IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Hartley, of the Firm of Orain and Hartley, of the
Greengate Iron Works, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES."
Sealed the 28th March 1879, and dated the 8th January 1879.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Hartley at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th January 1879.
WILLIAM HARTLEY, of the Firm of Oram and Hartley, of the Greengato Iron-
works, Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer. IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM
ENGINES."
The nature of my Invention consists in improved arrangements of machinery for
admitting and shutting off the steain from the piston and cylinder of steam engines
according to the varying steam pressure or the load upon the engines.
Also in the arrangement and construction of a double acting air pump in connec-
tion with a steam engine condenser and hot well, whereby the vapour, condensed
steain, and water can flow by their own gravity or otherwise froin the condenser
into the air pump without having to pass through intermediate foot or other valves.
Hence, by this arrangement the ordinary foot valves are dispensed with, and only
delivery valves are required through which the air pump plunger bucket forces and
delivers the condensed water and air into the hot well.
One of the methods for effecting the admission and the shutting off of the steam
from the piston and cylinder is as follows:-And in order to illustrate the
mechanisin more fully I will describe it in connection with ordinary slide plate
valves, although the mechanism will work other classes of valves. To each steam
admission slide valve there is connected a valve spindle or rod, which passes through
ordinary stuffing boxes to the outside of the steain valve chest. The steam adinis.
sion valves may be closed by the action of springs, levers, and weights attached
thereto, or by the action of the steam pressure upon the sectional area of the valve
rods, or upon the area of sinall pistons attached thereto, as described in the Specifi-
cation of Letters Patent granted to me and dated the 30th September, 1859, No.
2213. The steam admission valves may be opened by the action of an ordinary
eccentric and rod or other suitable alternating motion connected with a slide to
which are attached the catches for pulling or pushing open the steam admission
valves; the slide moves upon a suitable slide table. The slide may have grooves
PR71

page_text: wherein the ends of the steam admission valve rods rest or move freely when the
catches are lifted by a governor slide bar. There are two catches attached to the
slide by a pin that passes through them and the projections formed upon the upper
part of the slide; this pin forms the fulcrum upon which they move when they are
engaged or disengaged from the stean adinission valve rods by the action
of the governor slide bar, which can be either raised or lowered by the
governor. The catches are so formed and arranged that they can drop into suitablo
notches formed in the steam admission valve rods, and then a connection is formed
either for pulling or pushing open the valves for free admission of steam into the
cylinder. The other ends of the catches are each formed with an inclined plane, so
that the slide bar in connection with the governor can disengage them from the
steam adinission valve rods, and allow the valves to close the steain passages to the
cylinder at any required portion of the stroke of the engine, in accordance with any
variation in the speed of the engine caused either by a variation in the steam
pressure or the load on the engine. A spring may act against each catch, or one
spring may be placed between them so as to cause them to readily drop into tho
notches forined in the valve rods, while they are being moved to and fro by the
eccentric or other alternating motion. The ends of the catches are placed in opposito
directions, so also are their inclined planes. The centre of the governor slide bar
and the centre of the pin which forms the fulcrum of the two catches should be at
right angles to their line of motion when the slide and catches are at half their
traverse; when thus placed the alternating motion of the catch slide will bring the
inclined planes of the catches in contact with the governor slide bar, and thus raise
their ends and release the valve rods, and allow the springs to close the valves and
shut off the steam from the cylinder sooner or later in accordance with the position
of the governor slide bar, which is actuated and regulated by the governor and the
speed of the engine.
The eccentric rod end is coupled to the catch slide by means of a joint which has
a screw and two check nuts, the end of the screw passes through a boss formed on
the catch slide, with a check nut at each side of the boss, by this arrangement
the steam admission valves can be readily adjusted whilst the engine is at work
when so required. The same eccentric which works the steam admission valves
will also work the exhaust steam valves by the method described in the Specification
of Letters Patent granted to me, and dated 1st February, 1860, No. 257.
A second arrangement of mechanism for working the steam admission valves
already described is as follows:-Instoad of employing catches to pull and push the
valves open, two small radial levers with projections on each side are turned and
fitted into suitable bearings formed upon the upper side of the slide that is moved
by the eccentric or other alternating motion, therefore these radial levers traverse
along with the slide, the other ends of the radial levers are coupled by pins to links
and thus form joints, and the other ends of the links are coupled to the ends of the
steam admission valve rods by other pins and thus form second joints. When the
radial levers and links are in their proper position for opening the valves the centre
of the pin at the junctions of the radial levers and links should be a little below a
aight line drawn from the centres of the joints of the steam admission valve rods
and the centres of the radial lever bearings; when thus arranged the radial lovers
and links have a greater tendency to keep in their proper position whilst they are
moving the steam admission valves. The two radial levers have each an inclined
plane which, when moving, comes in contact with the governor slide bar, which will
cause the joint formed at the junctions of the radial levers and links to rise above
the aforenamed centre line of pull and push, and thus allow the springs to close the
steam admission valves at the required portion of the stroke of the engine. The
above arrangement of radial levers and links may be coupled to the end of a
vibrating lever instead of the above named slide, by a pin passing through the radial
lovers and the end of the vibrating lever; by this arrangement the slide and slide
table are dispensed with.
Another arrangement of mechanism for working the steam admission valves and

page_text: for shutting off the steam from the engine cylinder is effected by a small stud or
crank pin fixed either in an ordinary disc crank, or to the side of a wheel that
rotates at the same speed as the engine. The crank pin passes into the eye of a rod
which is square at the end near the crank pin, the other end of this rod passes into
a long socket which acts as its guide, this socket has a joint that is coupled by a
pin to a slide socket joint, to which the steam admission valve rods are coupled
and also adjusted by check nuts, the readjustment of which can be done whilst
the engine is at work. The slide socket joint is continued in its length a little
beyond the end of the rod that is coupled to the crank pin, and in this end
there is a short slide that can be raised or lowered by the action of the governor.
When this slide is between the crank pin rod and the end of the slide socket joint,
the rotation of the crank opens the steain adinission valves, but when it has travelled
below the end of the short slide, the admission valves are free to be closed by the
action of the springs, as before described. The slido socket joint has a suitable
table whercon to slide.
Another arrangement of inochanism for working the steam admission valves so as
to shut off the steam from the cylinder at any required portion of the stroke of the
engine may be described as follows:-Upon a rotating shaft is fixed a cam, the face
of which is somewhat broad, but gradually becomes narrower in its broadth back-
wards, one edge of which is diagonal and also bevelled; the plan view of the cain is
a right angled triangle upon a cylinder. Near to the rotating surface of the cam
are fixed two vibrating levers, upon which blocks are made to slide between the
levers and the cam. One side of each block is angular, corresponding with the
diagonal of the cain. These blocks are connected by rods, etc., to the steam engine
governor, which actuate and regulate their position on the vibrating levers, and
thoroby determine the portion of the stroke at which the steam is shut off from the
cylinder.
Instead of using vibrating levers the steam admission valve rod ends inay slide
upon a suitable table fixed near to the rotating cam, and on the end of each valve
rod a block, similar to those upon the vibrating lever, may slide upon the end thereof,
and be actuated and regulated by the governor.
Another modification of mechanisin for obtaining the same result is by arranging
the cam so as to be moved sideways by the action of the governor, instead of using
movable slide blocks. The can and cam shaft can be used for working the exhaust
steain valves as woll as the steain ndinission valves.
In order to illustrate the improvements in air pumps and condensers I will describe
their application to a horizontal condensing steam engine.
The condenser may be of any convenient form, either cylindrical or of the box
form, and have an injection water branch at the most suitable and convenient place.
It must also have an outlet passage for the condensed steam and water, but no foot
valves. The outlet water passage is connected to the inlet passage of the air-pump,
which is midway between the ends of the air pump working barrel. The water
space openings into the air pump may be either narrow diagonal slots or a sufficient
number of small holes, which may be drilled through the body of the working
barrel after it has been bored or otherwise, and they should extend around the
lower half of its circumference, but only extending to the width of the water
passage. The aggregate area of these openings into the working barrel should be
sufficient to allow the condensed steam and water to pass freely therein. At each
end of the air pump there is a delivery branch for the water to pass through to the
delivery valves and hot woll.
Hence it will bo perceived that the condensed steam and water flows into the air
pump when near half its stroke, and thus it will rush into a vacuum by its own
gravity or otherwise, especially when the water in tho condenser is on a higher
level than in the air pump. When the air-pump bucket plunger has passed the
inlet openings it forces the condensed steain and water through the outlet passages
and delivery valves into the hot well, and thus completes the full action required of
an air pump.

page_text: The last part of my Invention consists in an improved arrangement of steam and
exhaust passages to and from the interior of the cylinder; also in the arrangement
of the steam admission and exhaust valvos for admitting and exhausting the steam
therefrom. At each end of the cylinder there are two steam passages, one into the
cylinder and the other into an exhaust stoam passage formed alongside thereof.
There are also spaces for the exhaust steain valves to work between the cylinder
and the valve chest, and the face side of the exhaust steam valves are towards the
cylinder, and are held in that position by tho action of the steam pressure on their
back when the steain is being admitted into the cylinder, but have no pressure
thereon whilst exhausting the steam. The steain admission valves are placed in
the box part of the valve chest, one at each end, and are opened and closed by any
of the methods before described. The two boxes wherein the steam admission
valves are placed are connected together by a steain passage at the lower part
thereof, and thus there is a direct communication between the two boxes. 'T'he
steam branch into the valve chest may be at any convenient place on the valve
chest; so may also the exhaust steam branch be at any convenient place upon the
steam engine cylindor. By this arrangement of valve boxes there is space allowed
for working tho steain admission valves between the two ends of the steam chests,
and the steam valve stuffing boxes may thus be placed between them. The valves
are ordinary plate slide valves.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said William Hartley in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 7th July
1879.
WILLIAM HARTLEY, of the Firm of Oram and Hartley, of the Greengate Iron
Works, Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM
ENGINES."
The nature of my Invention consists in improved arrangements of machinery for
adınitting and shutting off the steam from the piston and cylinder of steam engines
according to the varying steam pressure or the load upon the engines. Also in the
arrangemont and construction of a double acting air pump in connection with a
steam engine condenser and hot well, whereby the vapour, condensed steam, and
water can flow by their own gravity or otherwise from the condenser into the air
pump without having to pass through intermediate foot or other valvos. Hence by
this arrangement, the ordinary foot valves are dispensed with, and only delivery
valves are required through which the air pump plunger bucket forces and delivers
the condensed steam, water, and air into the hot well.
And in order that my Invention may be fully understood and readily carried
into operation, I will proceed to describe the accompanying 6 Sheets of Drawings.
On Sheet 1, Fig. 1, is an end view; Fig. 2, a side view; and Fig. 3, a plan of part
of a steam engine with slide plate valves to which one of my improved arrango-
ments of machinery for adinitting and shutting off the steam from the piston and
cylinder is applied. I wish to remark here that the saine inchinery may be
employed for working other classes of valves. a is the steam cylinder; 6, the
exhaust plate valves; and c, the side plate valves for admitting and cutting off the
stenin.
To each steam admission slide valve c there is connected a valvo spindle or rod
marked c' and c, which pass through ordinary stufling boxes to the outside of the
steain valvo chest. The steam admission valves caro closed by the action of the
springs d, or by levers and weights attached thereto, or by the action of the steain
pressure upon the sectional area of the valve rods, or upon the area of small pistons
attached thoreto ns described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to me,
and dated the 30th September 1859, No. 2213, and as will be more fully described
hereafter. The steam admission valves c may be opened by the action of an
ordinary occentric and rod or other suitablo alternating motion connected with the
slide e, to which are connected the catches by means of a bolt which acts as their
fulcrum; these catches are for pulling or pushing open the stean admission valves
the slide e moves upon a suitable slide table e¹. The ends of the valvo rods c', c³,
are supported by and slide in grooves in the table e, thus preventing undue friction
on the stuffing box glands. The bolt of the two catches/passes through projections
formed upon the upper part of the slide e, this bolt forms the fulcrum upon which
they move when they are engaged or disengaged from the steam admission valvo
rods c, c², by the action of the governor slide bar g, which can be either raised or
lowored by the governor. To the end of the governor slide bar are attached two
antifriction bowls. The catches are so formed and arranged that thoy can drop
into suitable notches formed in the steam admission valve rods, and then a con-
nection is formed either for pulling or pushing open the valves for free admission of
stean into the cylinder. The other ends of the catchos are each forined with an
inclined plane, so that the slide bar in connection with the governor can disengago
them from the steam admission valve rods, and allow the valves to close the steain
passages to the cylinder at any required portion of the stroke of the engine in
accordance with any variation in the speed of the engine caused either by a
variation in the steam pressure, or the load on the engine. A spring may act
against each catch, or one spring may be placed between them so as to cause them
to readily drop into the notches formed in the valve rods while they are being

page_text: moved to or fro by the eccentric or other alternating motion. The ends of the
catches are placed in opposite directions, so also are their inclined planes. The
centre of the governor slide bar and the centre of the bolt which forms the fulcrum
of the two catches, should be at right angles to their line of notion when the slide
and catches are at half their traverse. When thus placed, the alternating motion
of the catch slide will bring the inclined planes of the catches in contact with the
antifriction bowls of the governor slide bar, and thus raise their ends and release
the valve rods, and allow the springs d to close the valves c, and shut off the steam
from the cylinder sooner or later in accordance with the position of the governor
slide bar which is actuated and regulated by the governor and the speed of the
engine.
The eccentric rod end is coupled to the catch slide e by means of a joint which
has a screw and two check nuts, the end of the screw passes through a boss formed
on the catch slido with a check nut at each side of the boss, by this arrangement
the steam admirsion valves can be readily adjusted whilst the engine is at work
when so required. The same eccentric which works tho steam adinission valves,
will also work the exhaust steamu valves by the method described in tho Specification
of Letters Patent granted to me and dated 1st February 1860. No. 2.37.
On Sheet 2 Fig. 4 is an end viow; Fig. 5, a side view; and Fig. 6, a plan of part
of a steam engine to which a second arrangement of mechanism for working the
steam adinission valves already described is applied. Instead of employing the
catches to pull and push the valves c open, I employ two small radial lovers h, h¹,
the axles of which are supported and move in suitable bearings formed upon the
upper side of the slide e, which is movod by the eccentric or other alternating
motion as before described, therefore these radial levers traverse along with the
slido; the other ends of the radial lovers h, h', are coupled by pins to the links i,
and thus form joints; and the other ends of the links are coupled to the ends of the
steam admission valve rods c², c². by other pins, and thus forin second joints.
When the radial levers and links are in their proper position for opening the valves
c, the centre of the pin at the junctions of the radial levers and links should be a
little below a right line drawn from the centres of the joints of the steam admission
valve rods, and the centres of the radial lover bearings; when thus arranged, the
radial levers and links have a greater tendency to keep in their propor position
whilst they are moving the steam admission valves. The two radial lovers havo
each a projecting inclined plano which, when moving, comes in contact with the
governor slide bar 3 which will cause the joint formed at the junctions of the radial
levers and links to rise above the aforenamed centre line of pull and push, and thus
allow the springs d to closo the steam admission valves at the required portion of
the stroke of the engine. The above arrangement of radial levors and links may be
coupled to the end of a vibrating lever instead of to the above named slido, as
shewn in Sheet 3. Figs. 7, 8, and 9 are three views of part of a steam ongine to
which this modification of my Invention is applied. Figs. 10 and 11 are detached
views of part of the same. In this arrangement j is the vibrating levor coupled by
the pin to the end of the eccentric rod, and the upper end of the vibrating leverj
is jointed by the pin to the radial levers h, ', as shown best in Figs. 10 and 11.
By this arrangement the slido c and slide table shown in Sheets 1 and 2 aro dis-
pensed with.
Another arrangement of mechanism for working the steam admission valves, and
for shutting off the steam from the engine cylinder is effected by a small stud or
crank pin fixed either in an ordinary disc crank or to the side of a whoel that
rotates at the same speed as the engine. The crank pin passes into the eye of a rod
which is square at the end near the crank pin; the other end of this rod passes
into a long socket which acts as its guide; this socket has a joint that is coupled
by a pin to a slide socket joint, to which the steam adunission valve rods are
coupled, and also adjusted by check nuts, the re-adjustment. of which can be done
whilst the engine is at work."
The slide socket joint is continued in its length a little beyond the end of the rod

page_text: that is coupled to the crank pin, and in this end there is a short slide that can be
moved to or fro by the action of the governor.
When this slide is between the
crank pin rod and the end of the slide socket joint the rotation of the crank opens
the steam admission valvos, but when it has travelled past the end of the short
slide the admission valves are free to be closed by tho action of the springs d, as
before described. The slide socket joint has a suitable table whercon to slide.
On Sheet 4, Fig. 12 is an end view; Fig. 13, a side view; and Fig. 14, a plan of
another arrangement of mechanism for working the steam adinission valves so as to
shut off the steam froin the cylinder at any required portion of the stroke of the
engine as may be desired. Upon the rotating shaft m is fixed a cam n, the face of
which is somewhat broad but gradually becomes narrower in its breadth back-
wards; one edge of the cam is diagonal and it may be bevelled. The plan view of
the cain, see Fig. 14, is a right angled triangle upon a cylinder. Near to the rota-
ting surface of the cam are fixed two vibrating lovers o, upon which blocks o' are
made to slide between the levers and the cam; one side of each block is angular,
corresponding with the diagonal edge of the cam; these blocks are connected by
rods and other connections to the steam engine governor,
which actuates and regu-
lates their position on the vibrating levers, and thereby determines the portion of
the stroke at which the steam is shut off from the cylinder.
Instead of using vibrating levers, the steam admission valve rod ends may slide
upon a suitable table fixed near to the rotating cam, and on the end of each valve
rod a block, similar to those upon the vibrating lever, may slide upon the ond
thereof and be actuated and regulated by the governor.
Fig. 15 represents the vibrating levers with the slide blocks of working across
the levers.
On Sheet 5 Fig. 16 is an end view, Fig. 17, a side view, and Fig. 18, a plan of
another modification of mechanisin for obtaining the same result; in this arrange-
ment the camp is moved sideways by the action of the governor instead of using
movable slide blocks, as before described. The cain p and can shaft can be used
for working the exhaust steain valves as well as the steam admission valves.
cain pacts upon the elbow levers, the vertical arms of which are connected to the
valve rods, and the valves are closed by springs, as before described.
The
In order to illustrate the improvements in air pumps and condensers, I will
describe their application to a horizontal condensing steam engine, as shown in
Sheet 6.
Fig. 19 is an end view; Fig. 20, a side view; and Fig. 21, a plan of the same.
Fig. 22 is a detached view of the air pump.
The condenser may be of any convenient form, either cylindrical or of the box
form, and it has an injection water branch at the most suitable and convenient
place; it must also have an outlet passago for the condensed steam and water,
but no foot valves. The outlet water passage is connected to the inlet passage 73
of the air pump s, which is placed midway between the ends of
the airpump
working barrel. The water space openings into the air pump s
may be eithor
narrow diagonal slots or a sufficient number of small holes, which may be drilled
through the body of the working barrel after it has been borod or otherwise, and
they should extend around the lower portion of its circumference but only extending
to the width of the water passage; the aggregate area of these openings into the
working barrel should be sufficient to allow the condensed steam and water to pass
freely therein. At each end of the air pump there is a delivery branch s¹ for the
water to pass through to the delivery valves 8 and hot well &*. Hence it will be
perceived that the condensed steain and water flow into the air-pump when near
half the stroke of the plunger bucket, and thus it will rush into a vacuum by its
own gravity or otherwise, especially when the water in the condenser is on a higher
lovel than in the air puinp. When the air pump bucket, plunger has passed the
inlet opening it forces the condensed steam and water through the outlet
passages &' and delivery valves s' into the hot well s³, and thus completes the full

page_text: action required of an air pump. The exhaust steam from the cylinder may pass
into the condenser at the inost convenient place.
The last part of my Invention consists in an improved arrangement of steam and
exhaust passages to and from the interior of the cylinder, as shown in Figs. 19, 20,
21, and 23, also in the arrangement of the steam admission and exhaust valves for
admitting and exhausting the steam therefrom. At each end of the cylinder there
are two steain passages, one into the cylinder, and the other into the exhaust steam
passage formed alongside thereof; there are also spaces for the exhaust steam
valves to work between the cylinder and the valve chest, and the face side of the
exhaust steam valves are towards the cylinder, and are held in that position by the
action of the steam pressure on their backs when the steam is being admitted into
the cylinder, but they are free from steam pressure whilst exhausting the steam.
The steain admission valves care placed in the box part of the valve chest, one at
each end, and they are opened and closed by any of the methods before described.
The two boxes wheroin the steam adinission valves care placed are connected
together by a steam passage at the lower part thereof, and thus there is a direct
cominunication between the two boxes. The steain branch into the valve chest
may be at any convenient place on the valve chest, so may also the exhaust steam
branch be at any convenient place upon tho steam engine cylinder.
By this arrangement of valve boxes there is space allowed for working the steam
admission valves between the two ends of the steam chests, and the steam valve
stuffing boxes inay thus be placed between them.
Fig. 21 represents a mode of closing the steam admission valves by the action of
steain upon the enlarged aron of the valve rod c', the enlarged portion of the valve
rods inarked are provided with small pistons working in air cylinders which
are made with openings and air taps to regulate the supply and escape of
the air.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, and described the manner of
performing the same, I declare that I claim,-
First. The catches, and the parts acting in combination therewith for regulating
the supply of steam to the cylinder, according to the variations in the speed of the
engine, as shewn and described in reference to Figs. 1, 2, and 3.
Secondly. The mode of connecting the eccentric rod to the steain admission
valves, whereby the traverse of the said valves can be adjusted while the engine is
at work, as shewn and described.
Thirdly. The radial levers h, h', and the parts acting in combination therewith
for regulating the supply of steam to the cylinder, as shewn and described in
reference to Figs. 4, 5, and 6.
Fourthly. The vibrating lover j, and the parts acting in combination therewith for
regulating tho supply of stenin to the cylinder, as shewn and described in reference
to Figs. 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11.
Fifthly. Connecting a crank pin to a rod passing through a socket connected to
the rod of the steain admission valve, whereby the valve can be adjusted while the
engine is at work, as desired.
Sixthly. The cam and parts acting in combination therewith for regulating the
supply of steam to the cylinder, as shewn and described in reference to Figs. 12, 13,
14, and 15.
Seventhly. The cam p and the parts acting in conbination therewith for
regulating the supply of steain to the cylinder, as shewn and described in reference
to Figs. 16, 17, and 18.
Eighthly. The various improvoments in the arrangement and construction of air
pumps and condensers, and particularly the peculiar construction of the air pump
whereby the foot valves are dispensed with, as shewn and described in reference to
Figs. 19, 20, and 22.
Ninthly. The improved arrangement of the steam and exhaust passages to and

page_text: from the interior of the steam cylinder, as shown and described in reference to
Figs. 19, 20, 21, and 23, and,
Tenthly. The peculiar construction of the side pipes or valve casing, as shewn
and described in reference to Figs. 19, 20, and 21.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Hartley, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Fifth day of July, One thousand eight hundred and seventy
nine.
WM. HARTLEY. (L.S.)