IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF MARINE STEAM BOILERS
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for. the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF MARINE STEAM
BOILERS." A communication from abroad by Alban Crocker Stimers, of
Castleton, in the State of New York, United States of America.
Sealed the 24th January 1865, and dated the 17th October 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th October 1864.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for, "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF MARINE STEAM
BOILERS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in an arrangement of the tubes in what is com-
monly known as a horizontal tubular boiler, so as to cause the steam to
escape from the heating surfaces and pass into the dome direct, and by this
means to economize the heat. The tubes are arranged in vertical rows as
well as horizontal rows, and the vertical water spaces between the tubes
gradually increase in breadth from the bottom to the top of the tubes. The

page_text: object of this is to allow the steam which is generated below at the lowest
row of tubes, and upon the surface of each successive tube above, and which
adds volume to the upward current of steam and water, which is constantly
flowing upwards at these-parts-when the boiler is in operation, to have a
constantly increasing space, corresponding if not exactly at least in part with
the increasing volume; the results of this are to permit a more quiet dis-
engagement of the steam from the water as it comes to the surface, thereby
preventing foaming, and supplying a larger proportion of water to the upper
tubes than would be in contact with them in the ordinary tubular boiler, and
generating a proportionally larger quantity of steam. This increase in the
breadth of the water spaces between the tubes at the upper part is obtained
by placing the tubes in regular vertical rows, and making the upper tubes of
less diameter than the lower. In the boilers which are being built according
to this Invention each tube is made one-eighth of an inch smaller in diameter
than the one next below it. If preferred, however, the changes in diameter
could each be greater and be less frequent, but such an arrangement would
not obtain the full benefits of the Invention. This diminution of the diameters
of the upper tubes, without increasing their number causes a greater quantity
of the heated gases to pass through the lower tubes as compared with the
upper ones, and this greater, quantity also passes with a greater rapidity
because the tubes are of greater 'area with the same length...
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 17th April 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
+
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors; give and grant unto me, the
said William Edward Newton, Her special license that I, the said William
Edward Newton, my executors; administrators; and assigns, or such others as
1, the said William Edward Newton, 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

page_text: 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 THE CONSTRUCTION OF MARINE STEAM BOILERS," being
a communication from Alban Crocker Stimers, of Castleton, New York State,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Edward Newton,
by an instrument in writing. under my hand and seal, 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 Edward Newton, 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 Drawings hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say).
This Invention of "Improvements in the Construction of Marine Steam.
Boilers" consists in an arrangement of the tubes. in, what is commonly known.
as a horizontal. tubular. boiler, so. as to cause the steam to escape from the
heating surfaces and pass into the dome direct, and by this means to economize
the heat.
The several Figures in the accompanying Drawings represent a marine
steam boiler having a single. return through tubes, situated over the furnaces,
this being one of the forms to which the Invention is applicable.
.
Fig. 1. is a plan view, Fig. 2 a front elevation, and Fig. 3 a longitudinal
section of the.boiler. The right-hand half of the plan and elevation, Figures
1 and 2, are shewn in section, so that the internal construction of the boiler
may be more clearly understood.
A, A, are the furnaces; B, B, the ash pits; C, C, the back connections
communicating between the furnaces and the back ends of the tubes D, D;
the front connections E, E, communicate between the front ends of the
tubes D, D, and the smoke-pipe F. The tubes D, D, are arranged in vertical,
rows as well as horizontal rows, and the vertical water spaces between the
rows g and h. of the tubes, as shewn in Fig. 2, gradually increase in breadth
from the bottom to the top of the tubes. The object of this arrangement is
to allow the steam which is generated at the lower row of tubes g, and upon
the surface of each successive tube above this row, to have a constantly
increasing space, corresponding if not exactly at least in part with the
increasing volume. This arrangement adds volume to the upward current of
steam and water, which is constantly flowing upwards at these parts when the

page_text: boiler is in operation; the results of this are to permit a more quiet dis-
engagement of the steam from the water as it comes to the surface; thereby
preventing foaming, and supplying a larger proportion of water to the upper
tubes-than would be in contact with them in the ordinary tubular boiler, and
generating a proportionally larger quantity of steam. This increase in the
breadth of the water spaces between the tubes at the upper part is obtained
by placing the tubes in regular vertical rows, and making the upper tubes of
less diameter than the lower ones.
In the boilers which-are being built according to this Invention each tube
is made one-eighth of an inch smaller in diameter than the one next below it.
If preferred, however, the changes in diameter could each be greater and be
less frequent, but such an arrangement would not obtain the full benefit of the
Invention: This diminution of the diameters of the upper tubes without
increasing their number causes a greater quantity of the heated gases to pass.
through the lower tubes as compared with the upper ones, and this greater
quantity also passes with a greater rapidity because the tubes are of greater
area with the same length..
⚫ After a steam boiler of the ordinary construction has been put into
operation, and the steam is being rapidly generated, about nine-tenths of the
heat which passes through the heating surfaces into the water has an immediate
effect in converting water into steam, the remaining one-tenth being required
to heat the feed water to the boiling temperature of the boiler; all parts.
of the heating surfaces in contact with water are therefore constantly gene-
rating steam in their immediate contact, and in order to use and permit
all the surfaces to be efficient, provision must be made to facilitate the imme-
diate rising of the newly generated steam from the water into the steam-
chamber in the upper part of the boiler; not only should this provision be
made for the immediate departure from the generating surface of the newly
generated steam; but care should be taken to prevent as much as possible the
contact of this steam with the heating surfaces situated above that upon which
it was generated, in order that such upper surfaces may be as much as possible
in contact with water only. Water at a boiling temperature receives heat very
readily up into its expansion into steam, and thus where boiling water only is
in contact with the heating surface a rapid absorption of the heat through the
metal into the water is maintained. Steam after its generation receives heat
very slowly, and thus with a given length of flue and rapidity of current
of the heated gáses through it a larger portion of the heat in these gases
passes through into the water when the surfaces are kept free from steam than
when they are. partially in contact with it. The greater the proportion of

page_text: water to steam (when, as is always the case practically, both are present), the
greater will be the absorption of the heat, other things being equal. .Added to
this advantage, any increase in the provision for facilitating the egress to the
surface of the water of the steam formed on the heating surfaces in the lower
parts of the boiler, the less will be the liability to foam, with its attendant
evils of breaking down the engines, and causing the explosion of the boilers.
Again, in horizontal tubular boilers there will of necessity be more steam
in contact with the upper tubes than with the lower ones, because in a
properly proportioned boiler there will be when in full operation a strong
upward current of both steam and water, and as this current passes upward
from row to row of tubes, a part of the water being generated into steam as
it passes each, the proportion of steain is gradually augmented.. In the
case therefore of the upper tubes, the passage of the heat through the metal
is slower than with the lower ones, and as they are usually of the same length,
the temperature of the heated gases at their exit is greater, and as it is neces-
sary to give the boiler such proportions that the temperature of the gases at
their exit through the lower tubes is not too much reduced, it follows that
those which pass through the upper ones leave them in the ordinary boilers
heretofore in common use at a temperature which is wastefully high.
The advantage resulting from the present Invention is, that as the propor-
tion of water in the mixture of water and steam in contact with the tubes is
greater at the lower than at the upper tubes the heat is more rapidly absorbed,
and therefore there is more nearly an equality of temperature in the exit of
the heated gases from the tubes, it being well known to engineers that in the
ordinary tubular boiler the gases flow from the upper tubes at much higher
temperature than they do from the lower.
The improvements which are thus introduced into the horizontal tubular
boiler will bring its economical powers fully up to what is known as the
vertical water-tube boiler, and.it will foam less, and be capable of burning a
much larger quantity of coal per square foot of grate when desired, thus
enabling the steam vessels in which it is placed to attain a higher rate of
speed than if they were supplied with either the ordinary horizontal fire tube
boiler, or with the vertical tube boiler of the kind above referred to.
Having now described the Invention which has been communicated to me
as aforesaid, and having explained the manner of carrying the same into
effect, I claim as the Invention which I desire to secure by Letters Patent,
the so arranging the tubes in what is known as the horizontal fire-tube boiler
that the vertical water space between the tubes will regularly increase from
the lower to the upper part thereof, and will therefore furnish a greater cross

page_text: area for the flow of the heated gases through the lower than through the. upper
tubes, as herein set forth.
:
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Fifteenth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
i
+66, Chancery Lane.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.s.)