IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM AND GAS ENGINES
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM AND GAS ENGINES."-
A communication from abroad by Charles E. Emery, of Brooklyn, in
the State of New York United States of Amorian
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
28th February 1867.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM AND GAS
ENGINES," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to prevent, so far as may be practicable,
radiation and conduction of heat to and from the interior surfaces of an engine
cylinder and the enclosed steam or gas. This is effected by making such

page_text: interior surfaces of a poor conductor of heat, or by so constructing the cylinder
and piston that the main portion of the steam or gas is not exposed to a good
conducting surface. In some instances the whole cylinder is constructed of a
poor conductor of heat, like glass or porcelain; in other cases the interior
surfaces of the ordinary metal cylinder, or those with which the steam or gas
comes in contact while it is doing its work, are lined with poor conducting
material; thus the bore of the cylinder, the inside of the cylinder heads, and
the surfaces of the passages, ports, and piston are protected with poor con-
ducting material. This poor conducting substance may be in the form of
enamel attached to the metal surfaces by heating with a proper flux or plates
of glass, porcelain, wood, sulphate or carbonate of lime, mica, asbestos, metal
of low conducting power like bismuth, or other suitable substances may be
secured by screws, wedges, or equivalent means inside the cylinder, so as in
whole or part to form the interior surfaces; friable substances like chalk may
be held in place by a thin plate of metal. When it is inconvenient to make
all of the interior surfaces of poor conducting material a part may be made of
such with eco..omy. Sometimes use may be made of a liquid or powdered
poor conductor of heat introduced into the cylinder like oil or with it, which
spreads on the surfaces and in a measure prevents loss of heat. When the
whole cylinder is made of poor conducting material of a brittle nature, such as
glass, porcelain, or a composition like fire-brick, the cylinder may be hooped
with metal or surrounded with a metal cylinder to strengthen it. Cement or
an elastic substance like hemp or rubber may be introduced between the
hoops or outer cylinder and inner or poor conducting cylinder, or steam
either from the boiler or interior of the cylinder may be let into the annular
space between the outer and poor conducting cylinders, and thus counteract
by outside pressure the tendency to fracture. The steam pressure may be
imparted to a fluid lying in the annular space, and by dividing such space into
circular chambers the steam pressure may be successively let into each as it
follows the piston inside the cylinder. When the poor conducting material is
not of a proper nature to permit the piston packing rings to rub upon it the
bearing surface of the cylinder is made of metal as usual, and the piston is
lengthened on each side of the rings, so that it never exposes the wearing
surface to the main body of the steam, but displaces the steam into protected
ends of the cylinder beyond the wearing surface. Sometimes on this general
plan the packing rings are placed in the cylinder so as to bear on the outside
of the piston, which thus becomes a plunger. To protect the metal piston rod
or trunk of an engine it is surrounded by a poor conducting pipe secured to
the piston, and running into an annular space in the cylinder head; the pipe

page_text: may be secured to the cylinder head by making the piston with an annular
space about the rod to receive it.
SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, by the said Alfred Vincent
Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 28th September 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special licence that I, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Alfred Vincent 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 "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN STEAM AND GAS ENGINES," being a communication to me
from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 on or before the Twenty-eighth day of
September One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the 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 Drawing hereunto annexed, and to
the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
The object of this Invention is to economise fuel in steam and other motive-
power engines, more particularly to save as far as practicable the heat which
is radiated and conducted away from the metal of the cylinder when the steam
or heated gas is escaping after having done its work. This is accomplished

page_text: by constructing the interior surfaces of the cylinders of steam and gas engines
of a material which conducts heat less freely than that usually employed, and
when the wearing surfaces cannot be conveniently made of such material the
cylinder and piston are so formed that the main portion of the steam or gas is
not exposed to direct radiation from such wearing surface.
To avoid unnecessary repetition I will describe the improvements forming the
several parts of the Invention in their application to the steam engine alone,
simply remarking that they are applicable to all engines operated by hented
gases. It is well known that the temperature of steam is reduced in passing
through the cylinder where the work is done. The steam enters usually at the
boiler pressure and temperature, which is maintained to the point of cut off;
the metal walls of the cylinder and its passages becoming necessarily nearly as
hot as the enclosed steam. As expansion takes place the pressure and tem-
perature of the steam fall, and the metal being hotter radiates beat into the
stean which absorbs it, and thereby produces a greater dynamic effect on the
piston. During the exhaust stroke the steam falls in temperature to that
due to the back pressure, but it still absorbs heat from the metal and carries
it away to waste in the atmosphere or condenser. The metal thus robbed of
its beat becomes hecessarily cooler, and when steam again enters the cylinder
it must reheat the walls which enclose it before the pressure can rise to equal
that in the steam chest. If the steam be simply saturated a portion is neces-
sarily condensed to reheat the surfaces; part of this probably deposits like
dew on the nietal, and the radiation from the steam forms a cloud, from which
in extrémé cases water may fall like rain; a portion of this condensed steam
is revaporized during the expansive portion of the stroke by both radiation and
conduction, but the greatest revaporization doubtless takes place during the
exhaust stroke, when all the heat abstracted is wasted. It is always found
that it requires more steam than the calculated quantity to fill a steam engine
cylinder, because, as we have seen, a portion simply reheats the metal, and is
thereby condensed and collapses to the volume of water, and the cylinder to
the point of cut off must still be filled with steam of the initial pressure.. The
same thing occurs, though in a less degree, when the steam is superheated or
the cylinder jacketed; the escaping steam becomes superheated at the expense
of the heat in the metal. It is evident that no more heat can be radiated or
conducted from the metal of the cylinder than is conducted to the surfaces, so,
by making the interior surfaces of a poor conductor of heat, less heat can be
withdrawn in the time of. one stroke than when the ordinary good conducting
material is employed. This view is upheld by experiment, for it has been
found that under like conditions less steam is used to do the same work when

page_text: the interior surfaces of the cylinder are made of poor conducting materials.
This is especially noticeable when a high grade of expansion is employed.
By the term "poor conductor," as used herein, is meant any substance
which conducts heat less freely than that usually employed for making steam
cylinders, viz., cast iron. I also speak of poor conducting substances as
protecting material," for they, when applied as hereafter shewn, protect the
surfaces from loss of heat.
66
The way in which the protecting material is applied and the several
parts of the Invention are shown in the Drawing, in which Figure 1 repre-
sents a longitudinal section through the centre of a common steam-engine
cylinder and its ports, and shews a poor conducting lining applied to. the
whole interior except the wearing surface; Figure 2 is a transverse section of
the same; Figure 3 is a longitudinal section of the same cylinder altered so
that the steam is displaced from the wearing surfaces into the protected
ends by blocks on the piston; Figure 4 is a transverse section of the same;
Figure 5 is a longitudinal section of a steam cylinder containing a long
plunger piston, more particularly described hereafter; Figure 6 is a transverse
section of the same; Figure 7 is an end view; Figure 8, a longitudinal
section through the ports, and Figure 9, a side view of a steam cylinder of the
ordinary kind with all the interior surfaces lined, and shewing some pecu-
liarities of construction bereafter described; Figure 10 is a cross section,
and Figure 11, a longitudinal section of another cylinder hereafter described;
Figures 12 and 13 are similar views of a poor conducting cylinder hooped
with strengthening material. The same letters in all the Figures refer to
corresponding parts.
A represents the piston; a, the piston rod; B, B, the cylinder heads;
C, C, the cylinder ports; D, the slide valve; E, E, slide valve faces, and
x, x, the protecting material or lining made of a poor conductor of beat.
There are very many materials which conduct heat slowly that can be applied
as a protecting lining to steam-engine cylinders, but all of them do not receive
a polish, and cannot be used for the surface upon which the piston rubs.
Figures 1 and 2 are intended to show what proportion of the radiating sur-
faces to which steam is exposed in an ordinary steam cylinder may be covered by
a material not adapted for a wearing surface. By reference to the Drawings it
will be seen that the lining or protecting material a, a, covers the whole
interior surface of the cylinder ports C, C, from the bore of the cylinder to or
nearly to the valve face; it is placed on the inside of both cylinder beads
B, B, on both sides of the piston A, and lines the clearance space which
extends from the heads to f and g, where the wearing surface of the cylinder

page_text: commences. In a poppet valve engine the interior of the nozzles and the discs
of the valve would also be covered. On this plan a large part of the metal
surfaces is left uncovered, but the exposed wearing surface from f to g forms
a less proportion of the whole surface in cylinders of the same capacity; the
larger the diameter and shorter the stroke.
Figures 3, 4, 5, and 6 represent plans by which direct radiation is prevented
from the metal wearing surfaces into the main body of the steam, when from
the nature of the material or other reasons the protecting material is not
applied to such surfaces. In Figures 3 and 4 the piston is lengthened by the
addition of blocks J and K, and the cylinder by extensions G, G; the blocks
displace the main body of the steam from opposite the wearing surfaces into
the ends G, G, which are lined as shewn; steam is admitted by making the
ports C, C, in the ends G, G, or by cutting off one side of the blocks J and K,
as shown at F, F. A plan for protecting the piston rod is also shown in
Fig. 8, more useful for trunks with large surface than for ordinary piston rods.
A pipe of about the length of the stroke surrounds the rod a, and is secured
at one end to the inside of head B; the block J has a hole in it which works
over the pipe when the piston moves in that direction; the pipe 6 is made
either of poor conducting material or is covered with it at least on the outside,
and therefore cuts off radiation to and from the rod and the main body of the
surrounding steam. The surfaces of the rod and the hole in J may be
protected also if desired; the pipe 6 may also be secured to the piston, and run
into an annular space between the rod and a hole in the cover B. In
Figures 5 and 6 the piston A is in fact a plunger something more than the
length of the stroke turned on the outside, and made to slide in and be kept
tight by packing rings c, c, surrounding the piston and placed in the middle
of the length of the cylinder. The cylinder, except at the packing space, is of
the usual shape, of sufficient length to allow the piston to make its stroke,
and furnished with the usual ports C, C. The piston has a short bearing on
each side of the rings at f and 9, and the remainder of the length is counter-
bored or made larger, and receives the protecting material a, x, as shown,
the heads and ports being protected as before, and the piston rod also, if
desired, on the plan shewn in Fig. 3. This cylinder is made in two parts
bolted together at the centre and forming a transverse joint; one part has a
space in which are the packing rings c, c, and springs d, d, for pressing the rings
against the piston. A follower i holds in the rings and makes a flush joint with
tue cylinder flange to meet that on the other part in manner shown. To prevent
dividing the cylinder the rings may be sprung in before the piston is put in
place, or may be put in in segments, hand holes or other openings being provided

page_text: for this purpose, or to set out the springs or examine the packing, as the case
may be; steam may also be readily admitted behind the rings to keep them
tight, and may have a constant pressure derived from the boiler or a varying
one from the cylinder as is usual. In this cylinder just described the main
body of the steam in the space O, for instance, is neither in contact with nor
exposed to radiation from any good conducting surface; all sides are protected.
Very small quantities of steam will leak in beside the piston A and receive
heat by conduction, but such will quickly become superheated to the tempera-
ture of the metal, and stop doing mischief. It is evident that cylinders, their
whole thickness being of poor conducting material, may be made on this plan
if desired.
In Figures 7, 8, and 9 the cylinder and piston are represented of the usual
form, but all the interior surfaces of the cylinder are lined, and the piston
packing rubs on the poor conducting covering; by the interior surfaces of the
cylinder is meant all surfaces with which the steam comes in contact while in
the cylinder; the expression, therefore, is intended to include not only the
interior surfaces of the cylinder proper, but also those of the cylinder passages,
cylinder heads, and the exposed surfaces of the piston, which in one sense form
sides of the cylinder; these Figures, excluding the lining x, x, may also
represent a cylinder made entirely of poor conducting material as hereafter
mentioned. It is desirable in all cases to exclude the condensed water from
the cylinder at every exhaust; this is sometimes done in horizontal engines
by making the exhaust port in the bottom of the cylinder, or when the
cylinder ports answer for both steam and exhaust, they are often put in the
side with the bottom of the port level with the bottom of the cylinder. In
Figures 7 and 9 the ports C, C, incline from the bottom of the cylinder to
the valve face E; by this means the water will be carried out of the cylinder
by gravity and the force of the exhausting steam. When the ports C, C,
make the usual double turn, shown in Fig. 8, it is difficult to line them; to
obviate this the valve face and part of the ports are made in a separate
plate M, which meets the cylinder casting with a steam-tight joint on the
line m; the plate is bolted fast to the cylinder through suitable flanges, and the
steam chest bolts to the plate in the usual manner. It is proposed to make
the cylinder, and if desired the cylinder heads, piston, and piston rod of a
homogeneous material of low conducting power; glass cylinders of moderate
size may be made in this way; large cylinders, however, of glass, porcelain, or
other brittle substance will need strengthening.
Figures 10, 11, 12, and 13 represent plans for doing this, X being the
cylinder of low conducting power. In Figures 10 and 11 X is surrounded by a

page_text: strong cylinder N of larger diameter, an annular space n being left between
the two; the heads should be of poor conducting material or lined with it;
the ports may be inade in the heads as shown, if desired. It is proposed to
fill the annular space n either with cement or an elastic substance, like india-
rubber or hemp, compressed sufficiently to prevent. the inner cylinder from
bursting; the space n may also be filled with steam and serve in some
measure as a steam jacket, and at the same time resist fracture by a pressure
opposite to that in the cylinder; again, the space n may be formed into one
or more chambers and filled with a fluid oil, for instance, and this may receive
steam pressure from any desired source. By having a series of chambers,
as shown at Fig. 11, with small pipes p, p, running into them froin the
cylinder, the varying pressures inside the non-conducting cylinder will. be trans-
mitted to the outside, and there will be little danger of fracture from simple
pressure. In Figures 12 and 13 the poor conducting cylinder X is hooped
with strengthening material; the hoops N, N, may be placed directly on the
cylinder, as at Fig. 12, or have elastic material n interposed, as shewn at
Fig. 18.
The following is a list of the principal materials which are proposed to be used
for the interior surfaces of, steam or gas engine cylinders, videlicet:-Glass,
porcelain, and all kinds of potteryware, and the glazing usually applied thereto,
enamel, fire clay or brick, alum, mica, asbestos, carbonate and sulphate of
lime, charcoal and plumbago, bismuth, antimony, lead, German silver, and
a compound metal hereafter mentioned; also in some cases wood and vulcanized
india-rubber. All of these substances conduct beat less freely than cast iron,
and for that reason they and other materials, the equivalents thereof in that
respect, may be economically used for the purposes specified; of these the first
mentioned are the worst conductors of heat and the most valuable for the
purposes of this Invention. I consider one material the "equivalent" of
another when it conducts heat less freely than cast iron.
Glass possesses many qualities which render it specially applicable; it has
very low conducting power; the best kinds are little acted on by steam, and
its hardness renders it fit for a wearing surface. It is liable to crack when
the temperature is changed, suddenly, but when well annealed small cylinders
may be made of it and used without strengthening. It may be employed with
advantages for an interior cylinder on one of the plans shown in Figures 10
to 13; it may also be made in staves or plates, and fitted as a lining to
cylinders. Porcelain, stoneware, or potteryware, fire clay or brick, and plumbago
or crucible material may be used substantially in the same manner as glas:.
The glazing put upon most of these substances may be applied to all, and will
.

page_text: answer for the wearing surface. Metal cylinders have with great advantage had
their interior surfaces coated with enamel, and it is also proposed to make entire
steam cylinders of the enamel composition. Enamel has many properties
common to both glass and porcelain, and is used to line cooking vessels,
stationary wash basins, &c. The ingredients of many kinds of enamel may
be found in receipt books, though the business is usually conducted secretly ;
one kind is composed of about sixteen parts by weight of red lead mixed with
sixteen parts of powdered flint glass and about three parts of calcined borax;
porcelain clay is sometimes an ingredient; the materials are thoroughly
incorporated by melting; the compound thus formed is poured into water and
afterwards ground to powder. The enamel is applied substantially as follows:-
The metal is first cleaned and the ground enamel made into a paste with spirits
of turpentine or other liquid, and applied to the surfaces; it is then dried, and
the whole casting is heated sufficiently to melt the glazing. The cylinder
represented in Figures 7 to 9 may easily be operated on in this manner, 'for
by removing the plate M all parts, of the ports become accessible. The
castings are sometimes changed in shape by the severe heat required to melt
the enamel, but if the plan of construction shown in Figures 3 to 6 is used
this will make little difference. When the piston rubs on the enamel, as in
Figures 7 to 9, the cylinder should be bored before the process, and the rubbing
surfaces afterwards ground so as to be strictly accurate. A cylinder may be
cut directly out of marble or other stone; the scale, which by its poor con-
ducting property so injures the evaporative efficiency of steam boilers, may be
applied with advantage to the cylinders by simply heating water in them
which holds in solution sulphate of lime and other salts. Plaster of Paris
may be cast in plates for linings or directly on the interior surfaces of the
cylinder. Either marble, chalk, alum, mica, asbestos, or charcoal in a
powdered state may be mixed with plaster and operated with in the same
manner, or be pressed in a mould into the proper shape, or one or more of
the same may be made, into a cement with linseed oil or equivalent substance,
and put in shape for linings. The simple metals above mentioned may be
used as far as practicable for both cylinders and linings. German silver may
be employed in a similar manner, and may be sufficiently hardened with
antimony to answer for a wearing surface; it is further proposed to use an
alloy or compound metal for both cylinders and linings composed of seven
parts of lead and one of antimony, the hardness being varied by slightly
changing the proportion of antimony. A portion of the antimony may be
replaced by bis.nuth, which will decrease the conducting power and not alter
the mechanical properties of the compound materially. Though all metals

page_text: are good conductors compared with glass or other silicate, it may be necessary
in some cases to use a metallic substance for the wearing surface, and protect
the other interior surfaces with different materials.
Wood may be employed for either cylinders or linings, but should be well
soaked in oil or similar substance to close its pores. Sheets of india-rubber
may be employed as linings where little oil is used in the cylinder. It has been
found that felt cloth inside a steam cylinder absorbs water which must be
heated and cooled at every stroke, it therefore follows that cloth, fur, and
porous materials can only be used with advantage where the steam is
sufficiently superheated to prevent a deposition of water. All porous and
fibrous materials are quickly torn to pieces by the steam, and though they will
answer for a while cannot be considered reliable. When the linings are made
in sheets or plates they may be secured by screws passing through them or by
wedges in an evident manner, and metal plates may be hammered so as to
hold themselves in place like the staves in an air pump of a sea-going steamer.
The materials best suited for the purposes above expressed are those of a
vitreous nature; enamel on the surface of cast iron answers very well, and
though it is liable to chip off in places if made thick, it lasts a long time if
well put on. Care must always be taken to prevent the steam from getting
under the protecting lining, as enamel even is readily blown off when the
edge is exposed to the immediate force of the steam, as on the cylinder heads
opposite the steam ports. In such places the surface to be enamelled is cut
below the general surface, so that the edges of the enamel are protected by the
metal; it is found that hemp piston packing is the best to use on the enamelled
surface. The transmission of heat is retarded by a break in the conductor;
it is proposed therefore to line some of the surfaces of a steam cylinder with
a sheet of metal so thin that it will hold little heat of its own, and the break
in the continuity of the conductor will retard the passage of beat to and from
the surrounding metal, and thus prevent great losses; such a lining could be
set out from the cylinder a little by studs, and thus prevent conduction entirely,
and the thin metal would act as a screen to intercept radiant heat. It is not,
however, intended to use the space between the thin lining and cylinder as a
steam jacket, for that would defeat the object in view, as the thin metal would
thereby be kept hot not only during the steam, but also during the exhaust
strokes, when the heat conducted through it would be carried to waste. The
space behind the metal screen may be filled with poor conducting material
which the sheet metal may hold in place, or the steam in the cylinder may be
allowed to circulate on both sides of the screen, when of course that next the
metal would be superheated, and cause injury to that extent, but the main

page_text: it
body of the steam would be protected. It is anticipated that in some instances
may be impracticable to make the whole interior surfaces of the cylinder of
a poor conductor of heat, nor is this necessary in order to attain economy.
The losses occasioned by unprotected surfaces will simply be in some measure
proportioned to the extent of such surfaces, and the total gain be less than when
the whole interior is protected. It is not proposed to make all parts of the
interior surfaces in the same way or of the same material; for instance, the
cylinder proper may be made entirely of a poor conductor and the heads be
lined with such, or vice versa. I propose to use a cylinder with poor conducting
interior surfaces in all engines operated by gases or liquids which change in
temperature while passing through the cylinder.
The principal feature on which the Invention is based is the practical
discovery that it is economical to construct steam-engine cylinders of a poor
conductor of heat. Watt in his early experiments tried a wood cylinder so
that it might not be cooled by the condensing water which was then admitted
into the cylinder, but he still had the water which remained to beat and cool
at every stroke, and abandoned the experiment. By condensing the steam in
a separate vessel he made the great improvement in the steam engine which
immortalized his name, still we can now see that he stopped half way. Again,
glass steam cylinders are in daily use for toy engines, glass being employed
merely because it is transparent; its real value for steam-engine cylinders is
unknown, and therefore of no use to the world. I disclaim the use of glass
cylinders when used simply because transparent for instruction and amuse-
ment rather than the attainment of a new effect in the economical performance
of the useful work for which steam engines are generally employed, and rely
upon the new and useful discovery that there is economy in constructing the
interior surfaces of a steam cylinder of a material which conducts heat less
freely than that commonly employed, and upon the means devised to make
such discovery of practical benefit.
Having now fully disclosed the nature of the Invention of improvements in
steam and gas engines as communicated to me from abroad, and explained the
manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under
the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim,-
First, the application and adaptation of glass, porcelain, enamel, and equiva-
lent non-conducting materials for the purposes set forth to the cylinders,
pistons, and valves of steam and heated gas engines, substantially as described,
to lessen the losses and accomplish the purposes specified.
Secondly, the combination of the cylinder X with the cylinder N or its
equivalent, the elongated piston A constructed on either plan in combination

page_text: with the poor conducting interior surfaces x, x, of the cylinder, and the com-
bination of the pipe 6 with the piston rod or trunk, all substantially as
described, to secure the results specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-eighth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.B.)