The Birth of The Water Tuber Boiler and Christened as Steam Generator

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The Birth of The Water Tuber Boiler and
Christened as Steam Generator

• P M V Subbarao
• Professor
• Mechanical Engineering Department

Generation of Unlimited Hopes for Development..
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The Crisis

• As industry developed during 19th century, so the
  use of boilers for raising steam became
  widespread.
• Disastrous explosions sometimes occurred.
• Boilers of that period consisted of heated
  pressure vessels of large diameter.
• These are subject to internal pressure which is
  tensile stresses in the walls of the enclosure.
• The existence and importance of stress, known as
  hoop stress is given by

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Historical Development

• 1766 William Blakey Patent on water in tube and
  fire outside.
• Several tubes alternately inclined at opposite
  angles were arranged in the furnaces, the
  adjacent tube ends being connected by small
  pipes.
• The first successful user of water-tube boilers,
  however, was James Rumsey, an American inventor,
  celebrated for his early experiments in steam
  navigation, and it is he who may be truly classed
  as the originator of the water-tube boiler.
• In 1788 he patented, in England, several forms of
  boilers, some of which were of the water-tube
  type.
• One had a fire box with flat top and sides, with
  horizontal tubes across the fire box connecting
  the water spaces.
• Another had a cylindrical fire box surrounded by
  an annular water space and a coiled tube was
  placed within the box connecting at its two ends
  with the water space. This was the first of the
  "coil boilers".
• Another form in the same patent was the vertical
  tubular boiler, practically as made at the
  present time.

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John Stevens, 1804

• The first boiler made of a combination of small
  tubes, connected at one end to a reservoir, was
  the invention of another American, 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.

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1805 John Cox Stevens

• Another form of water tube was patented in
  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,
  1 internal diameter and 40 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.

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Julius Griffith, in 1821

• 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.

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1822, Jacob Perkins

• In 1822, Jacob Perkins constructed a flash boiler
  for carrying what was then considered a high
  pressure.
• A number of cast-iron bars having 1 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.

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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.

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John M'Curdy

• 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.

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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.
• Water-cooled enclosures.

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Struggle for Understanding First Law of Steam
Generation

• 1803 John Stevens A pseudo-water-tube design
  used in a steamboat.
• 1822 Jacob Perkins Once-through boiler using
  cast iron bars.
• 1856 Stephen Wilcox Inclined tube boiler with
  water-cooled enclosures.
• 1880 Allan Stirling Bent tube connecting drums.

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The Theory of Producing Steam

• Water boils and evaporates at 100C under
  atmospheric pressure.
• By higher pressure, water evaporates at higher
  temperature - e.g. a pressure of 10 bar equals
  an evaporation temperature of 184C.
• During the evaporation process, pressure and
  temperature are constant, and a substantial
  amount of heat are use for bringing the water
  from liquid to vapour phase.
• When all the water is evaporated, the steam is
  called dry saturated.
• In this condition the steam contains a large
  amount of latent heat.
• This latent heat in the dry saturated steam can
  efficiently be utilised to different processes
  requiring heat.
• The steam boiler or steam generator is
  connected to the consumers through the steam and
  condensate piping.
• When the steam is provided to the consumers, it
  condensate.
• It can then be returned to the feed water tank.