IMPROVE- MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGULATING THE SUPPLY OF STEAM TO STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick William Durham, of Clevedon Villa, Station
Road, New Barnet, in the County of Herts, for an Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGULATING THE SUPPLY OF STEAM TO STEAM
ENGINES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick William Durham
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th May 1880.
FREDERICK WILLIAM DURHAM, of Clevedon Villa, Station Road, New Barnet,
in the County of Herts. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGULATING THE
SUPPLY OF STEAM TO STEAM ENGINES."
My Invention relates to the construction of apparatus for regulating the supply
of steam to steam engines. According to my Invention a wheel with vanes is
mounted within a casing containing liquid. The casing is caused to revolve by
the engine, and the spindle of the vane wheel, which extends through a stuffing
box in the side of the casing, is provided with an arm or seginent connected to an
adjustable spring. This spindle also has on it a toothed segment which gears
with a rack on the slide rod of a subsidiary cylinder, the piston of which is
connected to the regulating valve of the main engine. The slide jacket of the
subsidiary cylinder being supplied with steam or with water under pressure, which
may be water from the boiler, the action of the apparatus is as follows:-The
revolving casing tending to carry round with it the liquid which it contains causes
a pressure to be exerted on the vanes of the wheel within it, tending to turn that
wheel and its spindle round in opposition to the spring. When, owing to excess
of velocity of the engine, the pressure on the vanes overcomes the resistance of the
spring the vane wheel turns partly round, and the toothed segment on its spindle
moves the slide of the subsidiary cylinder so as to admit pressure to act on its
piston, thereby causing the regulating valve to be more or less closed. When on
the other hand the engine speed is so far reduced that the spring can overcome the
pressure on the vanes, the slide of the subsidiary cylinder is moved in the opposite
direction, admitting pressure to act on its piston so as to cause the regulating valve
to be more or less opened. Thus with a proper adjustment of spring the speed of
the engine is maintained practically uniform notwithstanding considerable variations
of resistance to its motion.

page_text: spindle E and segment F is caused to turn partly round until the force becomes
again counterbalanced by the spring. This movement of the segment F is imparted
through the rack G to the slide rod, and the slide of the cylinder H is thus shifted
so that pressure acts on the piston, causing it to move and thereby to close more
or less the regulating valve of the engine. When on the other hand the engine
speed falls below its normal rate, the pressure on the paddle D is so far diminished
that the spring M is able to move it backwards, thus shifting the slide of the
cylinder H in the opposite direction and causing the reverse movement of its
piston so as to open the regulating valve.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I hereby declare that I make no general claim to the
regulation of steam engines by the action of a paddle governor on the slide of an
auxiliary cylinder, the piston of which is connected to the regulating valve of the
engine, but I claim the herein described arrangement of apparatus for that purpose.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick William Durham, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty.
FREDERICK WILLIAM DURHAM. (L.S.)