IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGINES FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER BY THE ELASTIC FORCE OF STEAM AND AIR COMBINED, PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVE MENTS MAY BE EMPLOYED FOR SOUNDING STEAM WHISTLES
Year: 1861

page_text: 66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGINES FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER BY
THE ELASTIC FORCE OF STEAM AND AIR COMBINED, PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVE
MENTS MAY BE EMPLOYED FOR SOUNDING STEAM WHISTLES."-A communication
from abroad by Robert Rogers, of Philadelphia, in the United States of
America
Sealed the 19th September 1861, and dated the 4th July 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th July 1861.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Ollice for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGINES FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
BY THE ELASTIC FORCE OF STEAM AND AIR COMBINED, PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVE.
MENTS MAY BE EMPLOYED FOR SOUNDING STEAM WHISTLES," to be as follows:-
This Invention of improvements in engines for obtaining motive power
relates to that class of engines in which power is obtained from the elastic
force of steam and air combined.
In the machine or engine which constitutes the present Invention, and
which is in a great measure self-acting in its operation, the air is introduced
and commingled with the steam through the agency of the power of the

page_text: current of steam itself on its way from the generator to the motive cylinder of
the engine. The Invention is based upon the principle that a current of
steam issuing from an orifice will carry along with it any air surrounding it,
and upon the discovery that there is in reality a vastly greater power pos-
sessed by this current of steam thus applied to introduce and carry forward a
body of air against a resisting force than has been before known.
The Invention is applicable to low-pressure or humid steam as well as to
high pressure and to superheated steam, to every character of boiler or
generator, and to every class of engines, including the reciprocating engine,
the various rotary engines and the Leger or Avery engine.
With reference to the application of the Invention to the Avery engine, all
steam-tight stufling boxes are dispensed with, and a suitably-shaped receiving
tube simply inserted into the hollow revolving shaft, and placed in a proper
position in the fixed delivery tube for the steam jet. The rapid passage of the
steam into the receiving tube carries with it a large volume of air, which,
heated and expanded by the steam, makes its escape along with the latter
from the revolving arms of the engine with an aggregate force greater than
that which the steam would have alone.
The means for carrying out the Invention can be placed at any point
between the boiler and working cylinder, or may even be connected directly
with or upon the cylinder itself whenever its arrangement of valves, ports, and
passages will allow the device to be there placed. The Invention may be
likewise used wherever any kind of steam generator is useful for any purpose
whatever. The pipe conveying the steam may be arranged in relation to the
air surrounding it or admitted to it in various ways. The steam pipe may
surround the air pipe, the annular space between the two being the track of
the steam; or the steam pipe may be within a pipe which has perforations
for admitting the air, and the dimensions and relative position of the tubes
and orifices of the aspirator may be varied or regulated by adjusting screws or
other appropriate contrivances.
I do not limit myself to the use of a single aspirator for the pur-
poses herein specified. Two or more of the combinations may be associated
with each other, and be made under certain circumstances to co-operate
advantageously.
What I consider as new and original is the method of using air and steam
as a motive power, and by this method of intimately combining or blending
them the latent caloric" of the steam, to say nothing of its "sensible
caloric" is rendered remarkably available in expanding the air, whose "spe-
cific heat" or "capacity" for caloric is known to be low.

page_text: A further application of the power or force obtained by the combination of
air with steam may be made in operating steam whistles; thus when the
steam is made to traverse the aspirating arrangement it is found that an
amount of steam which alone would not suffice to sound the whistle will, with
the admission of air be effective in doing so. In carrying out the Invention
an air pump is combined with the aspirating arrangement, and a valve is
adapted to the aspirator to prevent the steam or air from rushing in the wrong
direction.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 4th January 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the iwenty-fifth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors. give and grant unto me the said
William Edward Newton, Her special license that I, the said William
Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said William Edward Newton, 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 ENGINES FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER BY THE ELASTIC FORCE
OF STEAM AND AIR COMBINED. PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS MAY BE EMPLOYED
FOR SOUNDING STEAM WHISTLES," being a communication from abroad, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Edward Newton, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Edward Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same

page_text: is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement. reference being had to the Drawings here-
unto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to
say) :-
Atmospheric air and steam, and also air and water heated either by the air
or otherwise to the vaporizing point, and air, and the gaseous products of
combustion, and steam, have been mingled or associated and used as a motive
power. In all instances when these elements have been used the air or other
gaseous matter has been fed into the steam or water by means of a force or
air pump driven by the power of the engine, so much therefore of the power of
the engine as is consumed in the operation of forcing in the air is necessarily
lost, this is a serious objection, and is one of the principal drawbacks to the
employment in the ordinary way of air and steam in combination. By means
of the present Invention, whereby the apparatus is made self-acting, or nearly
so, in its operation, the air is introduced and commingled with the steam
through the agency and by the power of the current of steam itself on its
way from the generator to the working cylinder of the engine, and by the
vacuum produced in the working cylinder during a certain portion of the stroke
of the piston.
In the accompanying Drawings I have shown the means for carrying out the
Invention. Fig. 1 is a top view of a horizontal boiler and horizontal engine,
with the usual parts and pieces belonging thereto and with an arrangement of
mechanism whereby the Invention may be carried into effect; Fig. 2 is a side
elevation of the same boiler and engine; Fig. 3 is a horizontal section of the
pipes and valve through which the steam and air pass on their way to the work-
ing cylinder; and Fig. 4 is a view of the valves placed at each end of the
working cylinder for the entrance of the air.
In each of these Figures where like parts are shewn, like letters and marks
of reference are used to indicate them.
a is the boiler; b, the safety valve; c, the lever of the safety valve; d, a try
cock; e, the steam pipe; /, the throttle valve; g, the regulator valve; h, the
valve chest; i, the valve rod; k, the excentric of the valve rod on the shaft;
1, the working cylinder; m, the exhaust pipe; n, the connecting rod; p, the
crank of the main or power shaft q.
In Fig. 3 is shewn an arrangement of one part of the Invention, which
arrangement has been found to answer the purpose. This arrangement is,
however, only one of many which may be devised for accomplishing the desired
object. For the sake of convenient reference the device or contrivance shewn
in Fig. 3 will be called an aspirator. r is a small cylinder having couplings s

page_text: for keeping in proper juxtaposition the jet and the receiving mouth u of the
pipes. To the side of this cylinder is attached a short tube e, having an inlet
chamber 6, in which is a flap valve or its equivalent. This inlet chamber
has an air opening y.
In Fig. 4 are shewn two short tubes with flap valves or their equivalents
z, z, one placed at each end of the working cylinder of the engine. These
valves open inwardly.
The operation of the Invention is as follows: When the steam is let on
from the boiler a it passes from the jet f. Fig. 3, into the mouth # of the
receiving tube and onward to the engine. with such velocity as to invite or
draw in through y, e, v, a large amount of air. To this air, with which it
ultimately mingles while conveying it to the working cylinder it imparts a
portion of its heat, and thereby developes an available elastic force, greater than
that lost by the steam itself in the act of producing the expansion of the air.
The valve in the inlet chamber : it will be noticed opens inwardly, its design
is not to control the quantity of air admitted through this chamber, it comes
into play and performs its functions only when from any cause the motion of
the engine is checked, as will be the case when it turns the centre sluggishly,
or when more work is suddenly thrown upon it, or greater or unusual obstacles
have to be overcome. Under these circumstances the steam will have greater
resistance to meet with, and the steam for a moment would pass out through
the chamber if this valve were not provided; but as the pressure will come
upon the valve, it will be forced outward and will thereby close the opening y.
thus confining the steam and allowing the initial pressure of the steam in the
boiler to overcome the additional or unusual resistance, and then the valve will
drop back and the flow of air will be resumed.
With the same view to co-operate with the jet, the air pump shewn in Fig. 2
may be adapted, thereby securing at all times, whatever may be the labor to be
performed by the engine, an adequate supply of air.
In order to bring into play the valves z, z', which are placed at the ends of
the working cylinder, and thereby admit of the introduction of air into the
cylinder either independently of that taken in by the "aspirator" or in quantity
superadded to that introduced by the aspirator it is necessary to so alter the
adjustment and motion of the valves of the engine which control the steam, that
the piston in its stroke shall move successively from each cylinder head a certain
distance before the steam or induction port be opened. The consequence of
this arrangement will be, that as the momentum of the machine will carry the
piston the prescribed distance, say, to the point A, Fig. 4, without the steam,
and before it has been let on from the boiler, the air will rush in through the

page_text: valves z, z, in order to fill the vacuum. The air having thus reached the
cylinder, the steam port will be opened, and steam either unmingled with air
or steam which has drawn air in along with it through the aspirator, will be
admitted to expand therein. The aspirator can be placed at any point between
the boiler and the working cylinder, or it may even be connected directly
with or upon the cylinder itself whenever its arrangement of valves, ports, and
passages will allow the contrivance to be placed there.
I do not confine myself to the particular form or mode of constructing the
aspirator here described, as modifications embracing the same principle may be
used. The pipe that conveys the steam may be arranged in relation to the
air surrounding it or admitted to it in various ways, and the steam pipe
itself may be modified and be made different in form from that shewn in the
Drawings. The steam pipe may surround the air pipe, and the annular space
between the two be made to serve as the passage for the steam, or the steam
pipe may be placed within a pipe which has perforations for admitting the air,
and the dimensions and relative positions of the tubes and orifices of the
aspirator may be varied or regulated by means of adjusting screws or other
appropriate contrivances.
It is evident that the "aspirator," Fig. 3, may be used either in conjunction
with the valves 2, 21, for the admission of air into the working cylinder of the
engine, Fig. 4. or that either may be used alone for the purpose of obtaining
the expansive and elastic power of air in connection with steam, it being.
understood that (when the valves z, z¹, are employed alone) the valve move-
ment of the engine must be so adapted, either by an increased lap to the slide
valve or otherwise, as will enable the piston to travel some distance in its stroke
before steam is admitted to the cylinder.
The Invention is applicable to low pressure steam as well as to high pressure
and to superheated steam, and may be employed in conjunction with every
description of boiler or generator, and to every class of engine; and it may
also be observed that two cylinders having their pistons connected by a common
shaft may be advantageously employed in connection with the valves z, z¹, for
the admission of air.
A further application of the power or force obtained by the combination of
air with steam herein indicated may be made in operating steam whistles.
Thus when the steam is made to traverse the aspirating arrangement, it is
found that an amount of steam which alone would not suffice to sound the
whistle will, with the admission of air, be effective in doing so.
Having now described this Invention of "Improvements in Engines for
Obtaining Motive Power by the Elastic Force of Steam and Air combined,

page_text: Parts of which Improvements may be Employed for Sounding Steam Whistles,"
and having explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, as com-
municated to me by my foreign correspondent, I claim as the Invention secured
to me by Letters Patent as aforesaid,—
First, the method herein set forth of combining and utilizing steam
and air.
Second, I claim the use of the aspirator for the purposes herein set forth,
or any equivalent contrivance to effect similar objects.
Third, claim the combination of the air-pump 2 with the aspirating
arrangement, and also the use of the valves z, z, or their equivalents, as and
for the purposes herein specified.
Lastly, I claim the employment of air and steam in combination for the
purpose of sounding steam whistles as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, the Second day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.S.)