IMPROVEMENTS IN REGULATING THE SPEED OF MARINE ENGINES, AND IN THE APPARATUS OR MEANS TO BE EMPLOYED THEREFOR.”
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edwin Powley Alexander at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd November 1880. A com-
munication from abroad by Charles Joseph Albert Ziegler, of Paris, in
the Republic of France, Engineer.
EDWIN POWLEY ALEXANDER, of 14, Southampton Buildings, in the County
of Middlesex, Consulting Engincer, and British and Foreign Patent Agent.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN REGULATING THE SPEED OF MARINE ENGINES, AND IN THE
APPARATUS OR MEANS TO BE EMPLOYED THEREFOR.” A communication from
abroad by Charles Joseph Albert Ziegler, of Paris, in the Republic of France,
Engineer.
By the pitching motion of steam boats the screw propeller is caused sometimes
to leave the water, when the engines, having only their own resistance to overcome,
work with a considerable and sudden augmentation of speed, and serious accidents
frequently result therefrom.
Now this Invention has for its object the preventing this sudden increase of
speed whilst maintaining the steam valve open in normal action, this opening
being automatically modified by the pitching motion of the ship.
I am aware that there already exist various systems of marine engine regulators,
but as they are actuated by the engine itself they only come into operation when
the speed of working has been exceeded, which is too late for the purposes of this
Invention.
The peculiar hydro-pneumatic regulator which constitutes the chief feature of
this Invention is, on the contrary, quite independent of the motion of the engines,
and therefore is free from this disadvantage, whilst it possesses the advantage of
anticipating the result of the pitching.
The improved regulator consists of a receiver divided by a horizontal partition
into two compartments, the upper one communicating with the one below by a
mouthpiece cast on the partition and entering the lower compartment. In the
upper compartment there is provided a float which nearly fills it, and from the
top of this compartment rises a vertical tube opening to the free air, the length
of such tube depending upon the draught of water of the vessel. A small steam
cylinder, of which the slide valve is connected by a rod with the aforesaid
float, acts by any convenient arrangement on the steain valve. This cylinder is
fixed at the upper part of the apparatus.

page_text: From the side of the upper part of the lower compartment branches a small
pipe, which communicates by a pipe with the upper end of a close columnar
hollow vessel placed vertically at the rear end of the ship in the bottom of the
tunnel.
This columnar vessel which constitutes the second part of the regulator
communicates by a pipe at its lower part with the sea. The action of the
hydro-pneumatic regulator is as follows:-
After filling the lower one of the two compartments before referred to with
water the pipe is opened, which puts the columnar vessel in direct communication
with the sea.
In this condition the level of the water in the column is in
proportion to the draught of the ship. At the same time the air contained in
the upper end of the said column is compressed in the same proportion, and by
the medium of a pipe acts on the liquid contained in the lower compartment of the
apparatus. The said liquid is consequently driven back and traverses the
mouthpiece, and without stopping to fill the upper compartment, which is nearly
filled by the float, rises to the open air in the tube on the top of such com-
partment.
If now, through the effect of oscillation, the exterior level be lowered
sufficiently to annul the pressure in the columnar vessel, the water which was
in suspension in the upper compartment of the apparatus falls again into the
lower compartment, the Hoat descends, drawing with it the slide valve of the
small cylinder which lets in the steam under the piston and closes the valve and
keeps it closed whilst the screw remains uncovered.
So soon as the ship has resumed its normal position the water rises again
into the upper compartment, taking with it the float, and consequently the
slide valve admits the steam under the opposite face of the piston and forces
it to open the steam valve.
Should it be desired to regulate the moment of action of the apparatus, either
to quicken or retard it, this may be accomplished by placing a small cock upon
the columnar vessel in order to withdraw a greater or less quantity of air. This
same vessel is also furnished at its lower part with a flushing aperture when
required.