US 174931

Patent Overview — US174931A

Title: Improvement in Sectional Steam-Boilers
Inventor: Valerius D. Anderson, of Springfield, Ohio
Patent number: US 174,931
Dates: Application filed March 6, 1875; patent dated/issued March 21, 1876. (Google Patents lists a prior-art date of 1876-03-21 and an anticipated expiration of 1893-03-21.) Sources: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US174931](/patent/US174931)/en

Purpose: To provide "a very simple and cheap method of constructing boilers," and to allow boilers to be increased or reduced in size for various uses. The specification also aims at economical fuel use and at safe, strong construction suited to farmers, domestic use, shops, and factories.

Plain-language scope (from the three claims):

1. A boiler section made of cast-iron manifolds (heads A and B B), each cast complete in one piece, joined by wrought-iron tubes with a right-hand thread on one end and a left-hand thread on the other.
2. A boiler formed of a series of such sections, united by connecting-thimbles (the short tubes I).
3. In combination with a boiler having horizontal tubes, a set of internal plates (e, l, n', and u) arranged to route combustion products laterally and vertically, forward and back, up and down.

Disclosed features: Lower tubes incline upward front-to-rear while the upper tier inclines oppositely, to promote water circulation and steam escape. Sections screw together without flanges, bolts, rivets, or tie-rods; boilers ship in pieces and can pass through doors. A curved plate in the upper manifold resists water carryover into the steam drum; a mud-drum connects to the lower manifolds; brick setting and a bridge-wall with directing plates are described for larger units.

Not established by the excerpt: No assignee is identified in the supplied text; no attorney, examiner, or witness details beyond two witnesses (H. S. Showers, D. L. Craft); no drawings are legible; no legal-status conclusion, litigation, ownership transfer, validity, or prior-art analysis is established here. Numerical inconsistencies in the OCR (e.g., "1745931") are not resolved.