IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF HEAT, AND IN THE GENERATION AND APPLICATION' OF MOTIVE POWER - "ТНЕВЕРНОЙ."
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Bourne, of Leith, Scotland, Civil Engineer;
för the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF HEAT,
AND IN THE GENERATION AND APPLICATION' OF MOTIVE POWER
- "ТНЕВЕРНОЙ.""
.
sealed the 12th February 1869, and dated the 25th November 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Bourne at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,. on the
25th November 1868.
THE
LJOHN BOURNE, of Leith, Scotland, Civil Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PRODUCTION OF HEAT, AND IN THE GENERATION AND APPLICATION OF MOTIVE
POWER DERIVED THEREFROK" to be as follows:-
I produce motive power by means of the heat derived from com-
bustibles as is done in the steam engine, but I generate the heat in a
different way from that adopted in the case of the steam engine, and I
transform the heat into motive power by a method not heretofore in use,

page_text: and which enables me to produce the desired effect with less machinery
than usual, and with a smaller consumption of fuel. My improvements
consequently divide themselves into two main heads, one for a new
method of generating heat by coal or other combustibles, and the other
for a new method of obtaining power from the heat generated by such
One portion of my improvements may be used without
the other in cases especially of the adaptation of my Invention to old
machinery, and parts of my improvements are also applicable to other
purposes than the generation of motive power, as, for example, to
metallurgic processes requiring an improved method of generating
combustion.
heat.
I will now explain in what way I generate heat by combustion.
Instead of exposing ignited fuel laid upon a grate to a draught of air
produced by a chimney or otherwise as is now done in common fur-
naces, I discard the grate altogether and blow the fuel and air, by
preference made hot, into a hot chamber, which I term a combustion
chamber, the fuel being first reduced to powder or brought into the
gaseous state, and the fuel and the oxygen of the air being diffused
throughout the chamber and coming into contact with hot surfaces
within it enter into combination with the evolution of heat. The
fuel and air may be forced into the combustion chamber by pumps or
other equivalent instruments either through the same or through different
pipes, or they may be sucked in by a partial exhaustion maintained in
the combustion chamber by a steam jet or otherwise, the only essential
condition being that the fuel shall be diffused among the air in the
combustion chamber at the moment of its inflammation. The product of
the combustion will either be carbonic oxide or carbonic acid as the
quantity of air introduced to the fuel may be sufficient or insufficient for
its complete saturation; and sometimes I extract from the fuel the whole
heat at one step by introducing the full supply of air, in which case
carbonic acid is generated, which is an ultimate product; and at other
times I introduce only sufficient air to produce carbonic oxide, which is
an intermediate product, and being an inflammable gas may be used in
the same way as a combustible vapour to generate the complement of
the heat due to the complete saturation of the fuel. By the regulated
admission of the minutely divided fuel with hot air in a hot chamber, as
described, I am enabled accurately to proportion the quantities of air and
fuel to one another so as to obviate the loss caused by the refrigeratory

page_text: effect of an excess of air, and also to make the combustion more perfect,
whereby more heat will be obtained and smoke will be prevented.
The principle of action of the second main head of improvement,
which consists of a method not heretofore in use of obtaining motive
power from heat, will be rendered easily intelligible by the following
preliminary exposition:-When steam escapes from an orifice the force
of the steam is expended in giving velocity to its particles, and if the
momentum of these moving particles could be collected and utilized we
should obtain the mechanical equivalent of the steam expended. The
velocity of escaping steam is however so great as to have defeated all
attempts to obtain a useful mechanical effect from its impulse or re-
action; but other things being the same the velocity of issuing steam
will be dependent upon its lightness, and it is possible to reduce its
velocity by loading it with water, or to increase its velocity by diminishing
the load of water in it, or, in other words, by superheating the steam.
It is well known that in thermo-dynamic engines of every class the
amount of power generated by a given quantity of heat will mainly,
depend upon the difference between the initial and final temperatures,
and in steam engines it has been difficult to get the initial temperature
high enough, and in air engines the final temperature low enough,
without the loss of much of the heat. Now in my improvements I
derive motive power from a jet of steam or other suitable fluid by loading
it with a sufficient quantity of water or other fluid to reduce its velocity
within such moderate limits as will enable its power to be easily imparted;
and I also for some purposes so increase the velocity and consequently
the momentum of the jet by superheating it as to produce results with
a low pressure that have hitherto been only producible by a high. I also
by injecting water, or other suitable fluid among the hot products of
combustion reconcile a very high initial temperature with a low terminal
one without the loss of any of the effect, thus transforming most of the
heat into power, which power may be rendered available for use by the
intervention of any of the common forms of thermo-dynamic machines, the
water or other fluid injected being at the same time made serviceable in
cooling and lubricating the machine. In some cases I introduce into the
combustion chamber steam so much superheated that it readily separates
into its constituent gases of hydrogen and oxygen, which thereupon
form new combinations with the fuel:
Having now explained the principle of my Invention, I will proceed

page_text: Ι
to specify some of the ways in which it may be practically applied.
generate steam in common boilers by conducting into the flues the hot
products of combustion issuing from the combustion chamber already
described, or by conducting carbonic oxide generated as aforesaid, or with
the aid of superheated steam, into the furnaces, where it is either burnt
in jets surrounded by air or the air, may be admitted or forced by. a pump
in jets into the carbonic oxide, which may be generated in a vertical
chamber into which coal is introduced as into an iron smelting furnace,
the clinker being suffered to overflow through a hole like slag. Instead
however of transmitting the products of combustion through flues in the
boiler I sometimes conduct them through a suitable valve or orifice into
the water in the boiler, working the engine with the mixed gases and
steam; and sometimes I shower upon the products of combustion within
an appropriate chamber water from a rose, or project in among these
products a jet of water, whereby those products are sufficiently cooled
to enable them to come into contact with the cylinder valves and other
internal parts of an engine without producing injury, and a volume of
steam corresponding to the fall of temperature is produced by the water
and assists in working the engine; at other times I accomplish the
combustion of the gaseous or other fuel within the cylinder itself, but in
all cases I lubricate the cylinder and piston with sufficient water or other
cooling fluid admitted through a hollow piston rod or telescopic pipe,
and escaping through orifices round the rim of the piston, or otherwise
suitably introduced, to cool and lubricate the working parts. The piston
rod where it passes through the stuffing box is cooled and lubricated by
conducting the cooling and lubricating fluid into a lantern brass in the
centre of the packing, and the educted steam and gases may either be
discharged into the atmosphere in the manner of a high-pressure engine,
or may be conducted into a condenser as in the case of a condensing
engine. In the latter case the jet of cold water or other cooling medium
in the condenser when brought into contact with the hot steam and
gases condenses the steam, and the momentum of its particles suffices to
discharge the air and water through a valve in opposition to the pressure
of the atmosphere. In common steam engines by a like device I am
enabled to dispense with the air pump, seeing that the educted steam
has more than sufficient momentum in it to expel the waste water from
the condenser in opposition to the pressure of the atmosphere, I conse-
quently divide the injection water into two portions, one portion of
which I introduce nearer to the educting orifice than the other, and the

page_text: resulting hot water I employ to feed the boiler, which it will do without
a pump by virtue of the momentum it has acquired from the steam,
while the rest of the water will be carried through a valve into the
external atmosphere, carrying with it the gas or air that entered with
the steam. One portion of the injection water may be introduced through
an annular slit or rose or other suitable orifices surrounding the mouth
of the eduction pipe and pointing downwards into a conical pipe ter-
minating in a reverse valve communicating with the boiler, while the
other portion may be introduced through suitable orifices at a point
further removed from the eduction pipe and pointing in the direction in
which the waste water has to be expelled. A valve is applied to the
injection pipe to make the rush of injection water simultaneous with
the rush of the educted steam. In the case of locomotives and other
high-pressure engines, where the momentum of the educted steam is not
sufficient to force in the feed water against a high pressure in the boiler,
I superheat, a portion of the educted steam so as to increase its energy,
and use it to force the water into the boiler. I also employ the same
expedient where necessary in the case of condensing engines, and I use á
superheated steam jet instead of pumps for forcing water in the case of
fire engines and in waterworks for the supply of towns, also for raising
or propelling sewage, lifting sandy water from foundations, and in all
cases where liquids or semi-liquids have to be moved against any con-
siderable head; and I sometimes diminish the density of the fluid to be
raised or propelled by aerating it, which action will spontaneously occur
when the superheated steam is generated by projecting steam or water
among the hot products of combustion, or it may be accomplished by
drawing air through holes in the suction pipe or otherwise, to the end
that the density of the fluid being diminished it may be raised by any
given jet to a greater height. In the case of fire engines the water
propelled by a superheated jet produced by injecting steam or water
among the hot products of combustion will derive increased efficacy in
extinguishing fires from being charged. with carbonic acid resulting
from the combustion. In some cases the water or other liquid put into
motion by the hot products of combustion, or by the jet of steam or
other fluid heated by those products, is used merely as an intermediary
for acquiring momentum or vis viva in order that the same may be im-
parted to a piston, turbine, or other common kind of hydraulic machine,
or to one that operates by reaction in producing rotatory motion,
as in Barker's mill, the heat being first employed to move the fluid in

page_text: the way already explained, and the moving fluid being employed for the
generation of power. In the case of steam vessels however propulsion
is effected by discharging the products of combustion into the sea near
the stern, the temperature of these products having before their final
exit been suitably reduced, and their velocity correspondingly diminished,
by cooling and loading them with a jet of water or other fluid, whereby
the issuing column may be so enlarged in diameter gradually towards its
point of exit as to be prevented from piercing the water, which would
occasion loss from slip, and. whereby also loss of heat will be prevented
from the too high temperature of the products of combustion at the point
where they enter the sea. Various projects for the propulsion of vessels
by the reaction of issuing products of combustion at the stern have been
at different times propounded by different persons, and among others by
myself, having many years since patented a method of propulsion
operating on this principle. But all these plans have been deficient in
this respect, that they necessarily dismissed the products of combustion
at too high a temperature and at too great a velocity, or else they were
wholly deficient in propulsive force. In my present Invention these
faults are prevented by the jet of water or other fluid that I inject into
the pipe which leads the products of combustion into the sea, for this
fluid enlarges the volume of the issuing stream nearly to the equivalent
extent that it reduces its temperature, and as its velocity is at the same
time reduced by reason of the increased load of water, which enables the
emission pipe to be conically enlarged and at the same time remain full,
any excessive waste from slip or otherwise is prevented; and a larger
proportion of the power of the fuel is utilized in propulsion than is done
by the complicated and expensive engines now employed.
The com-
bustion chambers I employ may be formed of boiler plate and lined with
fire-brick, and may have a water casing around them to cool the iron,
from which casing the water or steam injected among the hot products
of combustion may be drawn. The air may be made to traverse several
hot pipes or channels within the chamber before it finally emerges to
enter into combination with the fuel, and the fuel if solid may be pre-
cipitated through a rose like hail, or if liquid in drops falling towards the
bottom of the chamber, but in their progress may encounter incandescent
bricks or other refractory materials placed within the chamber, by which
combustion will be promoted. Where there is no pressure within the
combustion chamber, but rather a partial exhaustion therein, the chamber
may be open at the top and the fuel be in pieces of moderate size and

page_text: be fed in at the top in the manner of an iron smelting furnace, the
resulting carbonic oxide gas being led away in the same way for use
at some other point. Finally, I apply my Invention for generating heat
to all metallurgic processes by blowing the fuel together with the air
into a combustion chamber, whence the products of combustion enter
the furnace or receptacle containing the ore, or by otherwise so pre-
senting the fuel to the ore that the oxygen is converted into carbonic
acid or carbonic oxide before the ore is reached.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Bourne in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 25th May 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BOURNE, of Leith, Scotland, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Bourne, Her special licence that I,
the said John Bourne, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said John Bourne, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF
HEAT, AND IN THE GENERATION AND APPLICATION OF MOTIVE POWER DERIVED
THEREFROM," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John
Bourne, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing.
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
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 John Bourne, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is

page_text: to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawing here-
unto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is
to say):-
. I produce motive power by means of the heat derived from com-
bustibles as is done in the steam engine; but I generate the heat in a
different way from that adopted in the case of the steam engine, and I
transform the heat into motive power by a method not heretofore in
use, and with a smaller consumption of fuel than by any method yet
practised.
My improvements consequently divide themselves into two main
heads, one being a new method of generating heat by blowing or
forcing coal dust or other combustibles into a combustion chamber or
furnace, or first into a gasifier and then into a combustion chamber
or furnace, under such arrangements as will ensure perfect combustion,
and thus realise the full calorific effect of the fuel, while at the same
time enabling the second head of improvement to be applied, and the
other being for obtaining by means of appropriate apparatus the full
dynamical value of the heat generated by such combustion.
Some portions of my improvements may be used without the others,
in cases especially of the adaptation of my Invention to old machinery,
and parts of my improvements are also applicable to other purposes than
the generation of motive power, as, for example, to metallurgic processes
requiring an improved method of generating heat.
$6
My present Invention is to some extent an improvement upon
Inventions patented by me in One thousand eight hundred and thirty-
eight (No. 7824), and One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven
(No. 937). In the former of these Patents, entitled Certain Improve-
ments in Steam Engines, and in the Construction of Boilers, Furnaces,
and. Stoves," I proposed among other improvements to generate gas
from coal, which gas was to be led into hollow furnace bars and burnt
in jets of flame ascending through the fire; and in the latter of these
Patents, which had for its object "The Generation and Application of
Motive Power," I proposed to generate motive power by projecting coal
dust or liquid fuel and atmospheric air into a close vessel like a cupola
furnace lined with fire-brick, and having pieces of loose brick placed
within it, among which the coal dust or liquid fuel and the atmospheric
air were to be made to pass, so that by coming into contact with a large

page_text: superficies of intensely heated matter the combustion of the fuel might
be perfected. The products of combustion were to be made to give
motion to turbines or other similar instruments either immersed in
water or not, and were to render available the inertia of water or other
liquids set in motion by the expanded gases in a trumpet-mouth piece
of discharge, either for propelling vessels through the water or otherwise.
These two Patents were the first taken out for burning gases derived
from coal transmitted through hollow furnace bars in jets of flame
ascending through the fire, and for burning coal dust or liquid fuel
in close chambers to which the air was to be supplied by pumps or
otherwise.
In my present Invention, under the first main head of improvement
I employ coal dust as in my Patent of One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-seven. But instead of burning it wholly in a close chamber like a
cupola furnace I sometimes, especially in applying my Invention to
existing furnaces or boilers, inject the dust by the aid of a jet of super-
heated steam or otherwise upon a fire formed either of coal or of a mass
of incandescent brick or other intractable material kept hot by the
combustion of the coal dust or other fuel, or of a mixture of coal and
such material under arrangements which will compel the coal dust
to pass through the fire, a partial exhaustion being maintained in the
chamber in which the combustion is carried on by a steam jet or other-
wise. When coal dust is blown into a common furnace with a draught
of air ascending among fire-bars in the usual manner a large part of it
is swept by the draught into the flues and passes up the chimney, and
it is indispensable therefore when injected into ordinary furnaces that
the common fire-bars shall be removed and that a down draught or
other equivalent arrangement shall be introduced which will compel the
dust to pass through the fire or other hot surfaces, so that the fuel and
the oxygen of the air being diffused throughout the chamber and coming
into contact with hot surfaces within it may enter into combination
with the evolution of heat. A convenient arrangement for this purpose
is that introduced by me into the steamer "Liverpool," in One thousand
eight hundred and forty, for burning the smoke of ordinary coal by
placing it upon a perforated brick arch or upon fire-brick tiles arranged
like fire-bars, through which the draught was made to descend.
In my present Invention the coal dust I employ may be projected
into the furnace or combustion chamber with the air either through the

page_text: same or different pipes by pumps or other equivalent instruments, such
as injectors which will pass jets of superheated steam into the com-
bustion chamber. But in all cases there must be a descending draught
or its equivalent, so as to compel the dust after being mixed with air or
steam, or both, to pass among highly heated surfaces, whereby the com-
bustible parts of it will be burnt and the incombustible melted and run
out as slag, which will be drawn away through a hole in the bottom of
the furnace.
What I claim as new in this part of my Invention is the combination
in common furnaces of the use of coal dust fuel with a descending
draught, or its equivalent, in the form of a side or other draught so
arranged that the dust is constrained to pass through the fire whether
such fire, or incandescent mass answering the purpose of a fire, be formed
of coal, or brick, or pumice stone, or other intractable material with or
without coal, or of a mixture of all or any of these substances, and also
of the use in furnaces of fire-brick tiles disposed in an arch or otherwise,
or of perforated fire-blocks or arches when combined with the use of
coal dust, so that the flame and products of combustion, and also the
slag, may descend through such openings or perforations made in a bed
of intractable material capable of withstanding a very high degree of
heat, whereby the dust which would otherwise pass into the flues and up
the chimney is wholly consumed. The coal entering as dust on this
system being in a state of minute subdivision and presenting a large
surface to the air, with which moreover it is intimately mixed, it will
explode to some extent like gunpowder, and the sudden explosion or
combustion will generate a pressure at the point where the combustion
takes place which will increase the intimacy of the contact and so favor
combination. By this action, and also by the diffusion of the com-
bustible particles, less air will be required to enter the furnace than is
usually admitted to common furnaces burning the same quantity of fuel,
since nearly the whole of the oxygen which is sent in will enter into
combination and less fuel will suffice to generate a given quantity of
steam since there will be less waste in heating air which merely passes
through the fire without any part of it entering into combination, and
which waste air amounts in common furnaces to as much, or nearly so,
as the quantity really utilized.
I also claim as new the mode of introducing and burning coal dust in
smelting furnaces, as hereafter described, which mode beside effecting

page_text: an economy in the cost of fuel will serve to saturate the oxygen of the
blast before it reaches the ore or metal, and thus obviate the necessity of
introducing materials to form slag to prevent the metal from being
attacked and oxidised or burnt in the furnace by the entering blast.
In Sheet I. of the accompanying Drawings several representations are
given of the application of this part of my Invention to steam boilers,
and it may be applied in the same way to reverberatory furnaces and
to common furnaces of every kind.
Figures 1 and 2 are a vertical and horizontal section of a furnace for
burning coal dust, as applicable to a Cornish or similar kind of boiler.
The dust is fed in through a hopper at the top by the aid of a revolving
fluted roller and falls upon a mass of incandescent bricks, pumice stone,
or other intractable material placed on the top of a perforated arch
formed of long tiles, with occasional projections, and built up in the
form of an arch, so as to leave long slits between them, through which
the products of combustion and the slag may descend. The slag is
collected in a basin at the bottom of the furnace, whence it is drawn off
from time to time through a hole, or it may be allowed to flow out
continuously. The products of combustion, after passing through this
arch, turn upward, as shewn by the arrows, and pass through fire-
clay pipes, which they heat to a high temperature, and whence they
proceed onward, as shewn by the arrows, into the boiler flue to generate
steam. The air by which the combustion is kept up in the furnace is
made to circulate around these hot pipes on its way to the furnace, by
which operation it becomes intensely heated, and passing in the direc-
tions shewn by the arrows through the perforations or openings in the
double row of inclined fire-brick bars placed near the top of the furnace
it enters into prompt combination with the fuel delivered by the hopper
and a very high temperature is produced within the furnace. The air
may be drawn from a casing around the chimney and be carried beneath
the boiler and the furnace by a flue, as shewn in the Drawing, into three
ascending flues, by which it is delivered into the chamber, through'
which the hot fire-clay pipes pass, by which arrangement it is heated to
a very high temperature before it enters the furnace.
Fig. 1 is a section at the line E, F, of Fig. 2, and Fig. 2 shews two
half sections, one at the line C, D, of Fig. 1, and the other at the
line A, B, with the exception that the first six bricks are lifted from the

page_text: outer wall to shew the steadying supports of the pipes, and a horizontal
section of the feeding roller is also shewn.
Figures 3 and 4 shew this part of my Invention as applied to a boiler
with upright tubes, Fig. 3 being a vertical section through the line E, F,
Fig. 4 and Fig. 4 consisting of portions of sections through A, B, and
C, D, Fig. 3. In this boiler the air is heated by being brought down
through a casing encircling the chimney and the boiler, and it is pro-
jected with the fuel through twyeres into a combustion chamber placed
beneath the bars, which are of fire-brick, and the coal dust ascending
through them is burnt as before. This species of draught is one of
those which I term an equivalent of the descending draught, as although
the draught in reality ascends through the fire the action is the same
as if it descended, since the coal dust mingled with air equally passes
through the fire as in a descending draught it would necessarily do. A
side draught in which the coal dust is carried sideways through or
among hot bodies may it is obvious be easily arranged upon the same
principle, and such a draught would also be equivalent to a descending
draught. The coal dust is fed in by feeding rollers rotating slowly in
hoppers as before, or by any other equivalent arrangement, and falling
through slanted pipes before jets of steam, which should be superheated,
it is carried with the air into the combustion chamber beneath the fire-
brick bars or perforated arch and finally ascends through the fire. In
the combustion chamber pieces of fire-brick or other intractable material
may be laid, or pigeon hole passages may be built, but so formed as to
let out the slag, which will flow out by a hole as before. The following
letters refer to the same parts in all the Figures on Sheet I.—a, a,
hopper to feed in the coal dust; b, b, tiles of fire-brick or perforated
arches, on which hot infusible material is placed, through which the
coal dust and the substances resulting from its combustion are con-
strained to pass, and which material may or may not be mixed with
pieces of coal of the size usually fed into furnaces; c, c, chimney;
P, P, pipes for the transmission of hot air; s, s, steam jets for forcing
in the air and fuel.
Figurès 5, 6, 7, and 8 are views of a cylindrical tubular boiler, to
which this part of my Invention is applied, and which may be used
either for land or marine purposes. Fig. 5 is a vertical longitudinal
section through E, F, Fig. 6; and Fig. 6 is a horizontal section through
A, B, Fig. 5; Fig. 7 is partly a transverse section through G, H, Fig. 5;

page_text: and partly a transverse section through C, D, Figures 5 and 6; Fig. 3
is an end elevation. The coal dust is here fed in as before and blown.
by a superheated steam or other jet over the surface of a fire composed
of coal or brick, or of both together, and the dust descending by the
force of a powerful draught through. the incandescent mass is burnt
with the evolution of such intense heat as will suffice to melt the incom-
bustible part of the fuel, whereby it may be run out as slag, and whereby
also the smoke will be consumed.
Figures 9 and 10 are a vertical longitudinal section and a transverse
section and front view of an ordinary marine tubular boiler, to which
this part of my Invention is applied, Fig. 9 being a section through C, D,
Fig. 10, and Fig. 10 shews one half of the boiler in section through
A, B, Fig. 9, and the other half in front elevation, but with the furnace
doors and door frames removed to shew the steam jet pipes within.
The air is heated by being carried down. through a casing surrounding
the chimney, as shewn by the arrows, into a row of flattened pipes
attached to the smoke box doors, and which are shewn in section in
Fig. 11.
These pipes do not prevent the smoke box doors from being
opened and closed as usual. The pipes lead at their extremities into air
trunks, against which they shut sufficiently tight to prevent smoke from
entering. In this representation there are two hoppers applied to each
furnace, from which the powdered coal is fed into two of the hot air
pipes, and falling down in front of the steam jets it is projected over the
surface of the fire, whence it descends through the incandescent mass as
before, and the incombustible portions being melted run away as slag.
The number of hoppers, of air pipes, and of jets leading to each furnace
may obviously be increased or diminished as desired.
Figures 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 shew the application of this part of my
Invention to a locomotive boiler, Fig. 12 being a longitudinal vertical
section of such boiler through C, D, Fig. 13; and Fig. 13 consists of a
half section through A, B, Fig. 12, and a half section through E, F,
Figures 12 and 16; Fig. 14 is a horizontal section of the funnel, shewing
tubes through which the products of combustion are transmitted to heat
the air surrounding them, which air proceeds to the furnace, entering
through a casing round the chimney, and passing through pipes set on
the sides of the boiler, as shewn at Fig. 13, whence it enters the furnace
above the fire; Fig. 15 is a bird's-eye view of the blast pipe, which is
divided into seven branches to distribute the escaping steam among

page_text: the tubes set in the chimney; and Fig. 16 is a section through G, H,
Fig. 12.
In Fig. 1, Sheet II., an exemplification of the application of this part
of my Invention to a furnace for smelting iron or other ores is given.
a is the valve through which the ore is introduced, which may be
mingled with fuel as usual or not as desired. b, b, are steam jets for
carrying in the air and powdered coal, but an air blast of the usual kind
may be used if preferred and the steam jets be dispensed with, in which
case the coal dust will be carried in by the air blast alone, or both the
steam jet and air blast may be used. c, c, are flues for conveying the
hot air to the twyeres. d is the hearth, and e, e, hoppers for containing
the coal dust, which is to be fed in continuously by rotating rollers as
before stated or otherwise. One main benefit of this arrangement for
introducing coal dust is that it carbonizes the blast and prevents it from
attacking the metal, whereby primary ores of iron may be smelted
without clay and lime. A combustion chamber is sometimes inter-
posed between the point where the blast and dust enter and mix and the
hearth where the metal is melted, so as to secure more complete satu-
ration of the oxygen with carbon before the blast enters the hearth;
but the necessity for this and the size of it will depend upon the
temperature to which the blast is raised and the fineness of the dust
employed.
In all the examples of boiler furnaces already described the product
resulting from the combination of the oxygen of the atmosphere with the
carbon of the fuel is carbonic acid, and which is an ultimate product;
but in other cases I employ coal dust to generate carbonic oxide as an
intermediate product to be burnt afterwards in generating motive power,
and I burn this gaseous fuel in a suitable combustion chamber after
having been mixed with air as is now done at iron works; or I transmit
it through tubular furnace bars and burn it in jets of flame, as was done
in my Patent of One thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight, only that
in that Patent the gas proposed to be so burnt was carburetted hydrogen
and not carbonic oxide. The idea of transforming the combustible parts
of the fuel into carbonic oxide in gasifiers or chambers in which the
imperfect combustion of coal is carried on is not new, but as heretofore
practised the process has been slow and irregular, from the caving in and
eaking of the coal and from other causes, and the temperature not being
sufficient to melt the incombustible parts of the fuel so that it might

page_text: run out as slag it has passed off with the gas as dust, which has inter-
fered with the subsequent operations in which the gas had to be
employed. By this part of my present Invention I generate carbonic
oxide for any heating purpose with the aid of coal dust, instead of the
coal or slack commonly employed, by projecting it into a suitable
chamber containing a thick stratum of incandescent brick or other
intractable material in balls or pieces, with proper proportions of air and
steam, or of air alone or of steam alone, by preference made very hot;
and the carbonic acid first generated when air is introduced is converted
into carbonic oxide by taking up an additional atom of carbon from the
coal dust whch is carried in among the pieces of incandescent brick or
other intractable material by the draught and spread over their surfaces.
When air is not introduced in the production of carbonic oxide, but only
steam, the steam must be so much superheated that it readily separates
into its constituent gases of oxygen and hydrogen, which will thereupon
form new combinations with the fuel.
By using coal dust forced or
drawn into a suitable hot chamber as described, and in which combustion
to a limited and regulated extent is carried on, I am enabled to make
the process continuous and rapid, and by reason of the high temperature
thus attained the incombustible parts of the coal are melted into slag,
which flows away through an appropriate orifice. I afterwards burn the
carbonic oxide either by causing it to issue in jets from hollow furnace
bars, and to ascend through a fire of brick, or coal, or other heated bodies,
or I employ it in such other way as may be appropriate for the purpose
in hand.
What I claim as new in this part of my Invention is the generation of
carbonic oxide gas, not as heretofore by means of large pieces of coal
such as are usually fed into furnaces or by slack, which involve the
necessity of a cumbrous apparatus, but by feeding in continuously coal
dust ground fine by crushing rollers or otherwise to a gas-generating
chamber kept at a very high temperature; and also the arrangement
whereby proper proportions of air or steam or both, by preference made
very hot, pass by their own energy through appropriate orifices, which
they so fill as to prevent leakage even under a very high pressure, into
the gasifying chamber, carrying the coal dust with them.
The manner in which I prefer to burn the carbonic oxide gas in
ordinary furnaces is shewn in Sheet II., the apparatus employed being
similar to that described under my Patent of One thousand eight

page_text: hundred and thirty-eight, and used for burning carburetted hydrogen.
Figures 2 and 3 are longitudinal and transverse sections of a marine
boiler fitted to burn the carbonic oxide gas. A is the steam chest; B,
the superheater; C, the steam pipe; D, D, the tubes by which the
heat of the products of combustion is imparted to the water; E, E,
pipe leading across the front of the boiler, through which the carbonic
oxide is conveyed from any suitable gasifier to the hollow furnace
bars F, through the sides of which it issues in jets of flame ascending
through the fire. Furnaces thus fitted to burn carbonic oxide will be
suitable for burning coals in the ordinary manner should the gasifying
apparatus become in any way deranged. This is important, especially
in the case of steam vessels proceeding upon distant voyages. The
carbonic oxide consumed in these furnaces may be generated in a
gasifier similar in all respects to the iron smelting furnace, shewn in
Fig. 1, Sheet II., but of much smaller size than an iron furnace, and the
precise dimensions which will be most appropriate will depend upon
the fineness of the coal dust, but it will generally be less in height
than the boiler it has to supply. The interior of the gasifier is to be
filled with incandescent intractable materials, and the dust contained in
hoppers e, e, is to be blown with hot air derived from the flues c, c,
through the passages b, b, by steam jets into the hearth d.
to be taken from the top of the chamber near the valve a, and is to be
led to the furnaces through a suitable pipe.
The
s¸ is
gas.
The principle of action of the second head of improvement, which
consists of a method not heretofore in use of obtaining motive power"
from heat, will be rendered easily intelligible by the following pre-
liminary exposition. When steam escapes from an orifice under such
circumstances as not to generate power the whole force of the steam
is expended in giving velocity to its particles, and if the momentum
of these particles could be collected and utilized we should obtain the
exact equivalent of the power expended. This law holds in the case
of all fluids, however high the temperature, pressure, and velocity of the
issuing particles may be. But the velocity of steani or other aeriform
fluid escaping into a vacuum or into the atmosphere with any con-
siderable pressure is so great as to have defeated all attempts to obtain
a useful mechanical effect from its impulse or reaction. Other things
however being the same, the velocity of the issuing fluid will be depen-
dent upon its lightness or upon the smallness of the quantity of matter
"

page_text: it contains in a given bulk since in such case it will require a higher
head to generate the pressure. The pressure of fluids however produced
may be supposed to be generated by a column of the fluid high enough to
produce the pressure by its superincumbent weight, but when the fluid
is light the height of column required to produce a given pressure will
be greater than when the fluid is heavy and the velocity of efflux is in
all cases proportionate to the height of the column. It is consequently
possible to reduce the velocity of a fluid by loading it with some other
heavier fluid, or to increase the velocity by diminishing the load or by
reducing the density of the fluid. Thus steam will have its velocity
of efflux diminished by loading it with water or increased by super-
heating the steam. In thermo-dynamic engines of every class the
amount of power generated by a given quantity of heat will mainly
depend upon the difference between the initial and final temperatures,
which may be made to determine the difference between the initial
and final pressures, and in steam engines it has been difficult to get
the initial temperature high enough and in air engines the terminal
temperature low enough, a circumstance which involves the loss of
much of the power.
Now in my present Invention I derive motive
power from a jet of steam or other fluid made to issue under a very
high temperature and pressure and with a great velocity; but instead
of using such a jet of fluid directly to work an engine I load it with a
sufficient quantity of water or some other fluid having less motion,
pressure, and temperature so as to bring the composite jet to such
moderate velocity, pressure, and temperature as will be appropriate for
working ordinary engines or motive-power machines while it neverthe-
less still retains the whole amount of its original energy. To obtain a
maximum dynamical efficiency from a given quantity of coal the
temperature and pressure of the water or other fluid to which the heat
is imparted must be high; but very high temperatures and pressures
cannot be used in existing steam engines or other motive-power machines
without working their speedy destruction, and hence I transform jets
of such impracticable fluids into equivalent jets of fluid having a less
pressure and temperature but a greater weight and the same dynamical
efficiency, whereby I am enabled to reconcile the conditions of a more
complete extraction of the power with the maintenance of permissible
and convenient amounts of pressure, temperature, and velocity of efflux.
For some purposes, as for injecting water into boilers, with a very high
pressure of steam, for utilizing the waste steam of locomotives, for feeding

page_text: by injection, and for returning the waste steam of a high-pressure engine
or a part of it into the boiler by superheated water I superheat the
jet or column of steam, whereby results are producible by a low pressure
of steam that would otherwise only be producible by a high pressure
or not be producible at all.
Having now explained the principle of this part of my Invention, I
will proceed to specify some of the ways in which it may be practically
applied. I generate steam in common boilers by conducting into the
flues the hot products of combustion issuing from the combustion
chamber, as already described, or by conducting carbonic oxide gene-
rated as aforesaid or with the aid of superheated steam into the furnaces,
where it is either burnt in jets surrounded by air, or the air may be
admitted or forced by a pump in jets into the carbonic oxide, which may
he generated in a vertical chamber, into which coal is introduced as into
an iron smelting furnace, the clinker being suffered to overflow through
a hole like slag. Instead, however, of transmitting the products of
combustion through flues in the boiler, as in the arrangements already
explained, I sometimes shower upon the products of combustion within
an appropriate chamber water from a rose, or project in among those
products a jet of water, whereby those products are sufficiently cooled to
enable them to come into contact with the cylinder valves and other
internal parts of an engine without producing injury, and a volume of
steam corresponding to the fall of temperature is produced by the water
and assists in working the engine. In steam engines I divide the
injection water into two portions, one portion of which I introduce
nearer to the educting orifice than the other, and the resulting hot water
from this first portion I employ to feed the boiler, which it will do
without a pump by virtue of the momentum it has acquired from the
steam, while the rest of the water will be carried through a valve into
the external atmosphere, carrying with it the gas or air that entered
with the steam. One portion of the injection water may be introduced
through an annular slit or rose, or other suitable orifices surrounding
the mouth of the eduction pipe, and pointing downwards into a conical
pipe terminating in a reverse valve communicating with the boiler,
while the other portion may be introduced through suitable orifices at
a point further removed from the eduction pipe, and pointing in the
direction in which the waste water has to be expelled. A valve is
applied to the injection pipe to make the rush of injection water simul-

page_text: taneous with the rush of the educted steam. In the case of locomotives
and other high-pressure engines, where the momentum of the educted
steam is not sufficient to force in the feed water against a high pressure
in the boiler, I superheat a portion of the educted steam, so as to
increase its energy, and use it to force the water into the boiler. I also
employ the same expedient where necessary in the case of condensing
engines, and I use a superheated steam jet instead of pumps for forcing
water in the case of fire engines, and in waterworks for the supply of
towns, also for raising or propelling sewage, lifting sandy water from
foundations, and in all cases where liquids or semi-liquids have to he
moved against any considerable head, and I sometimes diminish the
density of the fluid to be raised or propelled by aerating it, which action
will. spontaneously occur when the superheated steam is generated by
projecting steam or water among the hot products of combustion; or it
may be accomplished by drawing air through holes in the suction pipe
or otherwise, to the end that the density of the fluid being diminished it
may be raised by any given jet to a greater height... In the case of fire
engines the water propelled by a superheated jet produced by injecting
steam or water among the hot products of combustion will derive
increased efficacy in extinguishing fires from being charged with
carbonic. acid resulting from the combustion.
This dis-
One of the arrangements for generating motive power by injecting a
jet of water among the hot products of combustion or other hot gaseous
fluids is shewn at Fig. 4, Sheet II., where A, A, are the openings
through which the hot gaseous fluids entér a conical pipe; B is the
injector; C is the large end of the cone, and D the throat through
which the gaseous fluids. are carried by the energy of the jet of water
escaping with great dispersive power through the injector.
persive action is obtained by raising the water to a very high temperature
and pressure by heating it in pipes set within a furnace, or in some other
hot place.
An arrangement of the latter kind is shewn in Sheet II.,
where G, G, Figures 2 and 3, are coils of hot-water pipes of great
strength, so as to be capable of withstanding with safety a working
pressure of about one thousand pounds on the square inch, being proved
to more than twice that. amount. These pipes are kept filled with water
by a pump or otherwise, and are provided with a safety valve. They
may also be furnished with a loaded valve, which when some water is
forced in will compel some of the contained water to escape out on the

page_text: principle patented by Jacob Perkins in One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-two. The water thus heated under a pressure of one thousand
pounds on the inch will be raised to a temperature of about five hundred
and forty-six degrees Fahrenheit, and will acquire an enormous dis-
persive power, and this superheated water is made to pass through the
injector B, shewn in Fig. 4, Sheet II., into the pipe A, A, C, which may
If
either be supplied with gases of combustion or superheated steam.
the latter, the steam proceeding from the boiler is superheated to about
six hundred degrees Fahrenheit or upwards, and the quantities of super-
heated water from the pipes and of superheated steam from the boiler
are so adjusted to one another that they form when mixed either
saturated steam or steam superheated to any moderate extent that
may be desired.
The latent heat of steam being about nine hundred
and sixty degrees Fahrenheit, it follows that boiling water made nine
hundred and sixty degrees hotter, or raised to one thousand one hundred
and seventy-two degrees Fahrenheit under great pressure will when
released all flash into saturated steam. If the water be heated under
great pressure to six hundred degrees, and if equal weights of this water
and of steam superheated to a temperature of seven hundred and eighty-
four degrees Fahrenheit be mixed together the whole of the water will
also flash into saturated steam, and it easy so to adjust the quantities
of superheated water and superheated steam to one another that with
any prescribed temperature of each, steam may be generated of any
suitable temperature for working an engine. The same remark applies
to the use of the products of combustion, which should be used at such
a temperature as to ensure the complete vaporisation of the water before
the mixture is used as a motive power.
What I claim as new in this part of my Invention is the method of
superheating steam jets for propelling fluids whereby results are
producible at a low pressure that would otherwise only be producible
at a high, such as sending water into locomotive boilers by the educted
steam after it has been superheated.
And I also claim the method described of sending in superheated
water (produced by heating water under great pressure to a very high
temperature) among gaseous products of combustion or superheated
steam, so that the two may be thoroughly mixed together to form an
efficient motive power, and so that the mixture produced in the manner
described (which will possess great initial force) will have no tendency

page_text: to react upon the chamber or vessel in which the, hot products of
combustion or steam were generated, so as to increase the pressure
therein. The injected water, when released from excessive pressure,
will be broken up into minute particles by the expansion of the steam
shut within it and having an immense avidity for heat in consequence
of such expansion it will at once reduce its own temperature and that
of the hot products or superheated steam by the great demand for heat
thus produced, at the same time generating by the combination a gaseous
mixture, that will produce a large amount of power when applied to give
motion to any ordinary motive-power machine, to propel vessels, or to do
any other kind of work.
gaseous
common
Superheated water will not burn the hand if let out of a small orifice
upon it, whereas water not superheated, but issuing from a
boiler, will scald. By referring to Fig. 4 it will be understood that the
superheated water is transmitted through the tube B, having an adjust-
able orifice whence it issues into the pipe which first contracts and then
enlarges conically, whereby the energy of the expanding water will
project the gaseous products or the superheated steam which enters
the pipe from the combustion chambers or boiler at the branches A, A,
through the narrow throat of the pipe D. The
fluid will
expand as it approaches the larger part of the pipe at C, by which
arrangement the benefit of the high pressure and of the expansion will
both be obtained without any inconvenient inequality at different parts
of the stroke in the pressure of fluid which works the engine, and without
the pressure of the unexpanded fluid reacting as above explained.
By the method now proposed the necessity of employing a high-pressure
boiler is obviated since the water is heated in small pipes, and even if
one of them were to burst it would do no injury, and the motive power
is that due to the expansion under an enormous initial pressure of the
superheated water among hot fluids as described. The water, which may
be superheated in these small pipes without danger, will have its
temperature partially maintained during expansion by the said hot fluid,
which in fact supplies the heat necessary for the vaporization of the
water.
In some cases the water or other liquid put into motion by the hot
products of combustion or by the jet of steam or other fluid heated by
those products is used merely as an intermediary for acquiring momentum
or vis viva, in order that the same may be imparted to a piston, turbine,

page_text: or other common kind of hydraulic machine, or to one that operates by
reaction in producing rotatory motion as in Barker's mill, the heat being
first employed to move the fluid in the. way already explained and the
moving fluid being employed for the generation of power.
In the case
to be
these products having before their final exit been suitably reduced and
their velocity correspondingly diminished by cooling and loading them
with a jet of water or other fluid, whereby the issuing column may be
so enlarged in diameter gradually towards its point of exit as
prevented from piercing the water, which would occasion loss from slip
and whereby also loss of heat will be prevented from the too high
temperature of the products of combustion at the point where they
enter the sea. The jet of water or other fluid that I inject into the
pipe which leads the products of combustion into the sea enlarges the
volume of the issuing stream nearly to the equivalent extent that it
reduces its temperature, and its velocity is at the same time reduced by
reason of the increased load of fluid. This enlargement of the volume
and diminished velocity enables me to use a taper emission pipe
expanding towards its extremity, from which the fluid may be discharged
over a large area and at a velocity little in excess of the speed of the
vessel, the pipe at the same time remaining full. Thus an excessive
waste from slip or otherwise will be prevented and a large proportion
of the power of the fuel will be utilized in propulsion than is done by
the complicated and expensive engines now employed.
The mechanical arrangements necessary to carry out this method of
propulsion are so simple and obvious, consisting merely of one or more
pipes for conducting the products of combustion and the fluids mingled
with them into the water near the stern, the pipes enlarging conically
or otherwise as they proceed, and pointing sternward that it is not
necessary to give any Drawing of an apparatus which could be
constructed from these directions by any competent mechanic.
Having now described my Improvements in the production of heat
and in the generation and application of motive power and shewn in
what way the same may be carried into effect, I have only to add that
while I have described certain forms of mechanism for carrying out my
Invention, I do not confine myself to the use of those means, as other
equivalent or alternative forms could easily be specified embodying the

page_text: same principles and modes of action. But what I claim as my Invention
under the above in part recited Letters Patent, is the mode or modes of
producing heat and generating and applying motive power derived
therefrom above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Bourne, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Twenty-fifth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
JOHN BOURNE. (L.S.)