IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE AND OTHER BOILERS FOR GIVING THEM. INCREASED POWER IN GENERATING. STEAM
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Wye Williams, of Liverpool, in the County
Palatine of Lancaster, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN LOCOMOTIVE AND OTHER BOILERS FOR GIVING THEM. INCREASED POWER IN
GENERATING. STEAM."
Sealed the 22nd September 1858, and dated the 15th July 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Wye Williams
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th July 1858.
I, CHARLES WYE WILLIAMS, of Liverpool, in the County Palatine of Lan-
caster, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE AND OTHER BOILERS FOR GIVING THEM INCREASED
POWER IN GENERATING STEAM," to be as follows:-
My said Invention applies mainly to locomotive, marine, and similarly con-
structed tubular or multitubular boilers or flue boilers, and consists in the use
of certain mechanical apparatus or arrangements to be introduced into such
tubes or flues for the purpose of causing the currents of flame and heated
products of combustion passing through such tubes or flues to be disturbed,
diverted, or changed from their ordinary onward course, thereby causing a
more varied impinging action of the said heated products, and by which a
larger measure of heat will be passed to the water surrounding. such tubes or
flues, and also that the inserted bars, rods, or other apparatus may be made
the means by which to clear the tubes of soot or other adhering matter.
I

page_text: usually employ bars or rods of iron or other suitable material, coiled spirally
and suited to the required diameter of the boiler tubes, so as to be easily
inserted therein or drawn therefrom, and each spiral may be made either the
entire length of each tube or in two or more shorter lengths, or a straight
metal or other bar or rod or perforated tube may be inserted centrally or
thereabouts in each or in a sufficient number of the tubes, being retained in
their situation by short legs, stays, or like means, or may further have studs
or pins projecting at intervals along the same to render them more effectual
current-disturbing media, and in frustrating the too uniform, continuous, and
rapid course of the heated products of combustion in their passage through
them from the furnace to the chimney.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Wye Williams in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 15th January 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
WYE WILLIAMS, of Liverpool, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Charles Wye Williams, Her special licence that I, the said Charles
Wye Williams, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as J, the said Charles Wye Williams, 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 law-
fully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS, IN LOCOMOTIVE AND OTHER BOILERS FOR GIVING THEM
INCREASED POWER IN-GENERATING-STEAM,"-upon-the-condition_(amongst others)
that I, the said Charles Wye Williams, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Wye Williams, 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 :-
My said Invention applies mainly to locomotive, marine, and similarly con-
structed tubular or multitubular boilers or flue boilers, and consists in the use
of certain mechanical apparatus or arrangements to be made and introduced
into such tubes or flues, for the purpose of causing the currents of flame and
heated products of combustion passing through such flues or tubes to be
disturbed, diverted, or changed from their ordinary direct onward course, and
made to take an oblique one, thereby occasioning an action more impinging
on the interior surface of the tubes or flues, by which means a larger measure
of heat will be passed to the water surrounding such tubes or flues; such
inserted bars, rods, or other current disturbing or agitating apparatus being
also the means by which the tubes may be cleaned of soot or other adhering
matter.
And for the better understanding of my said improvements I will now
proceed to detail the particulars thereof, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, in which the same letters refer to corresponding parts
throughout.
Figure 1, No. 1, is a section, and No. 2 is a longitudinal view of a spiral
current agitator. A, A, A, is a flat bar of iron or other incombustible
material twisted into a spiral form of suitable diameter for being introduced
into each tube or flue, thereby causing a spiral course to be given to the
heated current or matter passing through the tubes furnished therewith.
Figure 2, No. 3, is a section, and No. 4 is a view, of a screw-shaped
current agitator formed with a centre or core. A¹, A', A', is the helix or
screw with a centre or core a, a, a.
Figure 3, No. 5, is a section, and No. 6 is a view, of the same helix or
screw-shaped current agitator A", A", but without the core or centre bar
shown in Figure 2.
Figure 4 is a view of a spiral current agitator made from a square rod or
bar of such diameter and placed in such a position in the tube as may be
found most desirable in practice.
A, Figure 5, Nos. 7 and 8, are sections, and Nos. 9, 10, and 11 are
views of different forms of of current agitators having projections A"", A, A,
of any required form, either spirally directed or otherwise attached to a rod
or centre a', a¹, a', and adapted to the same object of diverting the current of

page_text: heated products in its passage from the straight line of motion to a more
oblique and impinging one.
And Figure 6 is a transverse sectional view of a flue or large or elliptical
shaped tube B, having one or more current agitators introduced into it as
at A¹, A".
Having thus described several modes of carrying my said Invention into
practical operation, I would here remark that the same mechanical con-
trivance may be made subservient in cleaning the flue or tube of any internal
scale, soot, or ashes collected therein; and also that I usually employ bars or
rods of iron or other suitable material twisted or coiled spirally or similarly
formed and suited to the required diameter of the boiler tubes, so as to be
easily inserted therein or drawn therefrom, and each current agitator may be
made either the entire length of the tube or in two or more shorter lengths
for the greater convenience of introducing them into the tubes or flues; or
two or more current agitators may be inserted in the same tube or flue, as
shown in Figure 6, thus rendering them effectual current-disturbing media,
and.counteracting the too uniform, continuous, and rapid straight. course of
the heated products of combustion in their onward passage through the tubes
or flues to the chimney. I would also remark that tubes and tubular flues in
boilers have been found deficient in generating the amount of steam due to
their areas and the surfaces they respectively present. In calculating the
evaporative power of a boiler, the superficial area of the grate-bar surface is
usually taken as the measure of its heat-generative powers, while the internal
superficial area of the tubes and flues and the surface exposed to the hot
products of combustion is taken as the measure of the heat-absorbent and
steam-generative power. In this calculation the gross interior surface of the
furnace, fire-box, flues; and tubes are all included. Some assumed relation
between the heat-generating and heat-receiving surfaces is then taken as the
exponent or measure, of the evaporative or steam-generating power of the
boilers. In tubular and tubular flue boilers the aggregate amount of internal
surface called "heating surface," is taken as if each square foot of such
surface possessed-some-given or determined evaporative value. Experience,
however, proves that when heated gaseous matter, such as the products-of
combustion, is carried onward through tubes or flues with a rapid direct
current, the mechanical effect or momentum of such current and such con-
vection of the heat is the preventing the mixing or change of position, or
temperature of the several strata, sections, or portions of such heated currents.
in their onward course, but which change of position is essential towards

page_text: bringing the hotter portions or strata successively into contact with the plate
surface to which its heat is to be imparted; consequently that without such
change of position and temperature such current of heated matter passes
rapidly to the chimney, retaining largely the heat which it had on entering
such tubes. The object of my said Invention therefore is to produce such
a disturbance or change of position and deviation from the straight line of
the several strata or portions of such currents as will enable or force the
hotter and the cooler strata to change their relative positions, and thus bring
each hot stratum more obliquely and efficiently into contact with the surface
exposed to it. This disturbance and mixture, it will be seen, I effect by intro-
ducing into each tube or straight flue one or more of the above-described
current agitators or current disturbers, by means of which in the ordinary
tubes or flues a more lengthened and spiral and oblique course will be
obtained, more time allowed, and a better impinging action and contact
effected. These helical or other like shaped current agitators may be made
of various fireproof materials, and of many forms and sizes, according to the
form, areas, or length of the tubes or flues, and the amount of chimney
draught and rapidity of current of heated matter passing through them.
As, therefore, my said improvements may be variously modified in many
respects without substantially deviating from the principle of my said Inven-
tion, I desire it to be particularly understood that I do not restrict myself to
the precise form, number, dimensions, situation, or materials comprising the
several parts of my said current agitating apparatus; and I do declare that
what I claim as my Invention is, the peculiar construction and application of
some or other of the mechanical apparatus before named, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Wye Williams, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of December, in the year of
our Lord 1858.
CHARLES WYE WILLIAMS. (L.S.)
CHARLES WYE WILLIAMS. (L.s.)