IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH STEERING ENGINES
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Carnegie Kirk, of Glasgow, in the
County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH STEERING ENGINES."
Sealed the 10th May 1872, and dated the 14th November 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Carnegie Kirk
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 14th November 1871.
I, ALEXANDER CARNEGIE KIRK, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH STEERING ENGINES," to
be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its objects to secure simplicity, compactness,
convenience, and non-liability to derangement in the construction and
) arrangement of steering engines and parts connected therewith.
In one modification the engines comprise two cylinders fixed hori-
zontally on a bed frame which also carries the crank shaft. The cylinder

page_text: valves, which are by preference of the piston class and arranged between
the cylinders, but at a slightly lower level, are worked by single eccentrics
situated between the two cranks. The starting, stopping, and reversing of
the engines is effected by appliances which move the eccentrics across
the shaft, each eccentric being made capable of such movement by being
arranged to oscillate on a pin in the crank cheek, or in an enlargement
or boss on the shaft. The body of each eccentric is slotted or cut out to
embrace a smaller eccentric, which by turning on the shaft moves the
larger eccentric across as required. The two smaller eccentrics are fast
to a toothed wheel put on the shaft in two halves, and the toothed wheel
gears with an idle wheel, and this with a third toothed wheel on what
may be termed the handing pinion shaft, which will thus turn in the
same direction as the wheel on the crank shaft. The crank shaft has
fast on it a pinion which gears with a spur wheel on the shaft of the
chain barrel or equivalent part of the steering gear. The handing pinion
shaft has on it a pinion gearing with a spur wheel on what may be
termed the engine handing shaft, which when convenient passes through
the main barrel shaft, made tubular for the purpose, and has a hand
wheel fixed on its front end, the main barrel shaft having steering wheels
fixed on it in the ordinary way, to be used when the engines are not
working. Stops are applied between the engine hand wheel or shaft and
the barrel shaft or a steering wheel on it to limit the extent to which
the former can be turned by hand in either direction in advance of the
latter; and whenever the engine hand wheel is turned it acts through
the gearing herein-before described so as to move the eccentrics into the
positions proper for admitting steam to work the engines in the required
direction. On the engines working they cause the barrel shaft to act
on the rudder, and in doing so to turn in the same direction as that in
which the hand wheel was turned, which will allow the hand wheel to
be moved further round if required. The engines will continue to work
as long as the hand wheel is moved round; but on the hand wheel being
held stationary the action of the engines will be to stop themselves by
bringing the eccentrics into their middle inactive positions. To prevent
the engines being worked beyond certain limits a screw thread is cut on
the handing pinion shaft, and a nut on the screwed part moves in guides,
so as on reaching the end of its travel in either direction to prevent the
shaft from turning further in the same direction.

page_text: filed by the said Alexander Carnegie Kirk in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 13th May 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
CARNEGIE KIRK, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the
thirty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Alexander Carnegie Kirk, Her special
licence that I, the said Alexander Carnegie Kirk, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alexander Carnegie Kirk,
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 term 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 AND CONNECTED WITH STEERING ENGINES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alexander Carnegie Kirk,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Alexander Carnegie Kirk, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement in writing, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawings, that is to say :-
My said Invention has for its objects to secure simplicity, compactness,
convenience, and non-liability to derangement in the construction and
arrangement of steering engines and parts connected therewith. And in
order that my said Invention and the manner of performing the same

page_text: may be properly understood, I hereunto append two Sheets of explanatory
Drawings, to be herein-after referred to, and representing one modifica-
tion of steering engines and accompanying parts as made with my
improvements. In these Drawings the same reference numerals are
used to mark the same or like parts wherever they are repeated.
Figure 1, on Sheet 1 of the Drawings, is a sectional plan of the
engines; Figure 2 is a longitudinal vertical section; and Figure 3 is a
transverse vertical section; Figures 4, 5, and 6 are enlarged views of the
parts in connection with the eccentrics for working the valves; Figure 7,
on Sheet 2, is an enlarged section of one of the valves; and Figure 8 is
a side elevation, showing the connection of the engines with a common
form of steering apparatus.
The engines comprise two cylinders 1, 1, fixed horizontally on a bed
frame 2, which also carries the crank shaft 3.
The cylinder valves 4, which are by preference of the piston class and
arranged between the cylinders, but at a slightly lower level, are worked
by single eccentrics 5, 5, situated between the two cranks 6, 6. The
starting, stopping, and reversing of the engines is effected by appliances
which move the eccentrics across the shaft, each eccentric being made
capable of such movement by being arranged to swing on a pin 7 in the
crank cheek 8, or in an enlargement or boss on the shaft. The body of
each eccentric is slotted or cut out to embrace a smaller eccentric 9,
which by turning on the shaft moves the larger eccentric 5 across as
required. The two smaller eccentrics 9 are fast to a toothed wheel 10,
put on the shaft in two halves, and the toothed wheel 10 gears with an
idle wheel 11, and this with a third toothed wheel 12, on what may be
termed the handing pinion shaft 13, which will thus turn in the same
direction as the wheel 10 on the crank shaft 3. The orank shaft 3 has
fast on it a pinion 14, which gears with a spur wheel 15 on the shaft 16
of the chain barrel 17 of the steering gear. The handing pinion shaft 13
has on it a pinion 18 gearing with a spur wheel 19, and having the same
ratio thereto as the pinion 14 to the wheel 15. The spur wheel 19 is on
what may be termed the engine handing shaft 20, which when
convenient passes through the main barrel shaft 16, made tubular for
the purpose, and has a hand wheel 21 fixed on its front end, the main
barrel shaft having steering wheels 22 fixed on it in the ordinary way,
to be used when the engines are not working. Stops 23 are applied
between the engine hand wheel 21, or shaft 20, and the barrel shaft 16,

page_text: -
or a steering wheel 22 on it, to limit the extent to which the former can
be turned by hand in either direction in advance of the latter, and
whenever the engine hand wheel is turned, it acts through the gearing
herein-before described, so as to move the eccentrics 5 into the positions
proper for admitting steam to work the engines in the required direction.
On the engines working, they cause the barrel shaft 16 to act on the
rudder, and in doing so to turn in the same direction as that in which
the hand wheel 21 was turned, which by carrying forward the stop 23
on the wheel 22 will allow the hand wheel to be moved further round if
required. The engines willcontinue to work as long as the hand wheel 21
is moved round; but on the hand wheel being held stationary,
the action of the engines will be to stop themselves by bringing the
eccentrics 5 into their middle inactive positions. To prevent the
engines being worked beyond certain limits, a screw thread 24 is cut on
the handing pinion shaft 20, and a nut 25 on the screwed part moves
in guides, so as on reaching the end of its travel in either direction to
prevent the shaft from turning further in the same direction.
To secure an easy and regular motion I prefer to make the valves 4
with little or no cover, and to actuate them so as to admit steam
throughout a great part of the stroke, or even throughout the whole
stroke, at the same time making the admission of the steam more gradual
by forming the inlet edges of the valves with tapered projections 26 (or
with cylindrical extensions formed with V notches).
I also relieve the exhaust edges of the valves, as shown at 27, so as to
allow of the escape from the cylinder of any steam which may continue
to leak into it past the admission edges, after the valve is sufficiently
closed to stop the engines; this, by rendering the accumulation of steam
at either side of the piston impossible, prevents undesirable movements
of the engines that might otherwise take place.
In some cases the same object may be affected by boring a small hole
through the piston, which, by allowing a little steam to pass through,
will keep the piston in equilibrium without materially affecting the
efficiency of the engines when working.
The engines are obviously susceptible of many of the modifications of
arrangement in use with ordinary steam engines having two or more
cylinders; and one such arrangement recommendable for its convenience
in some cases is that with the cylinders inclined to each other and con-

page_text: nected to one crank. In this arrangement the valves of both cylinders
may be worked by one eccentric (5), having its internal eccentric (9)
with the parts for actuating the latter.
In cases in which the hand wheel (21) is not required to move along
with the steering wheels (22) as, for instance, when the steam steering
gear is distinct from any hand gear, the smaller eccentric (9) may be
connected in any convenient way to the hand wheel, so as to be moved
by it, and the stops (23) for limiting the angle through which the hand
wheel can be turned in advance may then be fixed, one on the engine
shaft (3) and the other on the eccentric (9).
Having thus particularly described my said Invention and the manner
of performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to
the precise details herein described or delineated; but that what I believe
to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured to me by
the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
1. The arranging or combining together of the parts of steering
engines, substantially in the improved manner herein described.
2. The arranging of the valve eccentric (5) so as to swing across the
crank shaft by the action of another eccentric (9) or equivalent detail
turned in advance by hand, substantially as herein-before described.
3. The shaping of the engine valves, as shown at the parts marked
26 and 27, in Figure 7 of the accompanying Drawings, or in an
equivalent manner, as and for the purposes herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Carnegie Kirk, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
ALEXANDER C. KIRK. (L.S.)