Specification of Joseph Bramah : steam engines and boilers.

Bramah, Joseph.

Date:: 1854

Credit: Specification of Joseph Bramah : steam engines and boilers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$Bramah's Improvements in the Construction of Steam Engines and Boilers. pipes, whatever may be their number, direction, or extent, and whether leading to or from these cisterns, through a hollow case, made of wood, metal, or other materials, brickwork, &c., sufficient to surround them in such a way as to enable me to conduct a current of steam or heated air in such a manner as to cause all the surface on which the frost might have an effect to be immersed in, and 5 i kept warm by the said steam or heated air. It will be necessary, in the lowest extremity of this outer case, or in every part thereof, where the water caused by the condensation of steam will be collected, to have an aperture or waste pipe to convey away the said water to some drain or receptacle, otherwise the said outer case would in time become full of water and obstruct the influx of the 10 m steam, &c. This being accomplished as here described, a tube or steam pipe from a boiler where the steam is generated, on the principle of the ingenious | cooking apparatus made by Mr. William Slark, or in any other manner the I situation may require, must be inserted into some part of the outer case above described, and the nearer the lowest part and the better. There must also be 15 near the boiler a common stop-cock for the purpose of admitting the steam through this steam pipe into the said outer case, or to prevent it when not wanted ; by this means it is easy to see that by opening this cock the steam will instantly rush into e\ery part of this outer case (or as it were chimney) in which the pipes are contained, and by its action on every part of the surface of 20 them these pipes may be either thawed when frozen or prevented from freezing, let the season be ever so intense. From the upper or other more convenient part of this outer case must be continued a pipe so as to open a communication between the interior part of the said case and the cistern, so as to convey at the same time the pipes are heated the steam or heated air to pass into the space 25 contained between the cover of the cistern and the water contained in it; by this means the cistern, as well as the pipes appertaining to it, may be either thawed or kept from freezing the same as before observed. This means is applicable with equal convenience and effect to all pipes leading to the wood or other mains in the streets, so that the supply of houses cannot at any time .80 be obstructed unless the said mains themselves are frozen, which seldom is the case when properly laid down within the ground at a sufficient depth below the surface. By this contrivance every family may at a small expence be delivered from a very serious inconvenience in the winter season, and what is of still greater importance, that danger to the inhabitants, and the interruption to 85 commerce occasioned by fixing cocks for the purpose of drawing water in the streets will be totally avoided, and which are doubtless circumstances that will be worthy the consideration of those who have felt the distresses occasioned by long frosts in every city or town supplied with water by pipes, &c. in the present$

Specification of Joseph Bramah : steam engines and boilers.

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