Tubes.
Year: 1886

page_text: Tubes.
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I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co, Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex do hereby declare the nature
of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to tube-cleaners for vertical tubular boilers.
Heretofore the cleaning of the tubes of a vertical tubular boiler from the fire-box
has been an inconvenient and tedious process, and in most cases such tubes have
been cleaned by removing the top of the boiler and introducing the scraper from
the top; and such expedients as dropping a weight, to which a rope is attached,
through the tube, and then drawing the scraper through by the rope into the fire-
box and back by another rope; pushing the scraper through by wire; and running
chains through, &c, were resorted to. Such boilers have also been cleaned from
the fire-box, when there is no fire on the grate, by reaching in and introducing the
scraper into the tube, screwing on a short length of pipe; pushing the scraper up
as far as this pipe will admit, screwing on another length, and so on until the top
of the tube is reached, the scraper being withdrawn by unscrewing the lengths as
they are drawn down.
The object of this invention is to obviate these inconveniences, and to this end it
comprises the improved apparatus hereinafter described.
In the accompanying drawing,
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of the said apparatus.
Figure 2 is a cross section drawn to an enlarged scale on the line x, x Figure 1.
Figure 3 is an elevation of the apparatus arranged in connection with a boiler
the said boiler being partly in section.
Like letters indicate like parts in all the figures.
A is a guide-pipe. It has a bend or curve in it at G and a rosette or winged
nozzle to centre it in a boiler tube at E. The part from A to G is straight for
most of its length, and the part from G to E is straight for the last part of its
.

page_text: length, and the curve at G is about a quadrant for vertical tube-boilers, but may
be of any convenient degree of curvature demanded by the situation. Thus the
straight parts of this guide tube on the two sides of the curve G are at an angle
with each other, in most cases for ordinary work about at a right angle.
The tube to be scraped is lettered D in Figure 3. The guide-tube has a foot
hinged or fastened to it, or may be supported in any proper way outside of the
fire-door of the boiler. A scraper H of any proper form, is fastened to a flexiblo
metallic connecting rod, which is capable of following around the bend G, and this
flexible metallic connecting-rod is passed into the guide-tube around the bend G,
and is made fast to a plunger J on the interior of said guide-tube, near its
outer end.
11
At the point where the plunger is situated and for a distance equal to the length
of the tubes to be cleaned, the guide tube A is slotted, and it is here surrounded
by a sliding sleeve B which is connected through the slot in A with the plunger J
by means of the spline J or other proper fastening device.
The flexible connecting-rod used is composed of. two ribbons of sheet steel a
little narrower than the diameter of the guide-tube and much thinner, and slightly
separated from each other; but it is obvious that one of such ribbons or that more
than two could be used..
I usually provide a knob F on the end of guide-tube A to take hold of with one
hand while the slide B is reciprocated with the other.
By means of this invention a boiler of the class described may be cleaned
without the removal of the bonnet or any other portion, and while the boiler is
under steam, and the fire is on the grate.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondent I declare that what I claim is :-
―
First. In a tube-cleaning device, the combination of a curved tubular, guide,
suitably supported outside the fire-box and longitudinally. slotted near its outer
end, with an internal. flexible, connecting-rod carrying a scraper at its, end, and
with an external sleeve fastened to, said connecting-rod through said slot and
adapted to be reciprocated longitudinally on said guide-tube and to reciprocate the
connecting rod longitudinally of said tube, substantially as described. -
Second: The combination of the curved guide-tube and the interior flexible
connecting-rod carrying at one end the scraper H, and attached at the other end to
a handle, whereby said- connecting-rod- may be reciprocated to and fro along. the
axis of said guide-tube, substantially as described.
Third. The combination of a curved-guide-tube, the ribbon connecting-rod, the
tube-scraper, the handle for actuating the connecting-rod and scraper, and the foot
for supporting the guide-tube; all substantially as described.
i