CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1852

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alphonse Joly at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th
November 1852.
(Void by reason of notice to proceed not having been given within the
time prescribed by the Act.)
I, ALPHONSE JOLY, of Paris, in the Republic of France, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES" to be as follows:-
These Improvements consist in preventing all saline or calcareous
deposits in the boilers of steam engines furnished with condensers,
and more especially for marine engines. Sheet 1, represents section of
a condenser of a common marine steam engine. (The red lines shew
the improvements.) Suppose the machine working; the hot water and
air surrounding the upper part of the piston of the air pump are
driven back into the reservoir A, B, C, D, by the ascending move-
ment. The air escapes by the opening E, communicating with the
atmosphere; the water, on the contrary, flows out by the two distinct
channels F, G; the pipe F, communicates with the boilers by means
of the feeding box and the feeding pump. When the float P, is
completely dipped in the water, it is balanced by means of the lever
M, N, and the counterweight P¹, whose rod is fixed to the counter-

page_text: weight Q, of the safety valve of the feed box; when the level of the
water in the reservoir runs out, the float P, is laid bare, and will
gain in weight precisely the weight of water which it displaces; the
weight Q, will be raised, and the water drawn up by the feed pump
by means of the pipe F, F¹ will return into the reservoir by the chan-
nel F, when the pressure upon the valve k, (by the weight Q) is
less than the internal pressure of the steam from the boilers. On
the other hand, the difference of level, and better still the atmospheric
pressure, will inject the water, when it has cooled sufficiently in the
cooling channels, Sheet 2. These channels in the Drawing are placed
in the fore part of the vessel, but they can be put in any other place:
they are represented under a flattened form to simplify the Drawing,
but they can be changed into tubes of various number, diametre,
and length, exterior or interior to the vessel, without changing the
principle of the Invention. As water is a bad conductor of heat,
helices may be fixed in the tubes at certain distances, which would
communicate rotary motion to the water: by. these arrangements the
water will almost always be about the same level in the reservoir
without preventing the injection. In course of time the injected
water will have lost the air which it contained in solution, in conse-
quence of which the interior expansion of the condenser will be
weakened. The cooling channels would serve, if necessary, to con-
dense the steam usually thrown out at the moment of stopping: the
distilled water arising therefrom would be driven back into the
boilers. As condensed water always contains air bubbles, and a
portion of fatty substance arising from the greasing of the cylinder,
a sheet iron plate L, L, is placed, pierced at its upper part to prevent
these bodies going back into the tubes F, & G. This plate can be
casily replaced at its upper part by a wire gauze, which would close
the orifices of these tubes. The discharge pipe R, is closed by an
obturator, maintained by means of screw nuts, and which serves to
draw off, from time to time, the superfluous congealed fat floating
on the surface of the water in the reservoir.
Recapitulation:-To take from condensed water what is necessary

page_text: , this having first been cooled in tubes or troughs, of
so as never to renew the water in the boilers:
A, B, C, D, reservoir.
E, escape pipe.
F, F, F, pipe communicating with the air pump and
the generators.
G, pipe communicating with the injection pipe G¹, by
means of the troughs S, S, S, S, shewn in Sheet 2.
L, L, plates of sheet iron.
M, N, levers.
P, float.
P¹, counterweight of the float.
Q, counterweight of the safety valve of the feed box.
R, discharge pipe.
K, safety valve of feed box.
1. The feed pump.
2. The air pump.
3. Piston of air pump.
4. Injection pipe.
5. Section of shaft of the balance beams.
G, conducting pipe for the water in the cooling troughs.
G¹, pipe conducting the water for injection.
S, S, S, S, cooling troughs.