23 47 32 29,59 29,53,05 57 29 29,72 29,61,25 27 30,25 30,21,0125 25 56 24 29,83 29,80

40 23 30,17 29,97

25 29,88 29,80

7

8

45

24

Edmonton.

CHARLES HENRY ADAMS.

Latitude 510 37 32 N.

Longitude 3 51 West of Greenwich.

THE

London

JOURNAL AND REPERTORY

OF

Arts, Sciences, and Manufactures.

CONJOINED SERIES.

No. LXIII.

Recent Patents.

To GEORGE HOLSWORTHY PALMER, of Manchesterstreet, Gray's Inn-road, civil engineer, for his invention of certain improvements in the sleam-engine and boiler, and apparatus or machinery connected therewith, applicable to propelling vessels, carriages, and other purposes.-[Sealed 16th September, 1831.]

THE Patentee states, that the object he has in view by his improvements in the steam-engine is, to render it less costly, more portable and effective, as well as more economical in its expenditure of fuel, than those engines now in use, whether required for the propulsion of locomotive carriages and steam vessels, or for giving motion to any other description of machinery The Patentee proceeds to state that, before referring to the drawings and descriptive reference of the same, he shall detail

VOL. X.

R

the abstract parts of the engine and boiler, which he claims as being novel, either in principal, or as regards their peculiar modification.

Firstly. The self-regulating blast apparatus, by which the quantity of fuel to be ignited in a given time, is governed, in order to ensure the generation of a volume of steam suited precisely to all the variable speeds and powers of the engine.

Secondly. The steam calorific self-adjusting apparatus, which acts in conjunction with the blast-regulator, and is so contrived as to lift the weight from the lever of a safety valve, and permit the steam to escape from the boiler, should the aforesaid apparatus fail of instantly checking its evolution. The safety valve is, however, only an auxiliary or secondary mode of ensuring security to the boiler, under circumstances which are not likely to occur.

Thirdly. The self-acting safety apparatus, by which the security of the boiler is ensured, should the apparatus for supplying it with water fail in its effect, so that in the event of the water in the boiler being reduced below a determined level, the process of combustion will be instantly suspended, and the boiler protected from injury.

Fourthly. Making the products of combustion, evolved from the furnace, escape into the atmosphere below the level of the furnace bars, which will most effectually prevent the admission of atmospheric air into the furnace, excepting that portion which the blast and calorific regulating apparatus permits the blower to project upon the fuel undergoing combustion. This mode shuts off the entrance of atmospheric air as effectually as if cocks or valves were resorted to; for the moment the blower is thrown out of action, the fuel in the furnace, however

intense its inflammation, is instantly damped, in consequence of the ignited fuel being enveloped in an atmosphere of gaseous inflammable matter, which as effectually extinguishes inflammation as carbonic acid gas, or other non-inflammable gas, when oxygen, or the supporter of combustion, is not combined therewith. This is not individually claimed as new, but as a necessary arrangement in conjunction with the blast and calorific regulators which, together with the mode of raising the safety valve from its seat, he must be distinctly understood as claiming, not only as applied to a steam-engine, but also to every other description of boiler or vessel used for the purpose of evaporation or heating in the arts and manufactures whenever a regulated intensity of heat is required, let the purpose or object be what it may, or where a determinable temperature is required to be communicated, as in the purification of sugar, the distillation of spirits, &c. &c., through the medium of oils, fusible metals, and the like, instead of impinging the heat directly against the vessel containing the material intended to be so heated, it will be necessary, in this case, to generate the elastic fluid which gives motion to the small piston of the regulating apparatus in a copper or other close vessel about five inches diameter, as shown in the drawings.

Fifthly. The pipes leading from the opposite ends of the horizontal part of the boiler connected with the lowermost part standing at right angles thereto, act as stays to steady the whole; but the ostensible object of their introduction is to convey the water most remote from the direct action of the furnace by its own gravity, to re-place that portion which may be carried to the upper part of the boiler by the great volume of steam generated between the two concentric cylinders; the

interior one (the furnace), but for this or a similar contrivance, would presently be destroyed by the intense action of the heat impinging thereon, inasmuch as the water in its attempt to descend perpendicularly into the space from whence it is constantly being projected would be steam-logged, and, consequently, prevented from absorbing the caloric so rapidly as it is taken up by the metal. On no consideration whatever, must other than distilled water or spirits be used in this boiler, for the deposition of earthy matter would lead to a rapid destruction of the boiler, and increase the consumption of fuel; and that in proportion as the capacity of the metal to transmit caloric through its pores, and from thence to the water in the boiler, is impeded by the slow conducting powers of the earthy incrustations thus deposited upon the heating medium.

Sixthly. To ensure a length of stroke in high-pressure engines (that is only limited by the maximum length the cylinder can be cast and bored), and that without increasing the diameter of the piston rods beyond that which is required to withstand the right line tug of the whole power of the engine, and which could never be accomplished were the piston rods subjected to an alternate tug and thrust, without resorting to the very objectionable short stroke and piston rod of so large a diameter, and without which it would be incapable of withstanding the thrust, without being crippled and rendered useless. It is the modification and disposition of the various parts of the engine that is claimed under this head, and not any one part abstractedly considered.

Seventhly. The side valve or valves, where more than one are used, with their various modifications, requiring neither casings nor stuffing boxes, I claim as perfectly