Improvements in Heating and Ventilating Apparatus for Railway Carriages.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 15th May, 1888
Specification Accepted, 15th June, 1888
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Heating and Ventilating Apparatus for Railway
Carriages.
We, JACOB THOMAS EARNEST (Clerk) JOHN HUGH STEPHENS (Rail Road Agent)
CHARLES ROBION BISBEE (Transfer Agent) and ROBERT SCOTT MARVIN (Transfer
Agent) all of Jacksonville, Duval County, State of Florida, United States of
America, 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 :—
The object of our invention is to provide an apparatus for supplying railway trains
with fresh pure air either heated or cooled and suitably moistened, and to remove the
foul vitiated air, and also to regulate the temperature and quality of the air in the
different carriages of the train, to suit the varying requirements of full, partly filled,
or empty carriages; and to this end it consists in the peculiar construction and
arrangement of parts which we will fully describe with reference to the drawings in
which figure 1 is a sectional view of a part of a train of carriages with our invention
applied to the same. Figure 2 is a side view of the ventilating pipes as arranged in
each passenger carriage, and figure 3 is a plan view of the same.
Similar letters of reference indicate like parts in all the figures.
A, is the luggage van, in the front part of which the air forcing and heating and
cooling devices are contained; M, is a stand pipe which rises above the van, and is
surmounted by a cap to exclude rain or snow, but opens below the cap into the outer
air through woven wire netting. This pipe is the fresh air inlet, and it communicates
at its lower end with an air blower B, which is driven directly by an engine B¹, which
is mounted above the blower. This blower forces its air through a large pipe or blast
conduit C, into the top of a casing D₁, in which is contained a steam heating coil D.
This steam heating coil D is connected by a pipe a, with the boiler of the locomotive.
From this pipe a à branch pipe a', leads to and supplies the engine B' with steam to
drive the blower. a³ is a valve in said pipe.
E, is a moistening chamber for imparting a proper degree of humidity to the air
heated by the coil D. This chamber E is located beside D¹, and opens into it at the
bottom through orifice b, and has a vertical partition c, extending from the bottom
nearly to the top.

page_text: There is on top of chamber E a water tank F, to which'a spray pipe e, arranged in
the top of chamber E is connected. e is a stop cock in said pipe. This water tank F
is connected at its upper end with the blast pipe C by a pipe d.
From the bottom of chamber E on the opposite side of the partition c from inlet b,
emerges the main air pipe G, which extends along under the carriages of the entire
train, and has at the ends of the carriages flexible hose connections G¹.
Now when the blower B is set in operation by its engine B¹, fresh air is taken
through the stand pipe M, and forced through blast conduit C, into chamber D¹, where
it is heated by the steam coil D. This air then passing through opening b into
chamber E, rises over partition c, and at this point receives a certain amount of
moisture to render it fit for breathing, by a shower of fine spray from pipe e. This
pipe is perforated with very minute holes, and in order to drive the water forcibly
through these small holes, a pressure is brought upon the surface of the water in
tank F, by opening valve din pipe d, which causes the. water. to be delivered in
chamber E, in the form of a fine spray that is quickly absorbed by the air.
A trap
may be arranged in the bottom of the chamber to carry off any accumulation of
water.
In summer time when the air is required.to.be.cooled, steam is cut off from the
coil D by closing valve a², in pipe a and the air which passes through is cooled and
freshened by the spray in chamber E..
In supplying air to the carriages of a train through a longitudinal pipe G, it is not
only difficult to regulate the amount of air admitted to each carriage, but it is not
possible in any practical size of pipe G, to get enough volume of air for a long train,
as the carriages nearest the blower will get the larger share, and those at the end of
the train will have an insufficient amount. We do not rely upon the air in pipe G
alone, but in addition to the inlet pipe to cach carriage from pipe G, we provide a
supplementary inlet, which opens into the outer air, and is arranged in such relation
to the inlet pipe from the longitudinal pipe G, as to cause the blasts in pipe G to draw
outside air directly into the carriage through this induction pipe, thus largely
increasing the volume of air taken into the carriages. Thus from the longitudinal
pipe Ga stand pipe H, rises and opens into a horizontal pipe H', in the ceiling, which
is perforated to form the air inlet. Leading into pipe H is a supplementary pipe 1,
whose lower end opens directly into the outer air.
This pipe I has a regulating damper g, and pipe H has a regulating damperf. By
this arrangement, the volume of air delivered into any carriage, may be increased by
the induced draft of air through pipe I. This permits an increased amount of air to
be delivered into the rear carriages of a train, or into any carriage which by its
overcrowded condition requires more air than the others.
J, is a grated outlet for the foul air which settles to the bottom of the carriage.
This outlet connects with pipe K, which at the top of the carriage is surmounted by a
draft-inducing cowl L.
When trains are left stationary in the station for receiving passengers, steam is
supplied, to run the blower and heat the air, from a stationary boiler, with which
communication is established by detachable connections.
In arranging the longitudinal pipes G, we prefer to place them in pairs below the
carriage, as shown in Figures 2 and 3, in which the two main pipes G and G2, act
alternately as fresh air and foul air pipes, according to the direction the carriage is
travelling in. The pipe G has a connection with the branch pipe H at one end, and
the pipe G2 has a similar connection with a branch .pipe H at the other end, and
both G and G2 have independent connections with gratings J, through branch pipes j j³,
having dampers.
Now when G is in open communication with H H¹, G2 is cut off therefrom, and G
is cut off from gratings J by dampers.in j, while G2 has open communication with
gratings J. The pipe & is in this adjustment the fresh air pipe, and G2 is the foul air
or exhaust pipe. When the carriage is going in the opposite direction, this adjustment
of paris is reversed, and G becomes the fresh air pipe, while G is the foul air or
exhaust pipe.

page_text: In pointing out more distinctively the value and functions of the induction or
injector pipe I, we would call attention to the fact that it does not introduce fresh air
into the main hot air pipe G, for this would continually reduce the temperature of
the air in the main pipe as it extended rearward, and would prevent the independent
control of each carriage. By allowing the fresh air pipe I to open into the branch
pipe H, it only increases the volume and modifies (by dilution) the temperature of that
particular carriage, leaving the standard hot current in G to pass to the rearward
unreduced in temperature, which renders it possible to regulate the volume of air and
temperature of any carriage independently of the preceding ones. As the volume of
hot air forced rearwardly by the blower is very much less than that which is actually
delivered into each carriage, it will be seen also that with our system a relatively
small blower and conducting pipes may be employed.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. In a ventilating apparatus for railway carriages, the combination, with an air
blower, of a closed water tank with spray pipes, a chamber containing said spray pipes,
a conduit leading from the blower for the passage of air there-through, and a pipe
connecting the water tank with the blast pipe of the blower, substantially as and for
the purpose described.
2. The combination, with an air blower, of a chamber E, having a vertical
partition c, extending nearly to the top, and connected to the blower for a passage of
air over said partition, and a water tank F, located above the same, and having a spray
pipe contained within the top of chamber E, substantially as and for the purpose
described.
3. The combination, of heating chamber D' with steam coil D, the blast pipe C,
blower B with engine B', spray chamber E with partition c, and water tank F with.
spray pipe e and pressure pipe d, substantially as and for the purpose described.
4. The combination, with the longitudinal blast pipe having an inlet branch, opening
into the carriage, of a supplementary injector pipe I, opening into the branch pipe, to
permit the blast of air passing into the carriage to draw in an additional supply
through said injector pipe, substantially as described.
•
5. The combination, of the two longitudinal pipes G, G2, arranged at the bottom of
the carriage upon opposite sides thereof, the air-pipes H, H', rising from opposite ends
and sides of the carriage, and having independent, dampered connections with said
pipes G, G, gratings J, having independent connections by pipes jj', with said
pipes G, G², and dampers located in said connecting pipes, substantially as and for the
purpose described.