IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILERS
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Swarbrick, David Swarbrick, Benjamin Swar-
brick, and Ormerod Swarbrick, all of Baxenden, in the County of
T
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILERS
"
Sealed the 29th September 1865, and dated the 31st March 1865.
.Swarbrick, Benjamin Swarbrick, and Ormerod Swarbrick at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 31st March
1865.
We, JOHN SWARBRICK, DAVID SWARBRICK, BENJAMIN SWARBRICK, and
ORMEROD SWARBRICK, all of Baxenden, in the County of Lancaster, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILERS,"
to be as follows:-
Instead of fire-bars under the boiler to support the fire we make a hollow
fire-box with any convenient number of vertical tubes inside, and connect the
said fire-box to the boiler by hollow tubes or pipes so that the water will
pass through these hollow tubes or pipes into the fire-box and circulate therein,
thus becoming partially heated, and keeping the box cool to prevent clinkers.
We also place one or more hollow heat spreaders at the back part of the flue
to cause the heat and flame to spread or radiate, and thus diffuse the-heat
more regularly under the surface of the boiler.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Swarbrick, David Swarbrick, Benjamin Swarbrick, and
Ormerod Swarbrick, in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 30th.
September 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
SWARBRICK, DAVID SWARBRICK, BENJAMIN SWARBRICK, and ORMEROD SWAR-
BRICK, all of Baxenden, in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said John Swarbrick, David Swarbrick, Benjamin Swarbrick, and
Ormerod Swarbrick, Her special license that we, the said John Swarbrick,
David Swarbrick, Benjamin Swarbrick, and Ormerod Swarbrick, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said John Swarbrick,
David Swarbrick, Benjamin Swarbrick, and Ormerod Swarbrick, our 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 STEAM BOILERS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said John Swarbrick, David
Swarbrick, Benjamin Swarbrick, and Ormerod Swarbrick, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of our
or 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.
3 NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said John Swarbrick, David Swarbrick,
Benjamin Swarbrick, and Ormerod Swarbrick, do hereby declare the nature
of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement,
(that is to say):-
Instead of placing fire bars in the flue or flues for supporting the fire, we
employ a hollow fire-box having in it any convenient number of vertical tubes
open at the top to the fire and at the bottom to the ash hole, the said tubes
being round, rectangular, or of any other suitable shape. To the said fire-

page_text: box and boiler we connect pipes through which the water will pass into the
fire-box and circulate therein, so that the heated surface of the fire-box and
exteriors of the vertical tubes shall give additional heat to the water, and at
the same time keep the box at a lower temperature than the ordinary fire-
bars, and thereby prevent the clinkers from sticking. We also place one or
more moveable metal heat spreaders behind the bridge, and in the back part
of the flue or flues, in order to cause the heat and flame to radiate and impinge
upon the inner circumference of the flue or flues; and in order to enable the
heat spreaders to cause as little obstruction as possible we make their surfaces
facing the fire of a spherical or circular shape.
These improvements will be clearly understood by referring to the figures
and letters on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, in which Figs. 1 and 2
are longitudinal and transverse sections of an ordinary two-flued boiler pro-
vided with our improved tubular fire-box and moveable heat spreaders;
Fig. 3 a vertical section, and Fig. 4 a plan of part of the fire-box only; and
Figs. 5 and 6 are side and end views of one of the heat spreaders.
: a represents the shell or casing of the boiler; b, the internal flues; c, the
bridge; d, the fire-box; e, the vertical tubes; and f, the moveable heat
spreaders. The fire-box is made of any desired length, depth, and strength,
according to the size and strength of the boiler, and the number and shape
of the vertical tubes and areas of their bores are arranged so as to allow the
passage of an ample supply of air for maintaining a perfect combustion of
the fuel. The box and tubes may be made of cast or wrought iron, or of
cast and wrought iron combined, or of copper, care being taken to make the
bores of the tubes conical for allowing the ashes from the fuel to pass freely
through them to the ash-hole. The pipes connecting the fire-box to the
boiler are shewn at g, h, the two pipes 9 being placed at the front and top of
the fire-box, and the pipe h at the other end at the bottom of the fire-box,
and when there is steam in the boiler the water is continually circulating
through the bottom pipe h to the fire-box, and then through the other pipes g
back again to the boiler, thus causing additional heat to be given to the
water, and at the same time keeping the fire-box at the same temperature as
the boiler.
In the boiler shewn in the Drawing the feed water is delivered at the
bottom of the boiler in the usual manner, but, when desired, we cause the
feed water to enter at the front of the fire-box, so that it shall circulate
through the box and be heated before it enters the boiler. In either case it
is evident there will be a great economy of fuel in consequence of the water
circulating over a large area of additional heating surface.

page_text: Although we have only shewn the application of the fire-box and tubes to
an ordinary two-flued boiler, we adapt them to boilers fired from underneath,
to steam-boat boilers, and to any other description of boiler to which they
can be advantageously applied. Each of the heat spreaders shewn in Figs. 1
and 2, and the one enlarged in Figs. 5 and 6, consists of a solid metal shell f
provided with legs or standards k. The said legs or standards rest on the
flue and enable the shells to be placed at any desired positions in the flues,
and also allow their removal from the flues when the latter have to be
cleaned; and when oval or other shaped flues are employed we make the
shells or heat spreaders to correspond with them, and provide them with legs
or standards.
Having now described the nature and particulars of our said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, we desire it to be under-
stood that in steam boilers we claim the system of placing the fuel and fire
on a hollow fire-box containing any required number of vertical tubes of any
shape for the purpose of obtaining additional heating surface and economizing
fuel, as all such improvements are herein described and illustrated in the
accompanying Sheet of Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said David Swarbrick, for and on behalf of
myself and the said John Swarbrick, Benjamin Swarbrick, and
Ormerod Swarbrick, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-
eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-five..
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the
within-named David Swarbrick in
the presence of
G. SEPTIMUS HUGHES,
DAVID SWARBRICK. (L.s.)
Patent Agent,
Manchester.