Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 24th Apr., 1897-Accepted, 29th May, 1897
I, OTTO PHILIPP, of Neumühle, Zurich, in the Republic of Switzerland,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of my invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :-
The present invention relates to steam turbines in which the energy of expansion
of the steam is utilized in a particular manner, in that quicksilver is caused to
operate on the turbine blades, the acceleration to be converted into motor power
being imparted to the said quicksilver by means of steam as it passes through a jet
into an expanding tube attached to said jet. Owing to the increased mass of the
driving medium tbus attained, the turbine wheel will rotate more slowly and in
addition to this the quicksilver is particularly adapted for the purpose owing to its
capability of being easily heated.
And in order to render the present specification more easily intelligible
reference is had to the accompanying drawing in which the apparatus for carrying
out the invention is to a certain extent diagrammatically represented in Figure 1,
whilst Fig. 2 shows a detail section of a modified arrangement of the mouth of the
tube.
Live steam is fed to the turbine wheel through the pipe a, passing the conical
valve and entering the expansion pipe e, which is provided with a throat or
narrowed part just under the valve r. Along this pipe the steam passes and
expands, impinging against the blades A of the turbine wheel and finally passing
off as exhaust through the pipe f. The conical valver is provided with a perforated
seating 6 arranged so as to leave an annular chamber outside the same and within
the valve housing as at c. A feed pipe 9 for the quicksilver opens into this annular
chamber c and the quicksilver is driven through the perforations of the seating b
and to the neck of the expansion tube e at d. The bottom of the housing of the
turbine wheel A is advantageously made slanting and provided at the lower corner
with an outlet pipe j for the quicksilver. In this pipe is arranged a pump p by
means of which the quicksilver is pumped up to a heater J, having horizontally
arranged plates therein over which the said quicksilver runs, and is heated previous
to its entering the valve housing along the pipe q. i is a pipe connection from the
steam feed pipe a to the top of the heater J, which serves to conduct live steain to
heat the quicksilver in the heater. ' is the outlet pipe for the steam from the
heater. B is the turbine wheel housing.
In the modification shown at Figure 2 the steam and quicksilver are separated
before impinging the blades of the turbine wheel, a branch pipe el leading off from
the pipe e so that the quicksilver will pass by centrifugal force along the pipe e¹
to the turbine wheel and the steam will pass off by the pipe e³.
The device operates in the following manner :-
The quicksilver passing through the perforated seating 6 of the valver will be
sprayed in the form of fine globules into the expansion tube e and the steam in
seeking to expand in this tube will be accelerated and will increase in speed towards
the outlet of the expansion pipe into the turbine wheel housing B. The energy
of the steam will be transmitted to the quicksilver globules and these will also be
accelerated. The loss of power accruing from this acceleration will be comparatively
slight owing to the fact that the quicksilver globules are surrounded by steam and

page_text: move with the steam. The longitudinal section of the pipe e should be advan-
tageously formed so as to increase in cross sectional area towards the outlet end of
the said pipe, so that the speed of the steam will be less towards the outlet end
of the pipe.
.
-
The quicksilver is fed to the valve rat a temperature corresponding to that of
the steam admitted otherwise the loss of steam by condensation would be too great,
in spite of the low caloric capacity of quicksilver. Any water caused by con-
densation may pass off from the heater J at h. The quicksilver will be adequately
heated by mixing with the live steam in the heater J and will even tend to give off
some of its heat to the steam which it meets in the housing of the valve r so that
the steam passing to the turbine will to a certain extent be superheated by the
quicksilver.
The conical valve r is adjustable and may be employed to regulate the feed of
quicksilver and steam. The valve r operates as a throttle valve. Instead of this
arrangement, the pipe e leading to the turbine wheel might be arranged to end in
a series of jets at the end nearest the turbine and the power might be regulated
by cutting off at times a certain number of the said jets by means of a slide
arrangement.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. A steam turbine operating by means of quicksilver, characterised by the
utilisation of the energy of expansion in that the quicksilver is forced through a
jet or nozzle, into the live steam on its way to the turbine wheel, being atomized
by the steam and accelerated with the latter in an expansion tube affixed to the
said jet or nozzle, and finally caused to impinge the turbine wheel in the manner
and for the purpose substantially as described.
2. In a turbine of the class covered by Claim 1, means for passing the quick-
silver through a superheater (J) and mixing the same therein with live steam,
previous to its passing to the jet or nozzle, in order to reduce the loss .by
condensation.
3. In a turbine of the class covered by Claim 1, the arrangement of an expansion
tube having a curved end and a secondary outlet as specified in order to throw the
quicksilver, separated from the steam on to the turbine as described.
Dated this 24th day of April 1897
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.