IMPROVEMENTS CALCULATED TO INCREASD. THE EFFICIENCY OR WORKING POWER OF STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1855

page_text: new.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Armand Jean Baptiste Louis de
Marcesheau at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 21st November 1855.
I, ARMAND JEAN BAPTISTE LOUIS DE MARCESHEAU, of Paris, Ancien Consul.
Général Chargé d'Affaires, Officier de la Légion d'Honneur, do hereby declare.
the nature of the said Invention for IMPROVEMENTS CALCULATED TO INCREASD.
THE EFFICIENCY OR WORKING POWER OF STEAM ENGINES, to be as follows:-
Instead of having, as in ordinary steam engines, an immoveable cylinder,
wherein a piston is propelled by steam, I dispose the cylinder E (Fig. 1) so
that it may move to and fro along the cylindrical surface of the immoveable,
pipe A, the top of which should never be in contact with the bottom of the,
said cylinder. The central cylindrical canal B within the said pipe is for the
passage of the steam, which is admitted into it by the small pipe d, which
steam also makes its exit through the same pipe. In both cylinder and pipe
there is a circular space inside, filled with pulverised charcoal (Fig. 1 and 2) to
prevent condensation. The mouth J of the cylinder E has the appearance of
a stuffing box, and might be one; but, as shown (Fig. 3, 4), it is a new plan
which I have contrived in constructing and filling it inside, which plan will be
hereafter explained. A second system A', E', constructed exactly on the same

page_text: plan as A, E, is symetrically and invariably united to it, so that each of
them is successively propelled by the other, whereby the requisite rectilinear
reciprocating motion is obtained. The inner diameter of J (Fig. 3) is
somewhat larger than the outer diameter of the pipe A inside J; the circular
space between the low partition n and the cylindrical side of the box, both
concentric with the pipe A, is filled up by a moveable metallic ring n', resting
on a few low pillars, which prevent its coming in contact with the bottom of
the box, and consequently with the orifice of the small pipe i, ', of which
the other orifice i opens in the interval left between the top of the pipe A
and the bottom of the cylinder E. The upper surface of the said ring n' is
on a level with the upper face of the partition n. The space between both
upper faces, the top, and the circular side of the box, is filled up by a flat
ring of vulcanised caoutchouc; of course the metallic ring n', when lifted up,
by the steam coming in by the orifice of the pipe i, presses the caoutchouc
ring, which in its turn presses the flexible tube m against the surface
of the pipe A with a force proportionate to the pressure of the steam, the
escape of which between the pipe A 'and. the tube mis thereby prevented.
The flexible tube m is cut slantingly. A box exactly like the one J. may
advantageously replace the stuffing box of the piston rod in ordinary use in
steam engines. The piston itself may also be constructed on the same
principle, in order that its pressure against the sides of the cylinder may
increase or decrease with the pressure of the steam, and thereby prevent the
leakage of the steam round the piston. In such a case the construction of a
piston should be as follows:-The fixed disc in contact with the steam is
provided with two or three inlets, whereby the steam may reach the face of a
flat and moveable metallic ring, the small diameter of which is equal to the
diameter of the piston rod, and its large diameter is equal to the inner
diameter of the expansive girth or segment of the piston. The said ring is
laying on a few low pillars at a small distance of the aforesaid disc; the
other face of the said ring is in contact with a flat ring of vulcanised
caoutchouc, the opposite face of which is in contact with the second disc of the
piston. Should the piston successively come in contact with the steam on
each of its faces, it would be sufficient to add a second moveable flat metallic
ring between the caoutchouc ring and the second disc... ;::
:
Another mode of increasing the working power of a steam engine is to
convert the rectilinear reciprocating motion into a continuous circular one
without the assistance of beams, cranks, connecting rods, or fly wheels. The
plan I have devised as being the solution of this problem is as follows:-On
the same side of the vertical .pland containing the axis of a horizontal

page_text: revolving shaft I fix 4 quadrants provided with cogs (Fig. 5, 6), two of
which being above the horizontal plane of the said axis and the other two
underneath. Now, having set by the side of each other two steam engines,
like A, E, A, E, and attached to each of them a couple of racks, one of which
(No. 1 or 2) having its teeth downwards, and the other (No. 3 or 4) its teeth
upwards, the latter being placed so as to pass under the shaft and meet the
teeth of the corresponding cogged quadrant (1 or 4), the two others placed
so as to pass above the shaft and meet the teeth of the corresponding toothed
quadrant (No. 1 or 3), both racks (No. 1 and 4) moving conjointly backwards
and forwards, and both racks (No. 2 and 8) also moving conjointly in both
ways, it is clear that a continuous rotation would be obtained if the centre
shaft were worked on each side by vertical racks, or if a vertical shaft by
horizontal racks on each side.
Were the above-described engines A, E, applied to working a pump, such
an application would, I think, be more successfully carried out by means of the
following contrivance:-The moveable cylinder E¹ being disjoined from the
moveable cylinder E with the pipe A' might simply be moved farther on
the same axis without altering in any way its position. After having reduced
the round plates H and H' to the diameter of the body of the corresponding
cylinder, the body of the cylinder E might be fitted inside the body of a
pumping barrel, and the body of the cylinder E' inside the body of another
pump barrel symetrically placed, each of the said pumping barrels being
provided with a box furnished with a vulcanised caoutchouc ring, like the box
J (Fig. 3); then both E and E' should be fastened to a same moveable frame,
so that E could not be propelled by the steam without conjointly driving
the frame and cylinder E', and vice versa. Now it is obvious that during
the reciprocating motion of cylinder E and E', each pumping barrel would
alternately pump the liquid up or throw it out.