AN IMPROVED METHOD OF SUPPLYING THE TENDERS OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES, AND OF SUPPLYING BOILERS WITH WATER
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Fryer, of Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Sugar Refiner, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD
OF SUPPLYING THE TENDERS OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES, AND OF SUPPLYING
BOILERS WITH WATER."
Sealed the 6th May 1859, and dated the 6th November 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Fryer at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on tho
6th November 1858.
I, ALFRED FRYER, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Sugar
Refiner, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IM-
PROVED METHOD OF SUPPLYING THE TENDERS OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES, AND OF
SUPPLYING BOILERS WITH WATER," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in the employment of the steam generated in the
boiler to be supplied, or the tender of which is to be supplied, (or in a separate
boiler), to act through suitable pipes or passages upon a float or upon a
piston placed in a tank or cylinder, which I prefer to fit underground in such
manner as to depress the float, and drive water previously contained in the
tank up a tube and through a conducting pipe into the tender in the case of
locomotive engines, or into the boiler in other engines.
I prefer to line the outside of the tank with non-conducting material, and

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Fryer in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 6th
May 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
FRYER, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Sugar Refiner, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alfred Fryer, Her special licence that I, the said Alfred Fryer,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Alfred Fryer, 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 "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF SUPPLYING THE TENDERS OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES, AND OF SUPPLYING
BOILERS WITH WATER," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Alfred Fryer, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 Alfred Fryer, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is to say-
My Invention consists in the employment of the steam generated in the
boiler to be supplied, or the tender of which is to be supplied, (or in a separate
boiler,) to act through suitable pipes or passages upon a float or upon a piston

page_text: placed in a tank or cylinder, which I prefer to fit underground in such manner
as to depress the float, and drive water previously contained in the tank up a
tube, and through a conducting pipe into the tender or tank in the case of
locomotive engines, or into the boiler or a reservoir for other engines.
1 prefer to line the outside of the tank with non-conducting material and
to so construct the float as to prevent, as far as may be, the condensation of
the steam coming in contact with the upper surface thereof.
In carrying my Invention into effect, I prefer to adopt for feeding loco-
motive tenders or tanks the means and appliances illustrated in the Drawings
hereunto annexed. I sink a wrought-iron cylinder A, (say, eight feet in
diameter, and seven feet deep,) into the ground so that the top of the cylinder
shall be below the surface of the water which is to be supplied to it, supposing
the supply to be derived from a natural source by gravitation. From the
bottom of the cylinder A, I lead a pipe B (say a nine inch pipe) to an
adjacent water crane C, and from the top of the cylinder A, I lead a pipe D
(say a four inch pipe) to a pillar E, placed in such a position by the side of
the line of railway that when the water crane C is opposite the inlet of the
tender, the pillar E shall be opposite the locomotive boiler. From the pillar
E depends a flexible pipe F, from the end of which the female part of a
bayonet joint depends; to the upper part of the boiler a three-way tap or cock
is fixed, and is so constructed that the portion of the bayonet joint on the
flexible tube may be readily connected thereto and disconnected therefrom.
The water supply enters the cylinder through any suitable valve opening
inwards only. On the surface of the water in the cylinder A rests a float G,
which fits the interior of the cylinder A easily. The cylinder A may either be
left exposed internally to the action of the steam and water, or it may be
lined with wood or with cement, or with iron, or with a layer of cement
covered by a casing of thin sheet iron. The steam pipes also may either be
unlined or lined with any one or more of these materials. It will be under-
stood that on the flexible pipe F being connected with the tap on the boiler
by means of the bayonet joint, and the steam turned on, the latter will pass
through the pillar E and the pipe D into the cylinder A, and there pressing
upon the float G, will force the water out through the pipe B into the tender
or tank.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention and in what
manner the same may be performed, I declare that I do not confine myself to
all or any of the mere details before mentioned, but that I claim the method
of supplying the tenders of locomotive engines, and of supplying boilers with
water by the employment of the steam generated in the boiler to be supplied,

page_text: or the tender of which is to be supplied (or in a separate boiler), acting
through suitable pipes or passages upon a float or upon a piston in a tank or
cylinder, essentially as herein-before. described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Fryer, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of May, One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-nine.
ALFRED FRYER. (L.S.)