The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-01-19
GRANT BRAMBEL'S HOME.

papers have reported that I had act
ually received money for my in
VenuOnS and that the amounts were
anywhere from $S.OO0,OOO to 100000
Il have in my inside pocket" con-
tinued Mr.. Brambel as he fondly tap
ped the portion of his vest situated
over the place where the inside pockets
Of mfilionaires are supposed to be,
checks from the Allen syndicate. CT
London, England, of f320,G00, or about.
81 500, 600 for the exclusive rights to
manufacture and sell my rotary engine
in all parts of the globe. That is all
there is to it. All these stories that I
have sold rights for one country for
$4,000, 900 or $4,000, 900 and for another
for 100000 or $4,000, 900 are absolutely
untrue"
Brambel is a young man, blue-eyed
and squarely built, an engineer by
trade and a telegraph operator by oc-
cupatiOn at the present time. For four
years he has been both operator and
station agent for the Chicago &
Northwestern road at the little village
of Sleepy Eye, whose name does not
in the least belle it's character. He
has all that time handled train or
ders, made out freight bills. looked
after goods sent and received, figured
up demurrages. kept the local grain
buyers posted on the daily price of
wheat and performed all the other
multifarious and petty duties connect
ed with such a position.
A USEFUL CITIZEN.
In addition he has been the jack Of
all trades for the village. If any one
wanted lot surveyed, or race track
laid out, or a half dozen lots drawn off
into such shape that they would divide
UP nicely for several houses, or had a
scheme for a new idea, Brambel was
appealed to, and seldom in vain. He
has settled the local difficulties, and
he acted as expert authority when the
village got into a fuss with it's con-
tractors for a new electric light and
water station. He has been a private
citizen till now. but last week was
elected, by a greater majority than any
of the other candidates, to the position
of village trustee. which he regards
as more of compliment to his hay
ing advertised the village by his in
Ventions than as a tribute to his social
qualities, for he is not particularly
scciable.
In all these years, and for a half
dozen before them Brambel kept busy
with the idea that it would be possible
to make the turbine idea work in steam,
and he made this the basis Of the in
vCntiOn that he has now patented and
sold. His motor is steam turbine,
so arranged as to give the best possible
expansion for the steam and avoiding
all friction and dead working parts.
1T took a great many models to get
the thing right" says he, ''and there
were q great many failures, more than
one would imagine to see this simple
little thing / call the 'Brambel rotary
engine For years l worked on one
minor matter that 1 could not get to
suit me, but for the last four years
eli, 7 I7axr how l<,xy I,aCl
the thing perfect and have been only
trying to see how it would work in
every position in which I could place
it before trying to sell it. By reason
of this isolated locality and the ignor-
aIce Of the people of my work, as well
as by my position in railroad employ
I have been able to do this without
exciting comment, and nothing has
been said about the engine until about
five weeks ago, though my patents
have been out considerably more than
a year, both in this country and in near
1y all Europe.
my invention relates to motors. and
particularly to rotary steam engines
having rotary concentric pistons, and
the objects in view are to provide q
machine Of simple construction with
means for providing the maximum aX
pansion of steam and 10 get al inprov.
ed construction Of piston, whereby the
IOIcG Ol SApCtlSiOu eCOnOilZSO, ant
Furthermore to provide simple and eff
cicnt means for packing and lubricatins
the piston. The machine gives a rotary
engine the combination Of a cylinder
having opposite heads provided will
registering extended bearing boxes, in
wardly divergent steam inlet ports
communicating with the interior cylin
der at their outer ends, q cutoff an(
reversing valve arranged in the casing
q rotary piston arranged in the cylin
der and provided with peripheral peck
cts adapted to communicate with steam
expansion chambers Ut the inner enc
Of the inlet ports, registering cross
sectiOnally selnicircular grooves 7formes
in the continuous faces of the .pistol
and cylinder head and. ccncentric witt
the bearing boxes, their grooves com
binihg to fern lubricating duets,
! shaft fixed to the piston and lubricatint
devices in connection with the boxes
OF the shaft bearings. whereby Iubri