CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON THE STEAM ENGINE
Year: 1805

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOB
RIDER, of Belfast, in the County of Antrim, in that part of the United
Kingdom called Ireland, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of March, in
the forty-fifth year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said Job
Rider, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole priviledge and authority, that I, the said Job Rider, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON
THE STEAM ENGINE;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said Job Rider, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed; to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within four calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto
had) may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso in the said
Letters Patent contained, I, the said Job Rider, do hereby declare that the
following is a true description of my Invention, which consists of various
improvements in the steam engine, that is to say:

page_text: First, in lining the steam cylinder or cylinders with a soft metal or a compo-
sition of metals, similar to hard pewter, of a sufficient thickness to admit of
finishing the inside of the cylinder or cylinders of such metal by drawboring
or otherwise.
Secondly, in applying a hollow piston rod answering the purpose of an
eduction pipe.
Thirdly, the order of opening and shutting the valves.
Fourthly, in regulating the engine's speed by a pendulum.
First, with respect to the first-mentioned improvement of lining the steam
cylinder or cylinders, I do not think it necessary to describe minutely the
manner of doing it, as the practical methods are well known of lining cylin-
ders by casting pewter or a compound of metals round a core placed in the
center of an iron cylinder, or otherwise. My object is in applying it to steam
engine cylinders, whereby a more perfect inside can be made than when cast
iron is used only, permitting the piston to work more smoothly, and be less
liable to friction and corrosion than iron. For this reason also I recommend
finishing the inside by drawboring, making each stroke lengthways. By this
means I make the piston fit closer into the cylinder than is commonly done,
so that little or no steam can escape past the piston, consequently less steam will
be consumed in working the engine, the friction of the piston's action will be
lessened, and the stuffing upon the piston will last longer without being
renewed than any engines having the piston's action in cast iron.
Secondly, the piston rod being made hollow, and to act through a stuffing
box fixed upon the piece that stops the lower end of the steam cylinder, the
piston in the steam cylinder being fixed to its upper end, and the lower end to
act through another stuffing box into a condenser. By this means the piston
rod also serves the purpose of an eduction pipe having a valve to the upper end
(above the piston in the steam cylinder) opened and shut occasionally in
working the engine by the necessary work connected to it. By this mode of
a hollow piston rod answering the purpose of an eduction pipe, a direct motion
and power can be obtained for the purpose of pumping water without beam or
lever, and render the engine more concise. In certain cases I recommend,
but do not claim it as a new Invention, the application of a solid inverted
piston rod, having the lower end to work the air pump by being fixed to its
piston, and the upper end fixed to the piston in the steam cylinder, working
through stuffing boxes, one fixed to the top of the air pump, and the other to
the bottom of the steam cylinder. When the solid piston rod is used the valves
are placed, as described, under the following head.
Thirdly, the following is a description of the valves and of their situations in

page_text: the engine, Fig. 1. a, a, a, a, is a piece of casting of an oblong shape, serving
the purpose of steam chests, eduction and steam pipes; b, b, is a partition cast
in it; c, c, is a round pipe having a flanch d, d; e, e, e, e, oblong figured pipes
to admit the valves 2, 3, 4, 5, with their necessary appendages, as shown in
the Drawing; f, g, h, i, j, are rods whereby the valves can be shut or opened by
pushing them in or drawing them out. These rods pass through stuffing to
render them air and steam tight, shewn in the Drawing by small dots. The cast
piece a, a, a, a, is fixed to the side flanches of the steam cylinder, having the
appertures from the top and bottom of the steam cylinder closely connected
unto the appertures in the part a, a, between the valves 2, 3, and 4, 5. k is
a pipe connecting the above part unto the boiler, and is a pipe in like
nanner leading unto the condenser. The order of opening and shutting the
valves, according to the engine's motion, is shewn in Figure 2. The dotted
circle represents a supposed circle formed by a crank, &c. moving in it, with
the
power of the engine connected to it. The arrows exhibit the direction of
the motion; the figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, refer to the different valves, and
the letters S and O signify the shutting and opening of them according to the
order and place by them denoted. The method of connecting the rods
f, g, h, i, j, for the opening and shutting the valves in the order above described,
may be accomplished in various ways according to circumstances. The saving
of steam by the order of opening and shutting the valves above described will
be evident upon comparison of my method with that in common use in other
engines, in which all the steam contained between the piston and the eduction
valve is lost (when the piston is at the extremity of its stroke either way) by
being condensed with the steam that occupied the space through which the
piston acts; but by my method it is different, as, for instance, suppose the
piston to be ascending, before it reaches the top of the steam cylinder
the valve 1, Figure 1, is shut; next the valve 3; and then, when the piston
bas attained its greatest height, the valve 2 is opened, thereby permitting the
steam to expand itself through the valve 4 to the other side of the piston
before the valve 4 is shut, during which time no steam can come from the
boiler until the valve 1 is opened, and in the descending stroke the like
operation will take place, as shewn in Fig. 2.
Fourthly, description of the pendulum, and manner of regulating the speed
of the engine by it. Fig. 3, h, h, frame plates framed with pillars between
them, as shewn at P, P, P, P. Fig. 4, A, A, an arbor having a nut a, a,
upon it, with teeth cut into it. B, B, a main wheel fitted by means of the
socket 6, b, upon the main arbor A, A, turning upon the arbor which is cut

page_text: into teeth, both at its extremity and also in the interior part of the rim, as
shewn in Figure 4; e, a small wheel equal in size and number of teeth with
the small nut a, a, acting both in the arbor nut and interior teeth of the main
wheel. F, F, a moveable barrel fitted upon the main arbor for the line G,
Fig. 4, to wind round; y, an arbor upon which. the wheel c is fixed, acting in
both sides of the barrel F. By this means the barrel F is turned round upon
the main arbor, while the arbor itself is turned by the nut a, a, acting in the
wheel e, and the wheel e acting into the interior teeth of the wheel B, thereby
forcing round the barrel F upon the main arbor; c, a pinion acted upon by
the main wheel B, carrying round the escapement wheel D, shewn also in
Figure 4; L, a ratchet wheel fixed upon the end of the main arbor which
proceeds through the frame plate, which has a click fitted to it that acts into
its teeth; K, a worm or endless screw wheel fixed upon the other end of the
main arbor; I, an endless screw or worm which acts on the wheel K; 0, 0,
two pins for securing the wheels L and K. upon the main arbor. Fig. 4 shews
the wheels flat, having the same letters of reference. to the several parts as
described in Fig. 3. M, a pair of pallets which are acted upon by the wheel
D; N, a pendulum rod connecting a pendulum ball to the pallets M, which,
by means of the weight suspended to the line G, presses the wheels round that
give power to continue the pendulum's motion by the inclining parts of the
pallets M, which are acted upon by the wheel D moving round. The speed
of the engine is governed by this regulator in manner following:-The worm I,
Fig. 3, is turned by the engine's motion which winds up the weight suspended
to the line G, which weight is connected to a lever in such manner that,
according to the height of the weight, the lever permits the valve 1, Fig. 1, to
open more or less, that is to say, when the weight is at its height the valve is
least opened, and when descended to the bottom is opened to the utmost.
is also necessary that the aperture of this valve be made in the form of an
inverted conc. It was shewn in Figure 2 that this valve shuts and opens
twice every stroke; and this lever is not to prevent the opening and shutting
of the valves, as before mentioned,, but to limit the extent of the opening by
the rods j, Fig. 1, springing up to the lever which is connected to the weight.
These things being premised, it is evident that should the engine wind up the
weight by turning the worm I, Fig. 3, faster than the pendulum permits it to
descend by the wheel B and D, Fig. 4, going round, the apperture of the
valve 1, Fig. 1, will be contracted, and vice versa. The ratchet wheel L, Fig. 3,
with its click, is useful only when the worm I is thrown out of gcer to keep
the barrel from running the line off by the weight's gravitation. By means
It

page_text: of the aforesaid construction little power is lost, and the speed of the engine
can be regulated to the greatest nicety by adjusting the length of the pendulum,
and in varying the number of teeth in the wheels.
In witness whereof, I, the said Job Rider, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-second day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and five.