US677182A - Feed-water regulator. - Google Patents

Description

Patented lune 25, 190i.

M. DEAN.

FEED WATER REGULATOR.

(Application filed Dec. 13, 1900.) (N o M u d e l lie UNITED STATES PATENT Orrrcn.

MARK DEAN, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE BOSTON STEAM SPECIALTY COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

FEED-WATER REGULATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent NO. 677,182, dated June 25, 1901.

Application filed December 13, 1900. Serial No. 39,673. (No mbdel.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known thatI, MARK DEAN, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Feed-Tater Regulators, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to regulators for antomatically controlling the feed-water supply of a steam-boiler.

It consists incertain novel features of construction and arrangement in such regulators, which I shall now proceed to describe and claim.

Of the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents a sectional view,with parts in elevation, showing a regulator constructed in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 represents a detail sectional view hereinafter referred to.

The same reference characters indicate the same parts in both the figures.

In my improved regulator I rely upon the difference in temperature of the boiler-water and steam to control an expansible chamber, which in turn operates a valve in the feedwater pipe or other suitable device for controlling the entrance of feed-water into the boiler.

In the drawings, 1 represents a part of a boiler, 2 represents the feed-pipe for supply ing water to the boiler, (the connection between said pipe and the boiler not being shown,) and 3 represents a valve of the balanced type controlling said feed-pipe.

4 is a diaphragm having a chamber5 above it, which I term an expansible chamber, inasmuch as its capacity is varied by the movement of the diaphragm. The depression of diaphragm 4 tends to open the valve 3, and the closure of said valve is effected by means of a spring 6, acting upwardly on the valve-stem.

7 is an auxiliary valve-controlling lever, which may be operated by hand and is adapted to be held down by a latch 25, engaging a notch 26 on the lever, so as to hold the valve in open position.

8 is a casing having rigid top and bottom walls 9 10 and a rigid partition 11, dividing the interior of the casing into a lower chamber 12, which I term the water and steam chamber, and an upper chamber 13, which I term the liquid-chamber. The lower chamber 12 is located at or near the average water-level in the boiler 1 and is connected by conduits 14 15 with the water and steam spaces of' the boiler, respectively. Fig. 2 is a detail section taken at right angles to Fig. 1, showing the connection of the water-conduit 14 with the chamber 12. As the water-level in the boiler changes, the chamber 12 will be filled alternately with water and steam, or both, and the temperature communicated to the liquid-chamber 13 through the partition 11 will accordingly vary. When water enters the chamber 12, the tempera ture of the chamber 13 will fall, and when steam enters chamber 12 the temperature of chamber 13 will rise. I prefer to make the lower wall 10 of the steam and water chamber relatively thin, as shown, in order to take advantage of the cooling effect of the atmosphere in cooling the contents of said chamber after the steam has left it. Theliquid-chamber 13 is connected with the expansible chamber 5 by a conduit 16, whose inlet end 17 is located within the liquid-chamber 13, near the bottom of the latter. The upper part of said chamber 13 forms a closed pocket. A suitable liquid, such as water, introduced through an opening in the conduit 16, closed by a plug 18, fills the expansible chamber 5 and conduit 16 and the lower part of the liquid-chamber 13, said liquid covering the inlet end 17 of conduit 16. The pocket-space in the upper part of the chamber 13 is designed to be left empty or filled with air. Supposing now that the water-level in the boiler has fallen, so that the chamber 12 is filled with steam, the heat of said steam raises the temperature of the water in chamber 13 and its connections to or above the boiling-point, and steam forms in the upper part of said chamber or the air therein becomes heated, so as to exert a downward pressure on the water, which tends to force it through conduit 16 into the chamber 5,

thereby depressing the diaphragm 4 and opening the feed-valve 3, so as to permita supply of feed-water to enter the boiler. The entering water raises the water-level in the'bpiler, and water is substituted for steam in the chamber 12. The temperature of the liquid in chamber 13 falls, and condensation of the steam or cooling of the air above it ensues, and the atmospheric pressure below diaphragm 4 raises said diaphragm and permits spring 6 to close the valve 3 and shut off the supply of feed-water. The operation continues automatically.

The expansible chamber 5 is shown as located below the level of chamber 13, so that if any circulation occurs between said chambers the cooler liquid will seek the lower level of chamber 5.

The conduit 14, connecting the water-space of the boiler 1 with the water and steam chamber 12, is trapped at 19 to avoid a circulation through said conduit. 20 represents a cooler interposed in said conduit between the boiler 1 and chamber 12 with the object of cooling the boiler-Water before it reaches chamber 12, and thus establishing as great a difference as possible between the temperature of the water and the temperature of the steam entering the chamber 12. The cooler, as shown, comprises an outer casing 21, elongated vertically and connected at its lower end with the part of conduit 14 toward the boiler, and a pipe or conduit 22, entering the upper end of casing 21 and having an inlet 23 in the lower portion of said casing. The water in the casing 21 is cooled by reason of the amount of surface which it offers to the atmosphere, and the cooler water tends to fall in said casing, while the warmer water rises. The conduit 22 draws from the cooler water in the lower part of the casing.

2% is a small orifice in the wall of pipe 22, forming a lateral passage between said pipe and the extreme upper end of the casing 21, the object of said contracted passage being to avoid the formation of an air-pocket in the upper portion of the casing, its size being too small to materially affect the water circulation.

It is obvious that any suitable means other than the balanced valve 3 may be employed for controlling the fioW of feed-Wateras, for instance, a different form of water-controlling valve or a valve controlling the steamsupply of a steampumpthe particular method of control being immaterial to myin-- vention.

1 claim 1. In a feedwater regulator, the combination with the boiler, of a water and steam chamber having connection with the Water and steam spaces of the boiler, a feed-controlling member operated by changes in temperature in said water and steam chamber, and a cooling-chamber interposed in the water connection from the water-space of the boiler to the Water and steam chamber, said cooling-chamber comprising a casing connected with the boiler, and a conduit connected with the water and steam chamber and having an inlet in the lower portion of said casing.

2. In afeed-water regulator, the combination with the boiler, of a water and steam chamber having connection with the water and steam spaces of the boiler, a feed-controlling member operated by changes in temperature in said water and steam chamber, and a cooling-chamber interposed in the water connection from the water-space of the boiler to the water and steam chamber, said cooling-chamber comprising a casing connectedwith the boiler, a conduit connected with the water and steam chamber and having an inlet in the lower portion of said casin g, and a contracted lateral passage connecting the upper portion of the casing with the conduit above the latters inlet.

3. In a feed-Water regulator, the combination with the boiler, of an expansible chamber controlling the boiler-feed, a Water and steam chamber having connection with the water and steam spaces of the boiler, and a liquid-chamber adjacent to the water and steam chamber and connected with the expansible chamber by a conduit having an inlet below the top of said liquid-chamber, the upper portion of said liquid-chamber forming a closed pocket, for the purpose specified.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

MARK DEAN. lVitn esses:

P. W. PEZZETTI, A. D. HARRISON.

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