Injector
INJECTOR (from Lat. injicere, to throw in) , an appliance for supplying steam-boilers with water, and especially used with locomotive boilers. It was invented by the French engineer H. V. Giffard in 1858, and presents the paradox that by the pressure of the steam in the boiler, or even, as in the case of the exhaust steam injector, by steam at a much lower pressure, water is forced into the boiler against that pressure. A diagrammatic section illustrating its construction is shown in figure. Steam enters at A and blows through the annular orifice C, the size of which can be regulated by a valve not shown in the figure. The feed water flows in at B and meeting the steam at C causes it to condense. Hence a vacuum is produced at C, and consequently the water rushes in with great velocity and streams down the combining cone D, its velocity being augmented by the impact of steam on the back of. the column. In the lower part of the nozzle E the stream expands; it therefore loses velocity and, by a well-known hydrodynamic principle, gains pressure, until at the bottom the pressure is so great that it is able to enter the boiler through a check valve which opens only in the direction of the stream. An overflow pipe F, by providing a channel through which steam and water may escape before the stream has acquired sufficient energy to force its way into the boiler, allows the injector to start into action. Means are also provided for regulating the amount of water admitted between D and C. In the exhaust-steam injector, which works with steam from the exhaust of non-condensing engines, the steam orifice is larger in proportion to other parts than in injectors working with boiler steam, and the steam supply more liberal. In self-starling injectors an arrangement is provided which permits free overflow until the injector starts into action, when the openings are automatically adjusted to suit delivery into the boiler.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
