IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR GENERATING AND CONDENSING STEAM, AND IN FURNACES FOR STEAM GENERATORS AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the "
"International
Patent Office," No. 8, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane,
London, Consulting Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR GENERATING AND CONDENSING STEAM, AND IN FURNACES
FOR STEAM GENERATORS AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES."-A communication
from abroad by Treat Timothy Prosser, of Chicago, Illinois, United
States of America.
Scaled the 29th June 1869, and dated the 28th April 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Robert Lake
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 28th April 1869.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the "International Patent Office,"
No. 8, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, Consulting
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Im.
PROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR GENERATING AND CONDENSING STEAM, AND IN
DO71

page_text: FURNACES FOR STEAM GENERATORS AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES," a communication
to be as follows;-
The first part of my Invention relates to a furnace which may be
used in a steam generator, or for many other analogous purposes, and
it consists in placing within the fire-box of such furnace a chamber
opening above the grate bars, through which the coal is fed, which coal
before falling upon the grate bars is exposed to the action of the heat
evolved within the fire-box while retained in the said chamber, above
which is a cover for preventing the escape of the gases distilled from
the coal, which gases may be utilized either by bringing them down in
a pipe or pipes and discharging them below the incandescent coke
through which they will pass and be consumed, or they may be conducted
away in pipes to be utilized in another place.
My Invention may be applied to any ordinary furnace for generating
heat and to a steam generator in connection with my improved jacket
but may be used as well without the jacket. In the centre of the fire-
box is placed a vertical cylindrical chamber the mouth of which is open
below and elevated above the grate bars high enough to afford room
for a bed of coke, which lying upon the grate bars will fill the space
below the cylinder or chamber. The top of the chamber is covered by
a close fitting cap, this cap may be removed when the chamber is to
be filled with 'coal, and when closed will confine the gases evolved by
the action of the heat upon the coal in the space above the coal,
and within the said chamber a pipe opens out of the top of the said
chamber by which the gases evolved may be conducted down and
discharged into the space below the grate, such gases on being thus
discharged will rise with the current of air entering below the grate,
and passing through the incandescent coke upon the grate will be
burned within the fire-box. The heat thus evolved may be carried
through the flues of the boiler in the ordinary manner or otherwise
utilized as desired. Instead of conducting the gases through the pipe
to the space below the grate bars the said gases may be carried away
through the said pipe to be purified and used for illuminating purposes
or may be applied to any other suitable use. The fire having been
started by placing fuel upon the grates, and the chamber having been
charged with coal as the fuel on the grates is consumed, and as the
ashes thereof falling through the grates into the ash-pit make room
below the mouth of the chamber, fresh coke will fall therefrom to

page_text: supply the combustion, its place in the chamber being occupied by fresh
coal introduced into the top thereof from time to time as required.
Among the uses to which this Invention is applicable is that of
disulphurizing ores in furnaces. The ores may be fed into the chamber
with the coal, and as they are heated by the combustion of the coke on
the grates the sulphurets will be expelled by the action of the heat and
pass away with the gaseous products of the distillation of the coal leaving
the metallic bases to be melted and to flow down into the bottom of the
furnace or cupola.
The second part of my Invention relates to the condensing chambers
of steam generators adaptable to use as jackets for the same, and it
consists in surrounding the shell of the generator by an air space
enclosed between the generator and a steam jacket which is formed
by a shell inclosing a space into which the escape steam is discharged,
and in which it is condensed, so that the jacket serves not only to
protect the generator from loss of heat by radiation but also acts as a
condenser from which hot water the product of condensation may be
again supplied to the generator which is thus fed with pure distilled
water. The fire-box or furnace may be placed in the end of a cylindrical
The
steam generator having tubes extending through the boiler.
furnace is constructed with the improvements already described, but
the two may be independently used, and the furnace forms no part of
the improvement in the jacket which may be applied to any steam
The
generator without reference to the kind of furnace employed.
heads of the steam generator are extended by flanges which enclose
the surrounding cylindrical jacket. The latter is made of rolled steel
or iron plates like those used in the construction of the shell of the
generator though they do not require to be as thick, as they have less
pressure to sustain, but by making them heavy they form an additional
security against explosions. The said jacket has an outer and an inner
shell enclosing within them a space sufficient to receive the escaped
steam into what may be called the escaped steam chamber. The cubical
capacity of this space must be such that the steam discharged thereinto
will have sufficient expansion to considerably reduce its pressure, and
consequently its temperature, a dead air chamber will thus be formed
between the external shell of the boiler and the internal shell of the
steam jacket, the tendency of which will be to prevent radiation and
To prevent
consequent loss of heat from the shell of the generator.

page_text: radiation from the external shell of the jacket, it may be covered with
felt or jacketed in any manner in common use for such purposes.
The steam generated may be taken out through the eduction pipe.
The hot water is pumped from the jacket through a feed pipe into the
generator. Water sufficient to supply the loss from leakage may be
pumped into the jacket through another pipe. In case it may be desired
to reduced the temperature of the escaped steam in the jacket air pipes
may be inserted passing through the steam chamber of the jacket,
through which a blast may be forced into the fire; this cold air will
take up the heat from the steam and utilize it in the furnace. I
have described the chamber in which the exhaust steam is condensed
as being placed around the generator to form a jacket therefor. This
is regarded as being the best arrangement, but it is not indispensible
that it should be so arranged, for it is manifest that some of the
advantages claimed could be secured by having the condensing chamber
entirely independant of the boiler, except as it may be connected there-
with by pipes for the induction and eduction of the steam or water of
condensation.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Robert Lake in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 28th October 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ROBERT LAKE, of the "International Patent Office," No. 8,
Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Consulting Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Robert Lake, Her special
license that I, the said William Robert Lake, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Robert Lake,
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,

page_text: use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR GENERATING AND CONDENSING STEAM, AND IN
FURNACES FOR STEAM GENERATORS AND FOR
OTHER FURPOSES," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said William Robert Lake, 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 William Robert Lake, 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, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings forming a part of this Specification.
The first part of my Invention relates to a furnace which may be
used in a steam generator, or for many other analagous purposes; and
it consists in placing within the fire-box of such furnace a chamber open-
ing above the grate bars, through which the coal is fed, which coal
before falling upon the grate bars is exposed to the action of the heat
evolved within the fire-box while retained in the said chamber, above
which is a cover for preventing the escape of the gases distilled from
the coal, which gases may be utilized either by bringing them down in
a pipe or pipes, and discharging them below the incandescent coke
through which they will pass and be consumed, or they may be con-
ducted away in pipes to be utilized in another place.
I have illustrated in the accompanying Drawings in Figures 1 and 2
the said improvements as applied to an ordinary furnace for generating
heat, and in Figures 3 and 4 as applied to a steam generator, in con-
nection with the improved jacket, but which may be used as well without
the said jacket.
In these Drawings A represents the fire-box of the furnace, in the
centre of which is placed a vertical cylindrical chamber B; the mouth of
which is open below and elevated above the grate bars D high enough
to afford room for a bed of coke, which lying upon the grate bars will
fill the space below the cylinder or chamber B. The top of the chamber
is covered by a close fitting cap G, which may be removed when the

page_text: chamber B is to be filled with coal, and which when closed will confine.
the gases evolved by the action of the heat upon the coal. In the space
above the coal and within the said chamber C is a pipe, opening out of
the top of the said chamber, by which the gases so evolved may be
conducted down and discharged into the space E below the grate D,
such gases on being thus discharged will rise with the current of air,
entering below the grates and passing through the incandescent coke
upon the grate will be burned within the fire-box. The heat thus
evolved may be carried through the flues of the boiler in the ordinary
manner, or otherwise utilized as desired. Instead of conducting the
gases through the pipe C to the space below the grate bars the said
gases may be carried away through the pipe to be purified and used for
illuminating purposes, or be applied to any other suitable use. The fire
having been started by placing fuel upon the grates, and the chamber B
having been charged with coal, as the fuel on the grates is consumed
and as the ashes thereof falling through the grates into the ash-pit E
make room below the mouth of the chamber, fresh coke will fall there-
from to supply the combustion, its place in the chamber B being
supplied by feeding fresh coal into the top thereof from time to time as
required.
Among the uses to which this Invention is applicable is that of
desulphurizing ores in furnaces. The ores may be fed into the chamber B
with the coal, and as they are heated by the combustion of the coke on
the grates the sulphurous gases and sulphurets will be expelled by the
action of the heat, and pass away with the gaseous products of the dis-
tillation of the coal, leaving the metallic bases to be melted and to flow
down into the bottom of the furnace or cupolo.
The second part of this Invention relates to the condensing chambers
of steam generators adaptable to use as jackets for the same, and it
consists in surrounding the shell of the generator, by an air space
enclosed between the generator and a steam jacket, which is formed by
a shell enclosing a space into which the escaped steam is discharged, and
in which it is condensed, the jacket therefore serves not only to protect
the generator from loss of heat by radiation, but also acts as a condenser,
from which hot water, the product of condensation may be again supplied
to feed the generator with pure distilled water.
I have shewn in the annexed Drawings in Figures 3 and 4 a transverse
and longitudinal section of a fire-box steam generator and jacket; in

page_text: Figure 5, a perspective view of the steam jacket; and in Figure 6, a per-
spective view of a steam generator formed to receive such a jacket. I
have shown in these Figures the fire-box or furnace placed in the end of
a cylindrical steam generator having tubes extending through the boiler.
The furnace is constructed as represented, with the improvements
already described, but the two may be independently used, and the
furnace forms no part of the improvement in the jacket, which may be
applied to any steam generator without reference to the kind of furnace
employed.
A in these Figures is the steam generator, the heads of which are
extended by flanges which enclose the surrounding cylindrical jacket K,
which is made of rolled steel or iron plates like those used in the con-
struction of the shell of the generator, though they do not require to
be so thick, as they have less pressure to sustain, but by making them
thick they form an additional security against explosions. The jacket
has an outer and an inner shell enclosing within them a space sufficient
to receive the escaped steam, into what may be called the escaped steam
chamber. The cubical capacity of this space must be such that the
steam discharged thereinto will have sufficient expansion to considerably
reduce its pressure and consequently its temperature. A dead air
chamber will thus be formed between the external shell of the boiler
and the internal shell of the steam jacket, the tendency of which will
be to prevent radiation and consequent loss of heat from the shell of the
generator. To prevent radiation from the external shell of the jacket
it may be covered with felt or jacketed in any manner in common use
for such purposes. The steam generated may be taken out through the
eduction pipe a; b is the feed pipe through which the hot water is
pumped from the jacket K at d, into the generator. Water sufficient to
supply the loss from leakage may be pumped into the jacket through
the pipe G'. In case it may be desired to reduce the temperature of
the escaped steam in the jacket K, air pipes may be inserted passing
through the steam chamber of the jacket, through which a blast may be
forced into the fire. This coid air will take up the heat from the steam
and utilize it in the furnace.
The advantages resulting from this construction of the generator and
steam jacket are in part, first, the water supplied to the generator
(except the fresh water supplied to compensate for that lost by leakage)
is distilled and the rapid incrustation of the boiler is thereby prevented;

page_text: second, the saving of most of the heat ordinarily lost by the con-
densation of the steam in a condenser or by discharging it into the open
air, the heat of such waste steam being ordinarily represented by twelve
hundred degrees, as the sum of what is called the sensible and latent
heat of steam; third, the saving of much of the heat ordinarily lost by
radiation from the shell of the steam generator.
To illustrate the economical value of these improvements I will
suppose the pressure in the steam chamber of the jacket containing the
exhaust steam to be fifty pounds to the square inch, the temperature
corresponding to which is two hundred and eighty-three degrees. Iu
order that the engine should have an effective force of fifty pounds to the
square inch, there should be a pressure in the engine cylinder of one
hundred pounds with a temperature of 332°. Under these conditions it
will be seen that the difference of temperature of the steam in the
generator and the water and steam in the jacket would be only 49°,
and therefore (leaving out of consideration all other elements of loss)
it would require only heat enough' to add 49° degrees to the temperature
of the water drawn from the steam jacket to raise it to the required
temperature instead of the 233° required to convert water from a tem-
perature of fifty degrees into steam, under a pressure of fifty pounds to
the square inch. It must be understood however that the above result
is not stated as that which would be given in practice, but it is merely
stated as illustrating the principle of operation. I have described the
chamber in which the exhaust steam is condensed as being placed
around the generator to form a jacket therefor. This is regarded as
being the best arrangement, but it is not indispensible that the chamber
should be so arranged, for it is manifest that some of the advantages
claimed could be secured by having the condensing chamber entirely
independent of the boiler, except as it may be connected therewith by
pipes for the induction and eduction of the steam or water of con-
densation.
Having thus fully described the nature of the said Invention as com-
municated to me by my foreign correspondent, and shown an ad-
vantageous manner of carrying the same into effect, I claim,--
First. A furnace having the vertical chamber B arranged within the
fire-box and above the grates, substantially in the manner set forth, when
the said chamber is constructed with a close cover and with pipes

page_text: leading out of the upper part of the chamber to conduct the gases
evolved by the distillation of the coal out of the same to be utilized as
desired.
Second. In combination with a steam generator an external case
forming a steam jacket encircling the generator and leaving a dead air
space between them and connected by pipes through which the exhaust
steam is discharged into the jacket, and there retained under pressure
until condensed and provided with other pipes through which the water
of condensation is drawn from the jacket and forced into the generator,
substantially as set forth.
Third. In combination with a steam generator a closed condensing
chamber into which the exhaust steam is discharged under pressure and
condensed to supply feed water for the condenser substantially as set
forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
Witness,
HARRY J. GEDGE.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE. (L.S.)