Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 5th May, 1886.
Complete Left, 5th Feb., 1887.
Complete Accepted, 8th Mar., 1887.
We, FREDERICK ROBSON of No. 3 Hardwick Terrace in Stockton on Tees in the
County of Durham, Solicitor and ROBERT ORD of 25 Gayles Street in Stockton on
Tees aforesaid Pattern Maker do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention to
be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to apparatus or mechanical appliance suitable for cleaning
the internal surfaces of steam boilers whereon deposit or sediment would otherwise
accumulate, the requisite cleaning being effected by means of scrapers operated and
controlled from without by a rod passing through a seat in the boiler shell so that the
operation of removing the deposit or sediment may be carried on independently of the
pressure of steam contained in the boiler.
Our Invention is especially applicable to cylindrical boilers of great length such as
Lancashire, Cornish or other well known types of boilers where a rod extending into
the boiler for operating the scrapers cannot be withdrawn beyond a limited distance,
our object being to apply scrapers to the whole length of surface to be cleaned by
means of a rod which will only require to be withdrawn to a restricted distance found
to be convenient, a further object of our invention is to secure the scraping apparatus
when not in use in such a manner to the seat provided in the boiler shell that the
operating rod may be withdrawn from it or reinstated into it at will and without
leakage from the boiler or risk of the apparatus moving out of such position until
reconnected to and under the control of the rod.
In constructing our cleaning apparatus we provide within the boiler a rod or frame
provided with scrapers secured to the said rod or frame at distances adjusted to the
intended extent of travel of the apparatus which will be more or less according to the

page_text: distance the operating rod is to be withdrawn and inserted, thus if a boiler be thirty feet
long and the operating rod is to be withdrawn and inserted six feet a frame or rod
extending the remaining twenty four feet and travelling six feet, could be fitted with
five scrapers pitched six feet apart which would scrape the entire length of boiler
bottom with each full stroke of the operating rod. In order to scrape the sediment
in one direction only so as to accumulate it near the mud hole or other outlet provided
for its discharge, it is obvious that the scrapers must act only in one direction and
that the distance from each scraper to the next in position should be less than the
travel of the apparatus so that the sediment or deposit scraped up at one stroke of
the apparatus by scraper No. 1 of the series will be delivered by this scraper within the
scope or travel of scraper No. 2 and at the next stroke of the apparatus will be
conveyed a stage further by scraper No. 2 and in turn by each scraper of the series
until the whole of the material scraped up by all the scrapers of the cleaning apparatus
has been collected in one place from which it can be discharged from the boiler
through any suitable outlet. The scrapers may be formed in any suitable manner
found to be effective as for instance metal sheets rivetted to a metal bar or back the
edge of the scraper corresponding in form to the surface intended to be scraped each
scraper is formed to tilt readily when moving in one direction so as to ride over the
sediment and to assume a position suitable for scraping up sediment as it travels in
the other direction this may be effected by any suitable mode of connecting the scraper
to the rod or frame such as a hinge or a pivot and catch in order to facilitate the
movement of the scrapers over the surface of the boiler we prefer to provide skidding
pieces secured to any suitable part of the scraper blades. These skidding pieces may
be simply strips of metal extending in either direction from the scraper blades in the
form of a curve so as to enable the scraper blades when travelling in the direction in
which they are intended to scrape to rise over seam edges or other inequalities of
surface and when travelling in the opposite direction to support the scraper blades in
a tilted position so as to clear the sediment these skidders can be provided with
sufficient surface in contact with the boiler shell to be available for applying the
steam pressure to the scraping apparatus and cause the blades to impinge upon the
boiler shell.
The operating rod is inserted into the boiler through a seat fixed into the boiler
shell or into the usual hand hole cover if in a suitable position and is made steam and
water tight by means of a gland and packing or other well known effective means the
seat extends outside the boiler in the form of a hollow bolt to give sufficient bearing
surface to the operating rod and to enable a gland to be screwed on to it, and takes
the place of the securing bolt if passing through the hand hole cover the seat also
extends into the boiler so that a recess formed in it may receive a projection or plug
extending from the end of the scraping apparatus into which the operating rod is
screwed or otherwise connected or other equivalent means are adopted for fitting the
rod seat and scraping apparatus together and in order to secure the retention of this
plug on the end of the scraping apparatus in this recess provided for it when the
operating rod is not connected thereto we construct the recess and the plug of the
scraping apparatus to lock or screw together thus for instance one or more snugs or
catches might be provided on the plug to correspond with claws or holders provided
on the seat so that by turning the seat a certain distance each snug or catch would
engage with its corresponding claw or holder.
In some cases instead of the above described or equivalent methods of securing the
scraping apparatus to the rod seat when disconnected from the operating rod we
prefer as an automatic and more efficient way of effecting this object to connect and
disconnect the scraping apparatus from the operating rod seat as the result of
screwing and unscrewing the said rod into and out of the plug or extension on the
end of the scraping apparatus. To effect this we provide a thimble or hollow plug
secured on its required position by means of a cap or hollow nut secured to the plug
or projection of the scraping apparatus so as to form an extension of the bore hole
into which the operating rod is inserted this thimble or hollow plug which is free to

page_text: revolve in the hollow nut or cap but cannot be withdrawn from it screws into the rod
seat, so that the operating rod when inserted through the seat into the scraping
apparatus passes through the thimble or hollow plug; by making the passage through
the thimble or hollow plug of some other form than a true circle as for instance a
circle with a flat side and making the end of the operating rod to correspond the process
of turning the operating rod round to screw it into or out of the scraping apparatus
will carry the thimble round with it, so that by adjusting the threading of the thimble
into the rod seat with the threading of the rod into the scraping apparatus the act of
screwing the rod into the scraping apparatus will at the same time unscrew the
thimble from the rod seat and the corresponding act of unscrewing the rod from the
scraping apparatus may be made to screw up the thimble into the rod seat.
scraping apparatus constructed in accordance with our invention although described
with special reference to its application as an apparatus for cleaning boilers could be
readily applied to other purposes and if required could be constructed with some of
the scrapers scraping to one direction whilst others scrape to the opposite direction.
A
J. HENRY JOHNSON,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C.,
Agent for the said F. Robson and R. Ord.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Scraping or Removing Sediment
from the Interior of Steam-boilers, Applicable also for other
Analogous Purposes.
We, FREDERICK ROBSON, Solicitor, of 3, Hardwick Terrace, and ROBERT ORD,
Pattern Maker, of 25, Gayles Street, both places being situate in Stockton-on-Tees, in
the County of Durham, 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:-
Our invention relates to apparatus or mechanical appliance for keeping clean the
internal surfaces of steam-boilers, and is applicable generally to the internal surfaces
of vessels on which deposit or sediment accumulates, the requisite cleaning being
effected by means of scrapers, scrubbers, brushes, or other equivalents forming parts
of the same apparatus to be operated and controlled from the exterior of the boiler by
a rod extending through the boiler shell, the operation of removing the deposit or
sediment being carried on independently of the pressure of steam in the boiler.
Our invention is especially applicable to cylindrical boilers of the Lancashire,
Cornish, or other well known types in which horizontal heating surfaces of great
length become covered with scale and mud, which boilers usually occupy positions
which do not admit of an operating rod extending out from the boiler shell more than
a short distance. Our object being to apply a scraping or cleaning apparatus to the
entire length of surface to be kept clean by means of a rod which does not require to
be drawn out of the boiler beyond the distance adapted to the position of the boiler.
It is also the object of our invention to facilitate the movement of the scrapers and to
enable them to ride over scam edges, rivet heads, or other inequalities of surface in
the boiler shell by providing skidding pieces to the apparatus. A further object of
our invention is to lock the scraping apparatus when not in use in such a position
within the boiler that the operating rod may be readily connected thereto or detached
therefrom from the outside of the boiler without causing leakage or otherwise
disturbing the proper working of the boiler.
And in order that our invention may be fully understood and carried into effect we
will proceed to describe the same with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Fig. 1. illustrates in side elevation a cleaning apparatus lying in position on the
bottom of a boiler.
Fig. 2. is a transverse sectional view of an ordinary Lancashire boiler illustrating
in end elevation a cleaning apparatus constructed and placed in position for cleaning
the bottom surface of the boiler, and a second cleaning apparatus modified in
construction and placed in position so as to be applicable for cleaning the heating
surfaces of the boiler flues.
Fig. 3. is drawn to a larger scale than Figs. 1 & 2, in order to clearly illustrate the
cleaning apparatus in detail.

page_text: a is a rod or frame provided with scrapers shown at the positions b¹³ and
secured to the said rod at distances adjusted to the intended extent of travel or what
may be termed the stroke of the apparatus which will be more or less according to
the distance allowed for drawing the operating rod out of the boiler, thus where three
scrapers are provided as shown in Fig. 1. the stroke of the rod must be at least
one-third the length of the surface to be scraped, we prefer it to be rather more, so
that the out stroke of the rod will carry the first scraper from position to the end of
the boiler, the second from position 62 to position &', and the third scraper from the
position to position if the stroke of the apparatus is reduced the distance
between the positions of the scrapers must be correspondingly reduced, which may be
done by increasing their number, and in this way our apparatus may be designed to
accommodate itself within practical limits to any length of stroke. We prefer to
make the distance between the end of the boiler and the first scraper at greater
than the distance at which the scrapers of the series are pitched so that the stroke of
the apparatus exceeds the distance between two consecutive scrapers, in order that the
sediment, deposit, or scale may be effectively conveyed along the surface to be scraped
by scraper at acting as a feeder to scraper at 62 and scraper at 2 to scraper ', by
which the mud or scale is collected near the mudhole or other outlet provided for its
discharge.
The scrapers may be constructed in any form which may be found effective, a
convenient form being illustrated in perspective in Fig. 1. and in section in Fig. 3. in
which the scraper is a thin metal sheet such as spring brass rivetted to a stiff bar or
back d, and by means of which it is secured to the rod a. Each scraper when required
to scrape up as well as loosen the mud or scale should tilt readily so as to ride over
the sediment without scraping it up like scraper e¹ when the apparatus moves in one
direction, and to assume a fixed position like for scraping up the sediment when the
apparatus moves in the opposite direction, this may be effected by any suitable mode
of connecting the scrapers to the rod or frame a, in the drawings cach scraper swings
on a pin e passing through the jaws or lugs of a boss f which is shown as a coupling
to consecutive lengths of the rod, the back bone d forms a shoulder which comes in
contact with boss and maintains the scraper in the position when the apparatus is
moving in the scraping or forward direction, g is a stop pièce which also comes in
contact with the coupling when the scraper swings back to position c¹ in order to
ride over the sediment with the backward movement of the apparatus, the stop piece g
also acts as a shield or splash board for preventing the scale or sediment from being
washed into the boiler seat provided for the rod a. It is of course obvious that the
boss for carrying the scrapers need not be used as a coupling, the arrangement for
hanging the scrapers being a question only of structural compactness or simplicity of
parts. When the apparatus is applied to the heating surfaces of flues as illustrated in
Fig. 2. the scrapers inay be rigidly fixed to the rod or frame a so as to scrape with
both strokes of the apparatus as in that case the scale or sediment loosened by the
scrapers will fall away to the boiler bottom.
In order to facilitate the movement of the scrapers and to enable them to ride over
the inequalities of the boiler plates such as seam edges or rivet heads, we provide each
scraper with the skidding pieces for the forward motion of the scraper and
for the backward motion, these skidding pieces consist of curved projections
constructed in any simple manner and attached preferably to each end of the scraper
as illustrated in Fig. 1. The operating rod a is inserted into the boiler through a
seat fixed into the boiler shell or into the hand hole cover if in a convenient
position, a convenient mode of fixing the seat is by means of a nut screwed onto the
seat to close up tight to the boiler shell outside in combination with the shoulder or
flange provided on the seat to close up tight against the boiler shell inside as
illustrated in Fig. 3; beyond the nut & is the gland, the cock m, and the securing
stud n, all fitted into the box o, which is screwed onto the seat in the manner shown,
except, that the securing stud n is shown in a vertical position to bring it clearly into
view, but this position will be found inconvenient in practice, and we prefer to fix it
at an angle to the vertical. The internal passage or throat through the boiler seat is

page_text: tapered in order to receive the correspondingly tapered hollow plug or thimble p
which exactly fits it when drawn close up into the seat, the nick or recess in the
hollow plug then corresponds with the position of the securing stud which can be
screwed into it and so lock the apparatus in the required position inside the boiler for
the end or operating part of the rod a to be detached therefrom and withdrawn, all
escape of steam or water through the seat if necessary can he effectually stopped by
turning the cock m.
It is of course obvious that mechanical appliances, such as levers or other equivalent
means, can be employed for operating the end rod a in cases where hand power would
be ineffective.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our invention and
in what manner the same is to be carried into effect, what we claim is :—
:
Firstly In the construction of apparatus for cleaning the internal surfaces of
steam-boilers or for other analogous purposes, the employment of a series of two or
more scrapers forming parts of one complete apparatus which may be operated from
the outside of the boiler substantially in the manner and for the purpose described
with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Secondly-The employment of skidding pieces in combination with the scrapers
substantially as described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Thirdly The method of locking the apparatus to the seat, by means of a securing
stud or its equivalent substantially as described with reference to the accompanying
drawings.
Fourthly The arrangement and combination of parts constituting the apparatus
substantially in the manner and for the purpose as hereinbefore described.
G. J. CLARKSON,
Agent for the Applicants.