US Patent: 5,490X
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| Steam Engine
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Patentee:
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| John Catlin (exact or similar names) - Cincinnati, Hamilton County, OH |
| Manufacturer: |
| Not known to have been produced |
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Patent Dates:
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| Granted: |
May 11, 1829 |
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Joel Havens
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Description: |
| This patent is listed by some sources as being granted on 11 Jun., 1829.
Most of the patents prior to 1836 were lost in the Dec. 1836 fire. Only about 2,000 of the almost 10,000 documents were recovered. Little is known about this patent. There are no patent drawings available. This patent is in the database for reference only.
“This is in fact an engine working entirely upon the principle of Savary's engine. It is said to be peculiarly applicable to mills already erected on streams which fail during part of the year, as the expense of constructing it is much less than of an ordinary steam engine of equal power.
1. Savary's engine, as usually described, was to operate both as a sucking and forcing pump. The water being first raised, by the pressure of the atmosphere, into a chamber, in which a vacuum had been produced by the condensation of steam, and then forced up a rising main by the pressure of steam acting upon the surface of the water. In the arrangement now proposed, the forcing operation is the only one employed. Two or more cylinders are made of wood and are placed in the reservoir from which the water is to be raised, so that it will flow into them without the aid of a vacuum. Wood is chosen because it is a bad conductor of heat. Floats of wood are to rise and fall within these cylinders and are to operate as pistons; they are to be "closely fitted without touching the sides, to separate the steam from the surface of the water, and thereby prevent its condensation.” After these cylinders have been filled with water, through a valve in their bottoms, steam is to be admitted into them, above the float, and is, by its elasticity, to force the water to the required height. The patentee says:
2. The improvement for which I claim exclusive privilege, is, the use of wood, or other non-conducting materials, to construct the vessels, or cylinders, and floats, above described, and to line with the same material, iron, or other metallic vessels, or cylinders, for the alternate reception and discharge of steam and water.
3. It will be no easy task to fit the floats closely without touching the sides, so as to prevent the water from passing above them, when under the pressure of a high column in the rising shafts. The slowness with which wood conducts heat, would be an advantage in this plan, but the impossibility of making it keep its form and dimensions under the action of water and steam, will render some unmentioned provision necessary, or it must be fatal to the whole scheme. Steam of two atmospheres will be necessary to raise water to the height of thirty feet upon this plan.
4. In situations where fuel is cheap, an economical engine for raising water from a tail race, into a dam, might be advantageously employed during seasons of drought; but it rarely happens that there is a supply in the tail race, when there is a deficiency in the dam; it is therefore in but few places that such an apparatus would be of any avail; it has, however, been effected in some places, but the very nature of things forbids its frequent adoption.”
5. Journal of the Franklin Institute Vol. 6, Sept. 1829 pgs. 172-173
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