Published Resources Details Letters Patent
- Title
- Gas-expansion chamber for torpedo-boats
- Imprint
- United States Patent Office, 29 November 1881
- Description
Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 250,144, Application filed October 17.
Accession No.1317
- Abstract
"My improvement relates to torpedo-boats which are furnished with a propeller for driving them through water, which is operated by an engine the motive power of which is a condensed gas. Such boats are fitted with a flask or receptacle of great strength, which contains the condensed gas under very high pressure, being generally under sufficient pressure to be in liquid form. This allowed to escape from the flask as required for the engine, and upon being relieved from a part of the pressure suddenly expands to many times its former volume, and is used in the engine. The gas in expanding develops a great degree of cold by abstracting heat from surrounding objects, and this sometimes freezes the liquid remaining in the flask, and the gas also requires to have a large amount of heat supplied to it in order to bring it up to a temperature at which it can be efficiently used in the engine."