VARIOUS IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF STEAM TO USEFULL PURPOSES, AND IN THE APPARATUS REQUIRED TO EFFECT THE SAME
Year: 1806

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
NICHOLSON, of Soho Square, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-second day of
November, in the forty-seventh year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said William Nicholson, my exors, aditiors, and assigns, His especial licence,
that I, the said William Nicholson, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, during the
term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention
of "VARIOUS IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF STEAM TO USEFULL PURPOSES,
AND IN THE APPARATUS REQUIRED TO EFFECT THE SAME;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William Nicholson,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within one calendar month after the date of the said recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I; the said
William Nicholson, do hereby declare that my said Invention, and the manner

page_text: in which the same is to be carried into effect and practice, are described as
follows:-
214
I convert water into steam by the application of heat, in any of the usual
and well-known methods, and permit the said steam to rush out through one or
moro apertures, of such magnitude respectively as may be best adapted to the
several intended purposes; and I do permit the current or currents of steam
to pass through a portion of the atmosphere, or of air communicating with the
atmosphere, or of such other gas or elastic fluid or vapour or smoke as it may
be desirable should pass along with the said steam. And farther, I do depose
a tube or pipe (of a circular bore in preference) in such a position with regard
to the said current or currents of steam and air, or of steam and
gas, elastic
fluid or vapour or smoke, as that the said current or currents shall pass
through the said tube or pipe, and be carried to its place of distination. And
I do give unto the said tube or pipe a greater diameter or size of perforation
than I allow for the first escape of the steam from the place where the same
was produced; and I do make tho said tube ord channel either cylindrical or
of such other figure internally as may be best suited to produce that effect
which is well known to men of science by tho, name of the lateral action of
fluids, and is described in many books, particularly in some writings of
Professor Venturi, which have been inserted in a periodical work called the
Philosophical Journal, which has been for a number of years published in
London, and acknowledged by me as the editor thereof; and the effect of
which said lateral action of fluids is particularly to be observed in the
antient and well-known. machine for producing a blast by the fall of a shower
of water through an upright pipe; and in my "said Invention the lateral
action of the current of steam doth take place. with regard to the sur
rounding air or gas, or elastic fluid or vapour, which is carried along with
it, so that the steam is made to produce an effect of the same nature as, but
more powerful and advantageous than, is produced by the water in the said
antient machine. And I do apply the said current of steam and air, or of
steam and gas, clastic fluid, or vapour or smoke, to such purposes of manufacturing
or philosophical chemistry as may be useful, according to the nature of the
several cases respectively; namely (1), for agitating, or for impregnating, or for
driving over in distillation water or other fluids; or (2) for oxidating, corrod-
ing, rusting, or altering the nature and state of lead or other metals or metallic
ores or mineral bodies more or less heated or ignited by the action of fire in
tubes or muffles, or tests, or bodies, or vessels, or upon hearths, grates, or
otherwise so placed, situated, or exposed as may be best adapted for the
changes intended to be produced in the said metals, metallic ores, or mineral

page_text: bodies, by means of the said current herein-before mentioned and described;
or (3) I do cause the said current of steam and atmospheric air to pass
through the tube or pipe herein-before described, or in some cases simply
through an aperture or hole into a receptacle or air vessel, wherein the steam
is subjected to condensation, and from which vessel the atmospheric air, thus
deprived of its steam, is conveyed to a furnace or any other place containing
fire or burning materials, in order that the said current or blast of air shall and
may exite and encrease the strength, rapidity, and effect of the combustion.
And in order that my said Invention may be more fully understood, I have
hereunto annexed certain Drawings or Sketches of some of the forms of the
apparatus by means of which the same may be carried into effect.
In Fig. 1a represents a pipe through which the steam passes out from a
boiler or any other apparatus, whence it proceeds through the tube or pipe d, d,
carrying along with it a large portion of common air, which enters through
the side spaces b, b, and this mixed fluid mass passes thence through c. c; if
the surrounding part of the pipe or channel d, d, be made hollow, so as to form
a space d, d, enveloping the bore c, c, and the hollow part d, d, be made to
communicate with the boiler or general supply of steam (without allowing any
portion to escape by such communication), the said surrounding part d, d,
will be kept very nearly as hot as the steam itself, and the internal current
will not be cooled by the sides of the said tube or pipe; or otherwise the said
tube or pipe d, d, if made of fit materials, may be kept at any required tem-
perature by surrounding the same with fire, or, on the contrary, if need be,
with some cold fluid or other refrigerating substance. In this, and in all
the other apparatus, the aperture of a must be of such a size as shall be
best adapted to the intended emission of steam of such elasticity and tempera-
ture as may be best suited to the objects in view; and so likewise must be the
diameters, from, and relative situation or distance of the tube or pipe d, d.
And since the said circumstances are themselves in their own nature variable,
t is not possible for me to give any farther instruction respecting such
dimensions and situations than by declaring that a few trials will easily shew
what will be most advantageous to be adopted in each particular case.
Fig. 2 represents an improvement of the antient water-blowing machine, in
which, in its usual construction, a shower of water carries air down an upright
ipe into a regulating belly, as is described in the writings of Lewis Chaptal
nd many other well-known authors of reputation. I have introduced the
vater from an head, or under any other pressure, through d, into the close
hamber or box e, e, which surrounds the tube or channel b, b, c, c, and
upplies the water through side apertures e, e; air may also, if required, be

page_text: allowed to pass through other side apertures as usual. In my improvement a
current of air and steam is strongly urged through the tube or pipe b, b, by
means of the current of steam from a, in the same manner as was explained
and described in Fig. 1. In this, as well as in the other applications, the
steam may be allowed to pass into the tube or channel through more apertures
than one. As the lower part of the said improved blowing machine, Fig. 2,
consists, as usual, of an air vessel of that description which is called a
regulating belly, the same need not be described, becauso it is well known by
that name, and constitutes no part of my said improvements.
Fig. 3 exhibits a sketch of the manner in which my apparatus may be con-
structed and disposed for producing a very strong blast by steam. m repre-
sents the boiler from which steam is supplied through the pipe a, a, whence it
passes into an air vessel n, n, through an aperture at b, or through a tubo or
pipe b, c, which favors the lateral action, and suffers the air and steam to pass
into the water e, e, whence the air rises into the upper space f,f, and passes
out through g, g, to the furnaco :. Cold water is introduced in the manner
shewn in Fig. 2, or otherwise, through a pipe d, d, from an head sufficiently
elevated, or by means of a forcer or otherwise, by means of a seperate recep-
tacle, as is herein-after described and explained. It is a pipe or tubo through
which the heated water is suffered to escape, but it is subjected to a resistance
or reaction arising from the same being wire-drawn through a cock, or impeded
by a loaded valve, which it must lift during its escape, or by the said water
water being conducted up to a proper clevation through a continuance of pipe,
as represented at i. It will be easily understood by workmen or operators
who are conversant with hydraulic or other similar works, that the pressure or
reaction within the air vessel may be adjusted to any desired quantity or force,
by means of these two communications, or by other well-known methods. At
c the upright tubo or pipe is represented as terminating in one or more valves.
These are not essentially necessary, but they are useful to prevent the water
from returning suddenly through b, if at any time it should be found necessary to
stop or suspend the supply of steam. When the supply of water at d cannot with
convenience be made by pressure from an upper reservoir, and the labour of
forcing the water in by a pump, or by other powers not dependant on the
engine, is wished to be avoided, I sink or depress the vessel n, n, to a sufficient
depth below the level of that supply of water which shall or may be obtainable
on the spot, and by that means I gain a suffi ient length in the pipe d to pro-
du.e the requisite pressure, which will scarcely ever require to be greater than
ten feet; and I bring the discharging pipe h, i, up again near the surface, so as
to allow the water a difference of level sufficient to produce the requisite

page_text: current, and in this case I convey the steam blast to its place by lengthening
the pipe a, a, or (which is better) by lengthening the tube or channel c, b,
above the top of the air vessel n, n; or otherwise in the like cases, when the
supply of water at d cannot with convenience be made by pressure from an
upper reservoir, and the labour of forcing the water in by a pump, or by other
powers not dependant on the engine, is wished to be avoided, and the last-
mentioned contrivance of depressing the air vessel is inconvenient or impracti-
cable, then I introduce the water in seperate or distinct quantities or portions
from a separate receptacle or close vessel, placed a little above the level of the
water e, c, Fig. 8. This receptacle must be provided with two cocks or valves,
or a cock with several passages or ways through the same, in such a manner as
that a communication shall be made for filling the said receptacle from without,
at the same time that no communication shall be allowed between the 'air
vessel n, n, and the receptacle or vessel now to be described; and also as that
in other positions of the said cocks or valves, a cock or communication shall be
made for emptying the water from the said receptacle or vessel into the air
vessel, at the same time that no communication shall be allowed from without.
As the alternate filling and emptying of a vessel in the manner here
described is performed with regard to steam in a variety of steam engines, and
must be quite familiar to engine makers, it will only be needful to remark
(1) that the opening and shutting of the said cocks or valves, or cock, may be
most conveniently performed by a float within the air vessel, or within the
separate receptacle, having a tail of communication which shall open and shut
the said cocks or valves, or cock, at the times of the greatest rise or fall, by
an action similar to that of the plug bar or equivalent gear of a steam engine;
and (2) that the said rod, if intended to operate out of the said vessels, may
be passed through a stuffing box; and (3) that provision must be made by
ways through the cocks, or by other well-known methods, to allow air to
introduce itself from the air vessel into the receptacle while the water is dis-
charging from this last, and also to allow the said air to escape while the
receptacle shall receive a fresh supply from without. And, lastly, I do
declare that the forms, dimensions, relative magnitudes, situation, and other
particulars relating to the apparatus required to carry my said improvements
into effect, are capable of great variations, and will require to be greatly modi-
fied, according to the conditions, objects, and purposes intended to be
answered and obtained, and the local and other circumstances under which the
work is to be performed; but that the said forms, dimensions, magnitudes,
situations, and other particulars may, from the description and explanations