CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES AND STEAM PROPELLING MACHINERY
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
BROWN, of the firm of Messrs. Boulton, Watt, and Company, of Soho, near
Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Eighth day of December, in the sixth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said James
Brown, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority that I, the said James Brown, my exors, adñiors, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said James Brown, my exors, adñiors, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Her
Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her
Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all
Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES AND STEAM PROPELLING MACHINERY;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that I, the said James Brown,
shall cause a particular description of my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in
Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in pursuance of the said proviso, I, the said James
Brown, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer-
tained in and by the following Specification thereof, reference being had to
the Sheets of Drawings hereunto annexed marked A, B, and C, that is to
say:
The first of these improvements consists in the mode of applying two
cylinders and pistons to one crank, represented in the Drawings, Sheet A,
Figures 1, 2, and 3, whereby the pistons are made to rise and fall alter-
nately, and the working parts of steam engines of great power may be better
balanced.
Figure 1 is an external side elevation and Figure 2 a plan of a steam
engine embodying the said arrangement. A and B are the two cylinders, into
which the steam is admitted by separate sliding valves; C, C, bearings on which
vibrate the two side levers or beams D, D; A, B, the two pistons, which are
attached to the side levers by connecting rods and cross bars, as shewn in the
Drawing; E, is the cross head of the piston rod A2; F is the cross head of the
piston rod B; G is the connecting rod by which the cross head F is attached
to the crank in the manner separately shewn in Figure 3. The side levers
D, D, being thus connected both with the pistons and with the crank, the
effect necessarily produced when the engine is set to work is that the pistons
rise and fall alternately, while they operate continuously on the same crank.
The air pump H is placed between the cylinders, and worked by means of a
separate beam I, connected with the side levers D, D, in the manner shewn in
Figure 1.
The second of the said improvements consists in the arrangement for the
better disposing and working of that class of steam engines called oscillating
or vibrating engines, represented in the Drawings, Sheet B, Figures 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, and 6, whereby a greater steam power may be applied by means of such
engines within a vessel of a given beam than heretofore. Figure 1 is a
sectional elevation parallel with the crank shaft of an oscillating engine con-
structed according to the said arrangement, and Figure 2 a plan of the sanie.
Figure 3 is an end elevation, and Figure 4 a transverse elevation, partly in
section, taken in a line through the centres of the air pumps. A and B are
the two cylinders. C and D are the air pumps, by disposing of which, in the
manner represented in the Drawings, the main cylinders are brought much
closer together than usual. E is a small wrought iron beam, by means of
which the air pumps are worked through the medium of the connecting rod F
attached to the crank shaft G, as particularly shewn in Figure 4, and 'in the
"

page_text: surface plan, Figure 5. His the hot well. I, I, the steam induction pipes.
K, K, the eduction pipes, the recesses for the packing of which are made of.
a conical form, in order that the packing may be the better compressed and
rendered more air-tight. L, L, are the condensers, which are kept separate.
in the manner particularly shewn in Figures 1 and 4, and still further explained
in the plan, Figure 6. Each condenser has thus its separate air pump, so that
in case of damage to one, and the consequent interruption to the working of
one of the cylinders, the other cylinder may be worked by itself.
On the inner
turn on pivots
The third and last of the said improvements consists in the mode of dis-
connecting the engine shaft of marine engines from the paddle wheel shaft,
represented in the Drawings, Sheet C, Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4. Figure 1 is a
sectional elevation and Figure 2 a cross section of so much of the parts of a
A is
marine steam engine as is necessary to shew the plan of disconnection.
the paddle shaft. Ba cast or wrought iron disc keyed fast thereon. C is a
disc of the same size and material as B, which is fitted loosely upon the
exterior of the socket of the disc B. The two discs, B and C, are shewn
separately in Figures 3 and 4. If the paddle shaft should be made to extend
beyond the socket of the fixed disc B, then the disc C may be fitted on the
end of that shaft so as to revolve freely thereon. P is an eye on the periphery
of the disc C for the reception of the engine crank pin P.
surface of C there are several crank catches a, a, a, which
b, b, b, and have slots at the ends of their arms c, c, c, for the reception of the
pins or studs afterwards mentioned. On the periphery of both discs there are
recesses cut out for the reception of the catches a, a, a, and they are so placed
that when any one catch falls into a recess, the others shall fall simultaneously
into the recesses provided for them. D is a moveable washer or ring which
fits on to the exterior of the socket of the disc C, and has on its inner surface
pins or studs to take into the slots b, b, b, of the cranked arms of the catches
a, a, a. On the periphery of this washer there are several clefts or apertures,
d, d, d, for the insertion of a lever, by which it may be turned round to an
extent sufficient to throw the whole of the catches in or out as required, which
extent is regulated by the action of a spring e attached to the washer D, F.
Figure 4 is a brake ring, with apparatus for acting upon it when it is required
to stop the paddle wheel shaft, and connect it with the engine.
And having now described the nature of my said improvements, and the
manner in which the same are to be performed, I declare that what I claim
is,―
First, the arrangement before described for producing an alternating motion
of two pistons acting on one crank by means of side levers or any other
cauivalent means of connexion