CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Featherstone Griffin, of 19, Great George
Street, Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer,
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PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Featherstone
Griffin at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 3rd March 1874.
I, GEORGE FEATHERSTONE GRIFFIN, of 19, Great George Street,
Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
STEAM ENGINES," to be as follows:-
:-
I propose to make a cylindrical body of any suitable metal with
hollow or partially hollow shafts or trunnions attached and firmly held
down in any convenient manner. Upon this cylindrical body will be
fitted a steam-tight casing, drum, or wheel, suitable for imparting motion
to engines and machinery of all kinds.

page_text: By the introduction and expulsion of steam between the inner and
outer bodies through certain channels in the shafts or trunnions rotative
motion will be produced by its expansion between two abutments. To
obtain this motion it is necessary that these abutments should be
steam-tight, and at certain regulated intervals one or more of them,
as I may find expedient, should be automatically raised and depressed
by means of a valve or valves set in motion within the casing, drum,
or wheel by the incoming steam, whilst one abutment is firmly fixed
upon and within the casing, drum, or wheel. Behind the fixed abut-
ment the exhaust hole will always be open, whilst the propelling steam
will be admitted between it and the abutment or abutments raised
by the valve or valves. The expanding steam will naturally drive the
fixed abutment towards the exhaust outlet with velocity equal to its
pressure, and thus motion will be produced.
A metal lining ring with suitable packing can be used with set nuts
1°
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Featherstone Griffin in the Great Scal
Patent Office on the 3rd September 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
FEATHERSTONE Griffin, of 19, Great George Street, Westminster, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Third day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said George Featherstone Griffin,
Her special licence that I, the said George Featherstone Griffin, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
George Featherstone Griffin, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United King.

page_text: with it. Another, which I term a slide valve abutment, is automatically
raised and depressed by means of a small engine fitted within the
stationary cylindrical body, the incoming steam to work which passes
through the steam passages in its shafts or trunnions.
By the induction and eduction of the steam at proper intervals
within the annular space, and between the before-mentioned abutment,
rotative motion is produced. To obtain this motion however it is
necessary that these abutments should be steam-tight, and that all
pressure should be taken off behind the rotating one, and this is
effected by the use of metallic and other packings, and by keeping
the exhaust passages which pass through the opposite shaft or trunnion
constantly open to the atmosphere except where I may desire to close
them.
The rotative movement of my engine opens and closes the different
steam inlets and exhaust outlets automatically both of the main pro-.
pelling and also the steam ways to raise and depress the side valve
abutment or abutments in the same manner that the slide valve of
an ordinary vertical or horizontal engine allows of the induction and
eduction of steam, videlicct, by the ports passing over one another at the
exact moments necessary. Suitable recessed metal rings and steam
packings are used, the former of which are fixed into and usually
revolve with the casing, drum, or wheel, whilst the latter confines the
course of the steam.
According to the speed required by the work to be done steam of
the same or of a higher or lower pressure can be employed to lift
and depress the slide valve abutment or abutments than is used for
driving the machine itself, as the induction and eduction passages may
be wholly distinct or only partially so, and by this means and their
position a longer or shorter cut-off for the steam may be regulated to
work the machine to the greatest advantage.
In some cases I may make use of one or more fixed and one or
more slide valve abutments lifted and depressed by one or more small
engines in the same machine.
I may make use of trunnions or shafts of different diameters at
different parts, and one or more slide valve rings with suitable packings
between on each trunnion or shaft.

page_text: I may use my different inlets and outlets either as inlets or outlets to
reverse the motion of my machine by adapting my ports and connections
with the boiler and external atmosphere to admit of this.
I make a suitable opening or openings in the casing, drum, or wheel
to allow of lubrication, and the repairs and renewal of its internal parts.
with facility.
I may line my cylinder with a metallic and other lining, and use;
compensating screws to expand or contract it to neutralize the effect of
radial pressure and wear.
I may use friction rollers and introduce steam behind my metallic or
other packings to prevent its leakage.
I may fasten down the outer casing, drum, or wheel, and by intro-
ducing steam through it by and into the induction and eduction passages
of the cylindrical body, I may cause it and its shafts or trunnions to
revolve within the casing, drum, or wheel.
I may use a governor for regulating the supply of the steam.
I may use one or more machines on the same shaft, or a fly wheel
where necessary.
>
I would have it understood that the machine shown on the accom-.
panying two Sheets of Drawings does not give the best results obtainable
from an engine of its size, but is simply given to illustrate as clearly as
possible its general principle without confusing the same by an immenso:
number of dotted and other lines, which would render it difficult to be
understood if I had designed it to obtain its maximum advantages.
:
Figure 1 (Sheet 1) is a transverse section of a machino constructed
according to my Invention; Figure 2 (Sheet 1) a longitudinal section;
Figure 3 (Sheet II.) a plan; and Figure 4 (Shect II.) a section of same.
at 8, 8, Figures 2 and 3.
A (Figures 1 and 2) cylindrical body; B (Figures 2 and 3) shafts
or trunnions of the same; C (Figures 1, 2, 3,) passages for incoming,
and C³, main exhaust steam outlet shewn constantly open;. C³, inlet
passage to small engine; C³ (Fig. 2) exhaust passage from small engine;"
D (Figures 1, 2, 3, 4) steam-tight casing, drum, or wheel; E (Figure 1)
annular space between, and E³ (Figs. 1 and 2) behind rotating abut-
ment; F (Figures 1 and 4) abutment through opening O in casing,
{

page_text: drum, or wheel; G (Figures 1 and 2) slide valve abutment; H (Figures.
1 and 2) small engine with piston a and piston rod raised and attached
to slide valve abutment; I (Figure 1) steam orifice between slide valve
and rotating abutment; J (Figures 1 and 2) metallic packings; K.
(Figure 2) recessed metal inlet rings fixed in the casing, drum, or wheel,
which recesses K are made as long as it is desired to admit steam through
the shaft or trunnion into the steam passages, the solid part of the
ring K cuts it off where it is desired to be cut off.
As the main steam passages are perfectly distinct from those of
the little engine, they may be worked by steam from the same or
perfectly distinct boilers, and thus with different pressures the whole
machine can be set in motion.
:
L (Figures 2 and 4) recessed metal exhaust rings fixed in the casing,
drum, or wheel, shewing recesses (Fig. 2) open to exhaust into the
main exhaust C¹, the solid part of the ring L closing that which should
not be open; M (Figure 2) packings; N (Figures 2 and 3) inlet ports
to little engine; N¹ (Figures 2 and 3) outlet ports to little engine; N³,
ports to main inlet; O (Figures 1 and 4) opening in casing, drum, or
wheel for examination of interior; P (Figures 1 and 2) movable plug
or filling picce under little piston; Q (Figures 2 and 3) gland; R:
(Figures 1 and 2) pin through piston rod.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same acts or may act, I would have it under-
stood that I do not confine myself to the precise details set forth,
as in such machines they must necessarily vary to suit their multi-
tudinous methods of application. For instance, the sizes of casings,
drums, or wheels, and cylindrical bodies, their different diameters at
different parts, the numbers, sizes, positions, and shapes of my steam
inlets and outlets, abutments, packings, and recessed rings, methods
of connecting moving parts with machinery to be driven and other
details, as these must all depend upon the nature of the work to be
done by the engines, and as the facilities afforded by their positions
will admit; but what I claim as secured to me by the herein-beforc
in part recited Letters Patent is, the method of imparting motive
power by means of steam pressure made to act automatically and
surely on different parts. of a machine or machines, they themselves
by their rotation working the necessary recessed slide valve arrange-

page_text: ment without the intervention of springs, cranks, eccentrics, and other
objectionable devices ordinarily employed; also the simple method by
which I can with the utmost facility and expedition examine, replace,
and renew the working surfaces, and every portion of the same, as well
as the general arrangement enabling me to work, calculate, and see
that each moving part does and will do its duty to the very best
advantage under any defined steam pressure previous to putting the
whole machine together.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Featherstone Griffin, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Second day of September, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.
G. FEATHERSTONE GRIFFIN. (L.S.)