US417517A - Low-water alarm - Google Patents

Description

(Nd Modell) H. SIMS.

LOW WATER ALARM.

- No. 417,517. Patented Dec. 17,1889.

Winesses. Inventor.

Henw S'zms may I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

HENRY suns, 0F ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA.

LOW-WATER ALARM.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 417,517, dated December 17, 1889.

Application filed February 16, 1889. Serial No. 300,199. (No model.)

To all whom it mayconccrn:

Be it known that I, HENRY SIMS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Erie, in the county of Erie andState of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Low-Water Alarms; andI do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being bad to the accompanying drawing, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, forming part of this specification.

My invention consists in the improvements in low-water alarms for steam-boilers, hereinafter set forth, and explained and illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which The figure shows a cross-section of a steamboiler with my improved low-water alarm in place thereon, a portion of the device being shown in section.

The objects of my invention are to construct a low-water alarm for steam-boilers with a dry-steam passage to the alarm-Whistle and to so simplify the mechanism of the device as to do away with the lost motion incident to the compound-lever mechanism ordinarily provided for operating the alarm-whistle, and also adapt the whistle to be operated either by the operation of the expansion mechanism or by moving the whistle-valve lever by hand.

In the construction of my device shown, A is the shell of a steam-boiler, and a; w the low-water line thereof. In the top of the boiler-shell A, preferably near the front end thereof, I secure the shell B by means of the screw-thread Z), which fits into the screwthreaded opening in the boiler. The upper end of this shell B is provided with a sleeveextension 0, which is internally screwthreaded from end to end. In the lower portion of the sleeve 0, I secure a short section of pipe D, which extends down through the shell B into the boiler to the low-water line 00 0c, and in the upper portion of the sleeve 0, I secure an expansion-pipe E, which extends upward some distance andis provided with a cap F, its upper end having an ear f on one side thereof.

In the side of the shell B and communicating with the chamber therein is secured an elbow G, which opens upward, into which elbow a nipple H is screwed, which nipple communicates with and supports a steamwhistle I, the valve mechanism of which is of usual and ordinary construction.

In the whistle-valve lever J, a short distance outside of the pintle 71, upon whichthe lever J oscillates, I make a vertical slot j, and in this slotj, I insert the hook Z on the lower end of a rod L,which extends therefrom upward and through an opening in the ear f in the cap F, the upper end of the rod L being screw-threaded and provided with adj ustingnuts g g, by means whereof the length of the rod L between the ear f and the slotj in the Whistle-valve lever J can be so adjusted as to take up all lost motion and cause a slight expansion of the pipe E to raise the lever J and open the whistle-valve. The object of inserting the hook l on the lower end of the rod L in a slot j in the whistle-valve lever J is to permit the raising of the lever J by hand, the hook Z on the lower end of the rodL passing downward in the slot j during this operation, thus adapting the whistle to be operated either by the expansion mechanism as a lowwater alarm, or by hand for ordinary purposes for which whistles in shops are used.

In operating as a low-water alarm, when the water in the boiler is above the line 00 0c and the lower end of the pipe D, the pipe D and the expansion-pipe E are filled with comparatively cold water; but as soon as the water in the boiler falls below the lower end of the pipe D the water in the pipes D and E drains into the boiler and hot steam takes its place,

-which rapidly heats the expansion-pipeE,

which operates by means of the connectingrod L to raise the whistle-valve lever J and open the whistle-valve, when dry steam passes from the upper portion of the boiler and the chamber in the shell B to the whistle, thereby operating it to sound an alarm, which alarm continues to sound until the water in the boiler is raised above the lower end of the pipe D, when the steam in the expansionpipe E soon condenses and its place is filled with water, which soon cools, causing the pipe E to contract, thereby releasing the valvelever J, which then operates by its weight to close the whistle-valve, this alarm operatin g automatically, as described, whenever the water in the boiler falls below the lower end of the pipe D.

I am aware of the patents of Bradford, No. 113,843, dated April 18, 1877. Therefore I do not claim, broadly, the. feature of separate passages from the boiler to the expansionpipe and to the alarm-whistle, as a device of this character is shown in that patent; but

lVhat I do claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. The combination, in a low-water alarm, of a whistle I, having a downwardly-projecting valve-lever J, provided with a slotwith the expansion-pipe E and adjustable rod L,

extending from the slotj in the whistle-valve leverJ to the ear f on the expansion-pipe cap HENRY SIMS.

Witnesses:

II. M. STURGEON, H. J. CURTZE.

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