A Safety Appliance for Centrifugal Governors.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 11th June, 1896-Accepted, 4th July, 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A Safety Appliance for Centrifugal Governors.
I, JAMES MILNER, of Kirk Smeaton, Pontefract, in the County of York,
Engineer, 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 :-
When a centrifugal governor accidentally stops, owing to fracture or slipping of
a driving band or other causes, it no longer controls the supply of energy, and
consequently the engine or machine to which the energy is supplied may cause or
undergo serious damage.
My invention relates to means of providing against accidents from this cause, as
I shall describe referring to the accompanying drawings.
Fig. 1 is a front view and Fig. 2 is a side view of a centrifugal governor
provided with a safety appliance according to my invention.
A is the rod, which, as the governor balls expand, is moved downwards acting
either directly
or through levers and rods on a valve, sluice or the like, so as to
close it when the governor attains excessive speed, and is moved upwards by a
counterweight or spring opening the valve as the speed of the governor becomes
less.
On this rod AI fix adjustably a pair of collars B between which is free to play
to a certain extent a forked arm C projecting from a vertically sliding bar D
having a head E.
At the side of this bar is mounted a cam disc F having a flat side G. This disc
is fixed to a handle H by which the disc can be turned into several positions. The
sliding bar D is urged downwards by a spring K. The appliance operates as
follows. When the handle H is up as in Fig. 1, the cam disc F holds the bar D
and its forked arm C up leaving the rod A free to be acted on by the governor in
the usual way, the adjustment of the parts being such that the governor balls pass
clear of the handle H in its upright position. When, however, the driving of the
governor accidentally fails, then one of its balls in descending towards the axis
and still revolving strikes the handle H and throws it over to the horizontal
position shewn in Fig. 2 thus turning the cam disc F partly round so as to bring
its flat part under the head E.
The bar D then descends in obedience to the spring K its fork C pushing down
the rod A and so closing the valve independently of the governor. It is to be
understood that the handle H is not raised to its upright position until after
the governor has attained such velocity that its balls pass clear of the handle H.
The appliance can, when desired, be rendered inoperative by turning the
handle H quite down.
When the handle is in either position quite up or quite down the cam disc
presents a small flattened part under the head E, whereby any change of position
by vibration or shake is prevented.
Although I have shewn a governor operating a vertical rod A, obviously by
suitable arrangement of the parts the appliance could be connected to a governor
moving a rod in any direction, whether that rod be depressed by the balls as
they fly outwards, or elevated as in governors in which the rod is moved by sliding
collars.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:-
A safety appliance for a centrifugal governor constructed and operating
substantially as and for the purpose set forth.
Dated this 11th day of June 1896.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.