A NEW METHOD OR METHODS OF OBTAINING POWER FOR LOCOMOTIVE AND OTHER PURPOSES, AND OF APPLYING THE SAME
Year: 1840

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDMUND
RUDGE, junior, of Tewkosbury, in the County of Gloucester, Tanner, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Eighth day of February, in the third year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Edmund
Rudge, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said Edmund Rudge, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Edmund Rudge, my exors, adññors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, in England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "A NEW METHOD OR METHODS OF OBTAINING POWER FOR LOCOMOTIVE
AND OTHER PURPOSES, AND OF APPLYING THE SAME;" in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso that I, the said Edmund Rudge, should cause a parti-
cular description of the nature of the Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in pursuance of the said proviso, I, the said
Edmund Rudge, junior, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention
consists in obtaining power for locomotive and other purposes, and of applying
the same by means of an engine or engines, of which the pressure of the
atmosphere is the principal mover. And I declare that the manner in which
the said Invention is performed is fully represented and set forth in the
Drawings or Figures hereunto annexed, numbered I. to VIII. inclusive,
and in the following description and explanation thereof (that is to say):-
The said engine may have either three working cylinders open at top to the
atmosphere, as represented in Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, or it may have two
such working cylinders, as shewn in Figures 6 and 7. I prefer that these
cylinders should be placed in a horizontal position, as represented in Figures
1, 2, and 3, especially for locomotive purposes, but they may be placed either
in a horizontal or perpendicular position. When three cylinders are used they
are placed with respect to each other in a parallel and equidistant position,
and the pistons are connected with and worked by a three-throw triangular
crank; but when only two cylinders are employed they are worked by a crank
of two throws, and placed either on the crank at right angles or parallel with
each other. A steam boiler is necessary to supply steam to the bottoms of
the cylinders, by the condensation of which beneath the pistons the pressure
of the atmosphere is brought into action; but this boiler may be of one half
less capacity in proportion to the dimensions of the cylinders and the lengths
of the strokes than those usually attached to steam engines. The steam
may be admitted into the cylinders either by D slide valves or by cocks, and
these valves or cocks may be worked in three different ways: either, firstly,
by slide rods connected with the piston rods, or, secondly, by eccentrics
attached to the crank and communicating with the valves, or, thirdly, by
bevil gearing connected with the crank and communicating with a rod passing
over the nozzle or steam induction pipe, and worked by eccentric movements;
connected with the nozzle, there are two condensers, one at each side,
which communicate at the bottom by means of two pipes, and to each con-
denser there is a tap to admit a jet or stream of cold water for the purpose of
condensing the steam or other vapour employed. A pump is attached to each
condenser for the purpose of drawing off the condensed steam, which may be
worked either by a small crank connected to the rod which works the valves,
or by an eccentric movement attached to the principal driving crank. Two
large taps are affixed to the nozzle, one at each end, and a tap is also placed
in each air pump, and by opening these taps the degree of atmospheric pres-
sure exerted may at any time be ascertained. As the power of the engine

page_text: arises from the preponderating pressure of the air on the outsides of the
pistons one after the other, as a vacuum is formed beneath them by the
alternate admission and condensation of steam, it may in fact be regarded as
an air or atmospheric engine, though differing materially from every engine
heretofore known by that appellation. The principal advantage which an
engine of this description, having three cylinders with a three-throw crank,
possesses over one with two cylinders only, is, that the necessity for a fly wheel
is thereby entirely obviated, one piston being always in full work and the others
serving the while all the purposes of the ordinary fly wheel. A ground plan
of a three cylindar engine, with the cylinders placed horizontally, is given in
Figure 1. Figure 2 is an elevation of the same on the line A, B, of Figure 1;
and Figure 3 an elevation on the cylinders on the line C, D, of Figure 1.
A, A, A, are the cylinders; B, the three-throw crank; C, C, C, the connecting
rods; D, the nozzle or steam induction pipe; E, E, the condensers; F, F, air
pumps; and G, the eccentric by which the valves are worked. Figures 4 and 5
exhibit another arrangement of the three cylinder engine, adapted to a vertical
position of the cylinders, Figure 4 being a front view, and Figure 5 a trans-
verse section. A, A, A, are the cylinders; a, a, a, condensing chambers, in
which the cylinders terminate at bottom; B, the crank; C, C, C, connecting
rods; S, steam boiler and furnace; s, pipe which conveys the steam to the
cylinders and condensing chambers; t, stop cock; D, D, cold water tank;
d, d, cocks by which jets of cold water are injected into the condensing
chambers a, a, a; F, F, F, eccentrics, which work, by means of toothed wheels
in connection with the crank shaft, the slide valves f, f, f; L, L, L, pumps for
emptying the water of condensation into the hot water tank M, which pumps
are put in motion by toothed wheels and cranks, working levers on rocking
standards, as particularly shewn in the transverse section, Figure 5; H, H, the
toothed wheels; I, I, working gearing; W, cold water supplying tank; and V,
force pump. An arrangement for a two cylinder engine with the cylinders placed
in a vertical position is given in Figures 6 and 7, Figure 6 being a side view, and
Figure 7 an end view. A, A, are the cylinders; B, B, are pumps; C, a fly wheel
(which in this arrangement is necessary); D, the boiler, and M, fireplace;
E, the water tank; G, G, condensing vessels or troughs, and I, connecting pipe;
H, connecting wheel; J, force pump; K, pump with slide rods; L, L, the D
slide valves. When the cylinders of either form of my engine are placed
horizontally I effect the oiling of each cylinder by means of a small- funnel
(a, Figures 1 and 2,) filled with oil, which is placed on the top of the piston
rod, from which funnel the oil flows into a hollow space within the rod, and
thence into a groove turned in the piston. To keep the inside of the cylinders

page_text: warm, I find it occasionally useful to protect them from the external air by
a sort of loose bag, formed by passing one end of a piece of cloth round the
front of each cylinder, and the other end round the front of each piston, both
ends being made fast, which bag expands and collapses as the piston rises and
falls. As it may be desirable for locomotive purposes to have an additional
power in readiness for occasional use, I propose to provide such power by
means of compressed air, to be obtained and applied by a supplementary
apparatus of the description represented in Figure 8. A is a large close
cylinder placed in a horizontal position; E, piston rod with a T head, and
two guide rods, one at each side, connected as usual by a cross bar; D is a
screw, which is inserted in the centre of the piston rod, for drawing in the
piston; C, C, are two air condensing pumps open at one end one on each side
of the large cylinder A, with which they communicate by pipes, (e, e,) each
pump having two valves opening inwards, and a tap at the end; E' is a small
crank attached to the main crank, to which small crank the pistons (not seen
in the Drawing) of the air condensing pumps are connected and by which they
are worked. B is a smaller close cylinder, which is placed horizontally above
the large one A, communicating with A by means of the tube b, and having
at top a valve, (G) which is worked by a slide rod; E² is a second crank
in connection with the main crank or driving wheel with which the piston
(not seen in the Drawing) of the cylinder B is connected, and through the
medium of which the compressed air in the cylinders A and B is made
available for working purposes when required.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not claim any of
the parts of which any of the varieties of machinery herein-before described
are composed as being in and by itself new, but that I claim each and every
one of them only in so far as they are newly combined and applied for the
purposes of my said Invention; and I declare that what I particularly claim
as new, and of my Invention, are, the methods herein-before described of
obtaining power for locomotive and other purposes, and of applying the same
by means,--
Firstly, of an engine, consisting of three or more cylinders, open at top,
the pistons of which are worked by three-throw cranks with triangular
movement, and have motion given to them by the external pressure of the
atmosphere.
And, secondly, by the means of an engine with only two such cylinders
placed at right angles to each other, or parallel to each other, or in any
other convenient position, and having pistons acted upon in like manner

page_text: by the external pressure of the atmosphere, and whether the said cylinders
and pistons in either case are placed vertically, or horizontally, or otherwise
And such my Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief, entirely
new, and never before used within that part of Her said Majesty's United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her said Dominion
of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare this to be
my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this my said Speci-
fication doth comply in all respects, fully and without reserve or disguise, with
the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained;
wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my
said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edmund Rudge, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fant