US116312A - Improvement in steam-engines - Google Patents

Description

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JOHN HOUPT, OF SPRINGTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN STEAM-ENGINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 116,312, dated June 27, 1871.

To all 'whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN HOUPT, ot' Springtown, in the county of Bucks and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain Improvements in Steam-Engines, of which the following is a specication:

My improvements relate to a mode of maintaining a cool condition of the water required for the jet condenser of a steam -engine located where water is scarce or dear; and also to the utilization of the exhaust steam, which has hitherto been generally allowed to escape directly from the steam-cylinder (or from the self-clearing jet-condenser patented to me April 19,1870, and reissued May 31, 1870) to the furnacechimney or to the open air, by causing the said exhaust steam to serve as a preserver of the heat of the saidcylinder sufficiently to prevent any condensation of the steam therein while the en gine'is in operation.

The iirst part oi my invention consists in the arrangement of an elevated water-vessel, in combination with the main water-supply pipe and the jet-valve chamber, in such a manner that, as the jet-valve closes, the momentum of the moving supply-water will cause the water in the valvechamber to ascend upward toward the elevated vessel, from whence it may again enter the'main supply-pipe by gravitation; thev object of this part of my invention being to keep the water in the jet-valve chamber constantly changing, and thus to prevent its becoming warmed by the heat of the said condenser. The second part of my invention consists in the arrangement of a steamjacket chamber around the steam-cylinder of an engine, in combination with a pipe communicating with the exhaust-steam pipe of the cylinder, or ofthe hot well of a condenser, and with a pipe leading either into the chimney of the furnace or into the open air; the object of this part of my invention being to preserve the heat of the cylinder by means of the usual waste steam.

The drawing represents two distinct steam-cylinders operated by steam from the same steampipe. The said steam-pipe A is intended to be extended into communication with the usual steam-boiler or generator, or into communication with a superheater, and is branched at a' a', so as to communicate with the respective parts b b' of the two distinct steam-cylinders B B, the exhausts b b of which latter communicate with respective jet-condensers c c, each of which operates by dividing the exhaust steam into two portions, condensing one portion to produce the lvacuum before the piston, and discharging the other portion into the hot well D below, as described in the speciiication of the said Letters Patent hereinbefore referred to.

In my present invention, an open steam-pipe, d', leads upward from each of the hot wells D D int-o a space, b", formed by a steam-jacket which incloses the steam-cylinder, and from this space an escape-pipe, b4, conveys the steam to the usual chimney of the furnace or to the open air. The valve-chambers c c of the jet-sprays c c are each supplied with cold water through a pipe,

E, from an elevated reservoir, not shown, andv communicating with the said valve-chamber and with a water-vessel, F, aboveit, is apipe, f', which is Iitted with a drop-valve, f" ,that opens upward, while another pipe, f, Jlitted with an adjustable valve, 5, forms a communication between the water-vessel F and the pipe E.

rIhe pistons of the two cylinders B B are intended to move, in part, alternately in the same directions; and immediately after the iirst puff ot the exhaust steam has passed through and thus cleared the condenser C of any air and water therein the valve 0 closes, and immediately afterward the spray of cold water enters and condenses the imprisoned portion of the steam and produces the vacuum required, as described in the Letters Patent hereinbefore referred to. The valve of the spray-pipe, closing suddenly, causes the water in the valve-chamber o to rise, from its momentum, upward through the valve f in the pipe j" toward the vessel F, and thus prevents it from becoming warmed by contact with the condenser C, and consequently can be repeatedly used by flowing into the valvechamber c through the pipe E. The rst portion of the steam which is projected into the hot well D at every stroke of the piston passes upward into the space b which incloses the engine, a pipe, d', which forms a communication between the said chamber andthe exhaust-steam pipe of either a steam-cylinder, a superheatcr, 0r the hot well of a condenser, substantially as described, for the purpose of keeping up the heat of said steam-cylinder by the Waste steam of the engine, as described.

JOHN HOUPT. NVitnesses:

BENJ. MORISON, WM. H. MoRIsoN.

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