Improvements in Pneumatic Drills and the like.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Dec., 1899-Accepted, 15th Dec., 1900
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Pneumatic Drills and the like.
I, HENRY JAMES KIMMAN, of 1235, Lawndale Avenue, Chicago, Cook County,
Illinois, United States of America (at present residing at the Craven Hotel, Craven
Street, Strand, in the County of London, England), Machinist, 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:-
My invention relates to that class of mechanism in which there are combined
in a fluid pressure engine rotary cylinders, such cylinders being governed by reci-
procating valves. In other rotary engines proper, governing valves have not
been provided and again in other fluid pressure engines in which the cylinders
rotate, such cylinders have been governed by vertical valves upon which said
cylinders oscillate.
My invention is intended for use in connection with drills and for the working
of any revolving tool. With my invention I employ an outside casing said casing
containing a plurality of rotating cylinders, preferably three as shown in the
accompanying drawings, but such cylinders are governed by a piston slide valve
similar to that described in the prior Specifications of Letters Patent granted to
myself and Edward Nash Hurley No. 19011 of A.D. 1898. In other inventions
designed for effecting the same and similar purposes the casing has been used as a
live air chamber, whereas in my invention it is used as an exhaust receiver.
Again, in prior inventions the air has been directly admitted into the above
referred to live air chamber, whereas with my present invention it is carried
through a separate channel from the supply pipe through the stationary or fixed
crank shaft into the passage leading to the waist portion of the valve and accord-
ing to the position of said valve admitted to or exhausted from the cylinders. It
will also be seen that in my invention the objection which has been met with in
other similar appliances of the exhaust blowing through the gear mechanism is
overcome, my invention being so arranged that the exhaust is admitted into the
main casing which itself is hermetically sealed from the lower portion of the
machine which contains the reducing gear, the exhaust passing out through a
separate nipe as shown in the drawings.
The leading feature aimed at in the design of this engine is that it should be a
high speed engine with as little consumption of air as possible and this result is
arrived at by employing a stationary eccentric which is set at the required point
in the throw of the crank shaft to obtain the necessary cut-off, the cylinders
rotating about this eccentric. As is well known in engines of this type the travel
of the eccentric is quickest when the motion of the piston is slowest and this is
the case with my invention whereby I obtain a very quick port opening and an
equally quick release thereby enabling the rotating cylinders to move at an exceed-
ingly rapid rate the air not having to travel through tortuous passages either in
or out. With other engines of this character the opposite is the case, especially
with engines of the oscillating type as there the valve motion is slowest when the
piston is on the centre or at the end of its stroke.

page_text: I will now describe my invention with reference to the accompanying drawings,
in which,
(+
Figure 1 is a vertical section of my invention on line A-A Figure 2.
Figure 2 is a sectional plan on line B-B Figure 1.
Figure 3 is a sectional plan on line C-C Figure 1.
Figure 4 is a sectional plan on line D-D Figure 1.
Figure 5 is a plan of a portion of the machine with the intermediate casing
removed showing the reducing gear. This is a section on line E-E also Figure 1.
Figures 6, 7 and 8 are cross-sections through the valve, on lines F G H Figure 1.
The same numbers refer to the same parts in the several figures of the drawings.
1, is the supply pipe of any ordinary type by which the machine is supplied
with air and which also serves as a handle, 2 is the handle, 3 the passage leading
from the supply pipe to the throttle valve. 4 is the throttle valve, the retain-
ing spring, 6 the supply passage leading to the hollow crank shaft 7, 8 is the main
chamber in which the cylinders rotate. As part of the main chamber or casing 8
and depending therefrom, is an eccentric 26, into which said eccentric is perman-
ently fixed the crank shaft 7 and it is by means of this eccentric that the cylin-
ders rotate thereby enabling the valves to derive their lateral motion. 9 are the
passages by which the compressed air is supplied through the hollow crank shaft T
into the valve cylinder 10, 11 is the port leading from said passage to said
cylinder 10, 12 is the, controlling valve.. In, my invention there is provided above
each of the rotating cylinders a passage marked 9.and above said passages, three
valve cylinders in which three valves such as 12 reciprocate and control the admis-
sion of air to the cylinders. 121 is the neck or waist between the enlarged ends 12
and 12 of the reciprocating valves, 123 is the connecting rod between said valve
and the eccentric 26 surrounding said eccentric. The neck 121 serves as a receiver
for the admission of air through the port 11 to enable said air to get through
passage 13 into the cylinder 14 when the valve is moved by the fixed eccentric in
the centre. 15 are the pistons in the main rotary cylinders; as will be seen on
reference to Figure 2 there are three of such cylinders and three reciprocating
pistons. 16 is the open end of the valve cylinder by which the exhaust air travels
into the main chamber 8 and out through the exhaust passage 17.
One of the
main advantages derived from utilizing the main chamber 8 as the exhaust
chamber is that the air has a large area to be received in and it is immediately
released through passage 17 without having to pass through any tortuous pas-
sages, thereby obviating, all possibility of freezing during winter.
crank pin.
18 is the
If found desirable a double crank shaft may be used the same as illustrated
and described in my Specification No. 22902 of 1899 and similar connections in
connection therewith would be used...
To the said crank shaft 18 the connecting rods of the pistons are connected as
shown. 19 is the pin or fulcrum fixed to the said cylinder 14 and upon, which
pin and pinion 20 is keyed; working in connection with said pinion are two idlers
or transmission wheels 21, 22; said transmisson wheels work in corresponding
teeth of the internal gear 23 said internal gear being keyed or otherwise fastened
to the spindle 24 into which spindle is inserted the tool to be rotated. As usual
halls are provided as a ball bearing 25 to take up the end thrust due to the cut-
ting tool. The ordinary feed mechanism would be fixed at the top as shown in
the prior Specification No. 19011 of 1898 herein before referred to.
The working of my invention is as follows:-
With the handle 2 in position shown the machine is inoperative the throttle
valve being closed against the admission of air. On the depression of the handle 2
air is admitted from 1 through 3 into the passage 6 through the port opening into
the valve through the hollow crank shaft 7 along passage 9 (this passage acts as
a receiver common to the three cylinders) through port opening 11 into the valve
cylinder 10 and into the neck 121 of said valve. Although the valve in Figure 1
shows the connections as closed between 11 and 13 yet if reference is made to

page_text: Figure 4 it will be seen that the cylinder shown by a separate number 27 for
clearness that the air is coming from passage 9 through the port 11 passing down
into 13 and into the rear of piston 15 Fig. 2 forcing the same in the direction
of the arrow 29, causing the cylinders to rotate in the direction of the arrow 28
(see Fig. 2) or to the left. This action of rotating around the fixed eccentric
would cause the valve 12+ (Fig. 4) to be moved away from the fulcrum or outwards
towards the case which would admit air behind the piston 15b Fig. 2; air would
be at the same time exhausting from the rear 30 of the cylinder 14 Fig. 2 such
exhaust air passing from the space 30 through the same port 13 behind valve 12
out through the open end 16 and away through the passage 17 shown in
Figure 1. On reference to Figure 4 it will be seen that the valve 12 uncovers
port 13 allowing the exhaust air to come through the open end of the valve
cylinder into the case 8 and out through the opening 17. As the machine rotates
the same cycle of operations continues.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I wish it to be dis-
tinctly understood that I do not claim rotating cylinders per se, nor do I claim
speed reducing mechanism in connection with engines of this class. I do not claim
broadly a plurality of cylinders, neither do I claim the passage for the admission
of air through the hollow crank shaft. All of these are old and have been done
before in engines of this type. What I do claim is:-
In fluid pressure engines, a plurality of cylinders having immediately above and
operating in connection therewith a similar number of controlling valves deriving
their motions from a fixed eccentric around which the cylinders rotate, substan-
tially as described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
ated this loth day of December 1999.
JOHN P. O'DONNELL, Fel.Chart.Inst.P.A.,
Agent for Applicant, 70/1, Palace Chambers, Westminster, S.W.