IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILERS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Sir William Fairbairn, of Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Baronct, and Thomas Beeley, of the Hyde
Junction Iron Works, Hyde, in the County of Chester, Engineer,
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Sir William Fairbairn
and Thomas Becley at the Office of tho Commissioners of Patcuts,
with their Petition, on the 23rd January 1873.
We, Sir WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN, of Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Baronet, and THOMAS BEELEY, of the Hyde Junction Iron
Works, Hyde, in the County of Chester, Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILERS,"
to be as follows:―
The object of this Invention is to render steam boilers perfectly safe
at high pressures, to obtain a great amount of heating surface, and to
afford facility in cleaning or removing the incrustation from the interior
of the boiler.

page_text: Our Invention is applicable to boilers constructed in the manner
described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to the
within-named Sir William Fairbairn, on the Eighteenth day of March
1870, No. 810.
Our Invention consists in the introduction of a multitubular section
between the fire-grate and the end of the flue, the ends of the tubes
being fixed in plates which are connected to the front and back portions
of the flue; by this means when the flue is drawn out of the shell of
the boiler the multitubular portion is exposed to sight and can be
cleaned or repaired with facility. The tubes may be placed either
horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, and we prefer to make one of the
tubes much larger than the others to enable the cinders to be removed
and for obtaining access to the fluc. This mode of construction
effectually removes the chief barrier that has hitherto existed to the
more general adoption of multitubular boilers, for in all such boilers of 1
the present construction it was found impossible to remove the incrusta-
tion that accumulates on the tubes.
Another part of our Invention consists in placing an internal fluc
tube or tubes in the upper compartment of the boiler described in the
Specification of the Patent of the 18th March 1870, No. 810, above 2
referred to, for the purpose of reducing the volume of water in the said
compartment and to increase the heating surface.
The above described improvements are applicable to stationary
boilers and to boilers for steam vessels; in the latter caso it is
desirable to place the two lower compartments of the boiler and the 2
lower part of the upper compartment in a plate iron frame lined with
blocks of fire-clay or other suitable material.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Sir William Fairbairn and Thomas Becley in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 22nd July 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, Sir
WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Baronet, and THOMAS BEELEY, of the Hyde Junction Iron Works,
Hyde, in the County of Chester, Engineer, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in
the thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said Sir William Fairbairn and
Thomas Beeley, Her special licence that we, the said Sir William
Fairbairn and Thomas Beeley, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as wc, the said Sir William Fairbairn and
Thomas Beeley, our 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 we, the said Sir William Fairbairn and Thomas
Becley, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our, or their, or one of our or their hands and scals, 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 Scal Patent Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Sir William Fairbairn and
Thomas Beeley, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement (that is
to say) :-
The object of this Invention is to render steam boilers perfectly
safe at high pressures, to obtain a great amount of heating surface,
and to afford facility in cleaning or removing the incrustation from the
interior of the boiler.
Our Invention is applicable to boilers constructed in the manner
described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to the
within-named Sir William Fairbairn on the Eighteenth day of March
1870, No. 810.
Our Invention consists in the introduction of a multitubular section
between the fire-grate and the end of the fluc, the ends of the tubes
being fixed in plates which are connected to the front and back portions

page_text: of the fluc, by this means when the flue is drawn out of the shell of
the boiler the multitubular portion is exposed to sight and can be
cleaned or repaired with facility. The tubes may be placed either
horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, and we prefer to make one of
the tubes much larger than the others to enable the ciuders to be i
removed and for obtaining access to the flue. This mode of con-
struction effectually removes tho chicf barrier that has hitherto existed
to the more general adoption of multitubular boilers, for in all such
boilers of the present construction it was found impossible to remove
the incrustation that accumulates on the tubes.
The above-described improvements are applicable to stationary
boilers and to boilers for steam vessels; in thic latter case it is
desirable to place the upper and lower compartments of the boiler
in a plate-iron frame which is lined with blocks of fire-clay or other
suitable material.
Another part of our Invention consists in placing an internal fluc
tube or tubes in the upper compartment of the boiler described in the
Specification of the Patent of the Eighteenth day of March 1870,
Number 810, above referred to, for the purpose of reducing the volume
of water in the said compartment and to increase the heating surface.
And in order that our Invention may be fully understood and readily
carried into operation, we will proceed to describe the four accom-
panying Sheets of Drawings, reference being had to the figures and
letters marked thereon.
On Sheet 1, Fig. 1, is a transverse section, and Fig. 2 a longitudinal
section of a stationary boiler constructed according to our improvemcuts.
a, b, b, are three cylindrical shells of boiler plate, the shell a being
placed above and between the shells b, b; these shells are connected by
the tubes c, c. The lower shells b, b, contain the cylindrical flues d, ‹, in
which are the fire-grates e, e, and bridges f,f, as shown and described in
the Specification of Letters Patent granted to Sir William Fairbairn on the
Eighteenth day of March 1870, No. 810, above referred to. In the said
Patent the cylindrical flucs went from the front to the back end of the
lower cylindrical shells; now our present Invention consists in the
introduction of a multitubular section between the fire-grato e and the
end of each fluo d, the ends of the tubes g, g, being fixed in the
plates d', d², which are connected to the front and back portions of the

page_text: fluc. The lowermost tube g¹ is much larger than the others to enable
the cinders to be removed and to obtain access to the inside of the fluc.
The ends of the flucs dare connected to the end plates of the lower
cylindrical shells b, b, by means of turned and faced angle irons and
bolts and nuts, and to the outer circumference of the flues & arc fixed
angle brackets for the rollers which run on the interior of the shell
when the fluc is being drawn out. When the fluc is drawn completely
out of the shell the multitubular portion is exposed and can be cleaned
or repaired with facility. The brickwork scating is clearly shown in the
Drawing and forms no part of our prosent Invention.
On Sheet 2, Fig. 3, is a vertical section, and on Sheet 3, Fig. 4, is a
longitudinal section of one of our improved boilers for steam vessels;
in this instance we have shewn the boiler as being composed of two
cylindrical shells a, a, and three lower shells b, b, b, but each lower
shell consists of two lengths, the ends of which unite in the arched
combustion chamber i. The parts marked c, d, d¹, c, f, g, g³, and h, are
similar to those previously described, and the whole boiler is surrounded
by a plate-iron frame k which is lined with blocks of fire-clay or other
suitable material. The fire-grates are fed from firing holes at cach
end of the shells b, b, and the products of combustion are carried off to
the funnel from the combustion chamber i, as shown by the arrows
in Fig. 4.
On Sheet 4, Fig. 5 represents an end view of a boiler constructed in
the manner above described or as described in the Specification of Sir
William Fairbairn's Patent above referred to, to which our present
improvements are applied; this improvement consists in placing
an internal fluc tube m in the upper cylindrical shell a for thic
purpose of reducing the volume of water in the same, and to
increase the licating surface, or more than one fluc tube m may be
applied if desirable.
Fig. 6 is a transverse section, and Fig. 7 a longitudinal section of a
boiler for marine purposes constructed according to a modification of
our Invention; the lower cylindrical shells b, b, are provided with
internal flues & and a multitubular portion as in the boilers, above
described, but the upper cylindrical shell a is in this instanco
also provided with small tubes. The whole boiler is surrounded
by a plate-iron case lined with fire-clay. The arrows indicate the
direction of the products of combustion through the flues.

page_text: The object of making the upper compartment of the boiler multi-
tubular is to increase the heating surface and to prevent the priming
which is produced by the rolling motion of the ship in boilers of the
ordinary construction.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention and the manner of
performing the same, we wish it to be understood, that we do not limit
ourselves to the details given, as they may be considerably varied and
modified, but we limit our claim to the introduction of the multitubular
section between the fire-grate and the end of the flue, in the manner and
for the purposes described.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Fairbairn and Thomas
Becley, have hereto set our hands and scals, this Nineteenth
day of July One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.