Improvements in Kettles.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 7th Nov., 1888
Complete Specification Left, 7th Aug., 1889-Accepted, 2nd Nov., 1889
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Kettles.
I, DAVID HARRY SHUTTLEWORTH-BROWN, of Belle vue Villa, South Wimbledon,
in the County of Surrey, England, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows:-
The objects of this Invention are:-
1st. To produce steam as quickly as practicable, and to set it in motion when
produced, and, in a Kettle, that the steam may impart as much as practicable of its
latent heat to the water, before being liberated into the air, and thus raise the whole
mass of water, under the atmospheric or other pressure, for the time being imposed,
to the highest attainable temperature, with the utinost rapidity and least loss of the
gases (as well as of the mineral salts) dissolved or contained within it.
2nd. That the applied heat may act upon so small a quantity, at a time, a thin
lamina of particles, a film, (or particles concentrated even in a material point),—that
the watery vapours of combustion may, on coming into contact with the heating
surface, (the bottom side of the fire plate) be condensed upon it to the least practicable
extent.
These objects are effected by means of a false bottom or a plate placed within the
vessel, near, almost in contact with, the water side, or top side, of the fire plate, or
bottom proper, of the vessel, and so arranged that water can pass in the form of a
lamina or film between the two plates, i.e., between the false bottom and the fire
plate, but, instead of the plates being parallel to each other, the false bottom should.
be slightly inclined to the fire-plate, so that the water can enter the intervening space
by an aperture at a low point, and when heated, or as steam, come out of an aperture
at a rather higher level, or a flat plate could lie at the bottom of a flat-bottomed vessel.
with only room for a film or lamina of water between, and the edge of the plate could
be slightly turned-up, except at one end, or side, where the water would enter,-
heated water, and steam, would, on account of the rarifaction by heat of the film or
lamina of water, pass along and rise at the edge of the false bottom where it is turned
up, and cold water would replace this by entering under the edge, or side, where the
edge is not turned up, this process would continue till the mass of water is heated—
the steam bubbles, as generated, between the plates, rising into the mass of water, and
imparting to it their latent heat.
If the vessel were, for example, round, with a flat bottom or fire plate, and if the
falso bottom had a hole in the centre, and if it were buckled, slightly dished, or if it
were flat, and slightly turned up, all round the outside edge, then the cold water
would pass under the plate, by the hole in the centre, and the warm water and steam
rise around the outside edge, if, on the contrary, it were flat all round the outside
edge, and flat generally, except round the holo in the centre, where the edge would be
slightly turned up, or if it were buckled, or slightly dished, as before, and turned up
side down (like a truncated cone), the current would take the opposite direction, tho
cold water entering under the outside edge, and the warm water and steam rising at
the hole in the centre.
It is obvious, in order that these should operate in the manner indicated, that the
vessel would have to be placed almost exactly level on the fire,-in the cruder forms,
howover, in which there is not a hole in the centre of the false bottom, the vessel
would not need to be exactly level on the fire, but could be so placed, that the edge
of the false bottom, that is not turned up, or that is inclined to the fire-plate, would
be at a lower level, an appreciably or considerably lower level, than the rest of it, and
the movement of the filmi or lamina of heated water and steam would be accelerated

page_text: as the degrees of this depression increased, as the intensity increased, of the heat
applied, as the thinness of the film or lamina of water, and as the false bottom was
made to act as a non-conductor of heat, as for example, by incrustation, or by being
constructed of a metal of small conducting power, such as aluminium.
It is also obvious that the false bottom can, by means of a number of holes, slits, or
perforations, be divided into numerous small agencies, having each, on a small scale,
similar effect, such an ultimate subdivision might be represented by a wire gauze, and
if the thickness of the film or lamina of water were reduced to nil, nearly, i.e., if the
gauze were brought into actual contact with the bottom of the vessel, then particles of
water concentred in a material point, in the minute space where a thread of the warp
or weft rises from contact with the bottom of the vessel to pass over a thread of the
weft or warp, may be rarified by heat and pass through the mesh as heated water or
steain.
In this last case, in which the wire gauze is in contact with the bottom of the vessel,
the fire-plate, it will derive heat, by contact, it should therefore be a good conductor, and
it would be useful to raise a bristling pile upon the gauze, such as the prongs of a
card, for carding wool, and these will communicate their acquired heat to the mass of
water.
Now, as to a false-bottom consisting of a plate of metal, perforations may be made
in it after the manner of those in a grater, but sparsely, and some made from one side,
commingled with others made from the other side, of the plate, such perforations
would so buckle the plate as to form adits to, and exits from the film of heated water,
adjacent to each other, in such a plato a perforation downwards would represent the
edge that is not turned up, an adit, of the first or second named false bottom, and a
perforation upwards would represent the edge that is slightly turned up, an exit,-
giving this advantage, that the bottom of the vessel need not be placed exactly level
on the fire, nor yet depressed at any particular side.
In regard to the adaptation of a false bottom to a corrugated fireplate, the false
bottom should be slit at the furrow and the ridge,-the slits at the furrow would form
adits to, and those at the ridge, exits from the film or lamina of water on each slope
of the corrugations, if the false bottom were a little more intensely corrugated than
the fire plate, then the film or lamina of water would be a little thicker towards the
ridge, the direction in which the water passes when rarified, or converted into steam,
by the heat, the slits on the ridge can be made by cuts in the shape of a Roman
capital I, the tongues of metal being bent upwards, the slits in the furrow can be
made by similar cuts, but lacking that for the stem of the I, and the metal between
the two cuts, thus made, bent upwards, each of these cuts would make a lozenge
shaped vertical aperture or adit to the film of water.
To retain the bubbles of steam within the water, (generated in the film), a plate,
sparsely perforated, may be placed in the mass of water above the false bottom, and so
arranged that the perforations are, as far as practicable, not vertically above the
slits from which the bubbles of steam rise, the escape of the bubbles can be again
intercepted by a second perforated plate, in which the perforations are not vertically
above those in the former.
The falso bottom should be weaker than the fire-plate, and may be made so weak
as to present very little resistance indeed to the steam generated beneath it, it is
obvious that one of the objects of dividing the film or lamina of water, by per-
foration, into sections of small area is to make it. practicable to have the film or
lamina very thin, in the present state of knowledge it will require time to determine
whether the deposition of salts called incrustation will be thicker on the fire plate,
where it wd. be dense, on the underside of the false bottom where it would be porous,
or on the upper side of the false bottom, but, in regard to incrustation, owing to the
latent heat of the steam generated, only a small proportion of the mass of water needs
to pass between the plates, and the deposition will not only be less perceptible on
account of the increased area, the triple area, over which it will be extended, but it
will be, for the same water, actually less in amount, on account of the rapidity with

page_text: which the water is boiled, and the deterioration of the water, in this respect, as also in
loss of dissolved or contained gases, will be diminished thereby. The knob of the lid
can be the trumpet-mouth of a steam-whistle or indicator.
Dated this Eighth day of October A D. 1888.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Kettles.
I, DAVID HARRY SHUTTLEWORTH-BROWN, of Belle vue Villa, South Wimbledon,
in the County of Surrey, England, Engineer, 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 :-
The objects of this Invention are:-
1st. To produce steam as quickly as practicable, and to set it in motion when
produced, and, in a Kettle, that the steam may impart, as much as practicable of its
latent heat to the water, before being liberated into the air, and thus raise the whole
mass of water, under the atmospheric or other pressure, for the time being imposed,
to the highest attainable temperature, with the utmost rapidity, and least loss of the
gases (as well as of the mineral salts) dissolved or contained within it.
2nd. That the applied heat may act upon so small a quantity of water, at a time,
a thin lamina of particles, a film, (or particles concentrated even in a material
point), that the watery vapours of combustion may, on coming into contact with the
heating surface, (the bottom, or fire-side of the fire-plate) be condensed upon it to the
least practicable extent.
These objects are effected by means of a false bottom, or a plate placed within the
vessel, near, almost in contact with, the top, or water-sido, of the fire-plate, or bottom
proper, of the vessel, and so arranged that water can pass, in the form of a lainina or
film between the two plates, i.e., between the false bottom and the fire-plate, but,
instead of the plates being parallel to each other, the false bottom should be slightly
inclined to the fire-plate, so that the water can enter the intervening space by an
aperture at a low point, and, when heated, or as steam, come out of an aperture at a
rather higher level, or, a flat plate could lie at the bottom of a flat bottomed vessel,
with room for only a film or lamina of water between, and the edge of the plate could
be slightly turned-up, except at an end, or side, where the water would enter,―heated
water, and steam, would, on account of the rarifaction by heat of the film or lamina
of water, pass along and riso at the edge of the false bottom where it is turned-up,
and cold water would replace this, by entering under the edge, the end or side, where
it is not turned-up,-this process wd. continue till the mass of water is heated-the
steam bubbles, as generated, between the plates, rising thus into the mass of water,
and imparting to it their latent heat.
If the vessel were, for example, round, with a flat bottom, or fire-plate, and if the
false bottom had a hole in the centre, and were buckled, slightly dished, or flat, and
slightly turned up all round the outside edge, then the cold water would pass under
the plate, by the hole in the centre, and the warm water and steam rise around the
outside edge, if, on the contrary, the false botton wero flat all round the outside
edge, and flat generally, except round the hole in the centre, where the edge would
be slightly turned up, or, if it were buckled, or slightly dished, as before, and turned
apside down (like a truncated cone) the current would take the opposite direction,-
the cold water entering under the outside edge, and the warm water and steam rising
at the hole in the centre.
It is obvious, in order that these should operate in the manner indicated, that
he vessel would have to be placed almost exactly level on the fire, in the cruder
orms, however, in which there is not a hole in the centre of the false bottom, the
essel would not need to be exactly level on the fire, but it could be so placed that

page_text: the edge of the false bottom, that is not turned up, or that is inclined to the fire-
plate, would be at a lower level, than the rest of it, and the movement of the film
or lamina of heated water and steam would be accelerated as the degrees of this
depression increased, as the intensity increased of the heat applied, as the tenuity
or thinness of the film or lamina of water, and as the false bottom was made to
act as a non-conductor of heat, as, for example, by the deposit upon it of incrusta-
tion, or by being constructed of a metal of small conducting power, such as
aluminium.
It is obvious, when there is a hole in the centre of the false bottom, that the
movement of the film or lamina would be accelerated by dishing or conifying
(doming) the fire-plate, as well as the false bottom.
It is also obvious that the false bottom can, by means of a number of holes, slits, or
perforations, be divided into numerous small agencies, having each, on a small scale,
similar effect, such a subdivision might ultimately be represented by a wire gauze,
and, if the thickness of the film or lamina of water were reduced to nil, nearly, i.e., if
the gauze were brought into actual contact with the bottom of the vessel, then
particles of water concentred in a material point, as it were, in the minute space where
a thread of the warp or weft rises from contact with the bottom of the vessel to pass
over a thread of the weft or warp, may be rarified by heat and pass through the mesh
as heated water or steam.
In this last case, in which the wire gauze is in contact with the bottom of the
vessel (the fire-plate) it will derive heat by contact, it should therefore be a good
conductor, and it would be useful to raise a bristling pile upon the gauze, such as
the prongs of a card, for carding wool, and these prongs will communicate their
acquired heat to the mass of water.
Now, as to a false bottom consisting of a plate of metal :-Perforations may bo
made in it after the manner of those in a grater, but sparsely, and some made from
one side, commingled with others made from the other side of the plate, such
perforations would so buckle the plate as to form, adjacent to each other, adits to, and
exits from the film of heating water,-in such a plate, a perforation downwards would
represent the edge that is not turned up, an adit, of the first or second named false
bottom, and a perforation upwards would represent the edge that is slightly turned up,
an exit, giving this advantage that the bottom of the vessel needs not to be placed
exactly level on the fire, nor yet depressed at any particular side.
In regard to the adaptation of a false bottom to a corrugated fire plate, the false
bottom should be slit at the furrow and at the ridge, (it may be slit intermediately
also, of course), the slits at the furrow would form adits to, and those at the ridgo,
exits from the film or lamina of water on each slope of the corrugations,-if the false
bottom were a little more intensely corrugated than the fire-plate, then the film or
laimina of water would be a little thicker towards the ridge the direction in which
the water passes when rarified, or when converted into steam, by the heat, the slits
on the ridge can be made by cuts in the shape of a Roman capital I, the tongues of
metal being bent upwards, the slits in the furrow can be made by similar cuts, but
lacking that for the stem of the I, and the metal between the two cuts, thus made, can
be bent upwards, then each of these cuts will make a lozenge shaped vertical aperture
or adit to the film of water.
To retain within the body of the water, contained in the vessel; the bubbles of
steam that are generated in the film between the false botton and the fire-plate, a
plate, sparsely perforated, preferably downwards, to buckle it, may be placed in the
mass of water above the false bottom, and so arranged that the perforations are,
as far as practicable, not vertically above the slits from which the bubbles of steam
rise, the escape of the bubbles can be again intercepted by a second such perforated
plate in which the perforations are not vertically above those in the former, these
plates can be domed.
The false bottom should be weaker than the fire-plate, and may be made so weak
as to present very little resistance indeed to the steam generated beneath it, and

page_text: both the false bottom and the perforated plates, for retaining the bubbles of steam
in the body of the water till condensed, may be made in sections and jointed
together, so as to be capable either of being inserted into Kettles already made,
or of being removed for purposes of cleansing and renewal, or repairs.
It is obvious that one of the objects of dividing the film or lamina of water
into sections of small area, by means of slits or perforations in the false bottom, is
to make it practicable to have the film or lamina very thin, in the present state
of knowledge it will require time to determine whether the deposition of salts,
called incrustation, will be thicker on the fire-plate, where it wd. be dense (of close
structure), on the under-side of the false bottom, where it would be porous, or on
the upper side of the false bottom, these determinations will depend upon the water,
(i.e., the salts the water contains), upon the intensity of the heat, upon the mass of
water allowed to remain and the time it remains (ie., the use made of the kettle),
on the false bottom, after the heating or boiling process has been effected, but,
the greater the relative proportion of incrustation that is attached to the false
bottom, whether on its upper or lower surface, as compared with that attached to
the fire-plate, the more effective will it be as a non-conductor activating, negatively,
the film of water beneath it, and, in regard to the amount of incrustation, owing
to the latent heat of the steam generated, only a small proportion of the mass of
water needs to pass between the plates in order to raise the mass to the boiling
point, and the deposition especially on the fire-plate will not only be less perceptible
on account of the increased area, the triple area, over which it will be extended,
but, for the same water, on account of the rapidity with which it is boiled, tho
incrustation will be actually less in amount, and the deterioration of the water, in
this respect, as also from the loss of dissolved or contained gases will be pro-
portionally diminished.
Some portion of these liberated gases will be retained in contact with the water, for
re-absorption, by means of the perforated plates that have been described as perforated
and buckled in such a manner as to retain the steam-bubbles till condensed in
the water.
It is obvious that these improvements are applicable to all kinds of Kettles, whether
they be, the small, domestic, portable utensil, or, for heating quantities of water for
various purposes, also that the false bottom is as applicable to a fire-tube as to a
fire-plate, and to a conical surface, whether pit or pyramid, or to these combined or
multiplied.
The knob of the lid can be the trumpet-mouth of a steam-whistle or indicator.
No. 2, a, b, and c,-Are various modifications of the same.
No. 3, a, Is a false bottom with a hole in the middle, b, and c, are modifications
of the same.
No. 4, a, and b,-Illustrate cases in which such a false bottom is dished, and
domed.
No. 5, a, and b,-Cases in which fire-plates aro so also.
No. 6, a,
Is a false bottom of wire gauze; and b,—the same with a bristling pile.
No. 7 a, Represents a section of a false bottom perforated, with slits, and applied
to a corrugated fire-plate-Immediately above it is a detail of the same ;-And still
higher (to the right of No. 1) 7 a, is a plan of a false bottom perforated, with slits,
which may be regarded as on a ridge r, and made by cutting three slits,-the
remaining one may be taken as in a furrow f, and made by cutting two slits, and
bending up the intervening portion of the plate ;-, b₁, and b, are various modi-
fications of the false bottom perforated, and with slits, as applied to a flat fire-plate, in
section; Beneath, are details of the same ;-and 7, b, b₁, and bu, (to the left of
No. 1) represent the same in plan.

page_text: No. 8, a, b, and c,-Represent a perforated plate applied to fire-plates that are
coned, dished, and domed, respectively ;-And d, is a section showing the applicability
of a perforated plate to a tube.
No. 9, a, b, Are sparsely perforated plates inserted in the body of the water,
the plates aro shewn as perforated downwards, and so buckled as to retain steam and
other gases.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is a Kettle having:
1. A false bottom with a space for a film or lamina of the contained water between
the false bottom and the fire plate.
2. Such a false bottom turned up at one edge or side, or turned down at one edge
or side, or inclined to the fire-plate.
3. A false bottom parallel with the fire-plate, and having a hole in the middle, and
the same turned up round the outer edge, or around the hole in the middle.
4. A false bottom having a bolo in the middle and dished, inclined to the fire-plate
towards the middle, or domed, inclined to it towards the outer edge.
5. Such a false bottom parallel to a fire-plate that is dished, or to a fire-plate that
is domed.
6. A false bottom of wire-gauze, or of the same having a bristling pile, substantially
as described.
7. A false bottom perforated with slits and applied, substantially as described, to a
corrugated fire-plate, or to a flat fire-plate.
8. Such a false bottom applied to a conical, to a dished, or to a domed fire-plate, or
to a fire tube.
9. A plate or plates for retaining steam bubbles and liberated gases in the water,
perforated and constructed substantially as described.
Dated this 6th day of August A.D. 1889.