We were recently witness of an experiment made at Eragny Conflans on
the steam yacht Flamboyante. It was a question of testing a new
vaporizer or burner for liquid fuel. The experiment was a repetition
of the one that the inventor, Mr. G. Dietrich, recently performed with
success in the presence of Admirals Cloue and Miot.
The Flamboyante is 58 ft. in length, 9 ft. in width, draws 5 ft. of
water, and has a displacement of 10 tons. She is provided with a
double vertical engine supplied by a Belleville boiler that develops
28 horse power. The screw makes 200 revolutions per minute, and gives
the yacht a speed of 6½ knots.
Mr. Dietrich's vaporizer appears to be very simple, and has given so
good results that we have thought it of interest to give our readers a
succinct description of it. In this apparatus, the inventor has
endeavored to obtain an easy regulation of the two essential
elements--naphtha and steam.
Fig. 1 represents the apparatus in section. The steam enters through
the tubulure, A, and finds its way around the periphery of a tuyere,
D. It escapes with great velocity, carries along the petroleum that
runs from two lateral tubulures, B (Fig. 2), and throws it in a fine
spray into the fireplace, through the nozzle, C (Fig. 1), which is
flattened into the shape of a fan opened out horizontally. The mixture
at once ignites in contact with the hot gases, and gives a beautiful,
long, clear flame. The air necessary for the combustion is sucked
through the interior of the nozzle, H, which is in front of the
tuyere. It will be seen that the current of steam can be regulated by
moving the tuyere, D, from or toward the eduction orifice. This is
effected through a maneuver of the hand wheel, F. In the second place,
the flow of the petroleum is made regular by revolving the hand wheel,
G, which gives the piston, O, a to and fro motion in the tuyere, D.
[Illustration: FIG. 1--THE DIETRICH PETROLEUM BURNER.]
The regulation may be performed with the greatest ease. It is possible
to instantly vary, together or separately, the steam and the
petroleum. Under such circumstances, choking is not to be feared at
the petroleum orifice, where, according to experiment, the thickness
of the substance to be vaporized should not be less than 0.04 of an
inch.
The petroleum might evidently be made to enter at A and the steam at
B; but one of the conclusions of the experiments cited is that the
performance is better when the jet of steam surrounds the petroleum.
It will be understood, in fact, that by this means not a particle of
the liquid can escape vaporization and, consequently, combustion.
Moreover, as the jet of petroleum is completely surrounded by steam
its flow can be increased within the widest limits, and this, in
certain cases, may prevent an obstruction without much diminishing the
useful effect of the burner.
The apparatus is easily and rapidly taken apart. It it is only
necessary to remove the nozzle, C, in order to partially clean it. It
would even seem that the cleaning might be done automatically by
occasionally reversing the flow of the steam and petroleum. However
efficacious such a method might prove, the apparatus as we have
described it can be very easily applied to any generator. Fig. 2
represents it as applied to the front of a furnace provided with two
doors. A metallic box, with two compartments, is placed on one side of
the furnace, and is provided with two stuffing boxes that are capable
of revolving around the steam and petroleum pipes. The latter thus
form the pivots of the hinge that allows of the play of the vaporizers
and piping.
[Illustration: FIG. 2--THE BURNER APPLIED TO THE FURNACE OF A BOILER.]
It was in this way that Mr. Dietrich arranged his apparatus in an
experiment made upon a stationary boiler belonging to a Mr. Corpet.
The experiment was satisfactory and led to the adoption of the
arrangement shown in Fig. 3. The fire bridge is constructed of
refractory bricks, and the majority of the grate bars are filled in
with brick. The few free bars permit of the firing of the boiler and
of access of air to the interior of the fire box. Under such
circumstances, the combustion is very regular, the furnace does not
roar, and the smoke-consuming qualities are perfect.
[Illustration: FIG. 3--APPLICATION OF THE BURNER TO A RETURN FLAME
BOILER.]
In the experiment on the Flamboyante, the boiler was provided with but
one apparatus, and the grate remained covered with a layer of ignited
coal that had been used for firing up in order to obtain the necessary
pressure of steam to set the vaporizer in operation. This ignited coal
appeared to very advantageously replace the refractory bricks, the
role of which it exactly fulfilled. It has been found well, moreover,
to break the flames by a few piles of bricks in the furnace, in order
to obtain as intimate a mixture as possible of the inflammable gases.
It is to be remarked that firing up in order to obtain the necessary
steam at first is a drawback that might be surmounted by using at the
beginning of the operation a very small auxiliary boiler. The main
furnace would then be fired by means of say a wad of cotton. But, in
current practice, if a grate and fire be retained, the firing will
perhaps be simpler.
With but one apparatus, the pressure in the Flamboyante's boiler rose
in a few minutes from 6 to 25 pounds, and about a quarter of an hour
after leaving the wharf the apparatus had been so regulated that there
was no sign of smoke. This property of the Dietrich burner proceeds
naturally from the use of a jet of steam to carry along the petroleum
and air necessary for combustion. It is, in fact, an Orvis smoke
consumer transformed, and applied in a special way.
It must be added that the regulating requires a certain amount of
practice and even a certain amount of time at every change in the
boat's running. So it is well to use two, and even three, apparatus,
of a size adapted to that of the boiler. The regulation of the furnace
temperature is then effected by extinguishing one or two, or even
three, of the apparatus, according as it is desired to slow up more or
less or to come to a standstill.
The oil used by Mr. De Dosme on his yacht comes from Comaille, near
Antun. The price of it is quite low, and, seeing the feeble
consumption (from 33 to 45 lb. for the yacht's boiler), it competes
advantageously with the coal that Mr. De Dosme was formerly obliged to
use.--_La Nature._
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[Continued from SUPPLEMENT, No. 622, page 9935.]