IMPROVEMENTS IN WATER OR CASCADE AIR PUMPS
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Morgan-Brown, of the Firm of Brandon
and Morgan-Brown, Engineers and Patent Agents, of 38, South-
ampton Buildings, London, and 13, Rue Gaillon, Paris, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN WATER OR CASCADE AIR PUMPS."--A
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Morgan-Brown
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 16th March 1875.
I, WILLIAM MORGAN-BROWN, of the Firm of Brandon and Morgan-
Brown, Engineers and Patent Agents, of 38, Southampton Buildings,
London, and 13, Rue Gaillon, Paris, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WATER OR CASCADE AIR PUMPS,"
to be as follows :-
This Invention of improvements in water or cascade air pumps
consists in a modification of the Bunsen water vacuum pump to enable

page_text: it to be used practically in manufacturing industries, such as a sugar
factory, in connection with the well known vacuum pans.
The apparatus consists in a strong air-tight frame or box formed of
two parts, the upper communicating by a pipe with a pump or reservoir
of water, the lower and deeper division communicating with the
apparatus in which the vacuum is desired. The bottom of the lower
division is fitted with numbers of pipes, say 100, or any convenient
number depending vertically, and of a length and size according to the
vacuum required; these pipes dip into a lower cistern filled with water
which is fitted with an overflow so as to keep the lower ends of the pipes
always submerged.
The plate forming the diaphragm between the upper and lower
division is pierced with a number of holes corresponding to the pipes,
and at equal distances in each of these are screwed short pipes pending
down into the lower division a short distance, they terminato in small
copper extended cones, the edges of which are dentated and are produced
out into copper wires which depend perpendicularly into small chambers
or extended bell mouths in the bottom plate of the lower division, and
which form the upper part or entrance to the long series of tubes
before described.
Above the diaphragm is a movable plate pierced with a like number
of holes at equal distance, and fitting air-tight upon the upper surface
of the diaphragm; this plate has a horizontal movement given by a
screw so that the entrance through these holes may be made to coincide
with the short pipes of the diaphragm and partially or entirely stop the
entrance to them, and so regulate the flow of water from the upper
division.
To put the water air pump in action the water is forced into the upper
division by a pump or fed from a convenient reservoir, and on the
movable plate being set to allow the water to flow a powerful vacuum is
created by the water flowing down the long tubes, and a large condensing
surface obtained by the water flowing or trickling down the pendant
wires in the upper division.
A good size for the pipes is found to be ¼-inch diameter and forty-
five feet in length, but the size, number, and length must be in
accordance with the requirements of cach case.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Morgan-Brown in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 11th September 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MORGAN-BROWN, of the Firm of Brandon and Morgan-Brown, Engineers
and Patent Agents, of 38, Southampton Buildings, London, and 13,
Rue Gaillon, Paris, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of March, in the J year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said William Morgan-Brown, Her
special licence that I, the said William Morgan-Brown, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Morgan-Brown, 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 law-
fully 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 WATER OR CASCADE AIR PUMPS," (a com-
munication to me from abroad by G. A. Hagemann, of Copenhagen), upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Morgan-Brown,
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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
$
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Morgan-Brown, 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 thereof, that is to say; in conjunction with
the accompanying Sheet of Drawings :—
There is scarcely a laboratory in which the cascade air pump
constructed by Bunsen is not to be found, but although it has
proved itself to be so applicable in laboratories, it has never yet

page_text: been tried in any branches of industry, though it is easy to conceive
that it could find a practical application also there. The following is
a description of such a cascade air pump of large dimensions that has
been used in a sugar factory with a vacuum evaporating apparatus, and
has there shown itself most efficacious:-
Figure 1, a is a frame of cast iron to which the plate b is fitted air-
tight above this lies a movable plate c which can be regulated by the
screw d. The frames are closed above with a plate to which attaches
a tube with collar 9 connected with a water pipe Figure 3, 2. Tho
frames are closed below with the plate / which is so cast that it is
divided into, for example, 100 divisions. From the middle of cach of
these proceeds an iron pipe that depends vertically, and at its lowest
extremity is immerged some few inches in a tank of water provided
with an overflow communication with the evaporating apparatus is
effectuated through the tube k. Corresponding to the pipes m similar
holes are constructed in the plate into which short pipes are screwed
which terminate in small copper cones, whose dentated edges lengthen
out into copper wires which depend perpendicularly into the small
chambers in the bottom plate. Finally, the movable plate c is furnished
with holes which correspond to those in plate b; by moving the plato c
it is thus possible to close the holes in the plate & more or less.
Figure 3 shows the arrangement of the apparatus. The tube y loads
to a water pump and divides itself into two branches of which the one
leads to the air pump, the other to the water tank v. A cock is inserted
in the water tank, and when this is shut the pump drives the water up
into the pipe p from which it goes through the pipe q to the water tank.
The water pump supplies the pipe y with a regular stream of water, and
if now the cock w be shut the water will go to the air pump, which
having reached the proper vacuum now will be able to suck the water
up by itself, and thus again permit the reopening of the cock to. By
dispersion along the copper wires a very considerable condensing surface
is produced.
▲ sucker with 100 pipes " in diameter and 45' in length, has proved
with a supply of 1.75 cub. meter of water per minute to be able to
keep 22" vacuum in a double evaporating apparatus in which in 21 hours
2000 centners beetroot was evaporated. In the sucker itself the vacuum
was 25", thus showing that the connection pipe was too narrow.
The apparatus is especially adapted for such places where on account

page_text: of the high temperature of water much cooling water is to be used, and,
the longer the dependent pipes are made the greater is the evaporating
efficacy. It is less expensive to set up than a common air pump and
its practical application has proved that its employment is considerably
cheaper than that of the common air pump.
The above-mentioned 22" vacuum could not possibly be preserved
with the air pump of older construction, while there can be not doubt
of even a far better result being obtained by the application of the above
described apparatus.
Having now described and particularly set forth the nature of the
said Invention and the manner of carrying the same into effect, I would
have it understood that what I claim is, the application of the water or
cascade air pump as described for industrial purposes set forth, sub-
stantially as described.
In witness whercof, I, the said William Morgan-Brown, have here.
unto set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of September, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.
WILLIAM MORGAN-BROWN. (L.S.)