IMPROVEMENTS IN GENERATING HEAT FOR LOCOMOTIVE, MARINE, AND OTHER BOILERS AND FURNACES
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to the Honorable William Edward Fitz Maurico of
12, Hyde Park Gate, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN GENERATING HEAT FOR LOCOMOTIVE, MARINE, AND OTHER
BOILERS AND FURNACES."
Sealed the 9th July 1861, and dated the 12th January 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Honorable William Edward
Fitz Maurice at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 12th January 1861.
I, The Honorable WILLIAM EDWARD FITZ MAURICE, of 12, Hyde Park
Gate, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN GENERATING HEAT FOR LOCOMOTIVE, MARINE,
AND OTHER BOILERS AND FURNACES," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists, firstly, in burning carbonaceous matter or fuel in
oxygen gas or in oxygen gas diluted with atmospheric air, and in the direct
application of the heat thereby generated to boilers or furnaces, or in the
application of the gaseous products of this burning of carbonaceous matter is
the fuel.
Secondly, it consists in mixing water or steam with oxygen gas or with atmo-
spheric air, or with these combined, and in passing such mixture through heated
or ignited carbonaceous matter and applying the gaseous products obtained
therefrom as fuel to boilers or furnaces by any convenient mode of application.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Honorable William Edward Fitz Maurice in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 12th July 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, The
Honorable WILLIAM EDWARD FITZ MAURICE, of 12, Hyde Park Gate, in
the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Honorable William Edward Fitz Maurice, Her special licence that I, the
said Honorable William Edward Fitz Maurice, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Honorable William Edward Fitz
Maurice, 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 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 GENERATING
HEAT FOR LOCOMOTIVE, MARINE, AND OTHER BOILERS AND FURNACES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Honorable William Edward Fitz
Maurice, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Honorable William Edward Fitz
Maurice, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
Firstly, my Invention consists in mixing oxygen gas or atmospheric air or
oxygen gas mixed with atmospheric air with the vapour of water or steam.
when the said steam is passed into or through ignited carbonaceous matter
for the purpose of effecting the decomposition of the steam and obtaining
therefrom hydrogen gas, or harburetted hydrogen gas, and carbonic oxide gas,
such gases and mixture of gases being intended to be applied in generating heat
by any ordinary or other application thereof. The said addition to the steam
of the oxygen gas, or of oxygen gas mixed with atmospheric air, is made in

page_text: order to facilitate the decomposition of the steam through the. greater heat
developed by means of the action of the oxygen in contact with the steam
and the carbonaceous matter. In carrying into practice this part of my
Invention prefer to superheat the steam or the mixture of steam with
atmospheric air or oxygen. gas, or these combined, previously to its being
brought into contact with. the heated or ignited carbonaceous matter, in order
to facilitate the intended decompositions, and avoid the cooling action upon
heated carbonaceous matter of steam (or the mixtures as above when the steam
is of ordinary temperatures. And in so separating the steam or its mixtures
as above, I prefer that the degree of heat, used shall be so high. as of itself
when brought in contact with the carbon to raise the carbon up to combustion
and decomposing point, that is, to make the steam or its mixtures as aforesaid
the agent or vehicle for supplying the requisite temperature for effecting,
the intended decompositions or combinations. When the steam or its mixture,
as aforesaid is superheated to this high degree it is not requisite to apply other
heating agency to the carbonaceous matter, but in some cases in which the
steam (or any mixture) is superheated I prefer so to conduct the operation.
that the decomposing reactions shall be aided by raising the carbonaceous
matter up to a decomposing heat by the application of heat to the vessels.
containing it, and in this case it is not necessary that so high a temperature
as aforesaid shall be given to the steam (or any mixtures) previously to being.
brought in contact with the carbonaceous matter.
But I do not confine my Invention to the practice of superbeating the
steam or its mixture with oxygen gas or atmospheric air, but find it convenient,
in some cases, to use steam of an ordinary temperature, and to effect the
required decompositions by heating the carbonaceous matter itself to that
degree that shall sustain the decomposing actions when steam or its mixtures
as aforesaid are projected into or passes through the carbonaceous matter.
In the latter case I find it convenient to place the carbonaceous matter in
ordinary iron or clay retorts, or in retorts lined with clay or fire-brick, and
which retorts I call the decomposing chambers of my apparatus. These
retorts are heated externally to a moderate red heat, after the manner of
heating retorts for the manufacture of coal gas; I then project the steam
through the heated carbonaceous matter previously causing it to be mixed
with the oxygen gas or that gas and atmospheric air I find it most convenient
to use from three to ten per cent in volume of the oxygen to the volume of
steam at from 212° to 220° Fahrenheit, but I do not confine the practive
of my Invention to these proportions only, for much larger proportions of
oxygen may be employed with advantage. When I use the mixture of air

page_text: and oxygen gas, I then find it convenient to employ three parts of air and
one part of oxygen, that is, to increase the natural proportions of oxygen in
air in these proportions or thereabouts; but, as with pure oxygen, its propor-
tion in this last case may also be considerably increased. The relative pro-
portions of this air mixture to the steam is from one-third to half the volume
of the steam, and the relative proportions of the steam and oxygen (or
oxygenized air) and the heated carbon must in all cases be such that the
carbon is preserved in great excess of the steam to be decomposed so that the
resulting gaseous products shall contain no (or no material quantity of)
carbonic acid, but shall consist of hydrogen or carburetted hydrogen and
carbonic oxide chiefly, excepting when the atmospheric air mixture is used,
when of course these products are intermixed with the proportion of nitrogen
or some compound thereof formed in its passage through the decomposing
chamber.
I do not confine my Invention to the use of any particular form of apparatus;
the steam may be of low or high pressure, and either be generated in a
separate boiler and thence passed into the decomposing chamber, or water
may be made to fall gradually into the decomposing chamber and be thero
converted into steam, and the oxygen air he supplied from any convenient
reservoirs. The retorts may be placed either horizontally or vertically,
and be recharged with the carbonaceous matter either at intervals or con-
tinuously (as it is consumed by any convenient kind or form of apparatus.
The gaseous products may either be applied direct as they are produced to
the boiler or furnace or other apparatus to be heated by their combustion,
or they may be stored up in gasometers, and then supplied to their several
purposes as gaseous fuel. I claim as my Invention, under this head, the
application of oxygen gas or of a mixture of oxygen gas and atmospheric
air along with steam, when passed into or through strongly heated car-
bonaceous matter, in order to resolve such steam into hydrogen gas, or
this mixed with carburetted hydrogen and carbonic oxide for the purpose of
applying such products as fuel.
My Invention consists, secondly, in the mode of applying the gaseous fuel
when produced as just described, or when produced by any other methods,
and this part of my Invention consists, firstly, in causing the mixture of
inflammable gases or the gaseous fuel (consisting chiefly of the hydrogen,
carburetted hydrogen, and carbonic oxide) to inpinge (along with the proportion
of atmospheric air requisite for its combustion upon the outside or bottom of
the boiler or other vessel containing the water to be heated or raised into
steam by the following contrivances :-I use a number or serias of double

page_text: concentric jets, through the central one of which jets I force the inflammable
gases, and through the outer one the atmospheric air. The inflammable
gaseous mixture being ignited currents of it and of air are kept up, the force
and volume of which currents, and consequently of the heat brought to bear
5 upon the boiler or other vessel being regulated by any suitable contrivance;
secondly, my method is when applied to (for example) tubular boilers to
employ a mixing chamber or a larger arrangement of concentric tubes, in or
through which the inflammable gases and the air are passed, mixed and
ignited, and the product of their combustion along with, consequently the
converted heat produced thereby are then forced onward through the tubes,
or made to impinge upon any other surface required to be heated or sent
into and through any furnace or materials to be heated.
What (under this head) I claim as my Invention is, the double jet
arrangement for effecting the combustion of the gases and directing the
produced heat upon any surface to be heated, the arrangement of a mixing
or combustion chamber consisting of a double jet and the application or
projection of the convected heat obtained therefrom to or upon surfaces or to
furnaces or materials to be heated.
My Invention consists, thirdly, in the application of oxygen gas, or of
oxygen gas mixed with atmospheric air to the ignited fuel as coal, coke,
charcoal, wood, or any other carbonaceous matter, when used to heat boilers
or surfaces, &c. instead of the present application of atmospheric air only in
such cases. In the practical application of this part of my Invention, I prefer
generally to employ a mixture of common air and oxygen gas in such relative
proportions that the mixture shall consist of three volumes of nitrogen and
two volumes of oxygen, that is, so that the proportion of oxygen present shall
be one-fifth greater (or thereabouts) than that which exists naturally in atmo-
spheric air itself. I do not, however, confine my Invention to these proportions,
since various other relative proportions may be used, and even in cases where
the most active and intense combustion, and consequent heat are required
pure or undiluted oxygen can be applied. I propose to use closed fire-places,
and through the ignited fuel contained in them to force the gaseous mixture,
but an ordinary or any other method of creating a draft for causing the
oxygen or oxidgenized air to be drawn through the fuel may be resorted to.
I prefer also to generate the oxygen gas and to mix it with the proportion
of air simultaneously with its use so as to avoid the necessity of large reservoirs
or gasometers for storing up the gas. I do not confine my Invention to
the use of any particular form of apparatus, since it is only necessary (and
this can be done practically in a variety of ways) to substitute oxygen or

page_text: highly oxygenized air in place of common air for supporting the combustion
of the fuel, and thereby gaining the greater heat and a greater command
over its applications. What under this head I claim as my Invention is,
the applying of oxygen gas or of mixture or oxygen gas and atmospheric in
the place at atmospheric air only as the supporter of combustion of fuel applied
to boilers and furnaces, and other apparatus.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Fitz Maurice, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of July, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
WILLIAM EDWARD FITZ MAURICE. (L.B.)