IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATING ROTARY MOTION TO SHAFTS OR AXLES FOR VARIOUS PURPOSES
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Alexander Duntze, of Woolwich Common,
in the County of Kent, Admiral in Her Majesty's Fleet, for the Inven-
tion of "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATING ROTARY MOTION TO
SHAFTS OR AXLES FOR VARIOUS PURPOSES."-A communication from abroad
by Edward David Ashe, of Quebec, Lower Canada, Lieutenant in Her
Majesty's Royal Navy.
Sealed the 28th April 1863, and dated the 12th November 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Alexander Duntze
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
12th November 1862.
I, JOHN ALEXANDER DUNTZE, of Woolwich Common, in the County of
Kent, Admiral in Her Majesty's Fleet, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATING ROTARY MOTION
TO SHAFTS OR AXLES' FOR VARIOUS PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
This Invention of "Improved Apparatus for communicating Rotary Motion
to Shafts or Axles for various Purposes," relates to various improvements
upon an Invention for which Letters Patent have been granted to William
Austen Ashe, bearing date the 28th day of March 1862 (No. 863), and
which consist in causing a driver or stud pin which is connected with the
piston of a steam engine to work in a groove cut in or secured to the shaft to
be driven.

page_text: The arrangement or construction of the mechanism which constitutes the
present Invention, and whereby the desired object may be effected, will vary
according to the particular purpose for which the driven shaft is to be
employed.
In adapting the Invention to the screw propellor shaft of a vessel the steam
cylinders may be placed alongside the shaft, and the pistons or piston rods of
such cylinders should be made to communicate a reciprocating motion to the
drivers or stud pins, which are made to reciprocate in a double helical groove
cut in or secured to the shaft, and by this means communicate a rotary
motion to the shaft. By arranging the shaft to be driven between two or
more steam cylinders, and causing the piston rods of such cylinders to recipro-
cate the driver or drivers along the groove of the shaft, a very convenient
arrangement or construction of engine will be obtained.
An air pump
cylinder may also be added, and the pump thereof may be actuated by another
driver made to work in the groove of the propellor shaft. The condenser may
be placed below the shaft, so that a very compact land simple construction of
engine will be produced.
As a modification of this-arrangement; one or more steam cylinders may be
placed at the end of the shaft, and 'the latter driven partly by a driver or drivers
attached to the piston rod or rods of these end cylinders, and partly by another
driver attached to the piston rod of another cylinder, through which for con-
venience the propellor shaft may pass. Or the shaft may be actuated by a
driver or drivers attached by cross heads to the piston rod or piston rods of
two or more cylinders placed around the shaft. The helical groove in the
propellor shaft may be so constructed that it will be caused to rotate either
half or whole turns for every forward or backward motion of the driver or
drivers. It will be evident that in stern propellors a very long stroke of the
piston may be employed, and therefore for every stroke of the piston two or
more revolutions of the propellor shaft may be produced if desired, thereby
admitting of the speed of the piston being very much reduced with reducing
the speed of the propellor.
In adapting this mode of driving to actuate the axles of locomotives or the
shafts of other engines, it may be found convenient for the axle or shaft to
pass through the steam cylinders and the driver to be adapted direct to the
piston, but, instead of driving the axletree direct from the piston; the motion of
this latter may be communicated to the shaft or axle by means of gearing.

page_text: SPECIFICATION. in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Alexander Duntze in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 12th May 1863.
TO, ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
ALEXANDER DUNTZE, of Woolwich Common, in the County of, Kent, Admiral
in Her Majesty's: Fleet, send greeting...
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Alexander Duntze, Her special license, that I, the said John
Alexander Duntze, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said John Alexander Duntze, 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 Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATING ROTARY MOTION TO SHAFTS OR AXLES
FOR VARIOUS PURFOSES," being a communication from Edward David Ashe,
of Quebec, in Lower Canada, Lieutenant in Her Majesty's Royal Navy,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Alexander
Duntze, by an instrument in writing under my, hand and seal, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in
the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Alexander Duntze, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the iDrawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
This Invention of Improved Apparatus for Communicating Rotary Motion
to Shafts or Axles for various Purposes," relates to various improvements.
upon an Invention for which Letters Patent have been granted to William
Austin Ashe bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of March, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-two, No. 863.
According to Mr. Ashe's Invention a driver, stud pin, or tooth, which is

page_text: connected with the piston of a steam engine, is caused to work in a groove
cut in or secured to the shaft to be driven, and which passes through the
steam cylinders. It has been found that causing the propeller shaft to pass
through the steam cylinder is sometimes inconvenient, inasmuch as the shaft
when it passes through the piston requires packing, which cannot be got at
with facility.
The present Invention obviates this inconvenience, and (supposing the
improvements be employed to drive the propeller shaft of a steam vessel) the
steam cylinders are to be placed alongside the propeller shaft, which is conse-
quently outside the steam cylinders, and the pistons or piston rods of such
cylinders are made to communicate a reciprocating motion to the drivers or
stud pins, which are caused to reciprocate in a double helical groove cut in
or secured to the shaft, and by this means communicate a rotary motion to the
shaft. By arranging the shaft (to be driven) between two or more steam
cylinders, as shewn in the accompanying Drawings, and causing the piston
rods of such cylinders, to reciprocate, the driver or drivers will be moved in a
direct line along the groove of the shaft, and will thereby cause the same to
rotate. A very convenient arrangement of engine constructed on this principle
is shewn in the Drawings at Sheet I, in which Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the
engine, Fig. 2 a plan view, and Fig. 3 a cross section of the same; a, a, are
the steam cylinders, b, b, the piston rods, to the outer ends of which are secured
the drivers c, c, which work in the double helical grooves made in the pro-
peller shaft d, d, an air-pump cylinder may also be added as at e, and the
pump thereof may be actuated by another driver c¹ made to work in the groove
of the propeller shaft d, as shewn in Figures 1 and 3. The condenser f may
be conveniently placed below the propeller shaft d, as shewn in the Drawing,
so that a very compact and simple construction of engine will be produced.
The drivers c, c, are similar to those shown in the Specification of William
Austin Ashe's Patent above referred to, and they act on the shaft in a similar
manner; it will not therefore be necessary to give any description of them,
further than to say that their bottom and sides should be adjusted to the
helical grooves in the propeller shaft, and to slide therein with ease.
At Figures 4 and 5, Sheet II, I have shewn three cylinders provided with
drivers adapted to drive one and the same shaft. In this instance the cylinders
are arranged lengthwise of the shaft d and equidistant therefrom. Instead of
the piston of the air pump being actuated by a driver which works in the
double helical groove of the shaft d, as shewn in Figures 1 and 3, it may be
worked from a crank shaft, as shewn at Figures 1* and 2* ; rotary motion will

page_text: be communicated to this crank shaft by a connecting rod from the piston
rod b, which is prolonged through the end of the steam cylinder a for that
purpose.
As a modification of the arrangement shewn at Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5,
one steam cylinder may be placed at the end of the shaft d, as shewn in
elevation at Fig. 7, Sheet II. It will be seen that the shaft d is driven partly
by a driver attached to the piston rod 6 of the end cylinder a, and partly by
another driver attached to the piston rod 62 of another cylinder a², through
which for convenience the shaft d may pass.
Fig. 8, Sheet II, is a plan view, and Fig. 9 a side elevation, of a modification
in which two steam cylinders a, a*, are placed at the end of the shaft d. The
outer ends of the piston rods of these cylinders are connected by a cross head,
and are provided with a driver which works in the groove of the shaft d. This
latter also passes through two other steam cylinders a, a, which have one
common piston rod, which works another driver in a double helical groove cut
in another part of the shaft d.. It will therefore be seen that, although there
are four steam cylinders, there are only two drivers acting upon the shaft.
Fig. 10, Sheet II, is a modification of Figures 8 and 9. In this instance
there are two 'end cylinders a, a, and two other cylinders a, a, through which
the shaft & passès, but there are four drivers operating in pairs in two sets of
double helical grooves cut in different parts of the shaft, as the piston rod of
each cylinder actuates an independent driver. It will be evident that by
adapting the present Invention to drive stern propellers a very long stroke of
the piston may be employed, and therefore for every stroke of the piston two
or more revolutions of the propeller shaft may be produced if desired, thereby
admitting of the speed of the piston being very much reduced without reducing
the speed of the propeller. In adapting this mode of driving to actuate the
axles of locomotives, or the shafts of other engines, it may be found convenient
for the axle or shaft to pass through the steam cylinders, and the driver to be
adapted direct to the piston, as in the Specification of William Austin Ashe's
Patent already referred to; but, instead of driving the axletree direct from the
piston, the motion of this latter may, if preferred, be communicated to the shaft
or axle by means of gearing.
Fig. 11, Sheet II, is a sectional plan of a locomotive, shewing one mode of
applying the Invention to actuate the axles of locomotive engines. In this
instance motion is transferred from the piston in the steam cylinders to the
axle d of the running wheels somewhat in the manner described in the first
part of the Specification of the Patent granted to Mr. Asbe and already
referred to. a, a, are the steam cylinders, which are securely attached to the

page_text: framing A of the locomotive. The axles d, d, of the driving wheels D, D, of
the locomotive pass through these steam cylinders and their pistons, and have
cut in them the double helical grooves d³, d; b is the piston carrying within
itself the driver e as in Mr. Ash's Patent. The end of the driver projects into
the grooves d', and by the reciprocating motion of the piston will cause the
axles of the driving wheels to rotate in the manner already. explained in
reference to the other Figures. The slide valves of the steam cylinders are
enclosed in the steam chests c, c, and may be operated by excentrics upon
the driving wheels D, D, in the ordinary or in any other convenient
manner.
Fig. 12, Sheet II, is a sectional plan of a locomotive in which the axles of
the running wheels do not pass through the steam cylinders. In this instance
drivers are attached to the outer ends of the piston rods, as in Figures 1, 2,
3, 4, and 5; and motion is communicated from the pistons of the steam
cylinders or their drivers to the axles of the locomotive by means of gearing.
a, a, are the steam cylinders; b, b, the pistons; and b¹ the piston rods, having
cross heads 62, which move between guides 63. These cross heads carry the
drivers c, which work to and fro in the double helical grooves d', d', formed in
the shafts d, d, which are mounted in suitable, bearings parallel to the traverse
of the piston rods 6', . In the grooves d', d, of these shafts d, the drivers e on
the cross heads 63 operate to cause the shafts d to rotate. At the outward
ends of these shafts d, d, bevil, wheels f are keyed thereon, and gear into bevil
wheels g, g, fast upon the axle of the driving wheel D of the locomotive. The
slide valves of the steam cylinder may be operated by excentrics in the ordinary
manner. It will be seen that on admission of steam to the cylinders the
pistons will be driven forward, and the shafts d, d, caused to rotate, and com-
municate motion through the bevil gearing ƒ and g to the axle of the driving
wheels D. The direction of rotation may be changed by means of the ordinary
reversing gear in the well known manner, so that the locomotive may be driven
in either direction. The helical grooves in the shaft d in all instances may, if
desired, be so constructed that the latter will be caused to rotate either half or
whole turns for every forward or backward motion of the driver or drivers.
It will be obvious that the mode herein set forth of communicating rotary
motion to shafts and axles is applicable not only to propeller shafts and the
axles of locomotives but also to the shafting of mills and various kinds of
machinery.
Having now described this Invention of improved apparatus for communi-
cating rotary motion to shafts or axles for various purposes, and having explained
the manner of carrying the same into effect, I claim as the Invention secured
.

page_text: to me by Letters Patent, as aforesaid, the apparatus herein shewn and de-
scribed for communicating rotary motion to shafts or axles by means of a
driver or drivers or other analogous contrivance made to act in a double helical
groove formed in or adapted to the shaft to be driven as herein set forth; I also
claim communicating rotary motion to the axles of locomotive engines in the
manner and by the apparatus herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Alexander Duntze, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Eleventh day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
J. A. DUNTZE. (L.S.)