IMPROVEMENTS IN PLUGS AND STOPPERS FOR STOPPING LEAKY OR BURST BOILER TUBES."
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Sisson of Goole, in the County of York,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PLUGS AND STOPPERS FOR STOPPING
LEAKY OR BURST BOILER TUBES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Sisson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th May 1873.
I, HENRY SISSON, of Goole, in the County of York, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PLUGS AND STOPPERS
FOR STOPPING LEAKY OR BURST BOILER TUBES," to be as follows:-
The improvements have reference to plugs or stoppers to be used for
stopping leaky or burst boiler tubes, and embrace stopping burst tubes
at the back end of marine, locomotive, and all other tubular boilers,
while the fires are lighted and steam in the boiler, as distingushed from
the use of existing plugs for which the fires have to be put out or

page_text: drawn, and steam blown off; and for locomotives the application at the
fire-box end without extinguishing the fires; also for portable engines
and other tubular boilers; and the following is the method of working
the improvements:-An expanding plug connected with another plug is
put on from the front end of the boiler and passed through the tube by
a stay or rod connecting the two plugs together until the plugs comes
about half an inch beyond the back tube plate, the front stopper then is
so regulated on the stay or rod that it becomes tight to the front tube
plate, the stay or rod passes through the front stopper to the expanding
plug, and the head of the stay is left standing out about three or four
inches from the stopper.
For expanding the back end plug the front stopper is made tight by
a suitable nut and washer furnished to the stay; the stay in the ex-
panding plug has a tapered end which is screwed into four loose ribs in
the plug, which expand suitable rings in the plug, and it is thus made
perfectly tight for use in boilers of locomotive portable engines, and all
tubular boilers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Sisson in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 24th November 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
SISSON, of Goole, in the County of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors give and grant unto me, the said Henry Sisson, Her special
licence that I, the said Henry Sisson, executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry Sisson, 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

page_text: upon the
PLUGS AND STOPPERS FOR STOPPING LEAKY OR BURST BOLLER TUBES,"
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry Sisson, 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 to be
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Sisson, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
The improvements have reference to plugs or stoppers to be used for
stopping leaky or burst boiler tubes, and embrace stopping burst tubes
at the back end of marine, locomotive, and all other tubular boilers,
while the fires are lighted and steam in the boiler, as distinguished from
the use of existing plugs for which the fires have to be put out or
drawn, and steam blown off; and for locomotives, the application at the
fire-box end without extinguishing the fires, also for portable engines and
other tubular boilers.
-
The following descriptive statement will explain the nature of the
Invention: A central rod is employed carrying a back or
❝ distant "
plug or stopper, and a front or "near" plug or stopper for closing the
distant and near ends respectively of a faulty tube. The distant plug is
made with certain of its parts expansible, so that although it may but
somewhat loosely fit the tube in being passed along it to its distant end,
the expansible parts of the plug may be acted upon by the central rod
and made to close the said end of the tube by filling and fitting-up
tightly against the inner circumference. The near plug is non-expan-
sible, is capable of sliding on the central rod to admit of adaptation to
the length of the tube, and though somewhat loosely fitting, the tube
has a flange to bear against its near or front edge, and close the annular
passage or space left open or unclosed by the body of the plug. Means
are provided for bringing and maintaining this flanged plug up to its
work. Both plugs are provided with elastic packing to effect the more
perfect closing by each of them respectively.

page_text: The accompanying Drawings illustrate the manner in which the In-
vention is to be practically carried into effect.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of the improved apparatus placed
within a tube and closing its ends, the distant or back plug (a) being
represented with its expansible parts or fittings in the expanded position.
Figure 2 is a transverse section to correspond, taken through the line
A, B, in Figure 1; and Figure 3 is another cross section taken at the
same place but representing the contracting position.
The longitudinal section is broken or divided in the middle to
intimate that the apparatus may be of any convenient length approx-
imating to the length of the particular tubes in respect of which (as
against accident) they are intended to be provided. h, b, is the central
rod, the end h being made with a head shaped like a nut or bolt head
for the convenience of turning by a spanner, and the end 6 being made
conical for the purpose of spreading the four inclined expanding pieces
or expanders c, c, (any other convenient number may be substituted)
which lie and move in channelled grooves or recesses in the body of the
❝ distant or back plug a.
""
Figure 4 shews an external view of this plug detached from its
fittings or expansible parts, and Figures 5, 6, 7, transverse sections to
correspond, taken through the lines C, D, E, F, and G, H, respectively
in Figure 4. The plug is furnished with an indian-rubber or other con-
venient elastic piston ring or packing e, lying in a recess provided to
receive it, and to receive also the wrought-iron or metallic rings or
backing pieces d lying within the packing and outside of and girting
and pressed upon by the expanders c. In the direction of the length
of the apparatus there are two metal rings & side by side, and both are
divided into two halves or pieces occupying each about somewhat less
than half a complete circumference or girt.
Figures 8 and 9 represent each two views of the two halves of one of
the rings d; and Figures 10 and 11, corresponding views of the other
ring d. Proper play or space is provided for their contractile movement
within the piston recess when the pressure of the conical end 6 of the
central rod against the expanders c is removed. A perspective sketch of
one of these (detached) is seen at Figure 12. This pressure is regulated
by turning the rod which has a screw thereon near its end b, the said

page_text: screw working in a coresponding screw in the plug a, and consequently
advancing or receding in accordance with the direction in which therod
is turned.
In Figure 1, f is the "near" or front plug provided with an indian-
rubber or elastic annular washer or packing m lying in a seat or recess
in its flange on the inner or back side thereof, that is to say, the side
presented towards the edge of the tube for the purpose of effectively
closing the annular space above referred to. The central rod has also a
screw formed thereon near its end h, and this screw carries a tightening
nut g thereon; and between this nut and the outer or front side of the
flange of the plug, and threaded on the [screw lie a metal washer n,
and an indian-rubber or elastic washer o; the latter closely girting the
screw for the purpose of effectively closing the leakage which would
otherwise occur in consequence of the clearance necessary to be pro-
vided to allow the flanged plug to slide over the rod or screw. The
central rod h, b, may conveniently be made of wrought iron, and the
plugs a and f of cast iron.
r
The mode of using the improved apparatus is firstly to ascertain the
length of the tube, and to adjust to its approximately proper position on
the central rod the near or front plug ƒ by means of the nut g. The end
6 of the rod being in its retired position and the piston e in its con-
tracted form, the apparatus is introduced from the front end of the boiler
and the "distant" plug a passed along and through the tube until it pro-
trudes about half an inch beyond the tube plate at the end, as
3 represented in the longitudinal section. In this position the flange of
the near" plug will lie tolerably close to the front tube plate, and
will prevent any water from coming directly or straight out against the
workman. Now by turning the head h of the central rod its conical
end 6 will, as before explained, act upon the expansible parts of the
plug a and close the distant end of the tube, and in so doing the rod
will, as against longitudinal movement, become firmly held in the tube.
The tightening nut g is now to be turned (on the rod) which will bring the
flange of the plug f, or rather its inner or back packing m to bear firmly
and quite closely against the front tube plate, and at the same time will
also, by the front washer or packing o stop any leakage against the rod,
thus closing the "near" or front end of the tube.

page_text: The entire operation may be performed in about two or three
minutes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Sisson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy- 5
three.