Specification of William Johnson : economizing fuel in production of motive power for steam engines.
- Johnson, William
- Date:
- 1854
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Specification of William Johnson : economizing fuel in production of motive power for steam engines. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Johnsons Improved Means of Obtaining the Power of Steam, c]rc. giving tliat description was confined to the protection of the upper boiler from the immediate action of the fire by the introduction of oil or any other fluid between them, so as to produce the effects of what chemists call a balneum or bath of oil or water, and by which it is well known the power or action of the fire can be regulated to .great nicety in all delicate chemical operations of 5 boiling or evaporation, and to the evaporation of two fluids at the same time, when the lower one required a higher degree of heat than was necessary for the upper one. But not being aware at the time of making that Specification that any beneficial effects in the production of steam by a less quantity of fuel or from the employment of the power of that steam for a distinct 10 purpose was to be expected would result from such an arrangement of a com¬ pound or multiplied boiler, or one consisting of vessels placed above each other, as herein-before described; I neither noticed such an effect, nor could I give any directions for the due management of the steam to produce it. What I there¬ fore now claim the sole and exclusive benefit and advantage of, under my present 15 and partly herein-before recited Patent of the Eighth day of January 1823, is the use of a compound or multiplied boiler, consisting of at least two, but more beneficially of three or more vessels placed one above the other, as herein-before described, to be used or worked for the production of steam for steam engines, with a diminished quantity of fuel obtained by an observance 20 of the rules lierein-after laid down, by which a new and useful combination and result will be obtained to the manufacturer; for even admitting the double form of boiler of which I am the inventor to have been given to the public by my former Specification before mentioned, still it was given for a purpose com¬ pletely distinct and different from that for which I now use it, and therefore 25 although it is not so efficient as the treble or more multiplied form of boiler, still I claim to use it for the aforesaid new means of operating with it for a new purpose and effect under my present Patent. The description herein-before given will, I believe, be sufficient to enable any competent workman to con¬ struct my new boiler and apparatus; but to render not only its construction 30 but the mode of working or using it more clear, I have annexed three repre- se itations of distinct modes of applying it for working a steam engine, and in the whole of these the same letters of reference are used to denote the same parts, A being the first or lowest boiler to which the fire is immediately applied; B, the second boiler next above A; C, the third; and D the fourth, which, it 35 will be observed, is made close by a dome or cover; the intermediate vessels, and which, as before observed, may be more or less in number than shewn in the Figure, according to the heat that is intended to be applied under the lowest boiler, or preserved within it, are formed of metal cylinders with flanges,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b3074331x_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
