IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILERS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Shand, Mechanical Engineer, of 75,
Upper Ground Street, Blackfriars, in the County of Surrey, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILERS."
Sealed the 26th February 1869, and dated the 10th September 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Shand at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
10th September 1868.
I, JAMES SHAND, Mechanical Engineer, of 75, Upper Ground Street,
Blackfriars, in the County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILERS," to be as
follows:-
My improvements relate to a novel arrangement of water tubes and an
increasing outlet for the passage of steam from the said tubes to the
steam chest. .
My boiler is constructed of an inner shell which may be conical or
cylindrical, or partly of both forms. The lower part of this shell is open
[Price 8d1

page_text: at the bottom where the fire-bars are placed and constitutes the furnace.
The upper part of the said inner shell forms the absorption chamber
containing the arrangements of tubes aforesaid, and is closed at top
except at the centre, where the chimney or funnell is attached. This
inner shell is surrounded by an outer casing continued up past the
furnace and the absorption chamber, and some distance above the top of
the absorption chamber, and is also covered in, and through the centre of
which cover the chimney or funnel passes, the space between the cover
of inner case and the cover of outer case forming the steam chest, and
the space between the inner shell and the outer case, up to the top of the
combustion chamber, forming the water space. The absorption chamber
is thus composed of two cylinders or cones composed of the before-
named inner shell and outer casing between which is the water space.
The cylinders or cones forming the absorption chamber may be either
concentric or eccentric with each other, but I prefer to compose it of two
cylinders, the inner one standing in an inclined position from the
vertical, so that at the lower part it is concentric and at the upper part
it is eccentric with the outer case. By this means I provide an increasing
space to suit the increasing delivery of steam that my arrangements of
tubes delivers at that part of the boiler. I arrange my water tubes in
layers crossing each other and inclined from the horizontal position. The
ends of my tubes pass through the inner shell and communicate with the
annular or eccentric water space between the inner shell and outer
casing before named, and by their position in inclined layers I am enabled
to place all the lower ends of the tubes on one side and all the upper ends
on the other sides of my absorption chamber, thereby producing circu-
lation of water in the annular or eccentric water space and through the
tubes, causing them to deliver the steam formed within them at their
upper ends, and a return of the accompanying water to their lower ends
to again circulate through them. I extend the layers of tubes to two-
thirds or thereabouts of the diameter of the inner shell, leaving spaces
between them, and vertically arrange the alternate layers of crossing
tubes, so that I get an uninterrupted thoroughfare or series of meshes
between them for the absorption of heat and the passage of the products
of combustion to the chimney. By the arrangement here described I
obtain a large amount of absorbing surface, and almost perpendicular to
the current of heat, by which means the heat is as it were sifted and
caused to impinge forcibly against my tubes, rendering my boiler

page_text: suitable for the production of steam from ordinary fuel, gas, or petro-
leum, and the easy separation of the steam from the water greatly
preventing priming.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Shand in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 2nd March 1869.
-
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
SHAND, of 75, Upper Ground Street, Blackfriars, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of September, 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 James Shand, Her special licence
that I, the said James Shand, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others, as I, the said James Shand, 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 STEAM BOILERS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Shand, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or
one of their hands and scals, 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 James Shand, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement:-
My improvements relate to a novel arrangement of water tubes and
an increasing outlet for the passage of steam from the said tubes to the

page_text: My boiler is constructed of an inner shell, which may be conical or
cylindrical, or partly of both forms, or it may assume the form of a
polygon. The lower part of this shell is open at the bottom where the
fire-bars are placed and constitutes the furnace. The upper part of the
said inner shell forms the absorption chamber containing the arrangement
of tubes aforesaid, and is closed at top except at the centre, where the
chimney or funnel is attached. This inner shell is surrounded by an
outer casing or shell continued up past the funnel and the absorption
chamber, and some distance above the top of the absorption chamber,
and is also covered in, and through the centre of which cover the
chimney or funnel passes, the space between the cover of the inner
shell and the cover of the outer shell forming the steam chest, and the
space between the inner and outer shells up to the top of the absorption
chamber forming the water space. The absorption, chamber is thus
composed of the before-named inner and outer shells, between which is
the water space. The inner and outer shells forming the absorption
chamber may be either concentric or eccentric with each other, but I
prefer constructing it with the inner shell standing in an inclined position
from the vertical, so that at the lower part it is concentric and at the
upper part it is eccentric with the outer case or shell. By these means
I provide an increasing space to suit the increasing delivery of steam
that my arrangements of tube delivers at that part of the boiler. I
arrange my water tubes in layers crossing each other and inclined from
the horizontal position. The ends of my tubes pass trough the inner shell
and communicate with the annular or eccentric water space between
the inner and outer shell before named, and by their position in inclined
layers I am enabled to place all the lower ends of the tubes on one
side and all the upper ends on the other side of my absorption
chamber, thereby producing a thorough circulation of water in the
annular or eccentric water space and through the tubes, causing them
to deliver the steam formed within them at their upper ends, and a
return of the accompanying water to their lower ends to again circulate
through them. I extend the layers of tubes to two-thirds or there-
abouts of the diameter of the inner shell, leaving spaces between them,
and vertically arrange the alternate layers of crossing tubes so that I
get continuous thoroughfare or series of meshes between them for the
absorption of heat and the passage of the products of combustion to
the chimney. By the arrangement here described I obtain a large

page_text: amount of absorbing surface and almost perpendicular to the current of
heat, by which means the heat is as it were sifted and caused to
impinge forcibly against my tubes, rendering my boiler suitable for
the production of steam from ordinary fuel, gas, or petroleum, and the
easy separation of the steam from the water greatly preventing priming.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of boiler; Figure 2, an elevation of
absorption chamber; Figure 3, a plan of same.
By the
A, the furnace; B, the absorption chamber sectioned on the line I, J,
Figure 3; C, the chimney or funnel; D, the outer shell; E, the steam
chest; F, the narrowest part of eccentric water space from which the
tubes are supplied with water at their lower ends; K, the widest part
of eccentric water space through which the upper ends of the tubes
deliver the steam produced from the heat absorbed by the tubes and
transmitted to the water during its passage through them.
arrangement of tubes shewn at G, Figure 2, and at H, Figure 3, and
water spaces shewn at F and K, Figures 1 and 3, I obtain a general
circulation of water in the boiler, and especially through the tubes,
while the water space at K increasing upwards allows of an easy sepa-
ration of steam from the accompanying water and of its rising into the
steam chest separated, thus materially preventing priming while the water
returns to the lower ends of the tubes, thereby maintaining a constant
circulation through them in the direction shewn by the arrows, and
by crossing my tubes in alternate layer. I induce a constant- flow
towards and into the lower ends of tubes throughout one-half of the
absorption chamber, and a constant discharge from the upper ends of
tubes throughout the other half, thus causing general and uninterrupted
currents of water and steam as described, and also splitting up and
baffling the current of heat from the furnace through the meshes formed
by the vertical arrangement of my crossing tube, thus preventing the
heat passing to chimney unabsorbed, while the almost perpendicular
direction in which the heat impinges against the tubes renders their
absorbent power very great.
I do not claim the adoption of inclined tube as these have been
previously used, but I claim, using inclined water tubes placed in
alternate crossing layers and in eccentric water spaces, by which means

page_text: I gain all the advantages described either by ordinary fuel, petroleum,
oi gas.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Shand, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Second day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
JAMES SHAND. (L.S.)