IMPROVEMENTS IN MOTOR ENGINES WORKED BY THE VAPOUR OF VOLATILE LIQUIDS, SUCH AS BISULPHIDE OF CARBON, ETHER, OR LIGHT HYDROCARBON OILS
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John McCall, of Houndsditch, in the City of London, and
Thomas Hughes, of Ingrave Street, Battersea, in the County of Surrey, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MOTOR ENGINES WORKED BY THE
VAPOUR OF VOLATILE LIQUIDS, SUCH AS BISULPHIDE OF CARBON, ETHER,
OR LIGHT HYDROCARBON OILS."
Sealed the 10th February 1880, and dated the 15th August 1879.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John McCall and Thomas
Hughes, at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th August
1879.
JOHN MCCALL, of Houndsditch, in the City of London, and THOMAS HUGHES, of
Ingrave Street, Battersea, in the County of Surrey. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MOTOR
ENGINES WORKED BY THE VAPOUR OF VOLATILE LIQUIDS, SUCH AS BISULPHIDE
OF CARBON, ETHER, OR LIGHT HYDROCARBON OILS."
This Invention relates to motor engines in which the working fluid employed is
the vapour of a volatile liquid which can be generated at considerable pressure at
moderately low temperatures. An engine for this purpose consists of the following
principal parts:-
A generator in which the volatile liquid supplied by a feed pump is converted into
vapour; a cylinder in which the vapour works a piston connected to a crank so
as to give rotary motion to the engine shaft; a surface condenser in which the
exhaust vapour from the cylinder is condensed into liquid; an air pump which
maintains the vacuum in the condenser, and draws from it and discharges into a
suitable receptacle the liquid resulting from condensation of the vapour; a feed
pump which draws liquid from the discharge receptacle of the air pump and forces
it into the generator along with such farther quantity as may be necessary to make
up for leakage; a reservoir containing a store of the liquid and supplying to the
feed pump such quantity as may be required in addition to that which is received
from the condenser.
These several parts of the apparatus have the following peculiarities of con-
struction.
The generator may be simply a boiler heated by direct action of fire on its
surface, but as the liquid employed is generally of a highly inflammable nature it is
preferred to place the generator at a distance, or in a separate apartment from the
[Price 4d1

page_text: fire, and to convey heat to it either by steam or by hot water circulation, which
may be accelerated by a rotary or other pump or propeller. In this case the
generator consists of a coil or a number of tubes presenting extended surface to
the heating agent, and provided with suitable guages and a safety valve, all the
outlets from these, instead of opening to the outer air, as in ordinary steam boilers,
being made to communicate by pipes with the condenser of the engine, so that
vapour issuing from these outlets is collected without waste or annoyance to
attendants. According to another construction the generator consists of a closed
vessel immersed in the water of a boiler, the fire of which is fed through a fuel
tube opening from a separate compartment.
The cylinder is like that of a steam engine, provided with a slide or set of valves
of ordinary construction; it is however cased over the whole or the greater part of
its surface, and the casing is supplied with steam or hot water so as to keep the
cylinder hot.
The condenser is made according to any known form of surface condenser, in
which a large surface is exposed to the cooling action of water or of a current of
air. As the condenser is connected by a pipe with the outlet from the safety valve
and the guages of the generator, in order to prevent excess of pressure in the con-
denser, it, or the communicating pipe in any convenient part, has a safety valve
loaded to the maximum pressure permitted in the condenser.
The air pump and the feed pump may be of any known construction, the supply
pipe to the feed pump having two branches, the one leading from the discharge
receptacle of the air pump, and the other having an adjusting cock or valve for
regulating the additional feed required from the reservoir, and also a check valve
to prevent any back flow into the reservoir.
The reservoir is preferably subdivided for the sake of safety into a number of
separate vessels immersed in water, or enclosed in water casings, each of these
vessels having its own branch pipe to the feed pump with a suitable cock or stop
valve.
With these parts the operation of the engine is like that of a condensing steam
engine, that is to say, the vapour produced in the generator acts as working fluid
in the cylinder propelling the piston, and after expanding and performing work it
passes as exhaust into the condenser, where it is restored to the liquid form and
whence it is fed back to the generator to be vaporised again. As the volatile
liquids employed produce at moderate temperatures vapours of high pressure, it is
.generally preferable to make the engine of the compound type, so that the high
pressure vapour after acting first in one cylinder expands in a larger cylinder, doing
additional work before passes into the condenser.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said John McCall and Thomas Hughes in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 12th February 1880.
JOHN MCCALL, of Houndsditch, in the City of Loudon, and THOMAS HUGHES, of
Ingrave Street, Battersea, in the County of Surrey. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MOTOR
ENGINES WORKED BY THE VAPOUR OF VOLATILE LIQUIDS, SUCH AS BISULPHIDE
OF CARBON, ETHER, OR LIGHT HYDROCARBON OILS."
This Invention relates to motor engines in which the working fluid employed is
the vapour of a volatile liquid which can be generated at considerable pressure at
moderately low temperatures. An engine for this purpose consists of the following
principal parts:-
A generator in which the volatile liquid supplied by a feed pump is converted
into vapour; a cylinder in which the vapour works a piston connected to a crank
so as to give rotary motion to the engine shaft; a surface condenser in which the
exhaust vapour from the cylinder is condensed into liquid; an air-pump which
maintains the vacuum in the condenser, and draws from it and discharges into a
suitable receptacle the liquid resulting from condensation of the vapour; a feed
pump which draws liquid from the discharge receptacle of the air pump and forces
it into the generator along with such farther quantity as may be necessary to make
up for leakage; a reservoir containing a store of the liquid, and supplying to the
feed pump such quantity as may be required in addition to that which is received
from the condenser.
These several parts of the apparatus have the following peculiarities of con-
struction.
The generator may be simply a boiler heated by direct action of fire on its
surface, but as the liquid employed is generally of a highly inflammable nature, it
is preferred to place the generator at a distance, or in a separate apartment from the
fire, and to convey heat to it either by steam or by hot water circulation which may
be accelerated by a rotary or other pump or propeller. In this case the generator
consists of a coil or a number of tubes presenting extended surface to the heating
agent, and provided with suitable guages and a safety-valve, all the outlets from
these, instead of opening to the outer air, as in ordinary steam boilers, being made
to communicate by pipes with the condenser of the engine, so that vapour issuing
from these outlets is collected witbout waste or annoyance to attendants. According
to another construction the generator consists of a close vessel immersed in the
water of a boiler, the fire of which is fed through a fuel tube opening from a
separate compartment.
The cylinder is like that of a steam engine, provided with a slide or set of valves
of ordinary construction; it is however cased over the whole or the greater part of
its surface, and the casing is supplied with steam or hot water so as to keep the
cylinder hot.
The condenser is made according to any known form of surface condenser, in
which a large surface is exposed the cooling action of water or of a current of air.
As the condenser is connected by a pipe with the outlet from the safety-valve and
the guages of the generator, in order to prevent excess of pressure in the condenser,
it, or the communicating pipe in any convenient part, has a safety-valve loaded to
the maximum pressure permitted in the condenser.
The air pump and the feed pump may be of any known construction, the supply
pipe to the feed pump having two branches, the one leading from the discharge
receptacle of the air pump, and the other having an adjusting cock or valve for
regulating the additional feed required from the reservoir, and also a check valve
to prevent any back flow into the reservoir.

page_text: The reservoir is preferably subdivided for the sake of safety into a number of
separate vessels immersed in water or enclosed in water casings, each of these
vessels having its own branch-pipe to the feed-pump with a suitable cock or stop-
valve.
With these parts the operation of the engine is like that of a condensing steam-
engine, that is to say, the vapour produced in the generator acts as a working fluid
in the cylinder propelling the piston, and after expanding and performing work
it passes as exhaust into the condenser, where it is restored to the liquid form, and
whenco it is fed back to the generator to be vaporised again. As the volatile
liquids employed produce at moderate temperatures vapours of high pressure it is
generally preferable to make the engine of the compound type so that the high-
'pressure vapour after acting first in one cylinder expands in a larger cylinder, doing
additional work before it passes into the condenser.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, we would have it understood that we make no general
claim to the use of the vapour of a volatile liquid as the working fluid of a motor-
engine, but we claim in respect of a motor-engine worked by the vapour of a
volatile liquid, such as bisulphide of carbon.
First. The combination of a vapour generator exposing extended surface to the
action of hot water or steam, a working cylinder kept hot by a hot-water or
steam casing, a surface condenser, an air pump with the receptacle for receiving its
discharge, and a feed-pump and reservoir with their connections, substantially as
and for the purposes berein set forth.
Second. Connecting the outlets from the safety-valve and gauges by pipes with
the surface condenser, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Hughes, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Eleventh day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty.
THOMAS HUGHES. (L.S.)