AN IMPROVED ROTATORY ENGINE
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Browne at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 28th
January 1869.-A communication from abroad by Edward Bartlett,
of Burnstown, M'Nab, Renfrew, Canada.
I, ALEXANDER BROWNE, of the Firm of Browne and Company, Patent
Agents, of 49, King William Street, in the City of London, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED ROTATORY
ENGINE," a communication from abroad by Edward Bartlett, of Burns-
town, M.Nab, Renfrew, Canada, to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of certain new and improved mechanical
arrangements and combinations or contrivances constituting an improved
rotatory engine, the construction of which is as follows:-Within a
hollow fixed cylinder placed horizontally and formed with closed ends
another but solid cylinder is fitted so as to be capable of revolving
within the aforesaid fixed cylinder, the two cylinders being formed of
such diameters as to leave an annular space between them for the
passage of steam across the edge of the aforesaid solid cylinder, and
opposite to each other two slits are formed, each communicating with a
circular hole formed across and through the said solid cylinder, and into

page_text: each of the aforesaid slits a flat slide or piston is fitted steam-tight, and
the said slides or pistons are kept forced outwards each by a spring or
springs placed in the before-mentioned circular holes. Blocks of metal
are also fixed across the aforesaid annular space at opposite points
thereof, the said blocks being formed each with a single or double
inclined surface, according to whether the direction of motion of the
engine is required to be reversed or not, and at the top and bottom of each
single or double inclined block aforesaid and through the outer or fixed
cylinder induction and eduction passages are made communicating with
pipes leading respectively to the steam boiler or other prime mover and
exhaust vessel, the induction pipe being at one side of the incline and
the eduction pipe at the other side of the incline if a single incline, or
at the other side of the other incline if a double incline be used, the
aforesaid induction and eduction ports or passages being opened and
closed by suitable contrivances at the proper
times.
The operations of the above arrangements are as follows:-Steam
being admitted into the annular space before mentioned will press in
one direction against one or other of the fixed inclined pieces, and will
exert its pressure in the opposite direction against one or other or both
of the sliding pistons, 'thereby imparting rotatory motion to the aforesaid
movable solid cylinder, and by fixing a shaft through the centre of this
cylinder such motion may be transmitted as desired, and when one or
other of the pistons arrive at the fixed inclines it will be forced back
thereby, and the steam that propelled this piston will pass to the exhaust,
and after the piston has entirely passed the incline it will be forced
outwards by its spring or springs across the annular space, immediately
after which steam or other power is admitted behind this piston and
pushes it onwards, and by this time the opposite piston will come
against its respective incline and operate as before stated, and so on in
succession, thereby producing continous rotatory motion of the solid
cylinder and shaft fixed thereto.