Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Aug., 1886.
Complete Left, 16th May, 1887.
Complete Accepted, 21st June, 1887.
I JOHN GAMGEE, of 14 Whitehead's Grove, Chelsea, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows :-
This invention relates to generating steam in boilers, and to facilitating ebullition
in liquids generally, by apparatus which causes very active circulation with slight
differences of temperature.
Many methods have been employed for extending heating surface and piercing the
body of water by hot tubes, but convection in boilers is still so imperfect, especially
when incrustation is present, that pumps have been used to agitate the water and even
to aërate it.
My invention consists in fitting steam boilers, or other apparatus in which the
ebullition of a liquid has to be effected, with what may truly be described as automatic
pumps whereby the water or liquid is broken up and a very active circulation
imaintained. The number and size of these pumps is regulated by the size of boiler
and the volume of steam to be produced according to well known rules followed by
boiler makers in relation to grate and heating surface.
Each pump may be described as a triple tube consisting of:-1st. An outer tube or
vertical chamber hermetically sealed at both ends and which preferably projects by its
lower end into the flame or furnace; 2nd. A tube fixed into the top of the outer
tube and extending to very nearly the bottom of the latter which is the lowest part of
the boiler and cannot be without water; 3rd. Another tube fixed or welded into the
top of the outer tube and extending downwards to the lower part of this and extending
upwards to a level above the normal water level of the boiler. It is best bent at the
top to eject water and steam downwards.
When water is admitted into a boiler fitted with these tubes it can only partially
fill each one.
A layer of air is occluded and a free steaming surface obtained in each

page_text: and all the tubes close to the fiercest heat. On heat being applied the air expands
and water is at once ejected by the upper or discharge pipe, and as steam forms, a
cushion of steam operates like the air in the pump of an air vessel in maintaining an
uninterrupted current of the greatest possible activity. A scouring action keeps the
tubes and the boiler free from fixed scale and by blowing off, the apparatus is kept
from any prejudicial deposit.
Convection fountains or triple tubes, as these may be called, may be fixed advantage-
ously, erect, inside any boiler and are quite operative though not projecting into the
flame. They may be made removable and capable of being thoroughly examined at
pleasure. In any position they accelerate the production of steam and effect a great
economy of coal..
1000
Ebullition of Liquids has to be Effected.
I JOHN GAMGEE, of 14 Whitehead's Grove, Chelsea, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
This invention relates to generating steam in boilers, and to facilitating ebullition
in liquids generally, by apparatus which causes very active circulation with slight
differences of temperature.
Many methods have been employed for extending heating surface and piercing the
body of water by hot tubes, but convection in boilers is still so imperfect, especially
when incrustation is present, that pumps have been used to agitate the water and even
to aërate it.
My invention consists in fitting steam boilers, or other apparatus in which the
ebullition of a liquid has to be effected, with what may truly be called automatic
pumps whereby the water or liquid is broken up and a very active circulation
maintained. The number and size of these pumps is regulated by the size of boiler
and the volume of steam to be produced according to well known rules followed by
boiler makers in relation to grate and heating surface.

page_text: Each pump may be described as a triple tube consisting of
1st. An outer tube or vertical chamber hermetically closed at both ends (except for
the passage at top of the two other tubes) and which preferably projects by its lower
end into the flanie or furnace. 2nd. A tube fixed into the top of the outer tube and
extending to very nearly the bottom of the latter which is the lowest part of the boiler
or practically so and cannot be without water. 3rd. Another tube fixed or welded
into the top of the outer tube and extending downwards to some distance therein and
extending upwards to a level at or above the normal water level of the boiler. It is
best bent at the top to eject water and steam downwards.
When water is admitted into a boiler fitted with these tubes it can only partially fill
each of the outer tubes. A layer of air is occluded at the upper part and a free
steaming surface thereby obtained in each and all of them close to the fiercest heat.
On heat being applied the air expands and water is at once ejected by the upper or
discharge tube, and as steam forms, a cushion of steam at the upper part of the outer
tube operates like the air in the pump of an air vessel in maintaining an uninterrupted
current of the greatest possible activity, the mingled steam and water continually
passing from the outer tube up through the upper or discharge tube and being
regularly replaced by water from the main water space flowing down the tube which
extends to very nearly the bottom of the outer tube. The triple tubes thus act as
automatic pumping apparatus producing forced convection or forced currents in the
boiling liquid by the action and reaction of steain and water (or vapor and liquid).
A scouring action keeps the tubes and the boiler free from fixed scale, and by blowing
off, the apparatus is kept from any prejudicial deposit.
The annexed drawings serve to illustrate my invention. Figure 1 is a vertical
section and Figure 2 a horizontal section shewing it applied to a vertical_boiler.
Figure 3 is a vertical section on a larger scale of one of my triple tubes. Each of
these triple tubes is composed of three tubes a, b, c. The outer tube a is shown as
formed of two pieces united at the plate d but it may be in one piece if preferred. It
is hermetically closed at its lower end and also at its upper end except to give passage
to the tubes b and c. The tube b is fixed at top into the top of the outer tube a and
extends to very nearly the bottom thereof. The tube c is fixed into the top of the
tube a and extends downwards some distance therein; it also extends upwards by
means of a tube c¹ united thereto by a collar c to a level above or at the normal water
level of the boiler and it is preferably bent at top as shown. It is preferred to extend
the bend of a few of the tubes c¹ (say four of them, more or less) down into the body
of the water, as seen at c³, so that the steam and water ejected therefrom may agitate
the water at the lowest part between the inner and outer walls of the boiler and
thereby prevent incrustation thereon. The tubes c and c¹ may be made in one piece
but for convenience it is preferable to make them in separate pieces, as shown, and to
unite them by a collar, as shown, or otherwise.
It will readily be understood that when water is admitted into the boiler it will
descend down each of the tubes b into the tubes a and rise in these up to or a
little above the level of the lower ends of the tubes c and that a layer of air will be
occluded in the upper part of the tubes a. A free steaming surface is thus obtained
at the upper part of each tube a which thus constitutes a kind of supplementary boiler
in the hottest part of the furnace. As the occluded air expands under the action of
the boiler heat it ejects water from the top of the tubes c and as steam forms in the
top of the tubes a its pressure keeps up a flow of water or water and steam through
the tubes c, this water being continuously replaced by water flowing down the
tubes b.
These triple tubes or convection fountains, as they may be called, may be fixed
advantageously, erect, inside any boiler and will be quite operative even if they do
not project into the flame, though they will then be less active. They may be made
removable and capable of being thoroughly examined at pleasure. In any position
they accelerate the production of steam and effect a great economy of coal. That
portion of each discharge tube c' which is within the water space of the boiler serves
as a secondary heating surface; it conveys the boiling liquid and its vapor of high

page_text: specific heat and has a far larger heating capacity than an equal length of tube that
conveys hot gases through the water or liquid. In order to extend this secondary
heating surface the pipes c¹ can be extended horizontally or in any available direction
so as to distribute the heat more uniformly throughout the whole body of the water;
they must not however be coiled upwards in a helix because of the frictional retardation
of a gas and a liquid when forced up a spiral.
The invention is not limited to steam boilers but, as has been already stated, is
applicable to other apparatus in which ebullition of liquids has to be effected. As an
example of its numerous applications I show in vertical section in Figure 4, and in
plan in Figure 5, a kettle fitted with my triple tubes.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. In a boiler, or other apparatus in which ebullition of a liquid has to be effected,
a closed tube or vessel having at top two openings which receive respectively two
tubes, one of which projects inwards to nearly the bottom, and the other projects
inwards some distance and extends upwards to or above the water level of the boiler,
substantially as and for the purpose set forth.
2. In a boiler, or other apparatus in which ebullition of a liquid has to be effected,
triple tubes arranged in such manner as to act as automatic pumping apparatus
and thereby to produce forced convection or forced currents in the boiling liquid
by the action and reaction of steam and water (or vapor and liquid), substantially as
set forth.
3. In a boiler, or other apparatus in which ebullition of a liquid has to be effected,
one or more supplementary steaming surfaces, the steam or vapor from which flows,
together with hot water or liquid, through tubes in the water or liquid space and is
ejected into the main steam space, substantially as set forth.
Dated this 16th day of May 1887.
J. C. MEWBURN,
169, Fleet Street, London,
Agent.