Steam-reheater.

Application filed May 17,1904. Serial No. 208,335.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, Henry A. Allen, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, 5 have invented a new and useful Improvement in Steam-Reheaters for Compound Engines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in the construction of the receiver for the steam io in a compound-engine system (including in the term “compound” any multiple of the expansion) wherein the exhaust - steam of a preceding cylinder is heated to enhance its working efficiency.

The primary object of my improvement is to avoid in the receiver loss from the steam used for reheating of its heat by expending it in evaporating the moisture contained in the exhaust-steam which enters the receiver, 20 thus to eliminate as far as possible what is commonly known as “reevaporation.” ThisI accomplish by separating in the receiver moisture from the exhaust-steam preparatory to reheating the latter.

My further objects are to shield the reheating-coil in the receiver from impingement against it of the exhaust-steam entering the receiver, thus to prevent wear upon and other injury to the coil from such impingement; to 3° increase the heating capacity of the receiver by prolonging therein the time of maintaining the exhaust-steam under subjection to the heat of the coil and by coursing through it the steam to be heated in the direction counter 35 to that in which the heating steam courses through the coil, and to enable the superheated steam to be withdrawn from the receiver at the part therein where it is hottest.

The accompanying drawing shows my im4° proved reheater by a view in vertical sectional elevation between the high-pressure and lowpressure cylinders of a compound engine, both represented diagrammatically.

A denotes the high-pressure cylinder, B 45 the low-pressure cylinder, and C my improved reheater. The reheater comprises as its essential features a casing», containing a steamcoil b or other suitable form of steam-conduit, communicating at its inlet end through a pipe 50 c with a steam-boiler, (not shown,) with a pipe d, leading from its discharge end. The pipe d may lead to a trap or drain or back to the boiler or to any auxiliary engine, and the casing a should be equipped with a safetyvalve e, of any suitable construction, and may 55 be provided with a receptacle f for the condensation discharging through a valved pipe f~ to a trap or drain (not shown) and shown to be provided with a water-gage f. The cylinder A exhausts into the receiver through 60 a pipe 7, leading downward in the casing nearly to its base, where it is preferably of the bellmouth shape represented, and below which may be provided, though not necessarily, a steam-separator /t, represented of conical 65 shape with a trough i about its lower edge discharging through a drain-pipe k into the receptacle f. The low-pressure cylinder B communicates with the receiver through a pipe/, leadingupward within thecasing nearly 70 to its upper end, where it is preferably of the bell-mouth shape represented. The pipes y and I thus preferably extend within the coil ό, and they are shown to carry baffle-plates »?, provided at intervals throughout the cas- 75 ing, though the baffle-plates niay be otherwise supported. While the pipes </ and I are continued as such within the casing «, they may be provided therein in other form.

Steam exhausting from the cylinder A en- 80 ters the reheater by way of the pipe </, which conducts it to the bottom of the latter, thus without impingement against the coil, with the advantage of saving the latter from the wearing effect of such impingement, and in 85 passing out of the lower end of the pipe the moisture carried by the steam drops from it and falls upon the separator, whence it runs into the trough / and through the pipe k into the receptacle f. The steam thus practically 90 freed from moisture rises within the casing, being retarded in its progress by the baffleplates and distributed throughout the coil into intimate contact with its surface, whereby when the steam attains the upper end of the 95 casing it is highly heated, having in its condition of entering the casing encountered the least hot lower section of the coil and advanced along the latter, as the heat therein increases on the counter-current principle. 10α Thus the heating efficiency of the coil is not dissipated by revaporizing the moisture car784,373 ried in the exhaust-steam to be reheated, with the result of materially increasing the efficiency of the reheater. The reheated steam is taken by the pipe I to the cylinder B from 5 the part of the receiver wherein it is the hottest, whereby none of its efficiency is lost.

Where the steam expansion is utilized more than once, a reheater C is intended to be provided for each additional cylinder, to be inter10 posed between it and the one preceding it.

The several objects hereinbefore stated are effectively accomplished by my improved construction of reheater. These objects are not, however, all necessarily interdependent, so 15 that I do not limit my invention to the combinations of parts whereby all of said objects are accomplished; nor is it my intention to be limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as they may be variously 20 modified by those skilled in the art without departure from my invention.