CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES, WHICH ARE IN WHOLE OR IN PART APPLICABLE TO OTHER MOTIVE ENGINES, AND TO MACHINES FOR RAISING AND IMPELLING FLUIDS
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EMANUEL
WHARTON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fourteenth day of March, in the seventh year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Emanuel Wharton, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Emanuel Wharton, my
exors, admors, or assigns, and such others as I, the said Emanuel Wharton,
my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
that part of Her Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of " CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES, WHICH ARE
IN WHOLE OR IN PART APPLICABLE TO OTHER MOTIVE ENGINES, AND TO MACHINES FOR
RAISING AND IMPELLING FLUIDS;" in which said Letters Patent there is con-
tained a proviso that I, the said Emanuel Wharton, shall cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large annear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Emanuel Wharton, declare that the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascertained
in and by the present Specification thereof, reference being had to the
Sheets of Drawings marked No. I. and No. II. hereunto annexed, that is to
say:―
The Drawings on Sheet No. I. represent a plan of metallic packing for
steam engine pistons, by which the packing can, without the aid of steel
springs, as usual, be readily adjusted from time to time to any degree of tight-
ness desired. Figure 1 is an elevation of the body part of this piston; Figure
2, a section of the same on the line a, b, and Figure 3 a plan on the line c, d,
of Figure 2. A and B are the top and bottom plates of the body of the
piston, and C the boss for the piston rod. A2, A2, A2, A2, are four equal seg-
ments, forming, together with the wedges G, G, G, G, inserted between them,
one circular ring, which fits into the exterior of the space between A and B.
These segments are, on their inner faces, of a bevel or conical form, as shewn
at D, D, Figures 2 and 3. C2 is a ring, of cast iron or steel, dropped into the
space between the external ring A2, G, and the raised part of the bottom
plate B, which ring, when of cast iron, is cut through at one part, so as to
allow it to be expanded or contracted. B2, B2, B2, B2, are four adjusting
screw blooks, the shanks of which are screwed into the expanding ring C2, and
the heads are of such a bevel or conical form as to fit the bevel or conical faces
D of the segments A². F is a stop inserted between the two ends of the
expanding ring C², to keep it in its proper place. When the top plate A is
fixed in its place, the perpendicular pressure of the junk ring E on the top of
the ring C2 and the heads of the blocks B2 causes these in their turn to
press outwards the segments A2, and keep them firm down on the bottom
plate, while the wedges G, G, which are beveled inwards in the direction of
their length, as shewn in Figure 2, serve to keep the segments flush with the
top and bottom plates A and B. When the outsides of any of the segments
become worn away, the defect can be immediately remedied by screwing the
corresponding block or blocks a little more outwards; and so on, time after
time, till the segments are almost wholly worn out. The inner faces of the
segments or rings need not be beveled, as shewn, throughout their whole
extent, but at those parts only where the heads of the adjusting blocks abut
against them.
The adjusting blocks may be dispensed with altogether by
making the expanding ring a little wider, and of such a bevel form on its outer
circumference as to coincide with the inner faces of the segments or rings; but
I do not recommend this arrangement as superior to the other.

page_text: The same system of metallic packing which has been herein-before described
as suitable for steam engine pistons, will be found also applicable to the pistons
of air and gas engines, and may also be readily adapted to the plungers or
buckets of pumps and other machines for raising and impelling fluids.
The Drawings on Sheet No. II. represent a plan of metallic packing more
particularly suitable for that class of steam engines known by the name of the
Patent Disc Engines, and by which the use of hempen packing therein will
be almost entirely superseded. Figure 4 is an elevation of the front cone,
and Figure 6 an elevation of the back cone. Figure 5 is a transverse section
of the entire engine. A, Figure 4, is a gland bolted on the cone, in which
gland is fitted the metallic ring B, with a small portion of hemp inter-
posed between for the purpose of preventing any leakage of steam round the
periphery. B is the metallic ring, which serves as the front packing to the
ball of the disc. A plan of this ring is given separately in Figure 7.
C, C, C, are three springs bolted to the cone above the gland A, which press
at their points on the three projecting parts p, p, p; of the ring B, and are
intended to keep the ring up to the ball, but so as to allow of a little play.
D, D, D, are set screws for tightening or loosening the springs as required.
In Figure 6, which represents the back cone, and in Figure 5, where the same
parts are seen in section, a is a gland similar to A, which is bolted on the back
of the cone, in which gland is fitted the metallic ring, with a small portion of
hemp interposed, as before; b is the internal metallic ring or back packing to.
the ball of the disc, which is of the same form as the front internal ring B,
Figure 7; c, a strong steel spring for keeping the ring b.up to the ball; d, d,
a pair of lock nuts for tightening the spring c; e, a square fixed on the
projection shaft of the metallic ring 6 for the purpose of receiving a key by
which the ring may once a day be turned in part or half round, so that the
wear may be equal and the disc be more certainly kept in the centre of the
cylinder; and f, a pin for locking the metallic ring 6 when the engine is in
action. Instead of turning the ring in part or half round daily, to secure the
wearing of it equally, the same object may be effected by applying a slow
revolving motion to the shaft of the ring, in which case the lock pin would of
course have to be dispensed with.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is as
follows:-
Firstly, in respect of the improvements in steam-engine pistons first herein-
before described, and which are also applicable, as aforesaid, to gas and air
engines, and to pumps and other machines for raising and impelling fluids, I

page_text: claim the employment, in metallic packings, of segments or rings of a bevel or
conical form on their inner faces, or any part thereof, in combination with an
elastic ring and adjusting blocks, or of an elastic ring only, made of a cor-
responding bevel or conical form at those parts where they come in contact
with such segments or rings, all as particularly shewn in the Drawings here-
unto annexed.
Secondly, in respect of the metallic packing herein-before described as cal-
culated to supersede almost entirely the use of hempen packing in that class
of steam engines known by the name of the Patent Disc Engines, I claim the
same in the general arrangement and combination of parts of which the same
consists.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Thir-
teenth day of September, One thousand eight hundred and forty-four.
EMANUEL (L.s.) WHARTON.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirteenth day of September,
in the year of our Lord 1844, the aforesaid Emanuel Wharton came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifi-
cation aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in
form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Fourteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-four.