THE

London

JOURNAL AND REPERTORY

OF

Arts, Sciences, and Manufactures.

CONJOINED SERIES.

No. LIX.

Recent Patents.

TO WILLIAM CHURCH, of Heywood House, Bordesley Green, in the county of Warwick, gentleman, for his invention of certain improvements in apparatus to be employed in the conveyance of goods and passengers by land or water; part of which said improvements are also applicable to the ordinary purposes of steamengines and other steam apparatus. [Sealed 16th March, 1835.]

THE subjects embraced under this patent, are to be considered rather as developments of the details of principles set out in several preceding patents granted to Dr. Church, than as altogether new inventions, now, for the first time, promulgated.

The present improvements take a wide range in the adaptation of steam as an impelling power, having principally for their objects the economy of fuel in generating

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steam, the economy of space occupied by the machinery, and of weight of material in its construction. They extend, also, to the arrangements of machinery suited to propelling vessels on water, and carriages on railways or on ordinary roads.

The subjects thus extending over so wide a field of operation, the specification is necessarily of unusual length it is accompanied by numerous illustrative drawings, which we shall give as fully as our limits will permit.

:

The Patentee states, that his improvements consist in certain additions to, and variations from, the steam apparatus and machinery described in the specifications of the several patents which have been previously granted to me, bearing date respectively the 29th day of November, 1830; (see vol. viii., Second Series of the "London Journal of Arts," p. 1;) the 9th day of February, 1832, (see vol. ii., Conjoined Series, p. 89;) and the 7th day of September, 1833, (see vol. iv., Conjoined Series, p. 233;) which said specifications were duly inrolled in the Rolls Chapel of his Majesty's High Court of Chancery, according to provisos contained in the said grants: these improvements extending generally over the construction and arrangement of apparatus and machinery applicable to marine engines, locomotive engines, and to stationary engines, actuated by steam. The improvements which constitute the subject of the present patent may be described under the following heads:

First, a peculiar construction and arrangement of the boilers, furnaces, condensers, and working parts of marine steam-engines; the objects to be attained in which construction and arrangement, are the economy of space, of weight of materials, and of consumption of fuel. Second, an improved method of producing condensation in any sort of condensing steam-engine, by the employment of distilled

water for condensing the eduction steam; the water produced by condensation passing again into the boiler; and, by its purity, preventing deposit and incrustation of earthy matters upon the internal surface, which will greatly tend to preserve the boiler from being injured by the fire. Third, a peculiar construction and arrangement of the boiler and engines, suited to a carriage for locomotion on ordinary roads, or with slight variations, for railways. Fourth, an improved method of constructing the framework and the boiler for locomotive engines, combining great strength and lightness. Fifth, a mode of condensing the eduction steam of high-pressure engines, by the agency of atmospheric air. Sixth, a peculiar mode of connecting the locomotive engine with carriages to be impelled on ordinary roads. Seventh, improvements in the construction of wheels for locomotive carriages. Eighth, an improved method of lubricating the piston and pump rods of steam-engines. Ninth, a mode of extinguishing the fire in steam-engines, which is intended to operate as a safety valve. Tenth, additions to roads and railways, for the purpose of facilitating the ascent of locomotive carriages up inclined planes.

The peculiar construction and arrangement of boilers, furnaces, and the working parts of marine engines, proposed as the first head of these inventions, are designed to take up as small a space as possible in the vessel, yet afford sufficient room for all the parts, in proportion to the required power of the engine. They also combine lightness with strength, and a great extent of heating surface in the boiler. The drawings exhibit several views of a pair of marine engines, with their boilers, furnaces, and condensers, showing the arrangements and construction of the several parts. The boilers may constitute the framework of the engine, the outer plate being of extraordinary

thickness, and united in a peculiar manner; or the framework may surround the boiler in the way hereafter explained.

In Plate XII., fig. 1, is a front elevation of the engine, showing a cross-section of the timbers of a steam vessel; fig. 2, is a plan, or horizontal view, and fig. 3, a side elevation of the same; fig. 4, is a vertical section, taken longitudinally through the boilers, furnaces, flues, and condensers; and fig. 5, is a vertical section of the same, taken through the boiler, furnace, and flues, at the dotted line a, b, in fig. 4. Fig. 6, is another similar section, taken at the dotted line c, d, in the same figure.

Fig. 7, is a horizontal section, taken through the condenser and refrigerator of one engine, and through the furnace of the other, in the direction of the lines e, f, in fig. 6: a, is the furnace or fire-place; B, the ash-pit; c, c, the various water chambers of the boilers; D, the bridge of the furnace;, the flues, leading to the system of the tubular flues, F; passing through the main water chambers, and opening into the chimney G; H, H, are the steam chambers. It will be perceived that each engine has two boilers, and each boiler a separate steam chamber, connected together by the steam pipes 1, 1, from which the induction steam pipes descend to the valve boxes; also that each boiler has a separate furnace, and flues opening into the chimney. The cylinders of the engines are at K, K, receiving their supply of steam from the valve boxes L, L: M, are the eduction steam passages, leading down the front of the boiler into the refrigerating pipes N, N, N, which are divided into two portions; the steam passing in one direction through the upper portion, and in the reverse direction in the lower portion, and off by the passage o, to the condenser P, P, where it meets with a jet of cold distilled water, as described hereafter: Q, is the air pump: