Improved Starting Apparatus applicable to Motive Power Engines.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 25th Oct., 1892-Accepted, 17th Dec., 1892
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Starting Apparatus applicable to Motive Power Engines.
I, THOMAS LEWIS of Kettering in the County of Northampton, Engineer do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement :-
The object of this invention is to provide a simple and efficient apparatus which
will grip and rotate by hand power the crank shaft of engines and automatically
release the same when the engine power is developed, without injuring the
crank shaft.
Means have already been proposed for securing these objects, but moderate
success only has been attained by their use.
. I now propose in place of making the actuating lever or handle, the gripper,
to employ separate silent gripping surfaces, which acting on a larger periphery than
that of the shaft to be started will entirely remove the liability to injure the said
shaft or slip and answer instantly to the movement of the starting lever or handle
while at the same time the liability of accident to the attendant is avoided.
In the accompanying drawings
Fig. 1 is a side view of one form of my improved starting apparatus a side plate
or cover being removed to show the construction of the clutch.
Fig. 2 is an edge view of the starting apparatus fitted to the crank shaft of an
engine and
Fig. 3 is a section taken in the line I, of Fig. 1.
In these figures A is the engine shaft to be started. A keyway is made in this
shaft to allow of a sleeve B (formed with an internal feather) being temporarily
fitted to the end thereof. This sleeve B carries on its periphery three sockets
which are designed severally to receive the rounded head of a silent gripper C
which grippers rock in their seats and are caused always to retain a position
tangential to the crank shaft.
Surrounding this sleeve is a cylindrical casing D which fits loosely on the
sleeve B and is of a depth sufficient to receive within it the grippers C and their
sockets.
This casing is cast with a socket arm D' which is intended to receive the hand
lever E for operating the gripper.
The inner periphery of this casing is turned true and forms a surface for
the grippers C to bear upon when the hand lever is raised from the drawn position
of Fig. 1.
A cover D' Figs. 2 and 3 serves to enclose the grippers in the casing D.
The grippers I prefer to make of steel and to roughen their gripping surface as
indicated at Fig. 1.
In order to start an engine to which my improved apparatus is applied it is only
necessary to rock the hand lever E a few times from the drawn to the dotted
position of Fig. 1 when the motor force admitted to the engine will speedily cause
the crank shaft to overrun the driving motion of the casing and thereby release the
grippers and trail them over the inner periphery of the casing. The starting
apparatus may then be readily withdrawn from the shaft.
A modification of this apparatus is shewn in Figs. 4, 5 and 6, Fig. 4 being a side
view of the starting apparatus Fig. 5 a section taken on the line 3, 4 of Fig. 4 and
Fig. 6 an end view of the sleeve and grippers fitted thereto.
The same letters of reference are used to indicate the like parts as in the first
described arrangement.

page_text: T
In this example, the sleeve B is made with a closed end, and carries at its end the
sockets for the grippers C.
By this means, the diameter of the casing D is materially reduced, and the casing
being made to fit the outer periphery of the sleeve, no end plate or cover is
required to close the open end of the casing. For the purpose of securing the
parts B and C together a central bolt and nut F are employed, as shewn at Fig. 5.
The action of this apparatus is precisely the same as that above described and no
further explanation will therefore be required..
my said inven-
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is-
The improved construction of starting apparatus described with reference to the
accompanying drawings, consisting of a sleeve, or its equivalent locking into the shaft
to be driven, and carrying a silent gripper or grippers loosely socketted thereon and
: enclosed in a loose casing fitted concentrically on the sleeve, to take the bite of the
gripper or grippers, such casing carrying a hand lever or handle or its equivalent
for imparting an axial motion to the casing, and, through the grippers and sleeve
rotating the shaft but leaving that shaft uninjured and free to continue its rotation
under the impulse of its elastic motor.
Dated this 25th day of October 1892.
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.