provements in Fly-wheels especially applicable to Explosion Engines.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application (in United Kingdom), 24th Aug., 1899
Complete Specification Left, 24th Aug., 1899-Accepted, 9th Dec., 1899
COMPLETE DI MUITICATION
Improvements in Fly-wheels especially applicable to Explosion
Engines.
I, MARIUS OTTO, of No. 18, Avenue de Neuilly, Neuilly (Seine), in the
Republic of France, Doctor of Science, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
-
I am aware that the object of fly-wheels is to assure a regular or steady rate
of speed in the moving parts of an engine, and this it does by its weight, its
inertia and momentum causing the storing up of a certain amount of energy
when the rate of speed is suddenly increased, and giving it out again when
the motive power becomes less than the resisting power.
In engines generating motive power the fly-wheels have, hitherto, been com-
posed of masses of metal taking the form of a rim connected by arms or spokes
to a nave or hub fixed in the centre of rotation generally on the main shaft of
the engine. When the engine receives the motive fluid from an independent
generator as is the case in steam engines this system of fly-wheel universally
employed is certainly the simplest and most practical.
When however the engine is at one and the same time, motor and generator,
as is the case in explosion engines, starting is usually slow and requires the
aid of an attendant to turn the fly-wheel several revolutions to set the parts
of the engine in motion.
I have invented a means of turning the energy stored by the fly-wheel, to
account, not only to regulate the speed and work of the engine but also to
accumulate an additional energy which remains constantly available for starting
purposes.
It is this new system of fly-wheel particularly advantageous for explosion
motors, which constitutes the subject of the present application for patent.
According to my invention I substitute for the simple mass of metal now
employed, dynamo placed on the main driving shaft of the engine, and the
movable parts of which are connected with a mass of metal forming a fly-
wheel; this dynamo which, moreover, may be of any type and can be series
shunt or compound, will not only act as fly-wheel but will also feed, during
the working of the engine, a battery of accumulators, and will be able, in
addition, to supply the electric current requisite for an electric device of any

page_text: kind for igniting the explosive mixture. When, after stoppage of the engine,
it is wished to set it working again, it will suthee to reverse the direction of
the current by aid of a reversing commutator; the dynamo fly-wheel receiving
the current from the battery of accumulators will immediately transform part
of the electric energy accumulated into mechanical energy for starting the
motor; when this last has acquired its normal speed the commutator is replaced
in its normal position.
The accompanying drawing represents, by way of example, a fly-wheel con-
structed according to the above-mentioned principle or system.
Figure 1 is a vertical section of the dynamo-fly-wheel mounted fast on the
driving shaft of an explosion engine.
Figure 2 is a section along A-B of Figure 1.
Figure is a diagram in plan of the electrical connections between the
dynamo-fly-wheel, the battery of accumulators and the device for ignition of
the explosive mixture.
a is a mass of metal forming the fly-wheel strictly so-called, keyed by the
key or by any other suitable means on to the driving shaft of the engine.
In the interior of the mass a, which is advantageously made in the form of
a protective case, the parts of the dynamo are grouped. The armature is fixed
to a and turns together therewith. The inductor or field core is fixed on the
frame of the machine. The inductor may comprise, as shewn in the drawing,
two coils or field windings and polar masses e; these last have lateral
extensions & surrounding the armature e, which in the example is a gramme
ring. In an annular recess f two carbon brushes rub on the plates of a
collector h.
In the diagram in plan of Figure 3, the electrical connections g, are the
brushes of the dynamo, the wires of which terminate at a reversing com-
mutator m, n, 0, composed of two conducting plates m, n, separated by an
insulator o.
1. 2, 3, are three contact studs; the studs 1 and 3 are connected by a
conductor 4 studs 1 and 2 receive from another part the ends of a second
conductor 5, 5, on which are branched a battery of accumulators s, a condenser t,
and the device u for ignition of the explosive mixture.
When the commutator is in the position indicated by full lines in the diagram,
the conducting plates m, n terminating respectively in the studs 1 and 2, the
dynamo receives the current from the batterys and sets the fly-wheel in motion
for starting the engine. When the engine has acquired its normal speed the
contacts of the reversing commutator are caused to slide so as to bring them
into the position m', n¹ marked in broken lines in the figure; the dynamo then
kept running by the engine, works as a generator of electricity to feed
battery s, the igniting device u, and if necessary some lamps also.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
-
1. A fly-wheel for machinery and especially explosion motors, characterised
by being in two separate complementary parts which co-acting constitute a
dynamo, the one the wheel proper wound or fitted with a conductor of electricity
and constituting an armature rotating together with the wheel, the other a
metallic mass with pole pieces being fixed stationary upon the frame of the
machine in the vicinity of the armature and wound or fitted with a conductor
of electricity and constituting an inductor, substantially as and for the purposes
described.
2. In a fly-wheel for machinery and especially explosion engines, the com-
bination with the wheel proper of windings or coils of wire or other good
conductor of electricity so arranged as to be influenced by induction by a
neighbouring excited conductor and rotate together with the wheel constituting

page_text: the said wheel an armature of a dynamo, a mass of metal having pole pieces,
and fixed to the frame of the machine in proximity to the said armature and
constituting a dynamo field core, windings or coils of wire or other good
conductor of electricity on said core, and a source of electricity in connection
with said field windings, substantially as described.
3. In a fly-wheel for machinery and especially explosion engines, the com
bination with the wheel proper of windings or coils of wire or other good
conductor of electricity so arranged as to be influenced by induction by a
neighbouring excited conductor and rotate together with the wheel constituting
the said wheel an armature of a dynamo, a mass of metal having pole pieces,
and fixed to the frame of the machine in proximity to the said armature and
constituting a dynamo field core, windings or coils of wire or other good
conductor of electricity on said core, and a source of electricity in connection
with said field windings, and a current-reverser interposed between the source
of electricity and the armature, substantially as described.
Dated the 24th day of August 1800
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
No. 22, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.