Patent GB-190705642-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to Rotary Engines
Inventor: GHIRA ANDREA
Filed: 1907-03-08
Granted: 1907-07-11
Abstract: 5642. Ghira, A. March 8. Movable-abutment type having outwardly-sliding abutments. The engine is shown in Fig. 3 in transverse section, and in Fig. 1 in the upper half in vertical and in the lower half in horizontal longitudinal section. The drum 2, attached to the shaft 3 by the boss, carries two pistons 6, and abutments 9 divide the annular space into two working chambers. The abutments are withdrawn, to allow the pistons to pass, by arms 17 operated through spindles 16 by rollers 14 running in a cam-track 13 in the fly-wheel 12. The engine is reversible, two pairs of admission ports 37 and of exhaust ports 40 being provided in the steamchest, which has a supply pipe 36 and an exhaust pipe 44. Cut-off valves 98, adapted to be opened by the engagement of projections 39 on the flywheel with a roller, as shown in Fig. 10, are fitted to each admission port. The valves of the diametrically opposite ports used for reverse driving are put out of action by turning the arm 99 through a right-angle out of the path of the projections 39. Slides 41 are arranged to cover the pair of exhaust ports 40 not in use. Packing drums, vanes, abutments, &c.-The packings for the pistons, abutments, and ends of the drum are so designed that, notwithstanding wear, they are always subject to a definite pressure. The piston packing-strips 7 are spring-pressed, and the connecting-links 8, Fig. 7, between the springs ensure a purely parallel motion in the slots. Each abutment has packing-plates 10 attached to it by pins 11 working with some play in slots in the ends. The pins 19 on the rods 18 which withdraw the abutments have also some play in their slots, so that, when the abutment is slid back into position, the springs 21 press the plates 10 against the drum, and the stronger springs 20 on the rods 18 then press against the abutment and force the outer parts of the plates 10 against the edges of the slots in the casing 1. The end wall 22 at one end of the drum is subjected by rods 32 to a variable pressure corresponding to the variable pressure inside the working chambers; the drum being free to move axially on the rollers 4 and balls 5 in the boss, the other end of the drum is subject to the same pressure. The heads 31 of the rods 32 are attached to levers 30 pivoted at 29, Fig. 6, each lever 30 being pressed by a lever pivoted at 27 and having a conical roller 28 at the other end. A piston 24 in a hollow extension of the shaft 3 is acted on by steam of varying pressure led from a working chamber by the flexible pipe 25. The cone 26 rotated at the speed of the shaft transmits this pressure to the system of levers, but at a varying leverage owing to the contacts between the cone and the rollers 28 being along suitably curved ridges 34, 35 on the cone. This cone 26 has unidirectional rotation. Normally, its pawl 49 engages with the disk 45 fixed to the rotating shaft ; but on reversal of the engine, the pawl is shifted to engage with a disk 46, loose on the shaft and driven from a spur-wheel 47 through pinions 48. The ridges 34, 35 may be formed on the conical rollers 28.