IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO MOTIVE- POWER ENGINES WORKED BY THE EXPLOSION Of Gas,” POWER ENGINES WORKED BY THE EXPLOSION of Gas
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edgar Coniston Mills, of Gorton, in the County
of Lancaster, Engineer, and Henry Haley, of the same Place,
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO MOTIVE-
POWER ENGINES WORKED BY THE EXPLOSION Of Gas,”
POWER ENGINES WORKED BY THE EXPLOSION of Gas.”
Scaled the 20th July 1875, and dated the 23rd January 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edgar Coniston Mills
..
and Henry Haley at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 23rd January 1875..
WC, EDGAR CONISTON MILLS, of Gorton, in the County of Lancaster,
Engineer, and HENRY HALEY, of the same Place, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE
TO MOTIVE-POWER ENGINES WORKED BY THE EXPLOSION OF GAs," to be as
follows:-
Our Invention relates to those motive-power engines in which a
cylinder and piston are employed on each, or on one side of the latter of
which gas is periodically exploded to force it forward, and consists in

page_text: providing a cushion of air or other elastic abutment to receive the force
of the said explosion, and through which the motive force is exerted.
In the arrangement we propose the rod of the aforesaid piston is
connected to another piston within a cylinder, and which forces forward
air against pressure, by means of which a storage of motive force is t
effected within a suitable receiver to be used in any ordinary manner;
or the said air may be forced as a direct blast, or used in any other
manner in which air under pressure is required. By simply reversing
this arrangement the same result may be obtained by exhaust.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edgar Coniston Mills and Henry Haley in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 23rd July 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, EDGAR
CONISTON MILLS, of Gorton, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer, and
HENRY HALEY, of the same Place, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, and in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and succes-
sors, give and grant unto us, the said Edgar Coniston Mills and Henry
Haley, Her special license, that we, the said Edgar Coniston Mills
and Henry Haley, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said Edgar Coniston Mills and Henry Haley, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO MOTIVE-POWER ENGINES WORKED BY THE
EXPLOSION OF GAS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said Edgar Coniston Mills and Henry Haley, by an instrument in
writing under our hands and seals (or under the hand and seal of one of
us) should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
•

page_text: cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
.Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Edgar Coniston Mills and Henry
Haley, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement and accompanying
Drawings, that is to say :—
Our Invention relates to those motive-power engines in which a
cylinder and piston are employed, on each or on one side of the latter of
which gas is periodically exploded to force it forward, and our said
Invention consists in providing a cushion of air or other clastic abut-
ment to receive the force of the said explosion, and through which the
motive force is exerted.
Fig. 1 is a side view of the engine complete; Fig. 2 an end
view; and Fig. 3, a plan.
Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 are detached views shewing how the induction
and eduction passages are regulated.
At 1 is the cylinder, within which the gas is periodically exploded, in
order to force the piston to and fro, the rod of which piston is shewn at
2, and upon it is another piston situate in a cylinder 3, into which air is
drawn from an exterior source and forced through pipes 4 into a
chamber 5, which also serves as the bed plate of the whole apparatus.
It will thus be seen that the air in the said chamber being under pressure
constitutes an elastic cushion to receive the concussion caused by suc-
ccssive explosions, and it also becomes a storage of motive force, and
may be conducted to any ordinary engine to be used instead of steam, or
it may be forced as a direct blast and used in any case in which air under
pressure is required.
Having pointed out the general feature of our Invention we proceed
to describe the mechanical arrangements by. which we carry the same
into effect, premising that as the motive force is transmitted through the
medium of compressed air there is no crank shaft employed so far as our
Invention is concerned; and in order to facilitate the description we
shall in the first place refer specially to the detached views Figs. 4, 5,
6,7, which represent the arrangements by which air and gas is admitted

page_text: to the cylinder, and exploded therein, it being understood that the parts
now to be described are in duplicate, one set for each end of the cylinder.
Upon the cylinder cap is a circular box 6, and within this is a tube 7,
which for the present may be considered stationary, and within this is
an opening 8 situate beneath the master light 9. In the tube 7 is also
another opening 10 opposite to. a pipe 11, which at proper intervals
admits gas to be fired by the said master light. Within the tube 7 is a
sliding rod 12 bearing at its inward end against a spring 13, which has
an abutment against a cap piece 14, and its outward end projects into
the cylinder 1. One side of the said rod is cut away to form a recess 15,
and is also provided with a slot 16 cut through its breadth. At 18 is
the pipe for supplying gas to be exploded in the cylinder, and at 19 the
pipe for admitting air to be mixed with the said gas.
According to the positions of the parts shown at Figs. 4 and 5 an
explosion has just taken place or is about to do so in order to drive the
piston 20 in the direction of the arrow, but we will assume that it is
being driven in the direction of the dotted arrow. In thus moving it
will arrive in contact with the end of the rod 12, which it will thrust
into the tube 7 against the force of the spring 13, and this operation will
in its progress have brought the channel 15 in communication with the
pipe 19, through which the undecomposed gases will be forced by the
advance of the piston, the said pipe 19 being used as the exhaust as well
as to supply air, as presently to be described. By the aforesaid thrusting
in of the rod 12 the slit 16 also will have been conveyed forward so as to
pass beneath the aperture 8, and above that shewn at 10, thereby
establishing a communication between those three channels, and gas
from the pipe 17 being thus at liberty to pass into the slit 16 will be
ignited by the master light 9, and these operations having been per-
formed the parts above described will have assumed the positions shown
at Figs. 6 and 7, by referring to which it will be seen that the
channel 15 has arrived in communication with the air pipe 19 and gas
pipe 18, and that the said channel is therefore capable of receiving a
supply of the required mixed gases for explosion. At the same time
also the slit 16, being supplied with gas from the pipe 17, ignition
therein will be caused by the master light 9, so that the said slit contains
a charge of flame. The parts being in these positions the piston will
retreat a certain distance by reason of the partial vacuum behind it,
which has been produced by the explosion which has driven it forward,

page_text: and the spring 13 then forcing outward the rod 12 will bring the parts
into the positions shewn at Figs. 4 and 5, by which it will be seen
that the channel 15 supplied by the pipes 18, 19, has carried forward a
charge of gas and air to the cylinder, while at the same time the slit 16
has conveyed its enclosed flame into communication with the said
cylinder, so as to cause the required explosion. Similar parts to those
described are adapted to the left hand end of Figs. 1, 3, and are marked
with the same numbers of reference, with the addition of an *, and thus
the piston is caused to reciprocate in its cylinder.
2
Referring now to Figs. 1, 2, 3, we proceed to describe the arrange-
ment of supply and discharge pipes which we have shown in the Drawing.
At 20 is a box having an opening 21 for the admission of air, and it also
has another opening for the admission of gas proceeding from the pipe 22,
and which is the main for supplying the before-mentioned pipe or
passage 18. At 22* is a handle lever turning upon a centre 23, and by
shifting this lever the air and gas ways may be throttled at pleasure, and
the speed of the engine regulated. In communication with the air
hole 21 are flexible pipes 24, 24*, and in communication with the gas
hole are other flexible pipes 50, 50*, proceeding to the aforesaid passage
18, and another which we call 18*. On the end of the pipe 24, 24*, arc
valves, as seen on the left hand side of Figure 1 at 25*, and on the other
side of the said pipes 19, 19*, are other valves, as at 26*, which open
inward to the pipe 27. When the engine is at work the air passes along
the pipe 24* into the pipe 19*, but when the exhaust takes place through
the said pipe 27* then the valve 25* closes that shewn at 26* being
opened, and the same effect of course takes place on the other side of
Fig. 1.
We now proceed to describe the arrangement of air cushion we employ.
The cylinder, as before mentioned, is at 3, and on its covers are valves, as
at 30 (see Figs. 8, 9,) which are for the admission of air. Also on the
said covers are other valves, as at 31, leading to the passages 4, through
which the air is forced into the receptacle 5 to be used under pressure
from the pipe 51, as above described.
When our Invention is used for obtaining motive power by an arrange-
ment in which a governor can be employed we form a screw upon the
tube 7, and place a nut; as at 32, thereon formed as a pulley on its
periphery, over which a band 33 passes, and the governor by acting on

page_text: this turns the nut 32 so as to traverse the tube 7 backwards or forward,
and thus regulate the supply of air and gas by shifting the position of
the channel 15.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of our said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, we desire it to be
understood that we claim as secured to us to us under the above in part
recited Letters Patent, and for the purposes above set forth, the use of a
cushion of air to receive the force of the explosion generated in the
working cylinder, and the use of the air so compressed for the purposes
above described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Edgar Coniston Mills and Henry
Haley, have hereunto set our hands and scals, this Twenty-second
day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and areanty five
.