A NEW OR. IMPROVED STEAM WHEEL," AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Gedge at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 27th
November 1865. A communication from abroad by Jean Gabriel
Alphonse Appé, of Issoudun, Indre, France, Notary's Clerk.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD GEDGE, of the Firm of John Gedge and Son, of No. 28;
Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent
Agent, do hereby déclare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW OR.
IMPROVED STEAM WHEEL," AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH," (a com-
munication from abroad by Jean Gabriel Alphonse Appé, of Issoudun, Indre,
France, Notary's Clerk,) to be as follows:-
There exists a great analogy between the wheel the subject of this Inven-
tion and that known as the hydraulic wheel; it receives a continuous rotary
motion direct from the steam, and it may be applied to every description of
engine fixed or locomotive:
The parts which compose this wheel and its accessaries are, I, the wheel,
properly so called, mounted on a horizontal shaft, and having on its outer
circumference a cylindrical groove similar to that of a pulley; 2, four slide
boxes formed in the circumference of the wheel, and' intended to receive
pistons; 3, four pistons or paddle pistons, fitted to the circumference of the
wheel in the direction of its radii; 4, a rod uniting the pistons' two by two,
and passing without friction through the boss or nave and shaft of the wheel;
5, four rollers or slide blocks carried on the piston rods, and moving on a
curve; 6, an eccentric curve, held fixed round the shaft of the wheel, but not
in contact with it; 7, a jacket or casing formed of three pieces joined together

page_text: and held fixed on the circumference of the wheel; 8, a nearly annular space,
embracing 3-fourths the eircumference of the wheel; this space formed by the
jacket cap or casing, and the part of the wheel in contact with it, I term the
cylinder; 9, a ribbed pipe giving passage to the steam at the same time that
it ties together the extremities of the casing to prevent it coming apart; 10, a
cock for reversing action placed in the middle of a steam pipe, which it divides
into two parts; the core of this cock is pierced with two curves forming an X,
the four openings of which correspond with as many pipes; 11, a steam
pipe and a discharge or blow-off pipe. This wheel and its accessary parts
work in the following manner :-The steam being introduced into the
cylinder at one of its ends acts on the paddle pistons in the same way as
water on the paddles of a hydraulic wheel, gives to the wheel a continuous
rotary motion around its axle, and issues at the opposite end of the
cylinder. The cap or casing of the wheel does not participate in its move-
ment, but as this cap forms with the groove in the wheel a hermetically
closed space, which I have already termed the cylinder, the pistons cati
come there to receive the action of the steam only by means of a special
mechanical arrangement which permits them to enter this cylinder and leave
it the one after the other. The entrance of the pistons into the cylinder and
their exit therefrom takes place laterally by the slide boxes by means of 'an
alternate intermittent rectilineal movement in the direction of the radii of the
wheel, which is transmitted to them by the rollers, and which is produced by
the sinuosities of the curve along which these rollers travel by virtue of the
general rotary motion. The direction of the steam may be changed at will by
means of a cock arranged for this purpose, thus the handle of this cock being
placed horizontally, the steam in entering by the top and issuing by the bottom
of the cylinder gives to the wheel a movement from left to right, whereas if
this handle be placed vertically the steam in traversing the cylinder from
bottom to top gives to the wheel a movement from right to left.
From the above it will be evident that the steam wheel replaces the piston
with rectilineal motion, the connecting rod and the crank. Its use will result,
firstly, in the suppression of the jerks, labouring, and breakages occasioned by
the use of the parts above mentioned; secondly, in the suppression of the slide
valve with its complications and defects; thirdly, in an important increase in
the yield of the steam.