IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILERS AND ENGINES
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for
Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILERS
AND ENGINES."A communication from abroad by Francis Brown
Blanchard, of the City and State of New York, United States of
America.
Sealed the 9th August 1870, and dated the 24th February 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition on
the 24th February 1870.
3
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILERS,
ENGINES," to be as follows:-
AND
The object of this Invention is to effect greater economy, of fuel and
heat in the generation of. steam, and in the use of the same in a .steam
engine.
...

page_text: The first feature of the Invention consists in the construction of a
steam boiler or generator, and dividing it into sections, whereby the
body of water therein is separated in different compartments, which are
successively heated and in which the water is maintained at different
degrees of temperature, according to the distance of the respective
compartments from the fire in the course of the circulation of the heat,
and between which the circulation of the water is only in one direction,
viz., from the cooler to the hotter compartments.
In carrying out this part of the Invention the boiler may be variously
constructed. One system of construction_is_in_separate_and_distinetly
constructed sections or water compartments arranged one above
another, so that the heat passes first through or in contact with an
upper section, and afterwards through or in contact with a lower one or
through or in contact with two or more lower ones in succession, the
feed water entering the lowest and coolest section and thence upward
to a hotter one, or successively through one or more sections, each of
which is hotter than that from which it receives the water.
Another way of providing the separate water compartments applicable
to boilers of ordinary or various known constructions is simply to
introduce into the boiler plates so arranged as to separate or partly
separate the water nearer the fire or in that part of the boiler exposed
to greater heat from the water further from the fire, or in that part or
those parts of the boiler exposed to lesser degrees of heat, and so as to
provide for the circulation of the water only in the one direction above
specified.
"
The second part of the Invention relates to what are known as
combined" steam engines, that is to say, engines which have two
cylinders of unequal size, and in which the steam after having per-
formed its duty upon the piston of the smaller cylinder passes in an
expanded condition into the larger cylinder, and acts upon the piston
thereof.
This part of the Invention consists in the employment between the
smaller or high-pressure cylinder and the larger or low-pressure cylinder
of a reservoir for the reception of the exhausted steam from the high-
pressure cylinder prior to its entrance to the low-pressure cylinder, the
pistons of the two cylinders being connected with and transmitting
power to cranks set at right angles to each other on the same shaft,

page_text: instead of to cranks set in exactly opposite directions, or to one crank
or to two cranks set in the same direction, as in other combined engines.
The reservoir, which forms a feature of this part of the Invention, should
preferably be heated by the gaseous products of combustion from the
boiler furnace.
The third part of the Invention consists in heating the cylinders of a
combined engine by means of the gaseous products of combustion from
the boiler furnace, and which gases pass through a jacket or jackets
surrounding the cylinder.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 24th August 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Edward Newton, Her special
licence that I, the said William Edward Newton, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Edward
Newton, 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 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 AND ENGINES," being a communication
to me from abroad by Francis Brown Blanchard, of the City and State
of New York, United States of America, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said William Edward Newton, 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

page_text: Is to erect economy of fuel and neat in
the generation of steam, and in the use of the steam in steam engines.
The first feature of the Invention relates to an improved construction
of steam boiler or generator. The improvement consists in dividing it
into sections, whereby the body of water therein is separated in different
compartments, which are successively heated, and in which the water is
maintained at different degrees of temperature, according to the distance
of the respective compartments from the fire in the course of the cir-
'culation of the heat; and between which the circulation of the water is
only in one direction, viz., from the cooler to the hotter compartments.
In. carrying out this part of the Invention the boiler may be variously
constructed. One system of construction is based upon the use of
separate and distinctly constructed sections or water compartments
arranged one above another, in such manner that the beat passes first
through or in contact with an upper section, and afterwards through or
in contact with a lower one, or through or in contact with two or more
lower ones in succession, the feed water entering the lowest and coolest
section, and thence upward to a hotter one, or successively through one
or more sections, each of which is hotter than that from which it receives
the water.
Another way of providing the separate. water compartments (applicable
to boilers of ordinary or various known constructions) is simply to
introduce into the boiler plates so arranged as to separate or partly
separate the water nearer the fire or in that part of the boiler exposed
to greater heat from the water further from the fire, or in that part or
those parts of the boiler exposed to lesser degrees of heat, and so as
to provide for the circulation of the water only in the one direction
above specified.
417

page_text: The second part of the Invention relates to, what are known as
"combined" steam engines, that is to say, engines which have two
cylinders of unequal size, and in which the steam after having performed
its duty upon the piston of the smaller cylinder passes in an expanded
condition into the larger cylinder and acts upon the piston thereof.
11.
This part of the Invention consists in the employment between the
smaller or high-pressure cylinder and the larger or low-pressure cylinder
of a reservoir for the reception of the exhausted steam from the high-
pressure cylinder prior to its entrance to the low-pressure cylinder, the
pistous of the two cylinders being connected with and transmitting
power to cranks set at right angles to each other on the same shaft,
instead of to cranks set in exactly opposite directions, or to one crank or
to two cranks set in the same direction, as in other combined engines.
The reservoir, which forms a feature of this part of the Invention, should
preferably be heated by the gaseous products of combustion from the
boiler furnace:
The third part of the Invention consists in heating the cylinders of a
combined, engine by means of the gaseous products of combustion from
the boiler furnace, and which gasses pass through a jacket or jackets
surrounding the cylinder.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 represents an elevation, partly
in section, of a boiler and the principal portions of a combined engine
*supplied with steam from such boiler illustrating all the features of the
Invention; Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the boiler and engine taken at
right angles to Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a vertical section of a boiler of different
construction illustrating the first part of the Invention.
The boiler represented in Figures 1 and 2 is composed of three separate
and distinct sections or water compartments arranged one above another.
The first or uppermost compartment A resembles an ordinary boiler of
the locomotive type having a fire-box a, a barrel b, and tubes c, c, but
the barrel and tubes are shorter than is common in a locomotive boiler:
The compartments B and C are simple horizontal cylinders with
tubes f, f, running through them. The water space of the compart-
ment B is connected at the top with the bottom of the barrel of the
compartment A by a short pipe or trunk d, and the water space of the
compartment C is connected at the top with the bottom of the water

page_text: space of the section B by a similar pipe or trunk e. At the ends, of the
sections A and B furthest from the fire-box a breeching D is applied to
form a communication between the tubes c, c, of the compartment A
and the tubes f, f, of the compartment B, and at the ends of the
compartments B and C nearest the fire-box a breeching E is applied to
form a communication between the pipes f, f, of those two compart-
ments. At the end of the boiler (furthest from the fire-box) is the
chimney or smoke stack F. The tubes ff, or the lower compartment
communicate with this chimney. The circulation of the flame_and_
gaseous_products-of-combustion from the fire-box is first through the
tubes of the upper compartment, thence through the breeching D into
the tubes of the middle compartment B, through those tubes into the
breeching E, and thence through the tubes of the lower compartment C
into the chimney. The water supplied to the boiler enters the lower
compartment, fills it, and is supplied from it to the middle compartment
by the pipe e, and on filling the middle compartment is supplied from it
to the upper compartment by the pipe d, and is maintained in the upper
compartment at a suitable height to cover its tubes, and the fire-box, and
leave a suitable steam space above its surface. The gaseous products of
combustion become cooled in their successive passages through the tubes
of the several compartments until in the lower section all the remaining
heat that is available for useful effect is abstracted from them, and they
pass to the chimney at a very much lower temperature than they do to
the chimney of an ordinary steam boiler. The water enters the lower
compartment of the boiler in a cold state, or at a comparatively low
temperature and becomes heated to a certain degree, and then circulates
upward through the compartment B and into the upper compartments
to supply the place of what passes off thence in the form of steam, and
there is no return circulation. It will thus be seen that the water passes
gradually from
a compartment of the boiler in which the heating
surfaces are further from the fire and at a low temperature to a com-
partment in which these surfaces are nearer the fire and at a higher
temperature, and so on to a compartment in which they are still nearer
to the fire and at a still higher temperature. By this division of the
water in compartments successively heated by the hot products of
combustion (which are reduced in temperature as they pass from one
compartment. to another, and between which compartments the
circulation of water is only from the colder to the hotter) the heat

page_text: transmitting effect of the heating surfaces is very greatly increased, and
an increased evaporation and great economy of fuel are obtained.
In order to obtain the full advantage of a boiler in which the water is
thus divided and successively heated an artificial draught produced by a
blower or other equivalent means is necessary, as the temperature of the
gaseous products of combustion might be so reduced by contact with the
heating surfaces last subject to their action that they would not escape
with sufficient freedom. It may also be necessary to have a larger
number of tubes and a greater heating surface in the sections of the
boiler furthest from the fire.
The division of the boiler into separate water compartments may be
effected without constructing it in separate sections by placing partitions
within it, the proper arrangement of these partitions depending upon the
form of the boiler. A boiler of the locomotive type may be divided into
three compartments, and made to operate with an effect the same as that
of the boiler represented in Figures 1 and 2, by having two horizontal
partitions so placed within it, one above another, between the tube
sheets and within the barrel as to nearly meet the sides of the barrel
and the tube sheets. In such case a breeching may be so arranged
within the lower and back part of the fire-box (and in contact with the
front tube sheet) as to prevent the flame and gaseous products of
combustion from entering directly into any of the tubes but those above
the upper partition, the said breeching covering the front ends of the
tubes below the lower partition, and of those between the upper and
lower partitions. A breeching will also be arranged to cover the rear
ends of all the tubes above the lowest partition. The circulation of the
products of combustion will then be substantially as they are in the
boiler shewn in Figures 1 and 2, viz., first through the upper tubes, then
through the rear breeching, next through the middle tubes, afterwards
through the front breeching, and finally through the lower tubes to the
chimney. The water fed into the boiler at the bottom circulates upwards
from the bottom of the boiler through openings around or through the
partitions above mentioned, but cannot circulate downwards.
Fig. 3 illustrates a simple system of division into separate water
compartments applicable to flue boilers. This consists simply in the
introduction of transverse partitions g, h, fitting to the bottom and sides
of the interior of the boiler, and around the exterior of the flue or flues

page_text: .
and extending up to or a little above the water line. This forms three water
compartments A, B, C, but leaves the whole of the upper part of the
boiler which forms the steam space in free communication. The water
is fed into the compartment C furthest from the fire-place a, and can.
only reach the other compartments by overflowing from C to B, and
thence to A through openings in the upper parts of the partitions g, h,
or over the tops thereof. The products of combustion are gradually;
cooled in their passage through the flue or flues, and the water being
separated in the three compartments is maintained at different tem-
peratures therein, that in B being hotter than that in C, and-that-in-A
being-hotter-than-that in B, and the circulation is only permitted from
the colder to the hotter compartments by the overflow from one to
another, the return circulation being prevented by the partitions g, h.
The description of the improvements in combined steam engines will
now be proceeded with. H, in Fig. 1, is the high-pressure cylinder, and
I, in Figures 1 and 2, is the low-pressure cylinder. The pistons of these
cylinders are connected with cranks J and K set at right angles to each
other on the same shaft L. The steam from the boiler (before entering
the high-pressure cylinder I of the engine) passes by a pipe M into a
separating chamber N arranged within the breeching D of the boiler
and is then superheated by the products of combustion escaping from the
tubes c, c. From this superheater it passes by a pipe O to the valve
chest of the cylinder H. The exhaust pipe P of this. cylinder leads to a
reservoir Q, which should be of larger capacity than the low-pressure
cylinder I, and whence the steam is supplied by a pipe R to the valve
chest of the cylinder I. The steam is exhausted from the cylinder I into
the atmosphere or into a condenser, but preferably into a condenser.
The interposition of the steam reservoir Q between the two cylinders
enables the two pistons of the cylinders to be arranged at right. angles
to each other (instead of both in the same direction), or in opposite
directions as they are in combined engines, in which the steam is
exhausted directly from the high-pressure eylinder into the valve chest
of the low-pressure cylinder. This arrangmeut of the cranks at right
angles it is obvious provides for a more uniform transmission of power to
the crank shaft, and renders it entirely unnecessary to make combined
engines double or with two high-pressure and two low-pressure cylinders,
as heretofore commonly constructed for marine purposes. In order to

page_text: prevent the condensation of steam in the reservoir Q, and to “superheat
the steam as much as desirable before it enters the low-pressure cylinder;
the reservoir is arranged in the breeching E of the boiler in which it is
surrounded by the hot gaseous products of combustion escaping from the
tubes of the middle section or water compartment B to those of the lower
section or water compartment C. The cylinders H aúd Í are both
surrounded with jackets H' and I', which have a communication between
them by a pipe T. The jacket I' is connected by a pipe V with the
breeching E of the boiler and the jacket H¹ by a pipe V with the chimney
base F. By this means a portion of the gaseous products of combustion
are tapped from the breeching E, and caused to circulate through the
cylinder jackets H₁ and I, for the purpose of heating the cylinders
and preventing the condensation of the steam therein. These gaseous
products after having circulated first round the cylinder H and
afterwards round the cylinder I escape by the pipe V to the chimney
base.
Having now described the Invention which has been communicated
to me by my foreign correspondent, and having explained the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I would observe that I do not intend to
confine myself to the precise details herein described, as they may be
varied to a considerable extent without departing from the principle of
the present Invention; but what I claim as new is,―
First. The construction of steam boiler or generator in sections, as
herein set forth, so that the body of water contained therein is separated
in different compartments, which are successively heated, and in which
the water is maintained at different temperatures, according to the
distance of its respective compartments from the fire in the course of
the circulation of the heat, and in which the circulation of the water is
orly from a cooler to a hotter part of the boiler.
Second. In so combining high-pressure and low-pressure cylinders
together that the cranks of the pistons may be set at right angles to each
other on the same shaft. I claim a steam reservoir, into which the
steam is exhausted from the high-pressure cylinder prior to its advent
to the low-pressure cylinder, and which is heated by gaseous products of
combustion from the boiler furnace.
Third. Heating the cylinders of a combined engine by causing the
gaseous products of combustion from the boiler furnace to circulate

page_text: through a jacket or jackets surrounding the cylinder, as herein set
forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have
hercunto set my hand and seal, the Twenty-fourth day of August,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.S.)