IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES.”
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Crompton Ashlin and Charles James
Clover, both of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Consulting
Engineers, for the Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES.”

page_text: the valves of compound or high and low pressure cylinder engines, in
placing the cylinders side by side at a distance apart about equal to the
diameter of the high-pressure cylinder, and leading the steam passage or
passages in a straight or nearly straight line from steam chest to steam
chest, the line of the said passage or passages being between and tan-
gential to the cylinders. The valves and valve casings of the cylinders
are placed on opposite sides of the steam passage or passages. The valves
are operated by a balanced or rocking lever operated from any con-
venient moving part.
Second. As means for ensuring that balanced valves can be easily
reached in ordinary steam engines the valves and their casings are
disposed on opposite sides of the cylinders in the manner described under
the above first head, and they are operated by levers also in the manner
described under the said above first head.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent :
filed by the said Henry Crompton Ashlin and Charles James
Clover in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th January 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HENRY
CROMPTON ASHLIN and CHARLES JAMES CLOVER, both of Liverpool, in
the County of Lancaster, Consulting Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said Henry Crompton Ashlin and Charles James
Clover, Her special licence that we, the said Henry Crompton Ashlin
and Charles James Clover, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said Henry Crompton Ashlin and Charles
James Clover, our 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,

page_text: an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES," upon the condition.
(amongst others) that we, the said Henry Crompton Ashlin and Charles
James Clover, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 we, the said Henry Crompton Ashlin and
Charles James Clover, do hereby declare the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be par-
ticularly described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment, reference being had to the accompanying Sheet of illustrative
Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say :-
Our improvements relate to compound or high and low pressure
cylinder engines, and also in part to ordinary steam engines, and
consist,―
First. As means for providing short steam. passages between the
cylinders for permitting easy access to the slide valves, and for balancing
the valves of compound or high and low pressure cylinder engines, in
placing the cylinders side by side at a distance apart about equal to the
diameter of the high-pressure cylinder, and leading the steam passage or
passages in a straight or nearly straight line from steam chest to steam
chest, the line of the said passage or passages being between and tan-
gential to the cylinders. The valves and valve casings of the cylinders
are placed on opposite sides of the steam passage or passages. The valves
are operated by a balanced or rocking lever worked from any con-
venient moving part.
Second. As means for ensuring that balanced valves can be easily
reached in ordinary steam engines the valves and their casings are
disposed on opposite sides of the cylinders in the manner described under
the above first head, and they are operated by levers also in the manner :
described under the said above first head.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.

page_text: Fourth. In ordinary steam engines employing balanced or rocking
levers to operate the valves when such valves are disposed as claimed
under the above third head.
In witness whereof, we, the said Henry Crompton Ashlin and
Charles James Clover, have hereunto set our hands and seals,
this Twenty-fifth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
10 In the presence of
JAMES JOHNSON,
HENRY CROMPTON ASHLIN. (L.S.)
CHARLES JAMES CLOVER.
Clerk to J. T. King,
4, Clayton Square,
Liverpool.
(L.S.)