US1060221A - Automatic liquid-fuel control. - Google Patents

Description

E. E. WIOKERSHAM. AuTommo LIQUID rum. noNTaoL. APPLIOATIOH FILED JANJB. 1912.

Patented Apr. 29, 1913.

I? wg A' E. E. WICKERSHAM. AUTOMATIO LIQUID FUEL CONTROL.

I APPLIOATIOB FILED JAILIB 1912.

Patelle Apr. 29, 1913.

2 sums-SHEET 2.

INVICN'LOR im arl? Wie/@wen 'ITNEBHEB:

I" 1 ounml GOLUlllA YLANOGIAFM @WAIHINGTOM D. L'.

BEST AVAILABLE ons UNITED STATES FFCE Emma E. wrciisasnam. or NEWMAN, cALrroaNIA.

AUTOMATIC LIQUID-FUEL CONTROL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 29, 19i 3.

Application led January 18, 1912. Serial No. 671,828.

To all whom. it may concern.'

Be it known that I, Emma E. Wxcxtaasimu, a citizen of United States, .residing at Newman, in the county of Stanislaus ant State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in Automatic Liquid- Fuel Controls, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to automatic liquid fuel control.

The object of the present invention is to provideA a liquid fuel control in combination with a steam generating plant.

The burning of crude oilj requires first, that it be thoroughly atomized; and second, thoroughly su plied and mixed with a given quantity o air to secure the best results and a maximum firing efficiency.

In many large steam power plants there are emploved boilers of different horsepower in tie one establishment.

It is one of the objects of the present invention to automatically control the volume of oil and steam for the vaporization of the same which is delivered to the furnaces of the several boilers irrespective of the differences in the horse-power of the boilers.

It is also an ob]ect of the invention to provide in an oil burning sstem a master.

controlling device connecte to the main steam head and through said device control the flow of liquid fuel, vaporizing steam and air as they are admitted to the furnaces of tfhelboiler for the combustion of the liquid lrVhen boilers of different horse-power are used in steam plants, it is necessary that revision be made so that no one of the oilers will be over or underfed with liquid fuel.

It is one of the important features of the invention to so regulate the admission of liquid fuel and vaporizin steam that anv boiler irrespective of its orso-power wil always receive a given or definite quantity of fuel and vaporizing medium best adapted for each particular boiler.

The invention consists of the parts and the construction and combination of parts as hereinafter more fully' described and claimed, having reference to the accompanying` drawings, 1n which- *igure 41 is a diagrammatic view yrepresentin the fuel controllin system as attache to a boiler plant. fig. 2 is a eeetioual detail view ot' a burner equalizer.

Fig. 8 is a vertical sectional View of the secondary controller, D. Fig. 4 is a part sectional view and part elevation of the master controlling device, C.

In the illustrated embodiment of mv invention I have shown at A a pressure chamber, of suitable proportions, which is a i ropriately connected to an oil pump to which oil may be conveyed from any suitable source and from which it is delivered through the discharge pipe R to a manifold or header T, shown as extending along the front of a series of boilers l and 2, which, for the purpose of this invention, shall be considered as of different horse-power as designated one hundred and two hundred res ectively.

team is admitted into the e ualizing pressure chamber A from a suita le form of master controller C, being provided with a hand-wheel B so that the apparatus may be adjusted to admit a greater or lesser uantity of steam into the' chamber A.

team is conducted to the master controller C Fig. 4, through a pipe 8 which is connected to the main steam drum 4. Steam from the main drum or line 4 is conducted at full pressure into the master controller C through which it may pass at reduced pressure into the equalizer A, thence to the pump and also from the equalizer A through a branch 6, a portion of which is conducted to a damper controller E which is actuated to open the dempers I of the boilers by the pressure of steam from chamber A passin through master controller C.

t each variation of pressure in the steam chamber A there is a consequent movement 0f the iston-rod G of the damper controller la; this piston-rod G bein connected to and actuating a rocker-shaft lx which has suitable connections, as links H, rwith the several dempers I of the furnaces.

Branching from the steam pi e 8 which feeds steam to the master control er C, there is a pipe 7 by which steam under full pressure from the main 4 is admitted to a sccondary controller D of suitable character, the function of which is to reduce the pressure of steam coming from the pipe 7 so that the steam may be discharged from the controller D through a pipe P to a steam manifold S extending alon the front of the boilers substantially aral el with and are shown as above the oi manifold 'l. 'lho operation of the |-iecondary controlling dovimltl sEsT Avaitasts cos"r D is dependent upon variations of pressures in the steam chamber A; the controller D being connected to the branch 5 as shown so thatsteam from the` chamber A operates upon the mechanism of the secondary controller Dwhieh determines the pressure of the steam issuing from the controller to the pipe P and through thisto lth'e'manifold S. nrotber words, after the master controller C has been adjusted by means of the handwheel B steam is admitted from the main line 4 in which it may exist at one hundred pounds pressure and the controller will then cut down the pressure of steam so that it will be admitted into the chamber A somewhat lower than in the main line 4.

The steam from the chamber A is operative upon the pump and the volume of cil travelinl throu h the pipe R to the oil manifol T in ont of the furnaces is naturally determined b the pressure of steam from the chamber For each and every variation of pressure in the chamber A there is a constant variation in the volume of fluid discharged by the pump Y.

If there is a demand on the steam plant for. a considerable[quantityof steam, there may be a momentary/reduction of the pressure in the main line 4, and this reduction of the pressure iscompeiisated for bythe master controller() which automatically operatesfto admita lar er volume of steam to pass into the 'equalizing chamber A thus rivii'ig the pump faster to increase the suply of oil and conse uently increase the fire under lthe boilers. imultaneously 'with the increase of pressure in the chamber A there will be an 'increase of pressure in the secondary controller D wiich will automatically operate to admit ay lar er volume of steam to flow into the pi e and to the steam manifold S, vand coincident with the increase of pressure in the pipe 5 from the chamber A the damper controller E will o crate and through its connections open tie dempers I for the flow of a larger volume of air.

The master controller, C, ma be of any appropriate character, and in Fig. 3, I illustrate u construction suitable for the present purposes. This construction embodies a suitable casing upon which is mounted a diaphragm, 30, upon the top of which presses a ialancing spring 31, and by placing the steam pressure, balancing spring, on the top of the diaphragm, with the steam pressure beneath the diaphra m, which carries the throttle valve, 82, an stem, 83,1 am enabled to do away with stutiing boxes of movable 'arts and thereb 'eliminate' all excessive riction. VThe spring 33, is made ad'ustable by any Awell known means', and a t readed v'al'ves'at, 85, is m'unted'withiii the casin and is adjustable bymeansofthehandwhee B,having a stem,ll,eiignging thevalveseat..

By raising or lowering the valve seat, 35, the ctlect would be as follows: The boiler pressure from the supply pipe, 3, connected to the inlet side of the master controller, C, would operate to hold the diaphragm, B0, and valve, 32, in a higher or lower plane to vary the quantity of steam passing through the controller without. making any adjustment of the spring balancing steam pressure. The spring, 31, is adjusted to balance a certain percentage of the maximum boiler steam )ressure with the valve seat, B5, at. one ha f its maximum height. Any further adjustment of the valve seat. in the nuistei Controller, C, determines the boiler steam pressure, the quantities of oil fed to the turiiucc, the atomizing of tbe steam, and the uantity of oxygen passing to the furnace tor combustion.

The secondary controller, D, may be ot' any suitable type and one ty ie suitable for the purpose I have shown in IFig. 4, as comprising two diaphragms, 40, 41, which may e either of equal or unequal diameters, said diaphragms being s aeed aparty by a traveling push rod, 42. lhc diaphragms are arranged to oppose each other and to vary the, position of a cylindrical steam valve, 43. which has a stem, 44, which is connected to the ush rod, 42, which in turn is connected to tie diaphragms. This stem serves as a push rod and it carries a collar, 44, which supports a lever, 45, one end of which is pivotally mounted and the other end is connected to and held down by a suitable spring tensioning device, 46. To vary the tension of the spring device, 46, in c'ect varies the diameters of the diaphragins; in other words the steam pressures of the op osing sides ot' the diaphragms must be varied to eti'ect a balance of pressures on the opposite ends ot the push rod, 42, to move and bold the steam valve, 4B, open or closed.

Referring again to Fig. 1, and considering that the valves, 11 and 12, are wide open, the flame has started in the furnace and that there is steam pressure on the boilers. The hand wheel, B, on the master controller, C, is adjusted to permit steam to pass through one pipe, 8, to the pressure chamber, A, and accumulate pressure enough therein to operatc the oil pump, Y, to torce oil through the discharge pipe, R, to the manifold, T. and finally to t ic furnace. Pressure in the chainllo` bei', A, has now operated through the 12o branch, 5, and the dam )er controller, E, to open the dainpers in tlhe stack. Pressure from the branch 5, operates on top of the diaphragm, 40, of the secondary controller,

D, and through the push rod, 42, thc lower 12:.

dia ihragm, 4l, and the valve, 48, are operate in a downward direction to allow steam to pass through the pipes, 3 and 7, and the valve, 4B, to exert an upward pressure on the bottom of tbc lower diaphragm, fil, and i f accumulate a pressure in thepipes, Pand S,J

greater or less than the downward pressures exrted by the top diaphragm, 40,- andpiisli ro ,42. f.

I will now consider that the boiler steam pressure has risen above its former pressure and exerts a greater upward pressure on the diaphragm, 30, in the master-..eontroller,.C, thus closing the valve, 32, artly, and reducing the steam pressure in tie pressure chamber, A, which will eil'ect the damper controller E, to close the dempers, correspondingly, also to reduce the downward pressure on top of the diaphragm, 5&0, of the secondary controller, D, allowing an u ward movement ot both diaphragme und va ves to partly close the valve and to reduce the upward pressure t0 a point equal tothe downward ressure. rlhe partial closinn of the valve inthe mastercontroller depletes the supply of steam to the pum IY, and consequent y reduces the'tlow o oil to the furnace at the same time the above pressures were bein decreased.

From tie foregoing it will be seen that for'every reduction of pressure of steam in the main line 4 from any cause the master controllerCwill instantly res ond automatically to admit a greater vo ume of steam to the chamber A, and from thence to the boiler and the secondary controller D for admitting more steam to the boilers, and to the damper controller E for permitting a Greater volume of air to flow through the urnace; this simultaneous operation being designed to most elilciently and rapidly build up or decrease the fire by admitting given pro oitions of air, steam and oil as the immet inte necessity requires.

When there are several boilers of different horsepower located in a steam plant, it is necessary that the volume of steam, oil and air in each of the several boilers be in exact proportions to the capacity of the boilers and if some means were not provided for s o controlling and proportioning the steam, oil and air for each boiler according to its ret uiremcnts, the boilers would be either overtied or undcrfed with great destructive consequences and loss of efliciency. To' that end an important feature of the invention is thc provision of means whereby each boiler, though different in horse power, will receive the most etlicicnt uantity of oil, steam and air at all times; t e pressures of the same being automatically controlled by the apparatus hereinbefore described. I have ound in actual practice that this determination of the steam and oil taken from the manifolds S and '1 can be minutely, accurately and constantly regulated as each case n ecessitates by the introduction of a connection 10, shown in Fig. 2, of which there/is one connected at each end of the burners V, into which oil and steam are conducted respectively through tlie connections 10; these being coupled -to u per and lower valves 11 kandilQ respective y which control the flow of steam'from the pipe S into the burner V; the lower valve 12 controlling the flow of oil from-1 thefmanifold '1 into the burner.

r The interposition of the Ipeculiar connectionsflOfbetween the valves 11 and 12 and theburner V insures that once t-he valves havebeen opened wide for the admission of fluid at full pressure from the manifolds S and T, the operator need no lonffer watch oi' adjustl the valves, since the dacviccs 10 e'ectually control and deliver to the burner V definite quantities of oil or steam.

The devices 10 are clearly shown as hav` ing contracted channels 13 at one end conimunicating with enlarged channels 14 which open into the burner V. Since each ol the manifolds S and '.l are charged with steam or oil respectively at given or varyin pressures, an then if the valves 11 an 12 he thrown wide open oil or steam will have access to its respective connection 10 and may flow through the restricted orifice or channel 13 only in restricted or definite proportions.

In the case of the one hundred horsepower boiler a connection 10 is used which will deliver steam or oil in certain quantities to the burner B, and in the case of the two hundred horse-power boiler a connection 10 will be used in which the restricted orifice 13 will be, for instance, twice the transverse area of the'equalizing orifice of the smaller boiler. Thus each of the boilers whatever their respective horse-power may bc will be fed with a predetermined quantity of oil or steam which must flow to the burners through the equalizing connections 10, each being provided with a restricted channel, as 13.

Manifestly for every variation of ressiirc in the manifolds S or T there wil be an increase in the volume of fluid travelinr through the connections 10, but there wi l be no requirement for any adjustment of the valves l1 or 12 since these may he opened to their fullest extent, and the attention of the operator is no longer required inasmuch as the cqluulizing devices 10 will constantly control tie volume of oil or steam, as the case may be, tiowing.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- 1. In an oil burning system, the combination with steam boilers, of hydrocarbon burners under the boilers, a master controller for automatically operating to maintain la given pressure in the boilers and deriving steam therefrom, said controller having manually adjustable parts, and means governed by the controller for synchronously varying the quantity of oil, air and steam utilized at 'the boilers foricombustion said means including a distributing, equ'alizing chamber i'nto which steainis delivered by the controller, an oil pump operated byl steam from said chamber and connected to the burners by feed pipes, a damper mechanism for the boilers operative b steam from said distributing chamber, an a steam-feeding device connected tothe burners and connected to said chamber Jfor operation' by variable pressures therein, said damper, pump and steamfeeding device automatically operating under variations of pressure of steam from the equaliziug chamber in which the pressure is varied inversel by the controller as to the variation of boiier pressure.

2. In an oil burning system, the combination with steam boilers, of hydrocarbon bui'ners under the boilers, a master controller for automatically operating to maintain a given pressure in the boilers and deriving steam therefrom, said controller having nianuallyvadjustable parts, and means governed by the controller for synchronously varying the quantity of oil, air and steam utilized at the boilers for combustion, said means including a distributing, equalizing chamber into which steam is delivered by the controller, an oil pump operated by steam -from said chamber and connected to the burners by feed pipes, a damper mechanism for the boilers operative by steam from said distributing chamber, a'steam-feeding device connected to the burners and connected to said chamber for o eration by variable pressures therein, said damper, ump and steamfeeding device automatieal y operating under variations of pressure o steam from the equalizing chamber in which the pressure is varied inversely by the 'controller as to the variation of boiler pressure, and restrictive elements peculiar to each boiler for admitting thereto from the oil feed pipes a quantity proportionate to the boiler size and to admit variable quantities proportionate to variable pressure from the master controller.

3'. In a liquid fuel control for steam plants, the combination with oil burners, of a steam conductor connected to the burners andideriving steam'from the boiler for conveying steam for atomizing oil at the burners, a regulator in said conductor havingr manually adjustable means whereby a dcsired ratio ot' steam to burners in proper* tion to oil is effected, said regulator having diaphragms, one of which is exposed to boiler pressure from the conductor, a master controller having manually adjustable means for operating to maintain a iven boiler pressure, and having a steam in et from the plant boilers and an outlet for steam, said regulator havin a piston exposed to pressure of steam rom the outlet of the controller for varyin the steam to burner synchronously with c anges of pressure in the plant boilers, a pump for feeding oil to the urners and operated by steam nom the controller, and a draft controlling mechanism for the plant operated by steam from thc controller, said controller being operated by increase of steam pressure in the plant to decrease steam to said pump, mechanism and regulator, and operating automatically to increase steam to said parts when boiler pressure decreases.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

ELMER E. VICKERSHAM.

Vitnesses:

H. E. Ross, E. R. DXXEN.

Copies of this patent mayv be obtained for Ave centseaoh, by addressing the Commissioner ot Patents,

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