Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 20th Aug., 1897
Complete Specification Left, 27th Jan., 1898-Accepted, 5th Mar., 1898
I, CONRAD CHRISTIAN SEVERIN KNAP, of 11, Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C.,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to water tube boilers of the "Root" type, or in which a
number of circulating water tubes fitted with heads and connecting caps are
arranged one above another, and through which said tubes, caps and headers,
water circulates.
In consequence of the circuitous travel of the water, the bends at the connections
greatly hinder the circulation, owing to the friction through the bends having to
be overcome, so that by reducing the number of the said bends, circulation is
greatly improved, which is a great desideratum in water-tube boilers.
In boilers of the ordinary type and where headers are arranged horizontally and
breaking joint one with another they are defective. Thus with a vertical series of,
say eight caps arranged in twin order with one cap inclining to the right, and the
next one above it inclining to the left, and the next above to the right and left and
so on through the series, the travel of the circulating water is a zig-zag course with
eight bends, some at very acute angles, and others at obtuse angles, the result is
that circulation is greatly impeded.
According to my improvements, I provide erect headers with the middle parts
directed obliquely, and with the headers breaking joint one with another and with
the axes of the caps coming nearly lignable vertically.
Each header is to receive the ends of two tubes, whilst the caps which incline
in common one with another connect up the headers, and owing to the caps being
disposed in line above each other, an eight tube high boiler with caps arranged as
described, make only four bends, hence the great reduction of friction in the circu-
lation.
會
The circulation of water through such a system, travels in an undulatory or
wave-like course, instead of having to pass round acute bends as in that form of
water tube boilers described and now in common use.
In building up a boiler, the first horizontal series of headers, receive the two
high tubes, arranged with the upper series coming opposite the spaces between the
lower series. The second tier of headers are arranged in a similar manner, and with
the sliglitly oblique caps, connecting the top tube elements of the lower two high
series, with the bottom tube elements of the second set of two-high series, and so
on, with the ends of the caps coming nearly opposite each other, but with their
axes slightly out of line.
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page_text: I, CONRAD CHRISTIAN SEVERIN KNAP, of 11, Queen Victoria Street, London,
and in what
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to water tube boilers of the "Root" type, in which a
number of water-circulating tubes, fitted at their ends with headers and connecting
caps are arranged in series, one row above another to any suitable height, and
through which said tubes, caps and headers, the water being heated circulates.
In such boilers, as usually constructed, the headers, into each of which the ends
of two side-by-side tubes take are arranged horizontally, or lengthwise in rows,
each of which break joint with the rows above and beneath, and in an eight-tube-
high boiler, connection is made between a vertical series of headers by a number
of obliquely disposed connecting bends. Thus, for instance, the cap of the bottom
header proceeds from the right hand end and inclines in a right-hand oblique
direction to the same end of the header above, from whose left hand end, another
cap runs with a left-hand inclination to the like end of the third header, and so on,
inclining first to the right and then to the left throughout the whole series, so that
the water, in circulating through headers and caps arranged in this way, has to
travel through a zig-zag and circuitous course, and pass round a large number of
bends some of which are at a very acute angle, so that considerable friction has to
be overcome and the proper circulation is greatly impeded.
The object of my improvements is to so construct and arrange the headers and
connecting caps of the water tubes that the number of caps to be passed by the
water in circulating is lessened, whereby friction or resistance to the flow of the
water is reduced and the circulation greatly improved.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings represents in elevation, a part of one
end of an eight-tube high water tube boiler, showing the arrangement of the tube
headers and connecting caps in accordance with my invention. Two vertical rows
of headers have the connecting caps fitted up, whilst the other rows are shown
without the caps.
Figure 2 is another view of the said boiler, one part of the same representing
the tubes, headers and connecting caps in elevation, whilst another part represents
them in section upon the dotted line x, Figure 1.
Figure 3 represents, upon an enlarged scale, a front elevation of one of the
headers, separately.
Figure 4 is a section of the same upon the dotted line a¹, Figure 3.
Figure 5 is a back elevation of Figure 3 and Figure 6 a section upon the dotted
linea, Figure 4.
Figure 7 is an elevation of a connecting cap and Figure 8 a vertical section
thereof, upon the dotted line ³, whilst Figure 9 is a cross section upon the dotted
line a, Figure 7.
The same letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures
of the drawings.
a are the water tubes of the boiler, disposed in rows a¹, arranged tier-wise, one
above another to the height (in the form shown in the drawing) of eight tubes,
and with the tubes of any one row coming opposite the spaces between the tubes
of the next row. These tubes preferably are inclined from the back upwards

page_text: towards the front and their ends a³, take through openings 61, in the backs of erect
headers b, and are there secured. The said headers each have an inclined or
obliquely directed middle part 63, and are arranged to fit closely together side by
side in rows, and with the ends 64, 65, of the several headers of each row respec-
tively breaking joint with the two contiguous headers of the rows above and below
them and each header connects together two tubes, that is, the end of one tube in
the top horizontal row is connected by the oblique middle part of the header to the
end of the nearest tube of the second row, and each obliquely lignable pair of tubes
of the third and fourth rows are connected up in like manner and so on through-
out the boiler, so that each two rows of water tubes have a single row of headers in
connection with them and these headers are in turn, coupled together in vertical
series by connecting caps d, disposed between the top end 6, of one header and the
contiguous end 65, of the header next above it and running in an oblique direction
or at an obtuse angle relative to inclined middle part of the headers, said headers
and connecting caps being united by joints e, whose ends e¹, e², respectively take
into coned or flared openings 67, in the outward sides of the headers and the open
ends d', of the caps.
In my improved boiler, having the headers of the tubes and the connecting caps
uniting the said headers arranged as described, with the headers disposed in verti-
cal series and in their longer directions one above another and forming slightly
obliquely directed passages between the respective pairs of tubes of each double
row, whilst the connecting caps are set at a similar angle but are inclined in the
reverse direction to the oblique parts or passages of the headers, the water and
steam, in circulating through the system, travels in an easy undulatory or wave-
like course (see the chain dotted line in Figure 1) and in circulating from the top
joint of one header to the top joint of the header next above has only to round
pass
four bends, instead of having to negotiate eight bends as it would have to do in
travelling a like distance through the headers of a Roots boiler arranged according
to the system now in common vogue and described in the first part of this specifica-
tion. Internal friction is thereby greatly reduced and the circulation of the boiler
correspondingly improved.
The tubes may be connected to the headers by expanding the ends of the former
into the interior of the latter, whilst the joints between the headers and their con-
necting caps may be double coned as represented, or of any other approved con-
struction, and instead of connecting the ends of only two tubes to each header I
may connect more than two, in which case there would be covers opposite the tubes,
except the top and bottom ones in each header.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
First: In a water tube boiler, arranging erect headers, having their middle
parts directed obliquely or at an angle relative to their ends, in vertical series, with
each header connected up to the next adjacent header of its particular series by
oblique connecting caps inclined in opposite directions to the said header middles,
substantially as described and set forth.
Secondly-In a water tube boiler arranging the headers, which each connect
together the ends of two tubes disposed one at a relatively higher plane than the
other, and have their middle parts directed at an angle relative to the ends, in
vertical series, with each header connected up to the next adjacent header of its
particular series by oblique connecting caps inclined in opposite directions to the
said header middles, substantially as described and set forth.
Thirdly: In water tube boilers, arranging the headers, which each connect the
ends of two tubes disposed one at a relatively higher plane than the other and have
their middle parts directed at an angle relative to the ends, in vertical series, with
the ends of the headers of one series breaking joint with the ends of the headers of
the next adjacent series, whilst each header is connected up to the next adjacent

page_text: header of its particular series by oblique connecting caps inclined in opposite
directions to the said header middles, substantially as described and set forth.
Dated this 26th day of January 1898.
CONRAD CHRISTIAN SEVERIN KNAP,
By Henry Skerrett,
24, Temple Row, Birmingham, Agent for Applicant.