IMPROVEMENTS IN FIXED AND SEMI-FIXED ENGINES, WITH APPLIANCES FOR HOISTING AND OTHER PURPOSES, PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS MAY BE APPLIED IN OTHER ENGINES
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Brown at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 26th January 1881.
ROBERT BROWN, of Morton, near Gainsborough, in the County of Lincoln,
Mechanical Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN FIXED AND SEMI-FIXED ENGINES,
WITH APPLIANCES FOR HOISTING AND OTHER PURPOSES, PARTS OF WHICH
IMPROVEMENTS MAY BE APPLIED IN OTHER ENGINES."
My Invention has for its object improvements in fixed and semi-fixed engines
with appliances for hoisting and other purposes, parts of which improvements may
be applied in other engines.
In fixed and semifixed steam engines for hoisting, winding, driving, and pumping,
I provide a compound driving clutch, whereof one side forms a claw clutch in the
ordinary manner, the other side, which is of larger diameter, forming a friction-
clutch. Both clutches are arranged to act upon the same drum, and are put into
or out of gear either way by means of the same hand lever, which is provided with
a suitable catch-plate; the said lever is made double-acting, having one part fixed
and the other part loose on the lever shaft, and is fitted with a hand wheel and
screw to give the necessary bight when using the friction clutch.
By this arrangement the claw clutch can be used for heavy loads, and for
letting workmen up or down, in which cases this clutch will be kept securely in
gear, and the engine reversed at the end of every "bout" in the usual way; but
when it is desirable to effect the hoisting and lowering more rapidly, and at the
same time to keep the pumps in constant operation, the friction-clutch can be used,
and the engine kept running in the same direction continuously, the lowering
being then effected by the treadle friction-brake in the usual manner, the same
levers and gear being used at all times.
It is evident that this compound clutch arrangement may be used with other
kinds of engine.
I prefer to use an independent vertical engine with the cylinder or cylinders well
steam-jacketted, which, however, is not claimed as new; but to jacket such
cylinders properly they should be placed above the boiler that supplies the steam
sufficiently to ensure that water condensed in the jackets shall flow by gravitation
back into the boiler; also the steam pipes should be able to drain themselves back
into the boiler, otherwise they are liable to carry over a considerable quantity of

page_text: water in suspension with the steam, especially if the boiler primes; this draining
cannot well be effected when the ordinary tall vertical type of boilers is used.
Now according to my Invention I use in combination with the said independent
vertical engine an improved form of vertical boiler, as follows:-
:-
I make the boiler rectangular in plan, the construction being similar to a
locomotive fire-box, and properly stayed all round, but without a barrel. The shell
is carried up somewhat higher than usual, and the fire-box crown, which is circular,
has one portion carried up to form an uptake, from which horizontal smoke or
flue tubes extend over the fire-box to an external smoke-box arranged over the
fire-door.
To increase the efficiency of the tube heating surface I make the said flue tubes
with heat-ribs in a spiral form within the tube, formed of the same material as the
tube, and as parts of the same. These tubes may be made on the system known as
"solid drawn" or otherwise, the said tubes having a slight twist given to them in
making, so that when finished the ribs within each tube form a spiral or helix to
break up the current of hot gases passing through, and being solid with the tubes
the more readily transmit the heat to the surrounding water, thus making a very
effective and economical boiler, and occupying a minimum of floor-space. This
construction of flue tube is evidently applicable to other forms and types of steam
boilers.