IMPROVEMENTS IN MOTIVE- POWER APPARATUS FOR WORKING DRILLING, RIVETING, HOISTING, AND OTHER MACHINES."
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Carnegie Kirk, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MOTIVE-
POWER APPARATUS FOR WORKING DRILLING, RIVETING, HOISTING, AND
OTHER MACHINES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Carnegie Kirk at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 29th July 1880.
ALEXANDER CARNEGIE KIRK, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MOTIVE-POWER APPARATUS FOR WORKING DRILLING,
RIVETING, HOISTING, AND OTHER MACHINES."
This Invention relates to the working of drilling, riveting, hoisting, and analogous
machines, such, for example, as may be used in boiler making, shipbuilding, or in
forming large metal structures, and which machines have to be moved to different
positions in succession during the progress of the work; the Invention also comprises
other applications of some of the improvements.
In carrying out the Invention in the case of drilling, riveting, and other portable
machines, water or other suitable liquid is supplied to them under pressure by
flexible or jointed pipes communicating between them and a set of pumps worked
by a steam engine, the pumps, engine, and boiler being combined together upon a
framing mounted on wheels or otherwise made movable, so as not to require great
lengths of piping between it and the drilling, riveting, or other portable machines.
The pumping engine will be stationary whilst work is being done with the
drilling or other machine over the space commanded by the connecting pipes, and
it will be moved from time to time into fresh positions. No accumulator or
receiver is employed, and the engine and pump details are proportioned and
arranged to be able to keep the supply of liquid under pressure fully up to the
requirements of the portable drilling, riveting, or other machine or machines when
working at its or their maximum speed. When the valves admitting the liquid to
the portable drilling, riveting, or other machines are closed, the steam pumps are

page_text: unable to work, as there is no outlet for the liquid, but the steam, is not shut off
(excepting when the machines are not to be worked for a considerable interval),
and the pumps start into action immediately on the admission or regulator valve of
any of the portable machines being opened.
The steam motor apparatus in connection with the pump or pumps is arranged
so that on an outlet from the pump or pumps being opened, and the pumps thereby
set free to work, it starts working instantly in whatever position or positions the
piston or pistons may happen to be. Although a single steam cylinder may be
used, a more uniform supply of the water or other fluid, and at a more uniform
pressure, will be obtained by using two or more steam cylinders and pumps. In a
preferable arrangement there are three double-acting or six single-acting pumps
worked by means of three steam cylinders and a crank shaft, a very steady supply
of liquid being thereby obtained with a very uniform pressure, and in an economical
manner.
When cold water is available for condensing the steam there may be combined
with the apparatus a small donkey engine continuously working an air pump in
connection with a jet or surface condenser, so as to maintain a vacuum into which
the steam of the pump motor may exhaust; or an injector condensor may be used
for the same purpose, a jet of cold water being passed constantly through it by
means of a small supplementary water jet of high pressure derived from the outlet
of the pressure pumps.
The herein before described constant condensing arrangements may be advan-
tageously used or applied in combination with steam pumping apparatus when fitted
as fixed apparatus for the supply of water under pressure on shore, or on board ship,
or otherwise.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Alexander Carnegie Kirk in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
26th January 1881.
ALEXANDER CARNEGIE KIRK, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MOTIVE POWER APPARATUS FOR WORKING DRILLING,
RIVETING, HOISTING, AND OTHER MACHINES."
My said Invention relates to the working of drilling, riveting, hoisting, and
analogous machines, such, for example, as may be used in boiler making, in ship-
building, or in forming large metal structures, and which machines have to be
moved to different positions in succession during the progress of the work. My
Invention also comprises other applications of some of the improvements.
In carrying out my Invention in the case of drilling, riveting, and other portable
machines, water or other suitable liquid is supplied to them under pressure by
means of flexible or jointed pipes communicating between them and a set of pumps
worked by a steam engine, the pumps, engine, and boiler being combined together
upon a framing mounted on wheels or otherwise made movable, so as not to require
great lengths of piping between it and the drilling, riveting, or other portable
machines. The pumping engine will be stationary whilst work is being done with
the drilling or other machine over the space commanded by the connecting pipes,
and it will be moved from time to time into fresh positions. No accumulator or
receiver is employed, and the engine and pump details and the pipes are pro-
portioned and arranged to be able to keep the supply of liquid under pressure fully
up to the requirements of the portable drilling, riveting, or other machine or
machines when working at its or their maximum speed. The pipes are by
preference made of comparatively large dimensions where length is great or the
machines are numerous in order that the pressure may be maintained without a
very rapid flow of the liquid through the pipes; and in the case of any of the
machines, the action of which is required to be quick or instantaneous, an air
vessel may be applied on the supply pipe to secure that action, and also to prevent
concussion in the pipes.
When the valves admitting the liquid to the portable drilling, riveting, or other
machines are closed, the steam pumps are unable to work, as there is no outlet for
the liquid, but the steam is not shut off (excepting when the machines are not
to be worked for a considerable interval), and the pumps start into action
immediately on the admission or regulator valve of any of the portable machines
being opened.
The steam motor apparatus in connection with the pump or pumps is arranged
so that on an outlet from the pump or pumps being opened, and the pumps thereby
set free to work, it starts working instantly in whatever position or positions the
piston or pistons may bappen to be. Although a single steam cylinder may be
used, a more uniform supply of the water or other liquid, and at a more uniform
pressure, will be obtained by using two or more steam cylinders and pumps, of
which many more or less suitable arrangements are well known. I prefer to employ
an arrangement in which there are three double-acting or six single-acting pumps
worked by means of three steam cylinders and a crank shaft, a very steady supply
of liquid being thereby obtained with a very uniform pressure, and in an economical
manner.
When cold water is available for condensing the steam there may be combined
with the apparatus a small donkey engine continuously working an air-pump in
connection with a jet or surface condenser, into which the steam of the pump motor
may exhaust at any time, the vacuum being maintained whether the motor is
working or not; or an ejector condenser may be used for the same purpose,

page_text: a jet of cold water being passed constantly through it by means of a small
supplementary jet of high pressure derived from the outlet of the pressure pumps.
The hereinbefore described constant condensing arrangements may be advan-
tageously used or applied in combination with steam pumping apparatus when fitted
(without an accumulator) as fixed apparatus for the supply of water under pressure
on shore, or on board ship, or otherwise.
The portable steam pumping apparatus may be advantageously used in some
cases in connection with fixed machines working by means of water or other liquid
under pressure, as, for example, when there are in one establishment a number of
such fixed machines which are not all constantly working, the portable steam
pumping apparatus being in such a case moved from time to time into the neigh-
borhood of such one or more of the fixed machines as require to be worked.
+
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I have to state that what I believe to be novel and original and
claim as the Invention secured to me by and in terms of the hereinbefore in part
recited Letters Patent is,-
1. The combination of portable steam pumping apparatus with drilling, riveting,
hoisting, or other portable or fixed machines worked by liquid under pressure
supplied by such pumping apparatus, substantially in the manner herein before
described.
2. The providing of constant condensing apparatus in connection with portable
or fixed steam pumping apparatus for supplying liquid under pressure to work
portable or fixed machines, substantially in the manner herein before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Carnegie Kirk, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty-one.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
ALEXANDER C. KIRK. (L.S.)