CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1, JAMES
SIMS, of Redruth, in the county of Cornwall, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Ninth day of Sep-
tember, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, in the eleventh year
of Her reign, did for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said James Sims, my exors, adñors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said James Sims,
my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Sims,
my exors, adors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England;
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of Jersey,
Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and in all Her said Majesty's Colonies
and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM
ENGINES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the
said James Sims, should cause a particular description of the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner is to be performed, by an instrument in
writing 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 compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Sims, hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, are fully described in and by
the present Specification thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say :-
My Invention has, firstly, relation to the class of steam engines which operate
by direct rotary action, and has for its object to simplify the construction of
such engines, and reduce the cost thereof, as also to obtain a greater effect
therefrom in proportion to the fuel expended and steam produced than has
been ever heretofore accomplished, and in Figures 1, 2, and 3, of the
Drawings hereunto annexed I have exhibited so much of a high-pressure
engine, constructed according to this branch of my Invention, as is necessary
to exemplify clearly the nature of the same, and in what manner it is to be
carried into effect; Figure 1 being a side elevation of the parts shewn;
Figure 2 is a transverse section. on the line a, b, of Figure 1; and Figure 3
a plan. A is a steam cylinder, which is mounted in the centre of a fly wheel
W; S, the shaft of this wheel is in two parts, cast upon or otherwise attached
to two opposite sides of the cylinder. A, while the spokes or arms a, a, a, a,
and c, c, c, c, radiate from brackets or snugs B, B, cast upon or otherwise
attached to the two other sides of the cylinder A. P is a piston, which, fits
the cylinder in the same way as in ordinary steam engines, but has two
arms or rods, one on each side of the piston, which work alternately through
stuffing boxes at the opposite ends of the cylinder. R¹, R", are cross-heads,
which are attached to the extreme ends of the piston rods, and slide
upon and are guided by two of the arms c, c, c, c, of the wheel, which
are placed for the purpose parallel to one another, and at equal distances
from the cylinder; D¹, D", are weight blocks, which are attached to the
cross-heads R¹, R", and provided with guide rollers I, I, which take alter-
nately into the parabolic guide plate K; H is a steam pipe or passage cast
on the cylinder, and communicating with it at top and bottom. The shaft S,
before mentioned, is cast hollow, and divided longitudinally into two separate
passages a, y, one of which leads to the upper and the other to the lower
end of the cylinder, through the passage H. E is the induction port, and F
the eduction port, which are formed of two longitudinal slots or openings
made in the journal of the shaft S, which rests on two pedestals or pillow
blocks G, G", raised on the basement M for the support of the engine. The
mode of setting the engine to work is as follows:-Supposing the engine to
be at rest, and the valve or cock which commands the induction port E to be
opened (the eduction port being at the same time left open to the exhaust

page_text: 'pipe), the steam immediately rushes beneath the piston and presses it upwards,
carrying with it, through the medium of the piston rods and cross heads,
the weight blocks D¹, D", but as soon as the guide roller I', attached to the
weight block at the extreme end of the upper piston rod comes into contact
with the parabolic guide plate K, it not only deflects the piston in the direction
of that plate, but throws over the upper weight block from the centre of
the wheel into a line coincident with the pressure of the piston, and simul-
taneously therewith brings the under weight block up to the centre. As
the piston completes its stroke the upper weight block D¹ is thrown out to
the extreme length of its range, and then serves by its gravity, combined
with the impetus derived from the preceding stroke of the steam piston, to
carry round the wheel through the remaining half of one revolution (as
represented in Figure 1), by which time the cylinder is in a position to receive
a second charge of steam, when the same operation is repeated as before and
the entire revolution completed; and so on for any number of revolutions
as long as the engine is supplied with steam. The weight blocks, it will
be observed, are prevented by the guide plate from being thrown out so far
as to come in contact with the periphery of the wheel, but that guide plate
is not absolutely required except where the engine is worked with variable
loads, and it may be safely dispensed with wherever the engine has one
steady and uniform duty to perform; and in the latter case it will be proper
to attach to the inside of the periphery of the wheel between the arms c, c, c, c,
two paddings or buffers L, L, of vulcanized caoutchouc or of gutta percha
to protect the periphery from any accidental concussion of the blocks against
it. The weight blocks must always bear a due proportion to the mean
power of the steam, or in other words the terminal pressure of the steam
should always be just sufficient to hold the two blocks in equilibrium until
the one which is uppermost for the moment is thrown over from the centre
towards the descending side of the wheel. The bulk of the blocks may
however be considerably diminished by casting them hollow and filling them
up with lead. In order to avoid any inconvenience which may attend the
'enlargement of the cylinder and wheel, where an increase of power is required,
there may be two, three, or more wheels of medium size attached to one
shaft, or there may be two or more cylinders mounted in one wheel placed
at angles proportionate to their number, as for example, if two cylinders
are used they should be at right angles, and if three they must be at angles
of thirty degrees apart. The power of the engine or engines may be trans-
mitted either from the shaft or through the medium of bands carried round
the wheel or wheels, and when requisite the rotary motion transmitted may
"

page_text: be converted into a rectilineal one by any of the ordinary and well known
methods of effecting such changes. An engine of this sort is more especially
adapted to be worked by high-pressure steam and on the expansion principle,
because of its offering no limit to the extent to which the expansion may be
carried; it may, however, be readily worked also on the condensing principle,
by carrying the exhaust pipe into a condenser with air pump attached to it.
The engine is represented in the Drawings as calculated to revolve in one
direction only, but should it be desirable to have the power of reversing
the motion, that may be easily effected by having a second parabolic guide
plate on the opposite side of the wheel, and providing some suitable means of
causing the guide wheels to shift from the one plate to the other.
Secondly, my Invention consists in the construction of a reciprocating steam
engine on the same principle as the rotary one before described, namely, that
of employing the steam to shift weight blocks to and from the centre of
motion, and turning to account the power derived from the gravity of these
blocks when brought into certain positions. Figure 4 represents a side eleva-
tion of a pumping engine on this plan. B is the beam which works or moves
on the gudgeon B2 or centre of motion, and is supported by the pedestals or
pillow blocks C, C. A is a steam cylinder (shewn in dotted lines) which
occupies a place between, and is attached to the two sides or halves of
the beam B. To the piston (which works from one end to the other of the
cylinder as in ordinary engines) there is attached a rod E, which passes
out through a stuffing box F at one end, and carries at its outer extremity a
cross head G. D¹, D", are two weight blocks placed at a short distance apart,
but connected by a wrought iron rod I, which are mounted on wheels and run
on rails affixed to or cast on the sides of the two halves of the beam. The
cross head G of the piston rod is connected to the weight block (D") which
is next the pump-rod, so that whatever motion is given to the piston is commu-
nicated through the medium of the cross-head to the weight blocks. The
steam is admitted into the cylinder through a port in the main gudgeon or
centre of motion, and the induction valve is worked by a tappet I, so adjusted
that the steam obtains admission under the piston only when the beam is in
an inclined position and the piston is at the lower end of the cylinder, while
on the other hand the exhaust pipe (N) is always open for the escape of the
steam from the higher end of the cylinder to the condenser O.
pump which is worked by the rod Q. The mode of working this engine is as
follows: As the steam piston moves from left to right and right to left, it
passes one block over the centre of motion, while the other block is passed
to the extreme end of the beam, when it is there stopped by the horns or
P is an air

page_text: abutments T, T, which limits its range. The gravity
The gravity of the weight block
so passed over the centre depresses the end of the beam, equivalent to the
length of stroke of the pump, and when the weight blocks are again passed
from right to left the end of the beam is again elevated. The motion of the
engine is thus kept up by passing continuously the weight blocks from right to
left and left to right. I consider this form of engine to be particularly adapted
to rectilineal pumping purposes, but it may also be applied to rotary purposes
through the medium of a connecting rod and crank in the ordinary way.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that the improvements which I
claim as constituting my said Invention are as follows:-First, I claim the
combination in rotary steam engines of a steam cylinder, piston, and piston rods,
with weight blocks acting by the power of gravity, as before exemplified and
described. And, secondly, I claim the combination in reciprocating engines of a
steam cylinder, piston, and piston rod, with weight blocks acting by the power
of gravity, as also before exemplified and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Sims, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Ninth day of March, One thousand eight hundred and
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Ninth day of March, in the
year of our Lord 1848, the aforesaid James Sims came before our said Lady
the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and forty-eight.