Vacuum condensor with condensate catch

A vacuum condenser, comprising:

• a generally horizontal housing formed with a pair of horizontally spaced bottoms at opposite ends of the housing and with a vapor inlet between said ends;
• a condenser-plate stack mounted on one of said bottoms and comprising:
• a multiplicity of identical generally rectangular vertical plates defining between them alternating water and vapor compartments, each of said plates having a lower hole, an upper hole, and a condensate outlet located proximal to a bottom edge of the plate, all of said upper holes being horizontally aligned, all of said lower holes being horizontally aligned, and all of said outlets being horizontally aligned,
• first gaskets mounted on the plates defining said vapor compartments along vertical edges and a bottom edge thereof, and around the said holes thereof to bound said vapor compartments along vertical sides and bottoms thereof and isolate said holes from said vapor compartments;
• second gaskets mounted all around edges of said plates bounding said water compartments;
• third gaskets mounted on said plates defining said water compartments and surrounding said outlets in said water compartments , and
• means mounted to said plates defining said vapor compartments and forming a barrier gate overlying said outlets in said vapor compartments and extending downwardly to terminate above a respective bottom of a respective vapor compartment to form a gap therewith traversed by condensate formed in each vapor compartment;
• means connected with said stack for feeding cooling water to said lower holes;
• means connected with said stack for removing water from said upper holes;
• and
• means connected with said stack for withdrawing said condensate from said outlets.