Improvements in Steam and other Engines and Pumps.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 23rd May, 1893
Complete Specification Left, 23rd Feb., 1894-Accepted, 7th Apr., 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Steam and other Engines and Pumps.
I, ERNST GESSNER of Aue in the Kingdom of Saxony, Machine Builder, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
:―
This invention relates to steam and other fluid pressure engines including gas or
other internal combustion engines and pumps, and it has for its object to obviate
the wear due to the weight of the piston on the underside of the cylinder in
horizontal engines and pumps and to apply the force of gravity to overcome the
inertia of the piston at the ends of its stroke.
The invention consists in curving the cylinder to a segment of a circle in the
direction of its length and suspending or supporting the piston from above so that
in reciprocating within the cylinder it will swing in the manner of a pendulum
without bearing upon the underside of the cylinder and the action of gravity will
be utilized to overcome the inertia of the piston at the ends of its stroke.
According to one arrangement, the piston rod passes through stuffing boxes in
the ends of the upwardly curved cylinder and is attached at both ends to the arms
of an oscillating frame suspended from above on an axis coincident with the centre
of curvature of the cylinder, so that the piston will move in a correspondingly
curved path.
The cylinder may be of circular, elliptical, prismatic, or other form in cross-
section and the reciprocating motion of the oscillating frame may be converted
into rotary motion of the crank shaft either directly through a die block on the
crank working in a guide slot in the oscillating frame normal to the cylinder or
through a connecting rod coupled to said frame, the crank shaft being in either
case above or below the cylinder, or by a mutilated wheel engaging alternately
with racks at the opposite sides of a concentrically-curved slot in the oscillating
frame, or by equivalent means.
Or the oscillating frame may be a continuation of the piston rod itself which may
be curved upwards and attached directly to the axis of oscillation.
Instead of supporting the piston by a frame oscillating on an axis, it may be
supported by runners on a guide curved concentrically with the cylinder.
Any suitable valve gear may be employed and in any case more than one cylinder
may be employed, the same being arranged in the same circle or otherwise. In the
case of a pump the piston rod is attached to a frame oscillating on an axis concentric
with the curvature of the cylinder and this frame may be provided with a hand lever
for working it, or be driven by power.
Dated this 23rd day of May 1893
E. GESSNER,.
By A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, London, Chartered Patent Agents.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Steam and other Engines and Pumps.
I, ERNST GESSNER, of Aue, in the Kingdom of Saxony, Machine Builder, 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:-.
!
This invention relates to steam and other fluid pressure engines, including gas

page_text: or other internal combustion engines and pumps, and it has for its object to obviate
the wear due to the weight of the piston on the underside of the cylinder in
horizontal engines and pumps, and to apply the force of gravity to overcome the
inertia of the piston at the ends of the stroke.
The invention consists in curving the cylinder to a segment of a circle in the
direction of its length and suspending or supporting the piston from above, so that
in reciprocating within the cylinder it will swing in the manner of a pendulum
without bearing upon the underside of the cylinder and the action of gravity will
be utilized to overcome the inertia of the piston at the ends of its stroke.
According to one arrangement, the piston rod passes through stuffing boxes in
the ends of the upwardly curved cylinder and is attached at both ends to the arms
of an oscillating frame suspended from above on an axis coincident with the centre
of curvature of the cylinder so that the piston will move in a correspondingly
curved path.
The cylinder may be of circular, elliptical, prismatic, or other form in cross-
section and the reciprocating motion of the oscillating frame may be converted into
rotary motion of the crank shaft either directly through a die-block on the crank
working in a guide slot in the oscillating frame normal to the cylinder or through
a connecting rod coupled to said frame, the crank shaft being in either case above
or below the cylinder, or by a mutilated wheel engaging alternately with racks at
the opposite sides of a slot or aperture in the oscillating frame, said aperture being
curved concentrically with the axis of oscillation, or by equivalent means. Or the
oscillating frame may be a continuation of the piston rod itself which may be
curved upwards and attached directly to the axis of oscillation.
Instead of supporting the piston by a frame oscillating on an axis, it may be
supported by runners on a guide curved concentrically with the cylinder.
Any suitable valve gear may be employed, and in any case more than one
cylinder may be employed, the same being arranged in the same circle or otherwise,
and in the case of a pump the piston rod is attached to a frame oscillating on an
axis concentric with the curvature of the cylinder and this frame may be provided
with a hand lever for working it or be driven by power.
The invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings,
forming part of this Specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate
corresponding parts in all the figures.
Figure 1 illustrates the first arrangement above referred to, in which C is the
cylinder curved upwardly, K the piston, and S the piston rod passing through
stuffing boxes V and respectively attached to the arms of the oscillating frame P
suspended from the pin W¹ in the frame G mounted on base plate A and coincident
with the centre of curvature of the cylinder C. W is the crank shaft, z the crank
pin, and N its die-block, working in a radial slot o, in the frame P. X is the
slide or distribution valve, worked from crank shaft W by an eccentric on the
crank-shaft through an eccentric rod and lever, as shewn in dotted lines in
the drawings.
In Figure 2 the same arrangement is illustrated, except that a mutilated wheel R
engaging with racks at opposite sides of a concentrically curved aperture in the
oscillating frame P is employed for rotating shaft W in lieu of the crank and radial
slot arrangement shewn in Figure 1.
The engines shewn in Figures 1 and 2 may have two curved cylinders arranged
in succession in the same circle.
In Figure 3 the invention is illustrated as applied to a gas engine. In this
figure the oscillating frame is replaced by the curved piston rod S which is
continued up and pivoted to the pin W', the motion being transmitted to the crank
shaft W by a connecting rod L coupled at one end to piston rod S and at its
other end to crank Z. If the shaft to be driven is situated outside of the frame
of the engine the arrangement shewn in dotted lines, in which W2 is the crank
shaft, Z the crank, and L' the connecting rod, may be used. The cylinder may
be water-jacketed, as shewn, the ignition and valve gear may be of any ordinary

page_text: kind, and the engine may be actuated by an explosive mixture of air and gas or
of air and hydro-carbon vapor.
Figure 4 shews the application of my invention to a hand pump wherein the
rod S of piston K is connected to a frame E oscillating on pin W and provided
with a handle H by which reciprocating motion may be imparted to it, the pump
cylinder C being curved concentrically to the axis W¹.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. A steam or other fluid pressure engine or pump having its cylinder curved to
a segment of a circle in the direction of its length, in combination with a piston
working therein and constrained to swing about an axis above the cylinder
coincident with the centre of curvature of the cylinder, substantially as specified.
2. In a steam engine, the combination, with a cylinder curved to a segment of a
circle in the direction of its length, of a piston working therein, a correspondingly
curved piston rod attached to a frame suspended from and swinging about an axis
above coincident with the centre of curvature of the cylinder and a gear for
converting the oscillating motion of the frame into rotary motion of the shaft,
substantially as specified.
3. A gas or other internal combustion engine having its cylinder curved to a
segment of a circle and having its piston rod hung from an axis above, concentric
with the centre of curvature of the cylinder the said rod being coupled by a
connecting rod with the crank-shaft, substantially as specified.
4. The respective arrangements of steam or other fluid pressure engines and
pumps herein described and illustrated in the respective figures of the drawings.
Dated this 23rd day of Febrant, 1994.
V
E. GESSNER,
By A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, London, Chartered Patent Agents.