IMPROVE- MENTS IN ROTARY ENGINES AND ROTARY PUMPS
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Archer at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 6th July
1867.
I, WILLIAM ARCHER, of Birmingham, in the Conaty of Warwick, Coach
Builder, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN ROTARY ENGINES AND ROTARY PUMPS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of the arrangement or combination of the parts of
rotary engines and rotary pumps herein-after described, whereby great simplicity
of construction and efficiency of action are secured.
I will describe my Invention with reference to a rotary steam engine. I make
the steam chamber in which the steam is made to give motion to the piston of
a circular or ring like figure, that is, of a figure such as would be produced by
taking a tube open at both ends and bending it into a circular form and joining
its two ends. This circular steam chamber is situated by preference horizon-
tally, and in its centre is a vertical shaft to which rotary motion is to be
given. In the steam chamber is a piston capable of travelling round the
steam chamber, and the said piston communicates with the shaft described by
means of an arm fixed on the shaft, and connected to the piston through a
slot or opening in the upper or inner side of the steam chamber; this slot or
opening is covered by means of an annular cover which fits thereon, and which
is carried round by the motion of the piston. The steam chamber is provided
with a plate or valve which crosses it, and which is capable of being temporarily
withdrawn to permit of the passage of the piston. On one side of the said

page_text: out.
plate or valve is an opening at which the steam enters, and on the other side
of the said plate or valve is the exhaust pipe at which the waste steam passes
When steam is admitted between the plate or valve and piston the
latter is carried forward by the pressure of the steam, and traverses the
circular chamber carrying the cover and arm with it, and giving rotary
motion to the shaft on which the arm is fixed. After the piston has
travelled along nearly the whole length of the chamber, and has arrived at
the other side of the plate or valve, steam is shut off, and the said plate or
valve is withdrawn to allow the piston to pass it; on the piston passing the
exhaust pipe the steam which had urged it forward escapes by the said
exhaust pipe. On the piston passing the plate or valve the latter is made
again to cross the steam chamber, and steam being again admitted between
the said plate or valve and the piston, the latter is again urged forward. The
steam may be worked expansively or cut off when the piston has performed
only part of its stroke. The steam chamber is enclosed in a steam-tight box
into which steam is admitted from the boiler. The pressure of this steam on
the cover of the slot balances that in the chamber, and there is no tendency
in the said cover to rise from the slot. Instead of one piston valve and arm,
two or more piston valves and arms may be employed. One, two, or more of
the rotary engines may be geared to the same shaft.
Rotary engines constructed according to my Invention may be worked by
means of steam, gas, compressed air, or water, and may also be used as rotary
pumps by supplying motive power to the shaft.
When used as a pump the
steam and exhaust pipes constitute the ingress and egress pipes of the pump
respectively.