CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON- STRUCTION AND WORKING OF STEAM ENGINES, CALCULATED TO LESSEN THE CONSUMPTION OF FUEL
Year: 1810

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ARTHUR
WOOLF, of Lambeth, in the County of Surrey, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third,
in and by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Ninth day of June now last past, for Himself, His
heirs and successors, did give and grant unto me, the said Arthur Woolf,
His special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Arthur Woolf, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Arthur Woolf, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the terin of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON-
STRUCTION AND WORKING OF STEAM ENGINES, CALCULATED TO LESSEN THE CONSUMPTION
OF FUEL;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said Arthur Woolf, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be
inrolled in Ilis Majesty's High Court of Chancery within four calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and
by the same, reference being thereto had, will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Arthur Woolf, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said Inven-

page_text: tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, as follows (that
is to say):-
:-
The working cylinder of my said steam engine has no bottom, but is inclosed
in another cylinder of such dimensions that the space between the two (which
space I call the receiver) is equal to at least the contents of the working
cylinder. The inclosing cylinder has a bottom, and the two cylinders are
joined together at the top by flanches or any other suitable means, and the
lower rim of the working cylinder is about as far distant from the bottom of
the inclosing cylinder as the distance between the sides of the two cylinders.
Nota bene, though I have called the inclosing vessel "a cylinder," it may
be of any other figure fit to receive the working cylinder, as will be rendered
sufficiently obvious by explaning my mode of working my engine, which is as
follows-Instead of having a void space for receiving steam below the piston,
or whatever may be used instead of a piston, I introduce below it and into the
receiver such a quantity of oil, fat of animals, wax, or any other substance not
too volatile, and which may be kept fluid by such a temperature as may con-
veniently be commanded, as shall, when the piston is at its greatest height in
the working cylinder, fill all the space below it, and also fill the receiver up to
the height of a few inches above the lower rim of the working cylinder.
Things being thus arranged, if the engine is to be worked by the pressure of
the atmosphere, the receiver has a communication with the boiler. This
communication being opened, steam is admitted into and fills the receiver
above the oil or other fluid body. If the communication between the receiver
and the boiler be now shut off (by any of the means in common use, or by
any other means), and a communication be opened from the receiver to the
condenser (previously exhausted by the usual means), a vacuum will be
formed in the receiver, and then the pressure-of-the-atmosphere acting upon
the piston will cause it to descend in the working cylinder, pressing the oil or
other fluid body before it, and causing the fluid body to ascend into the
receiver, after which, the steam is again admitted for the next stroke. If
the engine, instead of being worked by the pressure of the atmosphere,
is to be worked by the action of steam upon the piston, then the working
cylinder must, as usual in steam engines so worked, be furnished with a cover.
In this case, whether the engine is to be worked as a single or as a double
engine, instead of the communications usual in the engines in common use,
viz', for the alternate admission and condensation of steam above and below
the piston, the communications in my engine are to the upper part of the
working cylinder and to the upper part of the receiver, the receiver in my
engine auswering to the space below the piston in other steam engines, so
that when the receiver is open to the condenser, and the upper part of the

page_text: It
working cylinder open to the boiler, the piston descends, and vice versa.
may be proper to remark here, that though I have described my receiver as
containing and surrounding the working cylinder, because I prefer this
arrangement, yet the receiver may be a separate vessel connected with the
working cylinder at the lower part. It is also proper to remark that to
prevent waste of steam by unnecessary condensation, and to keep up the
temperature of the oil or other fluid body employed, the receiver may be
inclosed in a steam case, or heat may be applied to it externally. Lastly,
whatever arrangement or mode of working be adopted, there should always be
some oil, or whatever other fluid body may be used, above the piston to the
height of a few inches, to prevent the passage of the atmospheric air or of the
steam downwards by the side of the piston. And as the quantity of oil or
other fluid body above the piston may deviate from a given height by the
working of the engine, means must be provided to restore it to the requisite
height, as cocks, valves, or any suitable contrivance regulated by a float or
floats upon the surface of the oil, or by means of a pump or pumps worked by
the engine itself, or otherwise. By the interposition of the oil or other fluid
body between the piston and the condenser as before described, all waste of
steam, by passing the piston, is effectually prevented, and a consequent saving
of fuel is effected. N.B.-As it is usual for the pistons of steam engines to
work in steam vessels of a cylindric form, I have, in the preceding description,
for the sake of perspicuity, spoken only of the piston working in a cylinder,
but the piston may work in a four-sided, or any other poligonal prismatic-
formed vessel.
In witness whereof, I, the said Arthur Woolf, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Eighth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand sight
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Eighth day of October,
0 in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Arthur Woolf came before our
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And
also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.