THE BOILERS AND ENGINES OP STEAM SHIPS." IMPROVEMENTS
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Elder, of Glasgow. in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention of
TO THE BOILERS AND ENGINES OP STEAM SHIPS."
IMPROVEMENTS RELATING
Sealed the 11th September 1866, and dated the 14th March 1866.
PROVISIONAL
SPECIFICATION left by the said John Elder at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th
March 1866.
I, JOHN ELDER, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark. North Britain,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE.
MENTS RELATING TO THE BOILERS AND ENGINES OF STEAM SHIPS," to be as follows,
that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object to render the boilers and engines of steam
ships capable of being worked with the greatest economy under ordinary
circumstances, and at the saine time able to develop a very much increased
power and speed on special occasions. The Invention is more particularly
applicable to war ships, to enable them to develop increased speed when
chasing or ramming an enemy, and to such merchant ships as may at any
time require to escape from an armed enemy.
Price 8d.1

page_text: In carrying out the Invention the engines are to be constructed for working
expansively according to any known and practically effective arrangement,
such, for example, as any of those known as "Randolph and Elder's double-
cylinder engines." In these engines, however, the large cylinders. pistons,
and other parts connected therewith ordinarily worked with steam already
partly reduced in pressure must be made of sufficient strength for being
worked with the full boiler pressure, and there must be provided in connection
with such cylinders branch steam pipes with stop valves or cut-off valves for
admitting steam directly into them. In order to develop largely increased
power in this way a proportionally increased production of steam must be
provided for. The boilers may be proportioned to suit the ordinary expansive
working of the engines, or they may be stronger or larger, but their increased
production upon special occasions is to be obtained by supplying a greatly
increased quantity of air to the fuel, which will consequently be more quickly
consumed, and will raise the steam with correspondingly increased rapidity.
The increased supply of air may be obtained by means of a powerful fan
provided for the purpose, and worked by the main engines or by special
donkey engines. In this way three or four times the ordinary indicated
horse's power may be developed upon an emergency, when the importance of
possessing such increased power will render a little extra consumption of coal
per horse power of no moment.
The Invention is applicable in connection with any engines designed for
ordinarily working with considerable expansion, as, for example, in what are
known as three-cylinder expansion engines, in which the steam does not pass
from one cylinder to the other. In such cases the valve details must be
proportioned (by well-known arrangements) to be capable of adjustment to
admit steam for a considerable part of the stroke, instead of being limited in
range to what might be suflicient for the ordinary expansive working.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Elder in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 13th a
September 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
ELDER, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord

page_text: One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Elder, Her special licence that I, the said John Elder, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I the said John Elder, 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 RELATING TO THE BOILERS AND
ENGINES OF STEAM SHIPS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
John Elder, 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 Elder, do hereby declare the nature
of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to bo
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement in
writing, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, that is to
say:--
My said Invention has for its object to render the boilers and engines of
steam ships capable of being worked with the greatest economy under ordinary
circumstances, and at the same time able to develop very much increased
power and speed on special occasions.
The Invention is more particularly applicable to war ships to enable them
to develop increased speed when chasing or ramming an enemy, and to
such merchant ships as may at any time require to escape from an armed
enemy.
In carrying out my said Invention, the engines are to be constructed for work-
ing expansively according to any known and practically effective arrangement,
such. for example, as any of those known as "Randolph and Elder's double
cylinder engines." These are engines in some modifications of which there are
two pairs of cylinders,, each pair consisting of a small high-pressure, and a large
low-pressure cylinder, the steam working first in the small cylinder and then
in the large one, whilst in other modifications there are two sets of cylinders,
each set consisting of one small high-pressure cylinder in which the steam
works first, and two larger low-pressure cylinders, in both which the steam
from the small cylinder is simultaneously expanded. The practically successful

page_text: results of these engines are due to the special construction and arrangement
of the valves and general details introduced by Messrs. Randolph and Elder,
and which distinguish them from other double cylinder expansive engines.
In employing these engines, however, under the present Invention, the
large cylinders, pistons, and other parts connected therewith, ordinarily worked
with steam already partly reduced in pressure must be made of sufficient
strength for being worked with the full boiler pressure, and there must be
provided in connection with such cylinders stop valves or cut-off valves for
admitting steam of full pressure into them. In order to develop largely
increased power in this way a proportionally increased production of steam
must be provided for. The boilers may be proportioned to suit the ordinary
expansive working of the engines, or they may be stronger or larger, but their
increased production upon special occasions is to be obtained by supplying a
greatly increased quantity of air to the fuel, which will consequently be more
quickly consumed. and will raise the steam with correspondingly increased
rapidity. This increased supply of air may be obtained by means of a
powerful. fan or fans provided for the purpose and worked by the main
engines or by special donkey engines. In this way three or four times the
indicated horse's power may be developed upon an emergency, when the
importance of possessing such increased power will render a little extra con-
sumption of coal of no amount. The fans may also be made to render
important service in clearing smoke rapidly away from the interiors of gun
turrets or cupolas, or from between decks, for which purposes ducts with
special valves or sluices will be carried from either the suction or discharge
ducts of the fans to the parts to be cleared in this way.
It will be obvious that the details of arrangements for increasing the
power of a war ship or other vessel on an emergency in the manner indicated
are susceptible of numerous modifications in practice.
In order, however, that my said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood I have hereunto appended two Sheets
of explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and representing a
simple and convenient modification.
Figure
occupying the upper part of Sheet 1 of the Drawings, and
Figure 2 occupying the lower part of the same Sheet, are respectively a
horizontal section and a longitudinal vertical section, showing the engines and
boilers for a war ship.
Figures 3 and 4 on Sheet 2 are transverse vertical sections, showing end
elevations of the main engines and of the boilers. The main engines are
screw propeller engines consisting of four cylinders 1, 2, 3, 4, a pair being

page_text: on each side of and inclined down towards the main shaft 5. Each pair of
cylinders comprises a small one, 1 or 3, and a large one, 2 or 4. There are
two diametrically opposite cranks on the main shaft 5, and the piston rod 6
of the small cylinders 1, 3, are connected. to one of these cranks, whilst
the piston rod 7 of the large cylinders 2, 4, are connected to the other crank.
The piston rods 7 of the large cylinder are represented as of one and a half
times the diameter that would be necessary for the ordinary expansive
working of the engines, and the other details are of suitably increased
dimensions to give a correspondingly increased strength. The main shaft 5,
or at least the part of it acted on by the large cylinders, and the shafting
extending to the propeller and the propeller itself are all of the full strength
necessary for transmitting the enhanced power which it is the object of the
improved arrangements to develop. In the present example a very simple
arrangement is adopted for admitting steam of full pressure to the large
cylinders when it is wished to develop extra power.
This arrangement is shown in Figure A, on Sheet 2, this Figure being a
view of the port face of one of the small cylinders. Near the opposite ends of
the port face are the ordinary ports c, d, by which steam alternately enters the
opposite ends of the cylinder, being controlled by valves moving at right
angles to these ports (but not shown in the Figure). In the middle space
between the ports c, d, there are two ports communicating one with each
steam passage, but ordinarily covered by a valve e, which can be adjusted
transversely to uncover the ports when required. The steam does not return
from the small cylinder by the ports c, d, but passes to the large cylinder by
passages controlled by valves between the two cylinders. With these arrange-
ments it is not necessary to interfere in the least with the ordinary valve gear
when requiring to work the large cylinders with full pressure; but simply to
open the valves e when the steam will have access to both ends of the small
cylinder at all times, and will find its way thence with undiminished pressure
by the intermediate passages and valves to the large cylinder, the small
cylinder at such times of course doing no work.
Another convenient arrangement is shown in Figure B, which may bo
advantageously used when the ordinary valves of the small cylinders are
worked by adjustable cut-off gear. In this arrangement a communication is
formed from one steam passage to the other (and not from both passages into
the steam chest.) Two stop valves F are fitted in this communication as close
to each passage as possible, and these are opened when the cylinder is to bc
worked with full pressure. The admission of steam to the large cylinder wi!!
then still be controlled by the ordinary valve of the small cylinder, and it may

page_text: be varied by adjusting the ordinary cut-off gear as though it were being done
for the small cylinder. The boilers 8 comprise two transverse ranges
of three cylindrical boilers in each range. and with three furnaces in each
end of each boiler, or in all thirty-six furnaces. They are designed for
supplying steam of 40 to 45 pounds pressure per square inch under ordinary
firing arrangements for the ordinary expansive working of the engines.
Between the engines and boilers two large blowing fans 9 are placed. each
with its donkey engine forming a complete machine. The exhaust steam
from the fan engines may be discharged by blast nozzles in the boiler funnels.
or it may be led into the condensers of the main engines, as may be most
convenient, branch pipes with separate stop-valves being shown for the
purpose. An air shaft 10 is formed near the fans for the descent of air to
supply them, whilst they deliver the air into a system of ducts 11 formed just
under the stoke-hole floor or platform, and having transverse lengths running
horizontally in front of each of the four sets of furnaces. In front of each
furnace a lifting door or valve 12 is fitted to the air duct, whilst hanging
doors 13 are fitted to the ash-pits, and when these doors are opened and con-
nected (in the manner shown in Figures 2 and 4) communications are formed
with the several ash-pits, and the air forced by the fans is delivered into them.
With these arrangements when the fans are set in action and the com-
munications made the fires will be greatly intensified so as to raise the
increased quantity of steam required for working the large cylinders with full
pressure. Additional air ducts 14 communicating with the system of air
ducts 11, but each provided with a separate sluice or stop-valve are pro-
vided for conveying more or less of the air up to gun turrets or cupolas.
or to between-deck spaces, and when the ship is in action and not at the
moment requiring the additional air for the boiler furnaces the whole power
of the fans may be used for clearing away the smoke caused by working the
guns. In a similar way branches may be connected with the suction air
shaft 10 and with turret, or between deck." or other spaces in the ship,
thus providing a means of clearing such spaces by the exhausting action of
the fans when this may be more convenient. In this case the air shaft 10
will require to be fitted with closed branches communicating with the central
inlet openings of the fans.
In conclusion it is necessary to state that the Invention is applicable in
connection with any engines designed for ordinarily working with considerable
expansion, as, for example, in what are known as "three cylinder expansion
engines," in which the steam does not pass from one cylinder to the other
In such cases the valve details must be proportioned (by well-known arrange

page_text: ments) to be capable of adjustment to admit steam for a considerable part of
the stroke, instead of being limited in range to what might be sufficient for
the ordinary expansive working.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I have to state that I do not restrict
myself to the precise details herein described or delineated; but that what I
believe to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured to me by
the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the making of provision
for developping a largely increased power upon emergencies in connection with
steam-ship boilers and engines ordinarily working with considerable expansion,
substantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Elder, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Eleventh day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
JOHN ELDER. (L.S.,