Year: 1885

page_text: I, ROBERT MATTHEWS of Green Bank, Hyde in the County of Chester, Engineer
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My improvements relate to that description of apparatus for compressing air or
other elastic fluid wherein the air is compressed in three successive stages in
concentric spaces in a cylinder or combination of cylinders, the surfaces of which
are more or less cooled by water circulation, while the air is caused to pass from
the cylinder or cylinders through a refrigerating coil immersed in water-According
to my invention I construct such apparatus as follows.
The main cylinder, which has a trunk piston, so as to present an annular space
on one side of the piston for the further compression of the air coming from
the other side of the piston, as is well understood, contains centrally within it a
second cylinder with surrounding jacket passing from the cylinder cover into the
interior of the main piston, which is hollow and provided with water circulation,
and which slides with packing upon the jacket of the inner cylinder, the inner
cylinder and jacket being both open at the inner end so as to communicate with
the water in the piston. The inner cylinder has a piston connected centrally by a
hollow stem to the interior of the trunk of the main piston, the hollow stem being
extended upwards beyond the inner piston into a chamber that communicates with
the cold water supply pipe and also by means of a pipe with the cold water
reservoir surrounding the main cylinder. The air is drawn in on one side of the
main piston through an annular valve on the cylinder cover and after partial com-
pression it is forced through a passage provided with discharge and suction valves
into the annular space on the other side of the piston, whence, after further
compression, it is forced through a valve into a coil contained in the water
reservoir surrounding the cylinder. From this coil the compressed air after being
cooled, passes into the chamber of a suction valve situated at the top of the main
cylinder which communicates with the beforementioned inner cylinder, so that the
compressed air enters this cylinder during the down stroke of its piston, and after
further compression during the upstroke thereof is forced through a discharge valve
into another chamber at the top of the main cylinder, whence it is led by a pipe
into a second coil in the water reservoir, in order to be again cooled after such
further compression. From this second coil the air is led to wherever required.

page_text: The beforementioned hollow stem of the inner piston being open at its upper
extension where it enters the water supply chamber, and also having apertures
communicating with the interior of the inner cylinder below the piston, it follows
that water can flow from the upper water chamber through the hollow stem into
the cylinder, whence by the downward stroke of the piston it is forced from the
lower end of the cylinder into the trunk of the main piston, whence it passes up
through the annular space between the inner cylinder and its jacket, into a passage
on the cylinder cover that communicates by a pipe with the water reservoir
surrounding the cylinders.
Thus by the action of the inner piston a quantity of fresh cold water is caused to
pass at each downstroke from the water chamber through the inner cylinder,
trunk piston, and inner cylinder jacket, into the outer water reservoir, whereby
an effective cooling of all the parts that effect the compression of the air is
accomplished. At the same time the air is subjected to the cooling action of a
refrigerating coil at an intermediate stage of its compression instead of only at the
end of such compression as was heretofore the case in similar apparatus.
1
1
100K

page_text: Improvements in Apparatus for Compressing Air or other
Elastic Fluids.
I, ROBERT MATTHEWS of Green Bank Hyde, in the County of Chester, Engineer
do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to
be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
My improvements relate to that description of apparatus for compressing air or
other elastic fluid wherein the air is compressed in three successive stages in
concentric spaces in a cylinder or combination of cylinders, the surfaces of which
are more or less cooled by water circulation, while the air is caused to pass
from the cylinder or cylinders through a refrigerating coil immersed in water.
According to my invention I construct such apparatus as follows:-
The main cylinder which has a trunk piston so as to present an annular space
on one side of the piston for the further compression of the air coming from the
other side of the piston as is well understood, contains centrally within it a second
cylinder with surrounding jacket passing from the cylinder cover into the interior
of the main piston, which is hollow and provided with water circulation, and which
slides with packing upon the jacket of the inner cylinder, the inner cylinder and
jacket being both open at the inner end so as to communicate with the water in
the piston. The inner cylinder has a piston connected centrally by a stem to the
interior of the trunk of the main piston. The air is drawn in on one side of the
main piston through an annular valve on the cylinder cover and after partial
compression it is forced through a passage provided with discharge and suction
valves into the annular space on the other side of the piston, whence, after further
compression, it is forced through a valve into a coil contained in the water reservoir
surrounding the cylinder. From the coil the compressed air, after being cooled,
passes into the chamber of a suction valve situated at the top of the main cylinder
which communicates with the before mentioned inner cylinder, so that the com-
pressed air enters this cylinder during the down stroke of its piston, and after
further compression during the upstroke thereof is forced through a discharge
valve into another chamber at the top of the main cylinder, whence it is led by a
pipe into a second coil in the water reservoir, in order to be again cooled after such
further compression. From this second coil the air is led to wherever required.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figs. 1 and 2 shew vertical sections at right angles to each other of one arrange-
ment of my before described compressing apparatus. The main cylinder A contains
a trunk piston B which slides with a packing upon the cylindrical jacket C
surrounding the inner cylinder D, both the jacket and the inner cylinder being
formed on the cover. The cylinder D contains a piston E with tubular piston
rod E connected to the piston B. The piston rod E¹ has lateral holes E below
the piston and has a tubular extension E³ extending up into the chamber R into
which cooling water is fed by a pipe T. Atmospheric pressure is admitted above
the piston B through an annular valve F during the downstroke of the piston.
At the upstroke of the piston this charge of air is compressed and forced through

page_text: valve G passage H and valve I into the annular space surrounding the trunk of
the piston B. On the following downstroke of the piston B this charge is still
further compressed and forced through valve K into the intermediate cooling
coil L from which it is delivered through pipe L³ into the chamber N¹ of the
valve N through which it passes into the inner cylinder D as the piston E is
performing its downstroke. On the upstroke of the piston E the air receives its
final compression and is forced through valve O into valve chamber O¹ from which
it passes through pipe P¹ into the second cooling coil P; the cooling coils P and L
are contained in the water jacket M surrounding the cylinder. The cooling water
that passes from pipe T into chamber R descends on the downstroke of piston E
through the tubular piston rod E¹ E³, and passes through the lateral holes E' into
the annular space between E¹ and D in which it descends into the trunk piston B.
From this place it is forced by displacement on the upstroke of the piston through
the annular passage between Ď and C into the cavity S in the cylinder cover and
from this cavity it passes by passage T' and pipe T¹ into the cooling jacket M,
after circulating through which it is discharged through the exit orifice U. The
compressed and cooled air after passing through coil P is led away through pipe Q.
Figs. 3 and 4 shew vertical sections at right angles to each other of a somewhat
modified arrangement of the apparatus. The principal parts are arranged and
operate in the same manner as above described and are indicated by the same
letters of reference. The modifications of this arrangement are that the air
admission valve F, instead of being annular, is a disc valve into the space above
which is fed through nozzle V the small quantity of injection water required to
pass in with the air such water passing in from the chamber R through passage R¹
and regulating valve V¹.
It will be seen that the seat of the valve F is screwed into the cylinder cover so
that this valve, like all the other valves above described is capable of being
removed without otherwise interfering with the construction of the apparatus.
The stem of the piston E is, in this case, solid, and the cooling water passes
first into the jacket M through pipe U from which it passes through valve W,
passage W, space S in the cylinder cover to the passages S¹ between cylinder D
and jacket C from which it descends into the trunk piston B. From this it passes
up through passages S2 into the chamber R whence it is forced by the displacement
due to the upstroke of the piston B through valve X and discharge pipe Y. Z is a
safety valve on passage H.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is:-
1. The herein described improved construction of apparatus for compressing air
and other elastic fluids wherein such fluid after receiving the preliminary com-
pression is forced into an intermediate cooling coil from which it passes to the final
compressing stage or stages and is delivered thence into a final cooling coil.
2. In apparatus for compressing air and other elastic fluids the combination of
cylinder A, trunk piston B, jacket C, inner cylinder D, central piston E, valves F,
G, I, K, passage H cooling coils L and P, jacket M and chamber R arranged and
operating substantially as herein described.
A
1000