IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER FROM AERIFORM FLUIDS AND FROM LIQUIDS
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Matthew Piers Watt Boulton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
6th December 1864.
I, MATTHEW PIERS WATT BOULTON, of Tew Park, Oxfordshire, Esquire, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER FROM AERIFORM FLUIDS AND FROM LIQUIDS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements in obtaining motive power from
aeriform fluids and from liquids, and has more particularly for its object to
enable the heat produced by combustion to be utilized in the production of
motive power through a greater range of temperature than is now done, in
order that a larger proportion of the heat may be converted into mechanical
effect.
When it is required to raise aeriform fluid to a high heat under pressure
in a vessel, it is desirable that the heat should not be imparted to it from the
outside of the vessel, as in this case the tenacity of the metal forming the
vessel is impaired. The heat may be imparted to the fluid by injecting into
the vessel some substance in a state of fusion. For this purpose metals may
be employed, also combinations of metals with non-metallic elements, such as
metallic oxides, chlorides, fluorides, carbonates, silicates, borates, and mix-
tures of such substances. The heated products of combustion issuing from
the furnace employed to keep these materials in a state of fusion may be used
to generate steam in a boiler, which steam may be used for the production of
motive power. Steam may be injected into a vessel, into which heated

page_text: matter of the above-mentioned nature is injected, and the steam so heated
may be used for the production of motive power.
When it is desired to produce motive power by alternately heating and
cooling, a certain quantity of air or aeriform fluid in a close vessel, as in
Stirling's air engine, the heating action may be produced by injecting heated
liquid into the heating chamber, either through pipes or directly into the
fluid which it is desired to heat. This injection may take place when it is
desired to heat the fluid, and may be discontinued when it is desired to refri-
gerate it. Similarly the refrigerating action may be alternately brought into
play, and discontinued by alternately causing a current of cold matter to pass
through the pipes or passages in the refrigerator, and causing this to cease:
Instead of employing a plunger to drive the fluid to and fro, a fan or blower
may be employed. The rod or axis connected with this instead of working
tightly in a cupped collar of leather, caoutchouc, or similar material, may
work more loosely in a passage through which a continual flow of liquid is
made to take place by pressure, thus preventing escape of the aeriform fluid
from within. And a similar method may be adopted in other similar cases.
The refrigeration may be effected either by a current of cold water or of
cold air, and a current of cold air passed through tubes or passages may be
employed generally for the purpose of refrigerating aeriform fluid. Such a
current may be created by a fan or blowing apparatus, or by a steam blast.
In order to avoid oxidation of material, the compressed gas used in the
apparatus may be nitrogen or hydrogen. A mixture of liquid and vapour
may be alternately heated and cooled in an apparatus of the above descrip-
tion; the change produced in the tension of the vapour being employed for
the production of motive power. When heated products of combustion are
discharged after performing mechanical work, the heat retained in them may
be utilized by being imparted to the aeriform fluids employed in the com-
bustion chamber or to a portion of these. For this purpose the discharged
products of combustion may be made to pass through numerous tubes or
passages, on the other side of which the aeriform fluids employed in the com-
bustion chamber, or a portion of these, are made to pass, so that these receive
the heat given out by the discharged products of combustion as they traverse
the passages.
The following is another mode of employing heated aeriform fluid for the
production of motive power:-A current of heated aeriform fluid is caused to
issue into a tube or passage communicating with the atmosphere, within
which tube it is cooled by conduction from liquid or fluid in contact with the
outside of the tube. In consequence of being thus cooled it is contracted in

page_text: volume, and such portions of it as are condensible are condensed. In con-
sequence of the reduction of pressure thus caused within the tube, air is
forced into it by the atmospheric pressure from without. The mixed current
thus set in motion forces its way through a contracted part of the tube into
a chamber beyond, creating pressure in that chamber. From this chamber it
is conducted to a cylinder, in which it works a piston in the ordinary way.
As it is cool, having been cooled in the course of its passage to the chamber,
there is no difficulty in thus employing it; or it may be employed to produce
in any other manner desired.
motive power
The heated aeriform fluid may be protected while expanding from the
cooling agency of foreign bodies, so that it may not lose heat in expanding
otherwise than by performance of work. The part of the tube into which it
first issues may be heated, and the air or aeriform fluid drawn into the tube
may be heated.
Many tubes and currents, such as above described, may be employed in con-
nection with one chamber, the fluid from which works one piston, and more
than one piston may be worked. The heat abstracted from the fluid in the
course of its passage through the tube may be utilized by heating water and
generating steam, the steam being used for the production of motive power.
It may also heat other liquid, the vapour from which may be similarly used.
Again, this heat may be imparted to the air drawn into the tube; this air
being made to pass in contact with the outer surface of the tube, so as to take
up the heat given out by the fluid passing through its interior. When it is
desired to force air into a chamber for the purpose of combustion, this may
be done by means of a current or currents of aeriform. fluid treated in the
manner above described.
Heated aeriform fluid may also be injected into liquid in a tube, in which
it is cooled and contracted, and the current of liquid set in motion may be
used to work any instrument suitable for being worked by a current of liquid.
The liquid may be heated where the fluid issues into it, and subsequently
cooled.
If the current of liquid is employed to give rotation to a wheel, the fol-
lowing construction may be employed :-A reaction wheel may be inverted,
the liquid being made to whirl in a vortex, is caused to enter the wheel by
the orifices, through which in the ordinary manner of using the reaction
wheel the liquid issues, and to quit the wheel through the orifice by which
ordinarily it enters. And such a wheel may be used generally when it is
desired to work a wheel by a current of liquid or fluid.
In ordinary steam engines and air engines the larger portion of the heat

page_text: passes off, without having performed mechanical work, in a current of steam,
or air, or water. It has been proposed to utilize this heat by employing it to
evaporate liquids which boil at low temperatures, such as ether, bisulphide
of carbon, ammonia, carbonic acid; and ether engines have been constructed
for this purpose, but practical difficulties have been experienced in working
such engines.
Instead of employing the vapour of the ether or other volatile liquid to
work an engine, it may be employed to generate heat by driving liquid to and
fro through tubes, interstices, pores, or passages, the heat thus generated
being imparted to water in a boiler and generating steam, which steam is
used for the production of motive power. For this purpose the ether or other
liquid and its vapour may be subjected alternately to a heating and cooling
influence, which may be done in tubes or pipes, or in an apparatus such as
has been previously described; the heating influence being produced by a
.current of steam or hot water, and the cooling influence by a current of cold
water or air.
Another mode of utilizing heat at low temperatures is afforded by the pro-
perty possessed by vulcanized india-rubber of contracting when.heated. Pieces
of vulcanized caoutchouc, such as tubes, strips, or sheets may be stretched
to a certain degree of tension fixed at one end, and attached by the other end
moveable piece of metal or other material; to the other side of which
Sr pieces of vulcanized caoutchouc are attached. The pieces of caout-
chouc may be alternately subjected to a heating and cooling agency by means
of a current of steam or hot water, and a current of cold air or cold water,
and thus alternately contracted and relaxed. The movement thus given to
the moveable piece to which they are attached being communicated to
machinery.