THE

London

JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES.

No. XLIII.

[SECOND SERIES.]

Recent Patents.

To WILLIAM CHURCH, of Haywood House, Bordsley Green, near Birmingham, in the county of Warwick, Esq. for his having invented or discovered certain improvements in apparatus applicable to propelling boats, and driving machinery by the agency of steam; parts of which improvements are also applicable to the purposes of evaporation.-[Sealed 29th November, 1830.]

THE Patentee has arranged these improvements under the five following heads: 1st, the construction of furnaces for heating boilers, whereby a more perfect combustion of the fuel is obtained; 2nd, in the apparatus employed in supplying boilers with water; 3rd, in the construction of boilers; 4th, in the construction of steam VOL. VIII. SECOND SERIES.

B

engines properly so called; and 5thly, in the application of apparatus for recovering the heat that has been employed in generating steam or vapour, and thus economising fuel in all purposes of evaporation, the particulars of which will be understood by reference to the drawings.

“Plate I. fig. 1, is an isometrical representation of a furnace attached to a boiler; A, A, is the outside or case, containing water and steam; the internal construction of the furnace will be best understood by reference to the vertical section, fig. 2, which is taken through the middle.

"In this figure it will be perceived, that the coals represented as resting upon the fire bars G, G, were introduced down through a conical tube z, situated at the top of the furnace. The ash pit being closed, and the air for supporting combustion being conveyed in through the annular blast orifice Y, Y, the smoke is driven down among the ignited fuel, and the gases of combustion pass off through the fire flue in or under the boiler. Opposite to the fire flue is a small door н, carefully fitted to make it air tight; this door furnishes the means of removing cinders, and cleansing the flue; the door of the ash pit is also made air tight. By a careful inspection of the figures, the form and construction of the furnace will be apparent.

"The apparatus for supplying the boiler with water is shown on the left hand in fig. 2, situated in the enlarged end of the feed pipe 1, which is nicely bored to receive it; J, is a cylinder, which is perforated longitudinally with four holes, as shewn in the plan fig. 3, two of these holes are seen at a, a, fig. 2, coinciding one with the lower end of the steam pipe b, and the other with the water pipe c; a disc of metal perforated with one hole at d,

is

made water tight by means of packing on the edge and held up against the end of the cylinder J, by the helical spring e. The ends of the cylinder J, must be well fitted to the cover K, and also to the disc d.

"Rotary motion is communicated to the cylinder J, through its shaft L; this motion may be either uniform or interrupted, but the latter is preferable. The action is as follows:

"As the cylinder J, revolves, the holes a, are brought successively under the water pipe c, and the steam pipe b, alternately. While under the water pipe c, the water (being situated higher than the cylinder J,) descends, and fills the hole a, and is carried round in it until it coincides with the hole d, in the disc, and, also with the steam pipe b, over it. The water will descend until it finds the level of the water in the boiler, and the space will be occupied by steam, which in its turn will be carried round until it is brought under the water pipe c, when the steam will be immediately condensed, and the space will be again filled with water. Thus it will be perceived, that the quantity of water introduced at each revolution of the cylinder J, will be regulated by the height of the water in the boiler, and that a float in the boiler becomes un

necessary.

“Fig. 1, is an isometrical representation of the furnace A, A, A, already described, connected to a boiler, steam reservoir, &c. The boiler, properly so called, represented in this figure, being partly in section, is seen to consist of four cylindrical tubes B, C, D, E, arranged one within another, the spaces between the tubes B, and c, and between the tubes D, and E, are occupied by water, and the tube B, and the spaces between the tubes c, and p, and between the tubes E, and F, constitute the fire flues: through which the flame and heated gases generated in

the furnace circulate. The connexion of the fire flue B, with the furnace, and the connexion of the tube c, with the jacket or case of the furnace, will be clearly seen in the sectional drawing, fig. 4, in which the course of the circulation of the fluids or vapours contained in the apparatus is also shewn.

"The flame generated in the furnace as before described, is driven along the tube B, figs. 1, and 4, until it arrives at the opening M, that communicates with the space between the tubes c, and D, as shewn in fig. 4, and also in the isometrical drawings at M, in fig. 5, through which opening the flame and heated vapour passes into the space between the tubes c, and D, seen best in fig. 4. This space is divided longitudinally by three ribs or partitions, 1, 2, 3, shewn in fig. 5, consequently the flame is made to traverse the length of the boiler three times before it leaves the space between the tubes c, and D. On leaving the space between the tubes c, and D, it passes into the space between the tubes E, and F, through which it makes its exit.

"The boiler is supplied with water from the water surrounding the furnace and through the pipe L, as shewn in figs. 1, and 4. The steam generated from the water contained in that portion of the boiler, formed by the space between the tubes D, and E, passes off into the steam reservoir N, fig. 1, through the pipe K, and the steam generated in the inner portion of the boiler, that is to say in the space between the tubes B, and C, passes off through the water in the furnace at o, and from thence into the reservoir N, at P, as seen in fig. 1.

"The construction and action of the boiler, properly so called, having been described, together with the course of the fire flues in the same, I shall proceed to particularize the action of that part of the apparatus in which

the atmospheric or other air gas or vapour abstracts the heat from the eduction steam after the said steam has given motion to the engine.

"The atmospheric or other air, gas or vapour is forced by a blowing machine, or other proper means, into the apparatus surrounding the boiler, through the pipe, into the space between the tubes 1, and H, in fig. 4, and pursues the course indicated by the arrow, as seen in figs. 1, and 4, turning round the end of the tubes H, and G, into the space between the tubes G, and F, and proceeding through the pipe or tube R, it is conducted in a heated state into the annular blast orifice Y, Y, shewn in section in fig. 2.

"The eduction steam is conducted from the engine by tube s, in fig. 4, between the tubes H, and G, and round the lower ends of the tubes H, and 1, into the space between the tubes 1, and J, and that portion of the steam which is not condensed, together with the permanent gases contained in the steam, escape from the apparatus at T, figs. 1, and 4, while the products of condensation are conducted from the refrigerating or cooling apparatus into the furnace or boiler through the pipe u, fig. 4.

"In figs. 1, and 4, are represented one mode of constructing the boiler, with its furnace and refrigerating apparatus attached. Figs. 2, and 6, exhibit a variation of the construction; and although in these figures I have shewn the refrigerating apparatus as attached to or surrounding the boiler, yet the refrigerating apparatus may be distinct from the boiler: proper passages or channels being constructed therein to receive the vapours or gases from the fuel after they have left the boiler, properly so called; and also suitable passages being constructed for the entrance of the atmospheric or other air, gas or vapour employed for the abstraction of the heat, and likewise for