Improvements in Apparatus for Purifying Feed Water Supplied to Steam Generators from Surface Condensers or other Water similarly Contaminated by Grease or Oil or other like Im- purities.
Year: 1889

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Purifying Feed Water Supplied to
Steam Generators from Surface Condensers or other Water
similarly Contaminated by Grease or Oil or other like Im-
purities.
I JAMES YATE JOHNSON of 47 Lincolns Inn Fields in the County of Middlesex
Gentleman (a communication to me from abroad by Augustin Normand & Coy. of
67 rue du Perrey Havre in the Republic of France) Engineers 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 :-
This Invention relates to improved means or apparatus for purifying the water
supplied to steam generators from surface or other condensers which being usually
charged with grease and foreign matter is liable to form a deposit or incrustation on
the surfaces of the boilers which greatly reduces their efficiency. This disadvantage
is remedied by means of this invention by the employment of filtering materials and
apparatus arranged as hereinafter described.
The presence of fatty substances in the water supplied to steam generators is now
generally acknowledged to be the principal cause of the deterioration to which these
apparatus are subject. These substances not only prevent the water from coming in
contact with the heating surfaces of the boilers but also produce strongly adhesive
deposits of very low capacity for conducting heat. Moreover fatty acids act power-
fully on the metal of the boiler platos.
The boilers employed in torpedo boats are found to be much less free from accidents
or mishaps than locomotive boilers notwithstanding that the principle of construction
is the same and the heating is equally active in both cases. This difference in the
results is chiefly to be ascribed to the greasy nature of the water from the surface
condensers which is employed to feed the boilers in the torpedo boats.
It is useless to rely upon care to be taken by the engineers in employing only a
small quantity of oil in lubricating the engines and on the superiority of extra hard
metal for the segments or packing. A few days of working during which oil is
liberally employed are sufficient to render the evaporating apparatus unserviceable.
It is consequently very desirable to devise efficient means for preventing the oils or
fatty acids from entering the boilers where they are decomposed directly they come
in contact with the heating surfaces.
Various mechanical and chemical means have been tried with a view to purifying
the water but are generally acknowledged to be inefficacious or too elaborate to yield
satisfactory results in practice. The employment of coke filters has no practical effect
unless the filter is made inconveniently large. On the other hand the employment of
lime in order to form insoluble salts has not been attended with decisive results and
the apparatus employed requires very careful manipulation.
It has now been ascertained after numerous trials that sponge and certain vegetable
fibrous materials, preferably cotton, are capable of very rapidly separating water from
non-decomposed or other fatty or greasy matter. Even when these materials are
completely soaked or saturated with water as in the present instance the fatty or
greasy matter mixed with the water is entirely absorbed.
The explanation of this phenomenon is probably the following: When a body
presenting very small cells is completely immersed in a mixture of water and oil, the
water owing to its great fluidity passes readily through the cells and capillary action
or attraction does not come into play both extremities of the capillary passage being
submerged but the fatty molecules which enter the cells remain fixed therein as the
two extremities of the capillary passage are not immersed in the same liquid since the
proportion of fatty liquid to water is very small. Sponge, owing to its elasticity, is
employed with great advantage for the purposes of this Invention; it presents less
resistance to the passage of the water especially when the filter is divided horizontally

page_text: by gratings or perforated horizontal partitions so as to prevent the weight of the
sponge at the upper part from compressing that at the lower part. Textile or fibrous
materials on the other hand gradually contract in size until they attain a condition in
which they present an inconvenient resistance to the passage of the water.
sponges again there is less danger that part of the filter may be carried through into
the valves, pumps or connections.
With
I am aware that it is not new to employ sponges for the purpose of separating water
or liquids from solid matter held in suspension therein but they have not heretofore
been employed for separating water from liquids such as oils and fatty acids which do
not mix with water and the employment of this material constitutes one of the
features of novelty in the apparatus constructed according to this Invention.
And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood I shall now proceed
more particularly to describe the same and for that purpose shall refer to the several
Figures on the annexed sheet of drawings the same letters of reference indicating
corresponding parts in all the Figures.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings represents in elevation an apparatus
according to this Invention. Figure 2 shows the apparatus in vertical section and
Figure 3 is a plan.
The air pump of the engine, not shown in the drawing, exhausts into a pipe A.
communicating with a vertical pipe B. The air escapes through the upper end of the
pipe B, and the water descends through the lower end into a tank or filtering vessel C.
The latter is divided by horizontal perforated plates or gratings into a series of com-
partments which are filled with filtering materials a. In the drawing these materials
are represented as consisting of sponges a a a. It is advantageous to employ sponges
in one piece fitting the compartments of the filter or when several pieces of sponge
have to be employed they should be cut to fit closely together and with the sides of
the tank and reduce to a minimum the interstices between them. The liquid mixture
to be purified is thus compelled to pass through the filtering material. When sponges
are employed each compartment may be from 4 to 8 inches in height according to the
size of the pieces of spouge but when textile or fibrous materials such as cotton waste
are employed layers of from about 1 to 3 inches in thickness are sufficient, the
resistance offered to the passage of the water being much greater, the layers being
more closely compacted. It is preferable not to make holes in the partitions near to
the sides of the casing in order that the greasy water may not descend through the
space between the sponge or cotton waste and the vertical sides of the casing or
vessel (. After percolating through the several filtering beds the water enters the
lower part of the vessel whence it is drawn off through suction pipes D, connected
with the feed pumps. A door E is provided in the side of the casing for the
introduction and removal of the sponges or other filtering material.
The oily or fatty matter being partially decomposed in the engine cylinders the
solid parts of greater specific gravity than water are deposited in the vessel and to
prevent the deposit from being carried into the boiler or affecting the action of the
pumps the lower part of the vessel is constructed with vertical plates 6 placed at a
certain distance from the bottom as represented in Figure 2. These plates prevent
the water in the bottom of the vessel from being agitated and thus enable the insoluble
compounds to settle or be deposited. The deposit thus formed is drawn off from time
to time through a cock c.
After the engine has been working for a certain period dependent on the amount of
oil employed for the internal lubrication the sponge or other substance employed as
the filtering material is removed and replaced by clean filtering material. The used
material is freed by pressure from the oil which it contains and is well washed before
being returned to the filter.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said Inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what 1
claim is :-
::
T
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page_text: surface condensers) from the oil or other fatty liquids contained in it a filtering
apparatus constructed with sponges or vegetable fibres in the raw or manufactured
state substantially as hereinbefore described.
2. A filtering apparatus for purifying water (such as the oily or greasy water
supplied from surface condensers to steam generators) constructed with sponges or
raw or manufactured vegetable fibre, the said sponges or fibre being arranged in
layers on horizontal perforated partitions with or without a depositing chamber in the
lower part of the filter substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated in the
accompanying drawings.
3. The combination and arrangement of parts constituting the improvements in
apparatus for purifying water such as the water supplied from surface condensers
to steam generators substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the
accompanying drawings.
Dated this 40th day of June 1009.
J. H. JOHNSON & Co.,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C., Agents.