Improvements in Steam Boilers.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 11th Feb., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 10th N v., 1893—Accepted, 3rd Feb., 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Steam Boilers.
I, PERCIVAL PINCKNEY 151 Somers Road Southsea, Hants, Mechanical
Engineer do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:
The nature and object of my invention is to generate steam power cheaply.
This I propose to accomplish by the introduction of that which may be described
as the internal, sub-aqueous combustion of fuel in steam boilers.
My method and invention for doing is as follows.
The outside shell of a steam boiler, preferably of the vertical type, is to
have placed in its inside, and near the bottom, a chamber, to be called the fire
chamber.
The fire chamber may either be left open at its base, or fitted with a piston, or
valve arrangement.
Leading into the fire-chamber are pipes, suitably arranged for charging the said
chamber with any kind of suitable combustible, which combustible may consist of
an admixture of coal,-
,-or any other kind of,-gas and atmospheric air.
Provision being also made for firing, or exploding the same.
After the boiler has been filled to its proper height with water, the fire-chamber
is by any suitable mechanical, or electrical arrangement, successively charged, and
its contents are then fired, or exploded.
The heat and other products of combustion, escaping through the space, or
valve, which is to be provided for that purpose.
By the upward percolation of the heated gases through the body of the water,
the gases thus heat the water and generate steam.
Which steam in conjunction with the expansive gases which have also been
accumulated by means of these successive explosions, can be then used by mechanical
contrivances as a prime mover for imparting motion to machinery.
The aforesaid modification of the invention, will embrace the principle of con-
densation, that is to say, the feed water will be injected into the fire-chamber after
each explosion, so producing a partial vacuum therein, which causes another charge
of gas to be drawn through the pipes into the fire-chamber ready for a fresh
explosion.
Another modification will provide for non-explosive and continuous combustion.
The fire-chamber may also be adapted for external attachment to the boiler.
Dated this 10th day of February 1893.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Steam Boilers.
I PERCIVAL PINCKNEY 42 Hyde Park Road, Portsmouth (late of 151 Somers
Road Southsea) Mechanical Engineer, 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 nature, & object of my invention, is to secure to this country the honour of
the solution of the "fuel-waste-problem," by this discovery of a method that will
immensely cheapen steam as an industrial agency.

page_text: My entire discardment of "heating surfaces," as commonly understood, being
the unique distinguishment of the method now referred to, & hereinafterward
described.
My invention essentially consists of that particular method of boiling fluids, & of
generating power, which is effected by exploding, or burning, an admixture of gas,
& air in a submerged chamber,-or chambers.
And for which purpose either coal-gas, or oil-gas, or any other suitable fuel may
be used.
The mechanical arrangement of the said chamber,-
,—or chambers, may be of any
suitable form that will cause the heated, & expanded, products resultant from the
combustion, to escape into the water, or any other fluid,-of boilers that are used
for the aforesaid purposes.
My mechanical arrangement of the said chamber, or chambers, though subject
to further development and modification,-may be substantially as follows:-
In the interior, and upon, or near the bottom of the shell of a boiler, or in the
inside of a suitable casting, recess, or receptacle attached thereto, there is fixed that
which shall be hereafter named and referred to as a chamber-seating.
The position of such being shewn in the "drawings,"-(Figures 1 & 2) by the
letter H.
Upon this trued up, or otherwise suitably arranged chamber-seating, is a chamber,
preferably a conical chamber, which shall be hereafter named and referred to as a
combustion-chamber.
The same being shewn at B.
The said combustion-chamber may have either packing-rings,-
-or other suitable
arrangement around its base, which shall cause another trued up surface to form,-
when in contact therewith,-
-a tight joint.
(Similar in principle to that of a bell-glass when used for experimental purposes
with an air-pump.)
The combustion-chamber being entirely and deeply submerged by reason of its
position at, or near, the bottom of the boiler.
There are guides projecting from the chamber-seating, up, or along, the cylindrical
portion of which,- as shewn at M, the combustiou-chamber will travel during its
recoil at each explosion.
The mode of operating this modification being as follows:-
A charge of gas-fuel having been caused to enter into the inside of the
combustion-chamber, by means of the valved gas-pipe as sbewn at F,-it, (the fuel)
is then fired by means of the ignition access as shewn at D.
(I have discovered that gas-bubbles may be ignited while they are passing
through water, and that the sub-aqueous combustion of inflammable gas, is the
solution of the "great fuel-waste-problem,"-
"-as will be proved by the development
thereby, of both a surprisingly cheap, and immense mechanical power.)
As the result of the explosion, the combustion-chamber recoils, say upward,
from its seating, and the instant that the packing-rings, as shewn at the lower C,
have passed above the ports as shewn at G, G, the heated and expanded products
of the combustion rush through the valved exhaust ports (at G, G,) and thence
escape through the percolation holes,-as shewn at K,-direct into the lowest
stratum of the water of the boiler.
After which the combustion-chamber will travel,--say down, the guides ;-the
projecting portions of the guides are shewn at L, and the cylindrical portion of the
guides is shewn at M,-until it has by so doing again closed its exhaust ports
at G, G.
We shall then have a vaporific condition within the inside of the combustion-
chamber which may be further rarified by injecting the cooler feed-water not into
the boiler direct, but first of all through the sprayer,-as shewn at E,--into the
combustion-chamber, where it, (the water) would occupy a small space in proportion
to the internal capacity of the said chamber.
So that however high the steam pressure of the boiler, the expenditure of power

page_text: in connection with the gas-feed may be regarded as nil, for oft-times a partial
vacuum will exit within the combustion-chamber which of itself may be sufficient
to effect the indrawal, or rechargement of the said chamber with gaseous fuel.
The following mechanical arrangements will however act with absolute
certitude as a provision against the slightest intermittency upon this point.
in connection with the gas-feed may be regarded as nil, for oft-times a partial
vacuum will exit within the combustion-chamber which of itself may be sufficient
to effect the indrawal, or rechargement of the said chamber with gaseous fuel.
The following mechanical arrangements will however act with absolute
certitude as a provision against the slightest intermittency upon this point.
FUEL SUPPLY.
:
The gas-feed may be effected by means of any suitable injector, or through a
pipe, as shewn at F,-leading upward through the chamber-seating in this case,
the orifice of the pipe which would be within the combustion-chamber will
require to be furnished with a small valve, to lift when the gas is being injected,
or indrawn, and to close at the moment of the cut-off of the fuel supply.
This valve is to prevent both the force of the explosion, and also the previously
injected (boiler) feed-water from rushing down the gas-pipe.
The feed-water spray may be injected into the combustion-chamber, through a
pipe,-
,-as at E,-such being valved similarly to that of the gas-feed pipe.
Inverted convection concavities, as shewn at I, I, or other shaped, especially
tubular shaped, percolation baffles will be used to retard the products of com-
bustion from rising to the surface of the water, or other fluid,-until the heat of
the said products, has been reduced by the action of convection to a thermal
equilibrium, (or thereabout) with that of the water, or other fluid.
For instance in the case of, say a vertical boiler, the form of percolation baffle
most adapted may be that of inverted concavities, or "saucers," the lowest being
slightly smaller, circumferentially than the next highest, so that as the heated
products of combustion escape upward over the edge of the lowest, and smallest,.
inverted "saucer" like baffle, the said products will be caught, and retained in the
baffle that is the next highest, and so on in upward succession.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS (FIGURES 1 & 2).
A. Chamber rod. The chamber rod, may be made to work piston-rod-fashion
through a stuffing box, so as to allow of its being connected with a crank, or other
suitable part, when it would auxiliarate to impel the machinery, one way of the
stroke, to the extent that the pressure in the combustion-chamber, shall exceed
the united steam, and water, pressure of the boiler, then acting in opposition.
And the other way of the stroke, to the extent that the united steam, and water
pressure, of the boiler acting upon the moveable, and then "exhausted" combustion-
chamber, shall exceed the contrariwise resistive pressure.
The chamber rod, may be made to work, (say downward) through the chamber-
seating when such is desirable, as for instance in marine engines for screw
propulsion.
B. Combustion-chamber. An ordinary piston may be used instead of the hollow
cone B, should such a modification of the invention be required.

page_text: N, N. Bolting down, or on, holes.
Another modification of my invention of the internal sub-aqueous combustion of
fuel in steam boilers, is shewn in the drawings (Figures 3 & 4) and may be non-
explosive, or in other words continuous in its action.
My method for its practical application is as follows :-
Connected with a steam boiler, may be two chambers, one for containing gas, and
one for containing atmospheric air.
Pumps operated by the steam pressure of the boiler may be so adjusted, that
they will automatically maintain the pressure both of the gas, and air, either
separately or in comminglement, at a slightly higher pressure than that of the steam
that is in the boiler.
And this maintenance of a slightly increased pressure of the gas-fuel over and
above the steam pressure, will be constantly and automatically preserved wholly
irrespective of variations in regard to the steam pressure of the boiler.
My object being to burn the gas-fuel in the inside of a power-generative, or
other boiler, under precisely similar equilibriums of pressure as those under which
gas is ordinary burned in the open atmosphere.
In this modification the combustion-chamber may consist of a conical chamber,
as shewn at V, and X, which in the case of a power generative boiler, may be
firmly fixed so as to either allow a space between its base and the internal surface
of the bottom of the boiler: or be otherwise arranged as represented by the
percolation holes, shewn at Z.
This combustion-chamber may contain asbestos in the space shewn at V, with
other suitable "burner" arrangements for burning gas, and atmospheric air, under
a submerged condition.
The products of combustion being driven out through the percolation holes
at Z, such being situated at the base of the inverted convection concavity or
percolation baffle as shewn at Y,-by reason of the superior pressure of the gas-
fuel over and above the contrariwise and resistive pressure.
Similar combustion-chambers, connected by flexible, or rigid tubing with any
suitable source of supply, and with, or without the intervention of reduction
valves may be used for such, and such industrial, and domestic purposes, as require
the boiling of fluids, and the generation of steam.

page_text: X. Continuation of combustion-chamber.
Y. Inverted convection concavity or percolation baffle.
Z. Percolation holes.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:
Claim 1. The sole, and exclusive right, to that particular method of boiling
fluids, and of generating power, which is effected by exploding, or burning an
admixture of gas, and air, in a submerged chamber, or chambers, the mechanical
arrangements of which are such, as will cause the products of the combustion, to
escape into the water,-or other fluid.
Claim 2. The sole, and exclusive right, to use, to develop, and to modify, the
herein before substantially described mechanical devices, and arrangements, for the
carrying out of the herein substantially described specific purposes.
Claim 3. The sole, and exclusive right, to use percolation baffles, as hereinbefore
substantially described, for all such, and such purposes, as are herein substantially
described.
Claim 4. That the term "boilers," as herein used, shall apply to all such, and
such receptacles, as are used for the heating of structures, the steaming of textile
and other substances, power generation, and for all industrial, and domestic
purposes, for which such receptacles are commonly, and reasonably comprised,
within the category of "boilers."
Dated this 9th day of November 1893.
PERCIVAL PINCKNEY.