IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR BURNING OILS AND OTHER INFLAMMABLE FLUIDS AS FUEL
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Collier Bakewell, of No. 6, Haverstock
Terrace, Hampstead; in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR BURNING OILS AND OTHER INFLAMMABLE
FLUIDS AS FUEL."—A communication from abroad by Augustus Theodore
Schmidt of Pittsburgh, in the State of Pennsylvania. North America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Collier Bakewell
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 2nd January 1863.
I, FREDERICK COLLIER BAKEWELL, of No. 6, Haverstock Terrace, Ḥamp-
stead, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS POR BURNING OILS AND OTHER
INFLAMMABLE FLUIDS AS FUEL," being a communication to me from abroad by
Augustus Theodore Schmidt, of Pittsburgh, in the State of Pennsylvania,
North America, to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in an arrangement of apparatus by which oils and
other inflammable fluids of less specific gravity than water may be safely and
effectually employed as fuel for heating, cooking, generating steam, and for
other purposes. To effect this object the oil is burned on the surface of water,
through which it is supplied from an enclosed reservoir. The vessel, which

page_text: serves as the fire-box of a furnace, or as the fire-grate of a fire-place or stove,
is supplied with water through a pipe leading from a separate reservoir, and
the water is maintained at the required level by a governing stop-cock. The
pipe through which the oil is supplied rises a few inches above the bottom of
the fire-box, and a cover placed over the opening of the pipe at a little distance
from it distributes the oil as it rises to the surface through the water. To
facilitate the combustion of the oil, the fire-box may be constructed in com-
partments connected together, or air pipes may pass through the fluids, so that
air may be admitted to the top of the burning oil. To prevent the danger
that might arise from burning oil in steam boiler furnaces in ships or in
locomotive land engines, the fire-boxes in such cases are supported on gimbals
or on springs to keep them steady, and the splashing over of the oil is further
prevented by ledges projecting internally from the sides of the fire-boxes as a
further protection from danger. In ships the bottom of the furnace is
extended downwards into the water contained in the fire-box.
SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, by the said Frederick Collier
.Bakewell in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 3rd July 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
COLLIER BAKEWELL, of No. 6, Haverstock Terrace, Hampstead, in the County
of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Frederick Collier Bakewell, Her special licence that I, the said Frederick
Collier Bakewell, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Frederick Collier Bakewell, 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 APPARATUS FOR BURNING OILS AND OTHER
INFLAMMABLE FLUIDS AS FUEL," communicated to me from abroad by Augustus
Theodore Schmidt, of Pittsburgh, in the State of Pennsylvania, North
America, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Frederick

page_text: Collier Bakewell, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Frederick Collier Bakewell, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
This Invention consists in the employment of oil or other inflammable fluids
of less specific gravity than water as fuel for the purposes of heating, cooking,
generating steam, &c. by burning it without any wick or other solid vehicle
as it floats on the surface of a body of water, through which it is passed to
supply the consumption caused by the combustion.
In order to enable others skilled in the art to construct this improved
apparatus for burning carbon oil and similar substances as fuel, I will proceed
to describe its construction and operation.
In the Drawings accompanying this Specification I have represented the
application of the improvements to boilers for steam engines, but with obvious
modifications they may be applied to any furnace wherein coal, wood, or other
solid fuel is usually employed.
In Figure 1, a is a steam boiler of ordinary construction. The furnace is
placed under it at the front end (see Figure 2). 6 is the back wall of the
furnace, in front of which and enclosed within walls at the sides, and by doors
in front, is placed the fire-box c, which is an iron vessel open at the top, and
holds the water with oil on its surface. It may be made with plain sides and
bottom, without any other openings than those to admit the oil and water, but
as it is desirable to admit air through the body of the flame.in the fire-box, it
is preferred to be made of the shape shown in Figure 3, with narrow
openings d, d, extending from one side of the box nearly to the opposite side,
from top to bottom. The same effect may be produced by a series of narrow
boxes placed near together, with a communication from one to the other, so as
to preserve the water and the oil at the same level in each, or by inserting
through the bottom of the fire-box air tubes open at both ends, the tops of
which are above the level of the oil in the fire-box. By any of these modes
of construction air may be admitted from below through the flame at the top
of the fire-box. The admission of air in front and from below may be regulated
by the damper e and the furnace doors f by holes g in the front wall of the

page_text: furnace above the top of the fire-box. On each side of the furnace, or in
some other convenient situation, are placed the reservoirs of water and oil, the
former to supply the waste caused by evaporation, and to keep the oil at the
proper height in the fire-box, and the latter to keep up the necessary supply of
fuel. These reservoirs may be placed a little above the top of the fire-box, so
as to avoid the necessity of raising the oil and water by machinery: From the
oil reservoir h a pipej (seen in Figure 1, and the lower extremity of which is
shown in Figure 2,) extends down from below the fire-box, and is inserted
through the bottom of it (as seen in Figure 2), rising perpendicularly a few
inches in the water inside the fire-box. The extremity of the oil pipe j is
open, to allow the oil to pass out, but over it is placed a saucer-shaped disc i,
which spreads the oil as it issues from the pipe j, and prevents it from rising
in a column to the surface of the water. The supply of oil from the oil
reservoir to the fire-box is regulated by a stop-cock n³, as seen in Figure 4.
From the water reservoir wa pipe k extends to and enters the fire-box c, to
supply the water which underlies the oil. In order to keep the water at the
proper level in the fire-box, and prevent the burning oil from overflowing,
there is attached to the water pipe k, between the water reservoir w'and' the
fire-box c, a regulator constructed as follows:-To the stop-cock n on the
water pipė k is attached a lever 1, with a counterpoise m at one end, the other
end being attached to a float p in a tube g, which tube opens into the fire-box,
so that the water in the tube is nearly at the same level as the water in the
fire-box. If the water in the fire-box is diminished by evaporation, the float
in the tube q will descend, and thus slightly open the stop-cock n, allowing
water to flow into the fire-box until the proper level is restored, when the float
rises, and shuts the stop-cock. A waste pipe and stop-cock r, at the bottom
of the fire-box, serve to draw off the water and oil when it is desired to do so.
The sides of the fire-box where exposed to the flame may be lined with fire-
brick to prevent the iron from burning.
The operation of the apparatus is simply this:-The fire-box being supplied
with water to the proper height, say a few inches from the top, the oil is then
admitted through the pipe j, and rising through the water floats on its surface;
all that is then necessary is to ignite the oil, which burns with intense heat
and a large amount of flame, and by properly regulating the admission of air,
the smoke is almost entirely consumed. In this 'manner not only carbon oil
and coal oil, but other fluids rich in carbon, of less specific gravity than water,
and which will not mix with it, may be burned as fuel, for which purpose a
fluid composed of the pitchy residuum from the distillation of carbon and coal
oils dissolved in benzole forms an excellent material; and as those substances

page_text: are now of little or no value, a very cheap fuel may be obtained in great
quantities.
The apparatus which I have described is susceptible of numerous modifica-
tions of construction to adapt it to the various circumstances in which fires
and furnaces are employed. One modification, however, of the apparatus
I will explain, as it is necessary to provide some safe means of using this fluid
fuel in furnaces which are in motion, as in locomotives on railways, and in
steamboats. It is obvious that in an ocean steamer, for instance, the lurching
motion of the vessel would interfere with the successful operation of the
apparatus if the fire-box were fixed, as it would be impossible to prevent the
overflow of the fluid, and even in a locomotive the sudden cessation of its
rapid motion would cause, the water and oil to be splashed over the sides of
the fire-box unless special precautions were taken to prevent it. In order,
therefore, to adapt the Invention to those circumstances, a modified form of
the apparatus has been devised, as shown in Figures 4, 5, and 6.
Figure 4 is a representation of a steam boiler and furnace, the arrangements
of oil and water reservoirs and the means of supplying and regulating the flow
of oil and water being similar to those before explained. Under the boiler a
is placed a fire-box s, of the shape and construction shown in Figure 5; it is
surrounded with horizontal plates t, t, t, projecting from under its sides all
round. These plates check the splashing of the water when any sudden
motion or jerk is given to the apparatus. This fire-box is hung on gimbals u, u,
(like a chronometer or mariner's compass), so that it preserves its horizontal
position, notwithstanding the lurching motion of a vessel at sea. This arrange-
ment will prevent almost entirely any overflow of the water in the fire-box.
The bottom of the furnace is extended downwards into the fire-box, as seen in
Figure 6, the part so extended v, v, being open at the bottom, and through
that opening the oil pipe ; rises, so that the oil is confined to the inside of the
projecting portion v, v, of the furnace, and cannot escape to the edge of the
fire-box s at all. By this means it becomes unnecessary to enclose the fire-
box externally, as the fire is confined within the projecting portion or fire
chamber v, v, of the furnace, as seen in Figure 6. In locomotive engines,
which do not deviate so much from the horizontal plane, the fire-box may be
placed on springs instead of being hung on gimbals. Instead of employing
the separate reservoirs h and w for the oil and water, the oil reservoir may be
placed inside the water tank, the latter forming in that case excellent
protection to the oil reservoir, preventing the leakage of oil, and avoiding any
danger of the communication of fire to the oil in the reservoir. There may

page_text: also be made various modifications of this special arrangement while the
principle involved in the Invention is preserved.
Having thus described these improvements, and the manner in which they
carried into operation, I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent,-
The mode herein-before described of employing carbon oil, coal oil, and
other similar fluids or compositions of fluids as fuel for furnaces, fire-
places, &c.
The construction and use of apparatus for burning carbon oil and other
similar fluids as fuel, consisting of a fire-box hung on pivots or gimbals, and
having projections inside to prevent the overflow of the water, combined with
a fire chamber inserted in the fire-box, so as to be immersed in the water,
thus confining the burning oil or fluid within the fire chamber, substantially
in the manner herein-before set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Collier Bakewell, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this First day of July, in the year of our
Lord 1863.
FRED. COLLIER BAKEWELL. (L.S.)