Improvements in Automatic Adjustments for Bearing Brasses.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Aug., 1893-Accepted, 23rd Sept., 1893
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Automatic Adjustments for Bearing Brasses.
We, WILLIAM HENRY ALLEN, and RICHARD WILLIAM ALLEN, both of York
Street Works, Lambeth, in the County of Surrey, Engineers, 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 :-
Our invention consists in an improved arrangement by which the tension or
compression of a spring is caused to exert a rotating force simultaneously on a pair
or more of nuts, and so to screw together the brasses of an engine or other machine,
the object in view being to automatically and continuously bring together the
brasses of moving parts as wear takes place, even whilst the engine is in motion.
The application of our invention to the connecting rod brasses of an ordinary
vertical engine where the two brasses are held together by two bolts fastened
through a plate or "keep" at one end and the foot of the connecting rod at the
other, with nuts screwing down from above, is shown in Fig. 1. On each of the
two nuts, N and N', is a circular lever plate P, or P¹, solid with or rigidly attached
to the top of the nut: this plate being of larger size than the nut forms an over-
hanging flange which is pierced by a number of holes, hh, arranged in a circle
round it at equal distances apart. Fixed to one of the connecting rod bolts B', is a
support a, through which passes a screws, having on it an adjusting nut n.
On the
one side of the foot of the connecting rod is arranged a spring T, one end of which
is fastened into one of the holes in the circular lever-plate of one nut, N, while the
other end is hooked into the adjustable screw s. On the other side of the foot the
nuts are coupled together by the link, l, pinned at either end to one of the holes in
the circular plates. By means of the adjusting nut and screw, tension is put on the
spring: as wear takes place in the brasses, and the latter can be brought closer
together, the nuts are caused to automatically follow up the brasses, since the spring
being under tension draws round the one nut and simultaneously tightens the other
nut to the same extent. After a certain amount of wear and when the nuts have
been rotated through some small angle, the connecting link and spring are detached
from the holes in the circular plates and are shifted backwards to the next holes in
the direction the reverse of that in which the nuts are rotated; the tension of the
spring is again adjusted and the automatic taking up of the wear again proceeds.
In cases where the proximity of the bolts to the coned foot of the connecting rod
is such as to render the use of the circular plates impracticable a modified arrange-
ment may be used as shown in Fig. 2. In this case the circular plates are replaced
by oval plates P, P', which pass over the heads of the nuts; these being square or
hexagonal in shape, the plates cannot turn apart from the nuts, and further they
are pinned thereto by the pins k, k'. In this form, after the nuts have been rotated
as far as the spring allows, the pins are taken out and the plates are detached; they
are then shifted backwards and again attached to the heads of the nuts, to enable
the automatic process to be continued.
In crosshead brasses or in cases where the nuts are on the side opposite to the
foot of the rod and are easily accessible, we prefer to fix the spring diagonally
across from nut to nut as shown in Fig. 3. One end of the spring is attached to a
hole in the one side of a circular plate P, and the other end is hooked to the
adjusting screw fixed to the other side of the other circular plate P. In this last
case a spring under compression may also be used; the spring and an adjustable
plunger working in guides are then arranged diagonally across between the plates
attached to the nuts, so that its tendency is to simultaneously tighten the two nuts
by rotating them. In the case of a pair of bolts the one having a right hand and
the other a left hand thread we can dispense with the connecting link and use either

page_text: a simple spring or a spring and a plunger; in the former case the spring is put
under tension, in the latter under compression, but in either case the tendency is
for the two nuts to be simultaneously tightened in opposite directions.
By the addition of one or more connecting links any number of nuts may be
simultaneously tightened up by any of the above methods.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature, of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is :-
In the bearing brasses of engines or other machines the combination of a single
spring and lever-plates, fastened to two or more nuts in such manner that the spring
being under tension or compression tends to simultaneously tighten up both or all
nuts, substantially as described.
W. H. ALLEN.
R. W. ALLEN.