IMPROVEMENTS IN THE FORM AND CONSTRUCTION OF MARINE BOILERS
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Skeffington Boyer, of North Shields, in the County
of Northumberland, Superintending Marine Engineer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE FORM AND CONSTRUCTION OF MARINE BOILERS."-
Sealed the 25th January 1878, and dated the 25th October 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Skeffington Boyer at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 25th October 1877.
ROBERT SKEFFINGTON BOYER, of North Shields, in the County of Northumber-
land, Superintending Marine Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE FORM AND CON-
STRUCTION OF MARINE BOILERS."
The object of my Invention is to construct a boiler that shall be workable or
withstand a higher pressure of steam than the ordinary class of steam boilers having
the same thickness of boiler shell, thereby doing away with the difficulty of
employing boiler plates of a thickness that practically cannot be securely rivetted.
The above ends are attained by constructing a boiler, the shape or configuration
of which resembles in cross section the letter B, but joined or connected at the
centre by stay rods to admit of a quick and perfect circulation from the lower to
the upper chamber. The upper chamber is furnished with boiler tubes, over and
between which, and likewise around the fire-box or flue (with which the lower
chamber is provided), the water plays, suitable space being left at top for the
accumulation of steam. The necessary stays for strengthening the boiler, vertically,
may be supplied either by tubes or rods on the outside.
For vessels of large tonnage, requiring extensive boiler power, I introduce a series
of segments, braced with suitable vertical stays up the centre, the extremities of the
segments being tied or braced by horizontal stays, assisted by belts or bands on the
outside. The firing, as in the previous form of boiler, is done in the lower segments;
the two upper tiers contains the tubes and the necessary space for the accumulation
of steam.

page_text: The boiler being built or constructed in segments, one on the other, occupies less
horizontal space, and effects a great saving of fuel, by the fact of it having less
surface exposed to the cooling tendency of the.atmosphere.
There being a combination of segments to form a boiler shell, equal in capacity
to, say, three boilers, it must consequently reduce the number of safety valves,
blow-off cocks, water gauges, man-holes, and other necessary furniture and
appendages, and throws the whole under the immediate notice of the engineer,
thus effecting economy and reducing the liability to explode.
This Invention is particularly adapted to marine boilers.
SPECIFICATION. in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Robert Skeffington Boyer in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
25th April 1878.
> <<
ROBERT SKEFFINGTON BOYER, of North Shields, in the County of Northumber-
land, Superintending Marine Engineer. IMPROVEMENTS IN THE FORM AND CON-
STRUCTION OF MARINE BOILERS."
The object of my Invention is to construct a boiler of the usual inside fired
multitubular type, that shall be workable or withstand a higher pressure than the
same class of steam boilers having the same thickness of boiler shell, thereby saving
fuel and doing away with the difficulty of employing boiler plates of a thickness
that practically cannot be securely rivetted.
The above ends may be attained by constructing a boiler, the shape or configura-
tion of which somewhat resembles in cross section the letters B, joined or con-
nected at the centre by stay rods to admit of a quick and perfect circulation from
the lower to the upper chamber. The upper chamber is furnished with boiler
tubes, over and between which, and likewise around the fire-box or flue (with
which the lower chamber is provided) the water plays, suitable space being left at
top for the accumulation of steam. The necessary stays for strengthening the
boiler vertically may be supplied either by tubes or rods on the outside.
For vessels of large tonnage requiring extensive boiler power I introduce a series
of segments, braced with suitable vertical stays up the centre, the extremities of the
segments being tied or braced by horizontal stays, assisted by belts or bands on the
outside. The firing, as in the previous form of boiler, is in the lower segments;
the upper tiers contain the tubes and the necessary space for the accumulation of
steam.
i
.)
The boiler being built or constructed in segments, one on the other, occupies less
horizontal space, and effects a great saving of fuel by the fact of it having less
surface exposed to the cooling tendency of the atmosphere.
There being a combination of segments to form a boiler shell, equal in capacity
to, say, three boilers, it must consequently reduce the number of safety valves,
blow-off cocks, water gauges, and other necessary furniture and appendages; and
throws the whole under the immediate notice of the engineer, thus effecting economy
and reducing the liability to explode.
My improvements are particularly adapted to marine boilers.
[mm]

page_text: In the accompanying Drawings Figure 1 represents a front view, partly in
section, Figure 2 a longitudinal section on line 1-2 (Figure 1), and Figure 3 a
plan, partly in section, on line 3-4 (Figure 1), of an inside fired multitubular
boiler, arranged and constructed according to my Invention.
In these Figures A, A, are the furnaces, the flames and heated gases from which
pass, as usual, into the flame box C, and thence through the small smoke tubes D, D,
into the uptake E. During this progress of the flaines and heated gases steam is
generated and quickly accumulates in the steam space F; or a steam receiver or
superheater may be added, as shown.
The strains upon the boiler shell arising from the accumulation of steam in the
steam space I provide against by employing transverse stay bolts g, g, and vertical
plate h, the latter having suitable openings for boiler intercommunication, or stay
bars may be employed. These several stays being properly secured to the shell, as
shown, preserve to the boiler the strength inherent in that of a circular form of
moderate diameter, without the disadvantage and loss of strength due to an increased
diameter of the shell for a circular boiler of a like capacity; and also enables a
greater heating surface and more water space to be obtained than if the boiler or
boilers were of the form shown by dotted lines in Figure 1, where i, i, represent
the space thus utilized.
Where more extensive boiler power is required I arrange the boiler as shown in
Figure 4, a front view, partly in section, and Figure 5, a longitudinal section. In
these Figures the letters correspond to parts similarly marked in Figures 1, 2, and 3,
and as above 'described.
It will be readily understood by those conversant with marine boilers that these
boilers are provided with the usual safety valves, stop valves, feed valves, gauges,
and all other requisite furniture and appendages, not necessarily shown, and that
they can be built to be fired at both ends."
Having now described the nature and object of my Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I claim as secured to me by the above in part recited
Letters Patent, the arrangement and construction of steam boilers substantially as
and in the manner herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Skeffington Boyer, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
K. S. BOYER. (L.S.)