IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR GENERATING STEAM, AND FOR REGULATING ITS FLOW, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE ALSO TO OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Smith and John Saunders
Rayment at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 13th August 1862.
We, JOHN SMITH, of Regent Street, Mile End Road, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer, and JOHN SAUNDERS RAYMENT, of Rayment Road, Grove
Road, Mile End, in the same County, Builder, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR GENERATING STEAM,
AND FOR REGULATING ITS FLOW, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE ALSO
TO OTHER PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
For the purposes of our Invention we make use in the furnaces of boilers
employed for the generation of steam either of a novel form of notched fire-
bar, capable of being put in motion for the purpose of rapidly and effectually
breaking up any clinker that may be formed upon them, or otherwise wo
employ for that purpose, in connection with stationary bars, a description of
mechanical pricker, só arranged as to enable the clinker to be rapidly and
effectually broken up, so as to maintain a thorough and clear draught through
the fire. For creating a draught through the bars, we make use of the waste
steam from the engine, as herein-áfter described, in such manner as to do
away with the noise and irregular action attendant upon the ordinary blast
pipe arrangement. The flame and products of combustion upon leaving the
boiler are farther utilised by being made to pass between an arrangement of

page_text: chambers through which the feed water circulates before entering the boiler.
For regulating the flow of steam from the boiler, as also for regulating the
admission of water thereto, and for "blowing off," we employ a form of tap or
cock not liable to become set fast when its parts are expanded by heat, a cause
of great inconvenience with ordinary taps or cocks under like circumstances.
The fire-bar we employ, where the breaking up of the clinker is effected by
the motion of a number of the bars themselves, is by preference made
triangular in cross section, each side being notched throughout its entire
length, and the bars being so arranged side by side in the furnace as that
the projections of one bar shall enter the notches or recesses in the bars next
adjoining, the whole or part of the series of bars being made capable of
revolving upon their longitudinal axes, and of thus presenting either of the
three series of sides uppermost. The whole or a part of the bars, being con-
nected together by levers or otherwise, may be caused either to wholly or
partially revolve, and by their formation will thus detach and break up the
clinker, as described. Otherwise, instead of causing the bars to move as
described, we place them side by side with the notches or spaces and projections
of one bar opposite to the notches or spaces and projections of the bars next
adjoining, and make use of a comb-like pricker capable of moving or vibrating
on centres between each pair of bars, in such manner as that the teeth of the
pricker traverse the notches of the bars; or in other cases we make use of bars
of the ordinary or other convenient form, and employ a pricker having a
longitudinal movement to and fro between each pair of bars.
Our improved arrangement for creating a draught through the furnace
consists in causing the waste steam from any engine near or in connection with
which the furnace may be working to pass into a small chamber formed upon
or attached to the end of the waste steam pipe. From this chamber the steam
issues through a number of orifices of any convenient or suitable form, and
which are placed at a short distance from and opposite to the ends of a series
of pipes or tubes wherein the steam becomes further expanded and divided,
and from which it passes quietly into and away through the smoke tube or
chimney. The flame and products of combustion upon leaving the boiler pass
between an arrangement of flat chambers placed side by side at short distances
apart, and communicating with each other in such manner as that the feed
water which is introduced at one end of the series of chambers shall be com-
pelled to traverse their entire number (and be thereby fully subjected to the
otherwise waste heat from the furnace) before entering the boiler.
The tap or cock we employ for regulating the flow of steam from the boiler,
for regulating the admission of water thereto," blowing-off," and other purposes,

page_text: consists of a chamber communicating with the inlet pipe, within which chamber
is a fixed hollow conical plug having one or more passages leading to its interior
formed in its circumference. The interior of the plug communicates with the
exit pipe leading from the tap or cock. The fixed conical plug is fitted with a
correspondingly formed cover, having an orifice or orifices to correspond with
that or those formed in the fixed plug, but which may be turned so as not to
coincide therewith, and to wholly or partially close the tap regulating the flow
as desired. The cover, or, as it may be termed, external plug of the tap,
is moved by means of a spindle passing through a suitable gland or stuffing
box, and leaves the cover at liberty to adjust itself to suit the wear of the
tap. It is obvious that the fire-bars and other improvements herein referred
to may be used either in conjunction or separately, as also that (with the
exception of the arrangement by which the waste steam of an engine is made
use of to produce a steady silent blast) they may be separately employed for
various other purposes.