IMPROVEMENTS. IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STEAM HAMMERS
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Martin Rowan, of Glasgow, in the County
of Lanark, North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS.
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STEAM HAMMERS."
Sealed the 8th July 1862, and dated the 17th January 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Martin Rowan at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th January 1862.
I, JOHN MARTIN ROWAN, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STEAM HAMMERS," to be as follows, that
is to say:-
This Invention. relates to steam hammers of the kind having moving
cylinders, and comprises improvements in constructing or arranging certain
parts thereof; and in carrying out the same, the piston rod is made solid-
instead of being hollow, as heretofore; and in one modification two separate
pipes are provided for communicating with the interior of the moving cylinder..
These pipes are attached to the upper part of the framing and communicate
with the valve box or boxes, whilst their lower ends are entered through
stuffing boxes into recesses or passages formed in the sides of the cylinder in
the projecting flanges or slides, by means of which the cylinder is guided in
the framing. These side passages communicate in this modification one with
the top and the other with the bottom of the cylinder. The valvular details

page_text: may be constructed according to any convenient known plan, and may be
arranged to permit of working the hammer either with single action or with
double action, for which latter purpose both pipes or passages may be fitted
with valves. In another modification both passages are made to communicate
with the top of the cylinder, which will render the hammer single acting only,
and the same end may be obtained by means of only one side pipe. In a
third modification one side passage with its pipe is used for the exhaust only,
the other being used for the induction. In all the modifications the employ-
ment of the separate pipes permits of freer passages being formed for the steam,
and particularly for the exhaust steam, in connection with cylinders of a
limited size. The pipes may be fixed to the cylinder, and work in boxes on
the framing, but the arrangement described is the more convenient.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Martin Rowan in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
16th July 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
MARTIN ROWAN, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Martin Rowan, Her special licence that I, the said John
Martin Rowan, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said John Martin Rowan, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STEAM HAMMERS," upon the condition,
amongst others, that I, the said John Martin Rowan, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, should particularly 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Martin Rowan, do hereby declarë
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement in writing, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and
to the letters and figures-marked thereon, that is to say :--
My said Invention relates to steam hammers of the kind having moving
cylinders, and comprises improvements in constructing or arranging certain
parts thereof. In carrying out my said Invention the piston rod is made solid
instead of hollow, as heretofore, and one or two separate pipes are provided"
for communicating with the interior of the moving cylinder.
And in order that my improvements may be properly understood and
carried into effect, I have hereunto appended a Sheet of explanatory Drawings,
showing modifications thereof with reference letters which mark the same or
like parts in all the Figures.
Figure 1 is a back elevation of a steam hammer embodying one modification
of my-improvements, with the steam cylinder shown in vertical section; and
Figure 2 is a sectional plan, as taken at the line A, B, in Figure 1, but with
the parts below that line for the most part omitted. Figures 3, 4, and 5, are
vertical sections of three modifications of the cylinder, with its steam passages
and pipes, Figure 3 being the same as Figure 1.
In all the modifications the steam cylinder C is movable, and constitutes the
hammer block, being formed with flanges or slides D, fitted to work in the
vertical guides E, bolted to the inner cheeks of the frame standards F. The
piston G is stationary, being attached to a piston rod H, passing through a
stuffing box in the cover of the cylinder, and being fixed at its upper end to
the entablature I of the framing. In hammers of this class the piston rod has
hitherto been made hollow to serve as a communication with the interior of
the cylinder, but by the present Invention this piston rod H is made solid.
The valvular details are arranged upon or within the entablature I, and may
be the same as hitherto, except that instead of the ports communicating with
a hollow piston rod, they are made to communicate with a separate pipe or
pipes.
In the modification shown in Figures 1 and 3 there are two pipes J, K;
which enter passages L, M, in the sides of the cylinder C, such passages being
conveniently formed within the projecting parts of the cylinder constituting the
slide flanges D. These passages are fitted with stuffing boxes at their upper
ends for the pipes J, K, to work through, and one passage L communicates
with the top of the cylinder above the the piston G, and the other M with the
bottom below the piston. With this arrangement of the passages, and with a

page_text: suitable arrangement of the valve details and gearing, the hammer may be
worked as either single-acting or double-acting, the steam being used either
to only raise the cylinder or to both raise; it and assist its descent, as will be
easily understood by the practical engineer; but as the present Invention
does not include any novelty in the valve details or gearing, it will be
unnecessary to further particularise these parts herein..
In another modification shown in Figure 4, both passages L, M;. are made
to communicate with the top of the cylinder C above the piston G, and in this
case the hammer will be single-acting only, and the same end may be obtained.
by means of only one pipe J and side passage L, as shown in Figure 5. Or
when there are two pipes J, K, and side passages L, M, as in Figure 4, one
pipe and passage may be used for the exhaust only, the other pipe and
passage being used for the induction only.
In all the modifications the employment of the separate pipes permits of
freer passages being obtained for the steam, and particularly for the exhaust
steam in connection with cylinders of a limited size. The pipes (J, K,) may
be fixed to the cylinder (C), and be made to work through stuffing boxes into
chambers formed for them in the framing (I), but the arrangement herein-
before described and shown in the accompanying Drawings is the more
convenient.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is or may be performed, I have to state that I do not restrict
myself to the precise details herein described and delineated; but that what
I consider to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured to me
by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the constructing of
moving cylinder steam, hammers with solid piston rods, or with steam com-
munications separate from such rods, substantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Martin Rowan, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
3
JNO. M. ROWAN. (L.S.)