Jacob and Loftus Perkins

Jacob Perkins
Mentioned by Michael Rutherford in Backtrack Volume 16 page 395. The boiler type was mainly associated with early steam carriages, notbaly those of Hancock, but was also evaluated on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. Rutherford's Was there a future for steam, Backtrack, 1995, 9, 183 shows a drawing for a Webb triple expansion compound locomotive with a Perkins' flash type boiler possibly influenced by the successful Atlantic crossing made by the Perkins' steam yacht Anthracite: the text mentions the involvement of Jacob Perkins in motive power for the London & Southampton Railway. Jacob (1766-1849) and Loftus (his grandson, 1834- 27 April 1891 in London) belonged to an American family which developed British ties. They originally came to Britain to promote technology for producing forgery-proof banknotes. Subsequently Jacob Perkins developed a flash type boiler and designed engines for coping with high temperature steam. Anita McConnell covers some of their activities in a not very well written Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entries. There is a good Trans Newcomen Soc. biography by Dorothy and Greville Bathe: The contribution of Jacob Perkins to science and engineering. Trans Newcomen Soc., 1943, 24, 49-53. See also J. Instn Loco. Engrs., 1928, 18, 691-2 fot interesting contribution by Talyerson on use of Perkin boilers st the Gypsum Mines at Mountfield and at the Dorking Greystone Lime Co.

Patents (Bennet Woodcroft)
GB 4400/1819. Machinery and implements applicable to ornamental turning and engraving, transferring engraved or other work from the surface of one to another piece of metal, and forming metallic dies and matrices; construction of plates and presses for printing bank-notes and other papers; making dies and presses for coining money, stamping medals, and for other purposes. 11 October 1819
GB 4470/1820 Construction of fixed and portable pumps. 3 June 1820
GB 4732/1822 Steam-engines. 10 December 1822
GB 4792/1823. Heating, boiling, or evaporating by the steam of fluids, in pans, boilers, or other vessels. 17 May 1823
GB 4800/1823 Steam-engines. 5 June 1823 .
GB 4870/1823 Construction of the furnace of steam-boilers and other vessels. 20th Nov. 1823
GB 4952/1824 Throwing shells and other projectiles. 15May 1824
GB 4998/1824 Propelling vessels. 9 August 1824
GB 5237/1825 Construction of bedsteads, sofas, and other similar articles. 11 August 1825
GB 5477/1827 Construction of steam-engines. 22 March1827
GB 5806/1829 Machinery for propelling steam-vessels.  2 July 1829
GB 6128/1831 Generating steam. 2 July 1831
GB 6154/1831 Generating steam;– applicable to evaporating and boiling fluids for certain purposes. 27 August 1831
GB 6275/1832 Blowing and exhausting air;– applicable to various purposes, 9 June 1832
GB 6336/1832 Preserving copper in certain cases from the oxydation caused by heat. 20 Nov. 1832
GB 6662/1834  Apparatus and means for producing ice; cooling fluids. 14 August 1834
GB 7059/1836 Steam-engines; generating steam; evaporating and boiling fluids for certain purposes. 12 April 1836
GB 7114/1836 Apparatus for cooking.  13 June 1836
GB 7242/1836 Steam-engines, furnaces, and boilers ;- partly applicable to other purposes.  3 December 1836

Loftus Perkins
Born London 8 May 1834. His father, an American citizen, who camc to this country in 1827, had established himself as an engineer, and his name is principally associated with the invention of heating by hot water in a closed circuit at very high pressures, which is applied to the warming of‘ buildings and the heating of bakers’ ovens. Having entered his father’s manufactory at an early age, he afterwards practised in 1853-4 as an engineer on his own account in New York. In 1854 he returned to England, and for eight years was associated with his father in experiments upon the steam gun, and in developing the steam baking oven and other inventions. From 1862 to 1866 he was in business in Hamburg and Berlin, designing and executing many plans for warming buildings &c. in various parts of the Continent. In 1866 he returned to England, and entered into partnership with his father. Amongst his numerous inventions were improvements in water meters in traction engines, and in wrought metal wheels, the spokes of which consist of hollow bars or tubes screwed into the nave or tire. The metal packing-rings which he brought out in 1872 proved of great practical importance, as they entirely removed the difficulty till then experienced in consequence of the rapid wear of cylinders when superheated steam was employed. A subject to which he devoted many years of his life was the use of very high-pressure steam; and his labours in this direction are embodied in two papers read before this Institution (Proceedings 1861, page 94 ; and 1877, page 117). The work upon which he was last engaged was the ‘‘ Arktos ” freezing apparatus ; and the intense application which he devoted to maturing it was doubtless thc cause of his health brcaking down. As an inventor he often conducted his numerous and costly experiments with little regard to their commercial success. He died in London on 27 April 1891. Obituary Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs., 1891, 42, 192-3.  

Angier March Perkins
Son of Jacob Perkins with similar inventive mind. Born in Old Newburyport, Massachusetts on 21 August 1799; died in Hampstead, London on 22 April 1881. Concentrated on heating systems for buildings. Patents from Woodcroft (probably more post-1851)
GB 6146/1831 Apparatus for heating air in buildings, heating and evaporating fluids, and heating metals. 30 July 1831
GB 8311/1839 Apparatus for transmitting heat by circulating water. 16 December 1839
GB 8804/1841 Apparatus for heating by the circulation of hot water; construction of pipes for such and other purposes. 21 January 1841
GB 9664/1843  Manufacture and melting of iron ;-applicable for evaporating fluids and disinfecting oils. 16 March 1843
GB 10,778/1845 Apparatus for heating air in buildings, heating and evaporating fluids, and heating metals. 21 July 1845
GB 13,492/1851 Railway axles and boxes. 5 February 1851
GB 13,509/1851 Constructing and heating ovens. 11 February 1851

The following patents are listed in Woodhouse and may have been submitted by relatives of those listed above

Charles Perkins
GB 8728/1840 Construction of pistons and valves for retaining and discharging liquids, gases, and steam. 28 November 1840

John Thomas Perkins
GB 10,628/1845 Machinery for cutting paper and other fabrics. 22 April 1845

Stephen Higginson Perkins
GB 10,836/1845 Steam-engine, and its application to steam-navigation, 18 September 1845