Sellers’ Self-Acting Steam Boiler Injector – ca 1929
date: label: date made
content: 1887 - 1927
notes: label: Description
content: This is a boiler water injector built ca 1929 by the William Sellers & Company, Inc. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Early boilers operated at such low steam pressures that introducing feed water into the boiler could be done by simple pumps that filled elevated reservoirs. The water flowed into the boiler by its own weight. However, as pressures increased it became necessary to force water into the boiler by increasingly powerful pumps.
label: Description
content: The William Sellers Company had the U.S. manufacturing rights for the design patented by Henri Giffard (that patent model can be found in the collections and is ID Number MC*309368). Giffard found a way of forcing water into the boiler solely by use of the boiler’s own steam without any other moving parts. The William Sellers Company made a series of improvements in design with the goal of making an entirely self-acting unit. Early injectors required constant hand adjustment to maintain the flow of feed water as the steam pressure and other conditions changed. This injector is based on the design introduced in 1887.
label: Description
content: Two separate jets of steam were used in the injector. One was used to maintain a vacuum over the feed water tube so that, even if the water supply was interrupted, the vacuum would restart it. The second steam jet forced the water into the boiler.
label: Description
content: Sellers was a prolific inventor, and his most notable work was in the area of standardized screw and bolt threads. One of his patent models, for an oscillating steam engine, is also in the collections and is ID Number MC*251296.
label: Description
content: The injector is made of brass and is sectioned to illustrate the internal parts. It is approximately 18 inches long and weighs about 65 pounds. As seen in the image of the injector, feed water enters through the green tube at the bottom with steam entering through the red tube. The water is injected into the boiler from the blue tube at the left. The blue sections seen within the injector are the combining tubes where the steam and water come together. The yellow section is open to atmospheric pressure, and the yellow tube discharges the overflow water.
place: label: place made
content: United States: Pennsylvania
topic: label: Subject
content: Steam Engines
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
label: See more items in
content: Engineering, Building, and Architecture
label: Exhibition
content: Power Machinery
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Frank A. Taylor. Catalog of the Mechanical Collections of the Division of Engineering United States National Museum, Bulletin 173
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of William Sellers & Company, In., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MC.309559
label: catalog number
content: 309559
label: accession number
content: 104292
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Injector, Steam