gravity of the feed water combined
with its energetic heating
The accompanying drawings illustrate the whole series of apparatuses by means
of which these results are obtained in the various instances of ordinary practice
Fig 1. 18 an illustration of the simplest form of pump and which can only work
in a vertical position
In the cylinder A of the pump the annular recess a provided with apertures a',
communicates through the pipe A' with the feed water heating apparatus illustrated
in Fig 5 and which will hereafter be described When the upward or exhaust
motion of the piston B takes place, the said piston rises higher than the apertures a
as shown and the water flows underneath the said piston through the said apertures a
In the downward or delivery motion of the piston the bottom cylindrical part of
which comes level with pipe A" the water is forced through that said pipe which'
is provided with the usual check valve, the aperture a" allows of the water
flowing above the piston, the height of the cylinder A above the annular recess a
must be from twelve to sixteen inches and the pipe A" may either be in communi-
cation with the empty part of the feed water heater (Fig 5) or with the atmospheric
The pipe A' is not provided with a valve.
Bir
B's a cylindrical diso arranged on the piston and which acts as a guide to the
said piston. The level of the feed water must never be higher than pipe A".
Fig 1 is a section of the annular recess through the middle of the apertures a'.
If the feed water usually varies in temperature from boiling point to a much
lower degree it would be well although this is not indispensible to provide the
pump with a suction valve placed level with the delivery one,
"

page_text: Fig 218 & view of a pump which can work in an horizontal position whatever
the height of the feed water, the latter must in any case always be a little higher
than the pump
A 18 the cylinder
A' is the exhaust pipe.
B is the piston rod, it is provided with two discs B' and B", the former B'
which is solid presses, during the forcing or delivery period, on the ring C and acta
as an obturator, and the latter B" which is hollowed, brings back the ring C during
the exhausting period
C is the annular piston which contains, between its flanges, the piston rings c
one of which is shown in plan, in fig 2, it is split in d Opposite the said slit,
the ring is thinned in d so as to act as a spring and it thus has a tendency to
spread out the two arms D, this effect is completed by the action of two
springs d² d³
"
e is a plate which is pressed against the shit by means of the spring & the two
ends of which are set in two notches e" cut into the piston ring
f is a pin holding the piston rings together
The two superposed piston rings are alike each other, the bottom one does not
require the plate e nor its spring, the slits are crossed at 90 degrees
It will be readily understood that during the backward or exhausting motion of
the piston the water will descend between the piston rod B B' and the annular
spaces C of the piston C, and B" of the hollow disc B","
A" is the delivery pipe
Fig 2b illustrates a piston G the rings of which are replaced by a closed anc
ring g of about one millimetre thickness, the said ring is soldered at its top to the
said piston G and expanded by means of an excentric annular spring h split in h',
Zinc being under the action of tensile strain an extensible metal the spring will
distend the zinc ring so as to compensate for the wear of the said ring
The bottom flanges of the annular pistons C and G are screwed on to the said
pistons If the side d of the piston ring D was made similar to the opposite
side de'e" e" the piston C could be made into one piece and the piston rings
would then be pinned on to the cylindrical part of the piston C
These parts must be made of bronze or of other elastic metal capable of resisting
the action of the water
His a watertight cover to the top of cylinder A, it is provided with a stuffing
box into which is a piston gland h which enables the pump to be worked in any
position When the pump is working horizontally the exhaust and delivery pipes
should be at the top
t
J is a hand hole through which the fitting up is facilitated.
J' is a plug to the said hand hole and K is a cross bar to which the plug J is
fastened by means of a bolt.
· The cylinders will usefully be internally lined with bronze as shown by the
dotted lines n and a similar lining could be provided in the case of Fig 1, the
apertures for the passage of the water being of course maintained in this latter
case.
Fig 3 illustrates some simplifications of and improvements to the preceding
figures The suction valve O is lifted by the rod 6 which is screwed into the
piston B
-
'
B is an ordinary plunger piston with a stuffing box
The rod 6 18 split and hollowed out in b' so as to possess a certain amount of
elasticity, it gets, at the end of the delivery stroke, introduced into the tube s'and
lifts the suction valve at the beginning of the exhaust stroke, the rod b b' may be
reversed, being hinged on to the valve and its split portion being engaged during
the whole length of the stroke into a central hole made in the plunger piston,-in
the latter case the pump may be worked in an horizontal position. เ
Dis a hand hole for the inspection of the valve, :
0

page_text: D' is the hand hole cover, it is provided with a stop d which limits the
ascending motion of the valve C, and is externally fastened by any given means,
The valve and its seat are made of bronze
°
ee are two holes made at the bottom of valve C's tube c for allowing the water
to escape
E is the exhaust pipe without a valve
E is the delivery pipe
In Fig 4, the suction valve is replaced by a slide valve I
n
b 18 an arm attached to the bottom of the plunger piston and working into a
groove cut into the slide valve I so that the port E' is uncovered at the end of
each down stroke and covered at the end of each up stroke by the action of the
arm 6 catching the slide I at the end of each stroke The port E is spread hori-
zontally so as to be of a section equal to that of the pipe itself.
318 a spring pressing the slide valve I against the face E The top of the slide
valve moves into the recess 2'
2" is a stop of equal length and height, it is placed in the middle of the recess
and in the case of the sliding valve I getting away from its face E prevents its
being applied on the opposite face at the same time enabling the said slide valve to
act as a common clap valve and allowing the water to circulate freely all round
The arm b is an elastic blade of sufficient strength for actuating the slide valve
and momentarily yielding at the end of the delivery stroke during which the slide
valve is strongly pressed so as to rapidly act the moment the delivery is effected
Fig 5 illustrates a feed water heating apparatus capable of energetically beating
the feed water and devised as an adaptation to the afore described system of pump.
A and A' are pipes used for the circulation of the exhaust steam
B is a pipe supplying the cold water
C are a series of shallow trays of graded sizes and in the circumferences of which
are drilled a large number of holes of about 5 to 6 millimetres diameter
The cold water falls, cascade like from the top tray unto the lower ones until it
reaches the bottom in a greatly heated state
e is a pipe connected with the suction of the pump and it is slightly inclined
towards the latter
d is a pipe connected with pipe A"" in Fig 1
If the water is to be heated by means of a derivation of steam branched on the
exhaust pipe, one of the pipes A. A' will be suppressed and replaced by the pipe g
which will be provided, externally, with a very light valve, opening outwardly,
and allowing of the escape of air, the branch pipe will have a regulating cock
H is the level of the water
To sum up I claim in accordance with the law
First The privilege of exclusively working my process of feeding steam engines
cheractameed by the following points es ahova avnlezned
The employment of the