IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRO-MAGNETIC MOTIVE POWER-ENGINES
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Fuller Guy, of Bury St. Edmonds, in the
County of Suffolk, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ELECTRO-MAGNETIC MOTIVE POWER-ENGINES."
Sealed the 29th August 1862, and dated the 4th March 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Fuller Guy at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th March 1862.
I GEORGE FULLER GUY, of Bury St. Edmonds, in the County of Suffolk,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN ELECTRO-MAGNETIC MOTIVE-POWER ENGINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a peculiar construction, arrangement, and combina-
tion of apparatus for obtaining motive-power by the aid of electro-magnetism,
and consists in the employment of one or more series of electro-magnets,
arranged in circles, and made to act successively upon a ring of soft iron,"
which is made to roll over them. This ring is connected to the main shaft of
the machine by any convenient and simple arrangement of universal joint
which will permit of it gyrating in all directions round the shaft, whilst it is at
the same time coupled thereto, so as to be incapable of rotating without
carrying the shaft round with it. As the circumference of this ring is larger
than the path of the magnets over which it rolls or gyrates, in proportion to
the greater or less angle at which it works, it follows that at each gyration, it
will make a slight advance in a rotatory direction, such advance being imparted
to the main shaft of the machine. Any convenient commutator may be
:

page_text: employed for directing the currents into the several magnets in the proper
order and succession as required, a continuous rotatory motion being thus
obtained.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Fuller Guy in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 4th September 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
FULLER GUY, of Bury St. Edmunds, in the County of Suffolk, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of March, 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 George Fuller Guy, Her special license that I, the
said George Fuller Guy, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said George Fuller Guy, my executors, adminis-
trators, or 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 ELECTRO-MAGNETIC MOTIVE-
POWER ENGINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George
Fuller Guy, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, or under the hand and seal of one of them, 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 George Fuller Guy, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and
to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My said Invention relates to a peculiar construction, arrangement, and
combination of apparatus for obtaining motive-power by the aid of electro-
magnetism, and consists in the employment of one or more scries of electro-

page_text: magnets arranged in circles and made to act successively upon a ring of soft
iron which is made to roll over their faces or poles. This ring is connected to
the main shaft of the machine by any convenient and simple arrangement of
universal joint, which will permit of its gyrating in all directions round the
shaft, whilst it is at the same timo coupled thereto, so as to be incapable of
rotating without carrying the shaft round with it. The poles, faces, or ends
of the soft iron cores of the magnets are to be formed so that their, said faces
or poles will cover the wire lapping or coil, with a shoulder, and all but touch
each other, leaving a very small space between each magnet to be filled with
brass or other non-magnetic metal or substance, so as to make a smooth and
unbroken surface, which is to be turned to the form of a truncated cone. The
surface of the soft iron ring, which rolls upon the magnets is to be turned to a
hollow cone of a greater angle and set upon the shaft, so that the apex of its
coned face should coincide with the apex of the coned face of the circle of
magnets if produced at their centre. Therefore as the circumference of any
part of this ring is larger than the path on the poles. or faces of the magnets
over which it rolls in proportion to the greater or less angular difference of the
two cones, it follows that at each roll it will make a proportionate advance in
the direction of its rotation, such advance being imparted to the main shaft of
the machine, whereby I am enabled to turn the high velocity of magnetic
force on the disc into power on the shaft, and thus gain an unlimited command
of economy. In using two rings of magnets it is necessary that the cones on.
both sides be exactly alike, and also those of the faces of the disc or soft iron
ring, and that all their apexes should coincide at one centre in the middle of the
driving shaft. It is advisable that the centres of the faces of the magnets
of one circle shall be opposite to the division between the magnets of the.
other circle, and vice versa. Any convenient commutator may be employed-
for directing the currents into the several magnets in the proper order and
succession as required, a continuous rotatory motion being thus obtained.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall
refer to the several Figures on the Sheets of Drawings hereunto annexed, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in all the Figures.
Figure 1 (Sheet 1) of my Drawings represents a side elevation of one form
of my improved electro-magnetic machine provided with two circles or series
of electro-magnets; Figure 2 is a corresponding end elevation of the same;
Figure 3 is an end section of one of the circles of electro-magnets below the
shoulder, the dotted lines representing the faces or poles on which the soft iron
ring rolls; Figure 4 is a corresponding vertical section of the same, shewing

page_text: the coned face of the magnets; Figure 5 is a vertical section (detached) of tho
armature or soft iron ring or disc which rolls or gyrates over the surfaces of
the several magnets, the dotted lines showing the crossing of the lines of the
faces or meeting of the apices of the cones in the centre; Figure 6 is a side
elevation of the same; Figure 7 is a detail of the universal joint employed for
connecting the ring with the main shaft; Figure 8 (Sheet 2) is a sectional
view shewing the relative positions of the two sets or circles of electro-magnets
and the gyrating or rolling armature or ring, the dotted lines showing the
arrangement of the apices, as before; and Figures 9, 10, and 11, are respec-
tively a side elevation and transverse vertical section and plan of one form of
commutator which I propose to use in this machine.
In these several Figures A, A¹, represent respectively two sets or series of
electro-magnets arranged in two circles, the soft iron cores being secured by
keys or otherwise to the plates B, B', which are fixed in any convenient
manner to a base plate C. Through the centre of these circles of electro-
magnets passes the main shaft D, which works in bearings E, E¹, in the end
plates B, B', respectively, and may be provided with a rigger, cog wheel, or
driving pullies, for the purpose of transmitting motion to any other piece of
mechanism required to be driven. Midway between the two circles of electro-
magnets there is fitted on to the main shaft D an annular armature of soft
iron F, which is connected to the shaft in such a manner that it will be free
to gyrate thereon, but not free to rotate without carrying the shaft round with
it. This connection is a universal joint of any simple construction, the one
illustrated by the sectional detail in my Drawings being as simple a form as
any other; it consists of two trunnions or pins a, a, fixed inside the ring on
diametrically opposite sides of the opening, and of two other trunnions or
pins b, b, fitted to or formed on the main shaft; .c, c, are two metal plates
having grooves, or channels, or bearings formed in them at right angles to cach
other, and of a depth sufficient to receive or enclose the pins a and b when the
two plates are screwed together. The result is that the ring F is free to turn
upon the axes a, a, and b, b, which axes being at right angles to each other
will admit of the ring performing gyrations round the shaft whilst it is at the
same time secured to the shaft by the pins 6, 6, in such a manner as to prevent
it turning on its main central axes without carrying the shaft round with it.
The two sides or faces of this ring are coned at d, e, and d¹, e¹, and the sur-
faces or poles of the several electro-magnets are also coned, as herein-before
described, as shewn at f, g, and f, g, for the purpose of allowing the two
sides or faces of the ring to roll in close contact with both sides of magnets
simultaneously, the ring rolling over the several magnets in succession in each

page_text: circle, and being consequently always in contact with one or other of the
electro-magnets in each series. Any convenient form of commutator may be
employed for directing the current of the battery through the electro-magnets
in their proper order and succession, the object being to magnetize half the
circle of electro-magnets in advance of the path of the gyrating ring or arma-
ture, and to demagnetize them as fast as the ring passes over them, so as to
produce a constant pull upon the opposite faces of the ring, and thereby cause
it to roll over the magnets by describing a number of gyrations. As the
conical paths over which the ring rolls are of smaller circumference than that
of the ring itself, it follows that at each gyration the ring will advance or turn
on its own axis a distance corresponding to the difference between the two
circumferences, and consequently the greater this difference the greater will
be the speed of the main shaft in proportion to that of the disc. It is thus
obvious that by varying the angle of gyration so as to vary the relative propor-
tions of the circumferences of the circles of magnets and of the ring F the
difference of the velocities of the disc and shaft will be proportionately varied.
In the machine which I have illustrated the angle of the ring F is such as to.
require twelve gyrations or rotations of the conical disc on the faces of the
magnets to perform one complete revolution of the main shaft, but of course
this may be varied to any desired extent, bearing in mind at the same time
that the greater the angle the less will be the power, and "vice versa."
a
The commutator which I have found to answer well for this machine is
illustrated by Figures 9, 10, and 11, on Sheet 2 of my Drawings, but I do
not confine myself to this peculiar arrangement. This commutator consists of
rigger or wheel I fixed on the spindle K, which is rotated by means of small
cranks L set at right angles to each other, and connected to rods M, which
are also connected to the larger vibrating arms N fast on the short spindles
O, O; these spindles are carried by a fixed portion of the framing, and are
provided on their inner ends with a curved arm P carrying each a roller or
slide block at the extremity, which roller works in a circumferential groove Q
made in the rim or periphery of the annular armature F. The gyrations of
the armature are thus made to impart a vibrating motion to the arms N,
which transmit a rotatory motion to the smaller cranks L on the spindle K of
the commutator. An ebonite ring his fitted on to the wheel or rigger I, and
over this ring are fitted 2 semicircles of brass 1, 2, a break being left at i, i,
between the ends of the semicircles. R, R, are a series of rollers equal in
number to the electro-magnets in both circles. These rollers revolve in metal
bushes h, k, contained in ebonite blocks 1, 1, which blocks slide in radial slots
made in the two fixed supporting or carrying plates or checks S, S. The

page_text: blocks with their rollers are forced inwards, so as to keep the rollers in contact
with the semicircles 1, 2, by means of india-rubber or other springs m, m,
interposed between the outside of the blocks and a projecting rim n formed on
the face of each plate S. The connection with the battery is made through
one of two brass rings T, T¹, insulated from but carried by the commutator
spindle, and situate one on each side of the commutator. One of these brass
rings is connected to one of the semicircles by means of a wire or plate, and
the other ring is connected with the other semicircle. On connecting one of
these rings with the battery the engine moves in one direction, on discon-
necting it and connecting the other a reverse motion is obtained. At the
breaks between the ends of the semicircles insulated pieces of metal are inter-
posed or other provision made for preventing the rollers from dropping or
sinking into the break as they pass over it. One end of the coil of each
electro-magnet is connected to the battery, and the other end to the bush of
one of the rollers, the latter being arranged to follow one another alternately.
Although I have shewn a double machine, namely, one having two sets or
circles of electro-magnets, it is obvious that the same may be made with only
one set or circle of magnets, or two or more concentric circles of magnets may
be used in each ring.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel
and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
First, the general construction and arrangement of electro-magnetic engines,
as herein-before described and illustrated by my Drawings.
Second, the system or mode of obtaining motive-power by the aid of a
gyrating armature in constant rolling contact with a circle or circles of electro-
magnets, as herein-before. described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Fuller Guy, have to this my
Specification set my hand and seal, this Second day of September, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
G. FULLER GUY. (L.S.)