IMPROVE- MENTS IN FIRE-BARS FOR THE BOILERS OF LOCOMOTIVE AND OTHER ENGINES, AND FOR FIRE-BOXES AND FURNACES GENERALLY
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Williams Box at the
Office of the Comissioner of Patents, with his Petition, on the 15th June
1863.
I, WILLIAM WILLIAMS Box, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN FIRE-BARS FOR THE BOILERS OF LOCOMOTIVE AND OTHER ENGINES,
AND FOR FIRE-BOXES AND FURNACES GENERALLY," to be as follows, that is to
say:-
This Invention relates to improvements in fire-bars for the boilers of loco-
motive and other engines, and to fire-boxes and furnaces generally.
The improvements consist in making the bars of any required form, hollow,
with cylindrical screwed ends; in the peculiar couplings by which any two of
such bars are joined together at the ends, and in the mode of fitting and
mounting the grate. In order that the mode of fitting the bars together to
form the grate may be understood, I will assume the latter consists of any
convenient number of such bars placed side by side in the usual way, and
numbered from one side 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, as shewn in the Drawing
annexed. At one end of the hollow bar No. 1 it is in connection with a
water cistern by a pipe upon which a stop-cock is placed, and by which the
whole of the bars are supplied with water. At the opposite side of this bar
No. 1 it is connected with bar No. 2. At this end the bars 2 and 3 are not
connected, the connections being formed only between bars 1 and 2, 3 and 4,
5 and 6, and so on, while at the opposite end, where the grate receives

page_text: and discharges its water, the bar 1 is separate, and the ends of the bars 2 and
3, 4 and 5, 6 and 7 are connected, the ends of the bars 1 and 2, 3 and 4,
5 and 6 being at this end not connected. Now supposing the end of the bar
No. 8 to be in connection with a discharging pipe similar to that of the fire
pipe before described, the water will flow through the whole of these bars in
the following manner, that is to say, entering from the feed pipe, it will
flow through bar No. 1 from right to left, or from back to front, then
through the connections 1 and 2; back through the pipe No. 2, and through
the connections 2 and 3, return through the pipe 3, through the connections
3 and 4, back along bar No. 4, and so on through the respective bars
and connections at the opposite ends, and be finally discharged through
the delivery pipe in connection with the bar No. 8. By this mode of con-
struction the water circulates through the entire grate, and all the water
that enters at one end of the bar No. 1 has to pass entirely through each
bar, backwards and forwards from right to left, or from front to back, as the
case may be, till it is discharged by the pipe in connection with the end
of the bar No. 8. The ends of the bars No. 1 and 8 fit in the hollow
bearings in the supply and discharging pipes, like the hinge or pivot upon
which the grate is hung, so as to rise and fall at the opposite end.
The oppo-
site or moveable end rests upon or is connected to a transverse bar, the two
ends of which are carried by links raised and lowered by a lever or other
suitable gearing at pleasure. The raising and falling motion may be accom-
plished in various ways, as, for instance, by single, double, or parallel links, by
rack and pinion, and from the centre or either end, or may be lowered bodily
or mounted so as to tip entirely over when required. A small cistern is pro-
vided in any convenient position, from near the bottom of which a supply
pipe takes the feed water, which, having passed through the grate, is discharged
through the discharging pipe into the same cistern or otherwise with which
the supply pipe is also in connection. The discharging pipe, however, instead
of entering the cistern at the bottom, passes over or in near the top, when
the end of the said pipe being inverted passes down under the surface of the
water in the cistern. In certain cases the discharging and feed pipes may be
connected with the boiler itself, and thus the bars constructed on this principle
would act as water heaters and steam generators, suitable taps and valves
being placed upon the connections for regulating the supply and discharge.
The couplings by which the ends of these bars are connected are male and
female screwed elbows, which separate one from the other; between the ends
of the pipes or bars which are not connected a hollow or solid bridge piece is
let in, so as to maintain the unconnected ends in their proper parallel positions.

page_text: For the fire-boxes of locomotive engines I propose to mount the grate upon
pivots in the centre or midway, so as to rise and fall at the front or back by a
link or other suitable action in order to increase the draught or air opening
according as the engine is running forward or backward.