IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGINES TO BE WORKED BY AIR OR GASES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for
Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGINES TO BE
WORKED BY AIR OR GASES."-A. communication.
Sealed the 7th June 1853, and dated the 4th April 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward
Newton at the Office of Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 4th April 1853.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGINES TO BE WORKED BY AIR OR
GASES" to be as follows:-
The Invention for which I desire Letters Patent relates merely to
certain improvements upon a machine or apparatus invented by the
author of the present improvements, and already, patentend in this
country. Motive power is obtained by the alternate expansion and
contraction of a volume of air alternately heated and cooled by means
of a stove and refrigerating apparatus, the air so acted upon being made
to operate first on the under side of the piston in one cylinder, and is

page_text: then passed through a refrigerator, and transferred to the upper side of
the piston in another cylinder. Any convenient number of cylinders
and pistons say four or six-are combined in a series, and made to act
together, so as to impart rotary motion to a crank shaft. The pistons
of these cylinders are, however, connected to the crank shaft in such a
manner that the several pistons are all in advance one of the other, that
is, they act one after the other; or, in other words, when one piston is
commencing to ascend, the next to it has ascended one quarter or one
third of a stroke; the next one half or two thirds, as the case may be;
and the last, if there are only four, is near the end of the stroke. By
this means some one or more of the pistons is or are always acting on
a favourable part of the throw of the crank. Another improvement
consists in employing separate pistons and cylinders for receiving the
hot and cold air. The pistons of each pair of cylinders is connected
together by a piston rod, and the air to be transferred from one
cylinder to the other is made to pass along pipes, which
may be
heated and cooled as may be required; and the direction of the air
is regulated by a four-way cock or valve, which must be worked by any
convenient mechanical contrivance connected with the engine, as in the
ordinary steam engine. The air may either be heated in the hot-air
cylinders by means of a hot jacket or otherwise, or it may be heated
previously to allowing it to enter the cylinders. The cold-air cylinders
are kept cool by a jacket filled with cold water, and which is renewed as
it becomes heated by the air.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Edward Newton, in the Great Seal
Patent Office, on the 4th October 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the sixteenth

page_text: year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said: William Edward Newton, Her special
licence that I, the said William Edward Newton, my executors, ad-
ministrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Edward
Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the terni therein expressed, should and lawfully. might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the, Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGINES TO BE WORKED BY AIR OR GASES,". being a com-
munication from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the, said William Edward Newton, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, should particularly. describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to
be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I,, the said William Edward Newton, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement, reference. being had to the
drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and, figures marked
thereon (that is to say):
The Invention which has been communicated to me by my foreign
correspondent as aforesaid, and for which I have obtained Letters
Patent, relates principally to improvements upon a machine or ap-
paratus invented by the author of the present improvements, and already
patented in this country: In the present improvements, as in the pre-
vious Invention just referred to, motive power is obtained by the
alternate expansion; and contraction of a volume of air alternately
heated by a stove, and cooled by means of a refrigerating apparatus; the
air so acted upon being made to operate first on the under side of the
piston in one cylinder, and then passed through a refrigerator and trans-
ferred to the upper side of the piston in another cylinder. Any convenient
number of cylinders and pistons-say four or six-are combined in a

page_text: series, and made to act together, so as to impart rotary motion to a
crank shaft. The pistons of these cylinders are, however, connected to
the crank shaft in such a manner that the several pistons are all in
advance one of the other; that is, they act one after the other; or,
in other words, when one piston is commencing to ascend, the next
to it has ascended one quarter or one third of a stroke; the next one
half or two thirds, as the case may be; and the last, if there are only
four, is near the end of the stroke. By this means some one or more
of the pistons is or are always acting on a favourable part of the throw
of the crank.
Another improvement consists in employing separate pistons and
cylinders for receiving the hot and cold air. The pistons of each pair
of cylinders are connected together by a piston rod, and the air to be
transferred from one cylinder to the other is made to pass along pipes,
which may be heated and cooled as may be required; and the direction
of the air is regulated by a four-way cock or valve, which must be
worked by any convenient mechanical contrivance connected with the
engine, as in the ordinary steam engine. The air may either be heated
in the hot-air cylinders by means of a hot jacket or otherwise, or it
may be heated previously to allowing it to enter the cylinders. The
cold-air cylinders are kept cool by a jacket filled with cold water, and
which is renewed as it becomes heated by the air.
Supposing any given capacity or space, or, to speak more correctly,
a receptacle for caloric, to be in constant communication with two
variable or changeable capacities, the one hot and the other cold,
these three capacities (or chambers) containing a volume of air or
other gaseous medium more or less compressed; the main object
intended to be effected will be to cause the hot and cold volumes of
air or gas to vary successively by the operation of cranks, which will
actuate either pistons or blowers, or any other equivalent motive agents
which are employed for similar purposes in steam engines or blowing
engines. By this means the motive force produced by the piston or
moveable organ of the hot chamber shall exceed the power exerted by
the piston or moveable organ of the cold chamber; or, in other words,
the object of the present Invention will be to produce a motive engine

page_text: worked by means of caloric, in which the space where the motive power
is generated shall be in constant communication with that in which it
is exerted.
Various arrangements of machinery may be devised for carrying this
principle into practical effect; and without intending to confine myself
to the precise arrangement or construction of parts hereafter described
and shewn in the drawings, I will proceed to explain one method of
effecting the proposed object.
Fig. 1, Sheet I., is a diagram explaining the principle of the Inven-
tion; and it will be understood, by referring to this Figure, that a body
of air is enclosed between a piston n, which works in a cold cylinder,
and a piston m, which works in a hot cylinder. Suppose this body of
air to be under these two pistons at a, B, and R', there will be con-
stant communication between a, and B, by means of a large receiver R'
in which the temperature of the air is changed, and is therefore deno-
minated the temperature changing channel, or caloric receiver, R'.
These two pistons n, and m, are worked by means of two cranks W,
and Y, set at an angle of, say ninety degrees to each other; and, if
the connecting rods be supposed to be extended to an indefinite length,
the course of the pistons will be represented by the versed sines of
the angular movement of the cranks.
Let us take as zero (0°) the extremity of the upper course of the
cranks of the pistons, and suppose the starting point to be when the
crank Y, which works the piston n, is at forty-five degrees, and
the crank W, which works the piston m, is at 45+90-135. While
the crank of the hot piston m, is passing from one hundred and thirty-
five degrees to two hundred and twenty-five degrees, the crank of the
cold piston n, advances from forty-five degrees to one hundred and
thirty-five degrees, (that is to say) it traverses about seven-tenths of its
course, when the crank of the hot piston, having passed beyond its dead
point, has returned again to its starting position, as the sine 135° sine
225°. This has nearly the same effect as if the hot cylinder had been
closed during the compression of the cold air in the receiver R'.
The crank of the hot piston afterwards passes from two hundred
and twenty-five degrees to three hundred and fifteen degrees, (that

page_text: is to say) it passes through seven tenths of its course, while the crank
of the cold piston passes over its dead point from one hundred and
thirty-five degrees to two hundred and twenty-five degrees, the two
positions being exactly similar. The cold cylinder is, therefore, the
same as closed during the distension of the air furnished by the
receiver to the hot cylinder and dilated in that cylinder.
It will be seen that by this arrangement, first, the distributing
valves are dispensed with, and that consequently there is no diminution
of pressure and shock, which always result from the opening of the
passages and the passage of a compressed fluid into a chainber in which
only a moderate pressure exists. Secondly, that nevertheless the motive
force produced by the hot piston is greater than the power exerted by
the cold piston, for by reason of the expansion of the air the hot piston
can have a greater section than the cold piston; or if the hot and cold
volumes generated be equal, the pressure will be greater in the direction
of the course of the hot piston than it was in the direction opposite to
that of the cold piston; and, moreover, there remains an excess of
pressure favourable to the return of the cold piston. Hence it will be
seen that the exact proportion between the volumes generated and the
dilatation by heat is not necessary.
The phenomena of resistance and of work are reciprocally analogous
when the crank of the hot piston passes over its upper dead point, and
passes from three hundred and fifteen degrees to forty-five degrees, for
then the cold piston rarifies the air in the receiver by rising from two
hundred and twenty-five degrees to three hundred and fiftcen degrees
in order to facilitate the descent of the hot piston from forty-five degrees
to one hundred and thirty-five degrees.
Such is the operation of the engine during a single revolution of the
cranks Y, and W, merely as respects the simple operations of the
pistons. But what has been said with regard to the air contained
above the pistons m, and n, is equally applicable to the air contained in
C, and D, and in another receiver R³. The effect may, therefore, be
doubled without complicating the machine.
An engine constructed according to this plan, with two cylinders only,
would, however, be irregular in its action, as for every half revolution of

page_text: the cranks the work would be negative during seventy-five degrees,
and positive during one hundred and five degrees only (this has been
proved by calculation). In order to render the working regular,
another set m', and n¹, must be added. But in order to avoid the
necessity for additional cranks, those sets of pistons which have similar
movements must be connected together by suitable rods. Thus c, ", a,
is coupled with A, m, C, below, which has the same movement. D,, B,
is also coupled with b, n, d. (If the pistons n and m, m¹ and n¹,
instead of having their rods coupled together, were united by beams,
their movements, instead of being similar, would be similarly alter-
nating, and consequently m would occupy the position m¹¹, and n¹
the position n¹¹.)
These two methods of coupling necessitate the reversal of the com-.
munication with the second set, (that is to say) that if the cylinders of
one set, n and m, communicate from above to above, and from under-:
neath to underneath, the cylinders of the second set, n¹ and m¹, will
communicate from underneath to above, and from above to underneath,
by the receivers R2, R4.
Rotary motion in the direction indicated is .given by the commu-
nications a, B, b, C, c, D; and A. This motion would be obtained in.
the contrary direction by reversing the communications, (that is to say):
by establishing them according to b, A, c,B, d,C,' a, D, by which
means they are rendered direct in the second set m¹, n¹, and crossed in
the first set m, n.
A. practical example is given in a beam arrangement having two
dilating cylinders in, m', heated by a steam jacket, and two condensing
cylinders n, n², surrounded by cold water. By compressing the
air by means of an outside pump in the receivers the motive force
will be increased, but a moderate pressure only may be maintained
O by allowing the air to re-enter the receivers by means of valves.
Under these circumstances the interior pressure will vary by: the
action of the pistons from one to two atmospheres or thereabouts,
supposing the volume of the receiver to be equal to that of the cold
cylinder.
5₁
A reservoir of air at two atmospheres must be maintained near the
engine for the purpose of starting it; when required for this purpose, it

page_text: is only necessary to open the communication between this reservoi
and one of the receivers. If the engine were to stop in the position
represented, the air must be caused to pass from the reservoir into the
receiver R, and, in general, under the hot piston m³, which ha
advanced forty-five degrees, or against the cold piston n', which ha
nearly arrived at the bottom of its course.
In Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4, Sheets II. and III. of the accompanying
drawings, an engine is represented constructed upon this principle
In this engine the cylinders M, N, are united by means of beams to
the cylinders M', N', so that the strokes of the pistons m', n', will
correspond with those of the pistons m, n. For this reason the posi
tions of the pistons m, and n', are indicated in the preceding Figure 2,
by dotted lines; should this, however, be somewhat modified in
practice, in consequence of the obliquity of the connecting rods, it will
not be of much consequence.
The cranks 3, and 31, are mounted upon the same shaft 1, and are
set at right angles to each other, so that during an entire revolution
the four pistons will perform their strokes at about regular intervals.
-
The cylinders M, M', are heated by a steam jackets, s, s. A jet of
steam is also introduced into the boxes m, m', of the hot pistons,
through a lower rod 11, 13, (see Fig. 1,) which is united at 13, to a
flexible or jointed tube, or by a telescopic sliding tube communicating
with a boiler below, so that the water of condensation may return
therein this is also the case with the water which condenses in the
jackets s, s.
The cold cylinders N, N', are kept cool by the circulation of cold
water at v, v; a current of cold water is also maintained in the box of
the pistons n, n', through a rod W, below, which allows of the exit of
the water conveyed beneath a disc u, u, into the box of the pistons n, n',
by a concentric tube 14, 12.
Independently of the four pistons and their cylinders the principal
organs of the engine are, first, the caloric receivers R', R², R³, R*,
which are merely channels for circulation, the capacity of which is
about equal to that of the cold cylinders; second, the distributors
15, 15, which are employed merely for the purpose of reversing the s

page_text: action of the engine, (that is to say,) for the purpose of moving back-
wards or forwards, or for stopping the engine.
The caloric receivers are in this instance rectangular cases having a
square sectional form; they are intended to be filled with wire gauze for
the purpose of storing up the caloric of the air coming from the hot
cylinders M, M, and of imparting it to the air which proceeds to the
cold cylinders N, N¹.
The distributors consist of two cylinders 15, 151, set side by side
against the openings of the cold cylinders (see Fig. 1, which is a
sectional view of one of the distributors). The distributor encloses two
piston or slide valves P, P, mounted upon a common rod which com-
municates with the exterior by means of a stuffing box above. On
moving these valves into the dotted positions represented at p, p, the
communication of the passages is reversed from the direction shewn by
the arrows through a², B2, c, D2, to the position a², D2, c², B2, the
opening, being put into communication with the orifice B², by the
pipe 16, 17, which is cast in one piece with the case of the distributor.
It will be seen that in the distributor 15¹, the valves are at the top
of their course (see Figs. 2, and 4,) while in the distributor 15,
(Fig. 1,) they are at the bottom. The reason of this is, that the com-
munications must, as above stated, be crossed in the second set when
they are direct in the first. By this arrangement it will be seen that
in order to reverse the action the piston or valves P1, P¹, must be
lowered, while those P, P, must be raised; and for this purpose the rods
of each set may be attached to the two extremities of the same beam.
In order to slacken the speed of the engine, or stop it, the valves are
advanced more or less in front of the orifices B2, D2; or the same effect
might be obtained as with these distributors and valves by employing
two four-way cocks.
In order to regulate the speed of the engine a throttle valve may be
placed in one of the four pipes r, 2, 3, r, of the receivers, which valve
may be worked in the ordinary manner by means of a ball regulator.
The following are the remaining principal parts of the engine:-The
fly wheel is represented by the dotted circle 2; and its shaft 1, has two

page_text: right-angle cranks 3, and 31; 3, 4, and 3¹; 41, are connecting rods for
communicating motion from the cranks to the beams 6, 7, 61, 71, which
are connected by suitable rods to the pistons m, n, and n, m, in each
set these. beams have their fulcrum at 5. 4, 5, 4, 5, are beams or
levers, which are set at an angle and prolonged in order to amplify or
increase the extent of movement of the beams 6, 7, and by means of
the rods 3, 4, 31, 41, impart such motion to the fly wheel shaft 1; 6, 511,
is a link for connecting the beam 6; 7, to the lever 4, 5; 9, 10, are
hollow cylindrical rods cast in one piece with the box of the pistons m³, n';
7, 8, is an oscillating rod which connects the piston with the beam at
the bottom of its hollow rod. M, M, are the hot.cylinders; N,N',
the cold cylinders; 15, 16, 17, is the case of the distributors; P, P,.are
the slide valves. of the distributors. It must be borne in mind that the
distributors are not required in engines which are required always to
be driven in the same direction, such, for instance, as those used, for
manufacturing purposes. R, R²; R³, R, are the caloric receivers ;
,,,, are pipes connecting the receivers with the hot cylinders...
'
Fig. 5, represents a modification of the cylinder. N, shewn in Fig. 1.
The same letters indicate like parts. This figure represents in section
a cold cylinder, arranged in such a manner as to augment the surface
of contact between the fluid and the variable capacity...
It is evident that a similar arrangement might be adapted to the hot
cylinders. In this case, and in order to obtain the most advantageous
effect, a large diameter will be given to the piston relatively to its
stroke. The piston box must be made of a conical or hemispherical
form, concavo-convex, and the bottoms of the cylinders must be made
of a suitable form to allow of the pistons fitting into them.
It is important to. increase as much as possible the points of contact
between the air and the variable capacities (that is, the cylinders) where
the motive force is developed.
It is evident that many different arrangements might be adopted, and
also various methods of heating; but I have confined myself in this
instance to the description of an engine of the most simple construction,
having for its object the utilization of the motive force of gases dilated

page_text: by obtaining as much advantage as possible from the caloric receivers
provided with wire gauze.
The above-described engine can be made to work either with
permanent gases, or with gas mixed with steam or vapour, whatever
may be the mode of heating employed.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fourth day of October,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-
three
Witness, J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane, London.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.S.)