IMPROVED ENGINES AND GENERATORS FOR THE SAME TO BE WORKED BY HEATED AIR, STEAM. OR OTHER GASES OR VAPOURS
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Ramsbottom and Thomas
Massey Pearce, at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their. Petition, on the 1st January 1868.
We, JOHN RAMSBOTTOM, of Leeds, in the County of York, Engineer,
and THOMAS MASSEY PEARCE, of Bradford, in the same County, Com-
mission Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVED ENGINES AND GENERATORS FOR THE SAME TO BE WORKED BY HEATED
AIR, STEAM. OR OTHER GASES OR VAPOURS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists partly of improvements on a former Invention,
for which Letters Patent were granted to the said John Ramsbottom,
No. 3158, A.D. 1866, entitled "Improvements in Compound Steam
Engines, and in the Construction or Arrangement of Steam Generating
Furnaces."
In the present Invention a portion of the previous improvements
referred to are adapted by certain modifications and additions to become
more available both as steam engines and also as engines to be worked
by heated air or other gaseous or vapourous matter.
In the Specification of Letters Patent, No. 3158, A.D. 1860, a form of
engine was described, which the Inventor now denominates an "Inter-
'medial Engine," in which the crank shaft is driven by a connecting rod
fixed to one of the ends in the interior portion of a long hollow piston,
Price 81

page_text: or a piston whose ends are connected together, the crank shaft being
caused to work within this intermedial space in bearings attached to or
springing from the cylinder sides, the said cylinder being a compound
one or divisible into two portions of its length to receive the crank and
connecting rod. The engine was constructed horizontally and contained
a peculiar shaped rotary valve connected to and working with the crank
shaft. We now purpose to construct this engine in a vertical as well as
an horizontal form with governing apparatus situated on the upper cover
of the cylinder, and also to construct the engine with slide valves, one
at each end of the cylinder, and to work these valves directly from the
crank shaft by means of a slotted crosshead working from a stud or
cccentric attached to such shaft. As in this intermedial engine the
crank works at right angles to and is supported by the sides of its
cylinder this form is convenient for yielding very direct action, and is
easily coupled with other machinery, as vehicles for locomotion, ploughs,
fire-engines, tools of various kinds, and thereby readily takes the form in
these connections of a compound machine for the various purposes of
traction.
For working this engine with heated air or other gaseous bodies
we construct the valves of the kind known as drop valves, employing
four in number, two at each end of the cylinder, or compound cylinder.
We purpose to move these valves simultaneously, two being closed
whilst the other two are being opened, and this action is intended to
be performed rapidly during the termination of each stroke or the com-
mencement of each succeeding one by means of cams or other equivalent
motion actuated from the crank shaft above mentioned. We construct
the generator close to the cylinder of the engine, with projecting
passages leading from the generator to each end of the cylinder or com-
pound cylinder of the engine, and in each of these passages a throttle
valve is placed, as well as the drop feed valves herein-before mentioned;
the exit drop valves are to be situated in passages lying paralle
therewith. Against the side of the generator we affix a pump to supply
the necessary quantity of air for the purpose of combustion and
obtaining motive power, and in the interior of the generator we affix
grate bars, and regulate the supply of air above or beneath these bars
in proportion as we require an increased or decreased pressure of heated
air or a more or less intense combustion. Two air-tight apertures are
constructed in the side of the generator to be closed by air-tight doors,
through one of which the combustible matter is to be supplied, and the

page_text: other which is situate below the grate bars is to cleanse the generator
of ashes. The air may be heated by means of coal, petroleum, paraffine,
gas, oil, or other solid, liquid, semi-liquid, or gaseous combustible. If
liquid or gaseous combustible be used we purpose to construct suitable
jet arrangements for the same, and to supply the liquid or gas so as to
bring the pressure and heat of the generator upon such liquid or gas to
enable it to pass or gravitate from a containing vessel outside into the'
interior, and by means of gauze meshes similar to those in use in the
"Davy lamp" protect such liquid or gas from spontaneous combustion
or explosion. The air pump may be an ordinary reciprocating pump, or
it may be a rotary pump in construction similar to that of a pair of
round toothed wheels working together inside a vessel, the teeth of
which wheels bear during a portion of their revolution against the sides
of such vessel, and dividing by these means the vessel into two com-
partments, the one to receive the fluid and the other to discharge the
same. This construction is well adapted for extinguishing fires or other
similar purposes, and in conjunction with the present intermedial engines
forms a portable, compact, and powerful apparatus.
In applying this engine for moving vehicles or for purposes of traction
it may be placed beneath the machine to be moved, which machine shall
have three or more wheels. The shaft of the engine shall carry a pinion
at one end thereof to run within a toothed wheel or wheels attached to
the wheels of the vehicle; or the engine may be constructed upon a
separate carriage and work as a draft or traction engine to be driven
as before mentioned. It may also on some occasions be convenient
to use a slotted crosshead attached to the piston instead of a connecting
rod to transmit the reciprocating motion of said piston into circular
motion on the crank shaft.