Steam, Its Generation and Use | Page 6

John Stevens,
in 1804. This boiler was actually employed to generate steam for
running a steamboat on the Hudson River, but like all the "porcupine"
boilers, of which type it was the first, it did not have the elements of a
continued success.
[Illustration: John Stevens, 1804]

Another form of water tube was patented in 1805 by John Cox Stevens,
a son of John Stevens. This boiler consisted of twenty vertical tubes,
1¼ inches internal diameter and 40½ inches long, arranged in a circle,
the outside diameter of which was approximately 12 inches, connecting
a water chamber at the bottom with a steam chamber at the top. The
steam and water chambers were annular spaces of small cross section
and contained approximately 33 cubic inches. The illustration shows
the cap of the steam chamber secured by bolts. The steam outlet pipe
"A" is a pipe of one inch diameter, the water entering through a similar
aperture at the bottom. One of these boilers was for a long time at the
Stevens Institute of Technology at Hoboken, and is now in the
Smithsonian Institute at Washington.
[Illustration: John Cox Stevens, 1805]
About the same time, Jacob Woolf built a boiler of large horizontal
tubes, extending across the furnace and connected at the ends to a
longitudinal drum above. The first purely sectional water-tube boiler
was built by Julius Griffith, in 1821. In this boiler, a number of
horizontal water tubes were connected to vertical side pipes, the side
pipes were connected to horizontal gathering pipes, and these latter in
turn to a steam drum.
In 1822, Jacob Perkins constructed a flash boiler for carrying what was
then considered a high pressure. A number of cast-iron bars having 1½
inches annular holes through them and connected at their outer ends by
a series of bent pipes, outside of the furnace walls, were arranged in
three tiers over the fire. The water was fed slowly to the upper tier by a
force pump and steam in the superheated state was discharged to the
lower tiers into a chamber from which it was taken to the engine.
[Illustration: Joseph Eve, 1825]
The first sectional water-tube boiler, with a well-defined circulation,
was built by Joseph Eve, in 1825. The sections were composed of small
tubes with a slight double curve, but being practically vertical, fixed in
horizontal headers, which headers were in turn connected to a steam
space above and a water space below formed of larger pipes. The steam

and water spaces were connected by outside pipes to secure a
circulation of the water up through the sections and down through the
external pipes. In the same year, John M'Curdy of New York, built a
"Duplex Steam Generator" of "tubes of wrought or cast iron or other
material" arranged in several horizontal rows, connected together
alternately at the front and rear by return bends. In the tubes below the
water line were placed interior circular vessels closed at the ends in
order to expose a thin sheet of water to the action of the fire.
[Illustration: Gurney, 1826]
In 1826, Goldsworthy Gurney built a number of boilers, which he used
on his steam carriages. A number of small tubes were bent into the
shape of a "U" laid sidewise and the ends were connected with larger
horizontal pipes. These were connected by vertical pipes to permit of
circulation and also to a vertical cylinder which served as a steam and
water reservoir. In 1828, Paul Steenstrup made the first shell boiler
with vertical water tubes in the large flues, similar to the boiler known
as the "Martin" and suggesting the "Galloway".
The first water-tube boiler having fire tubes within water tubes was
built in 1830, by Summers & Ogle. Horizontal connections at the top
and bottom were connected by a series of vertical water tubes, through
which were fire tubes extending through the horizontal connections, the
fire tubes being held in place by nuts, which also served to make the
joint.
[Illustration: Stephen Wilcox, 1856]
Stephen Wilcox, in 1856, was the first to use inclined water tubes
connecting water spaces at the front and rear with a steam space above.
The first to make such inclined tubes into a sectional form was Twibill,
in 1865. He used wrought-iron tubes connected at the front and rear
with standpipes through intermediate connections. These standpipes
carried the system to a horizontal cross drum at the top, the entrained
water being carried to the rear.
Clarke, Moore, McDowell, Alban and others worked on the problem of

constructing water-tube boilers, but because of difficulties of
construction involved, met with no practical success.
[Illustration: Twibill, 1865]
It may be asked why water-tube boilers did not come into more general
use at an early date, that is, why the number of water-tube boilers built