IMPROVEMENTS IN ROTARY MOTIVE-POWER ENGINES, WHICH MAY ALSO BE USED AS LIQUID Pumps or METERS
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Frederick Wood at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th May 1873.
I, CHARLES FREDERICK WOOD, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ROTARY MOTIVE-POWER ENGINES, WHICH MAY ALSO
BE USED AS LIQUID Pumps or METERS," to be as follows:-
My said Invention relates to a rotary engine to be driven by the force
of steam, air, gas, or water, and which may also be used for raising,
forcing, and measuring liquids. Its chief use, however, is as a rotary
steam engine, and I will therefore more particularly herein-after so
describe it.
My improved engine is constructed as follows:-It has a circular
drum or case in which I fit a disc or plate, whose central portion is a
ball or sphere fitted to work freely in all directions in the said case.
This case is made in two halves which are united by screw bolts. A fixed
partition or abutment extends across the said case, the same being pre-
ferably formed in two pieces, one in each half of the case, and fitted
close together and made tight in the centre. The disc has an aperture

page_text: through it and extending from the central ball or sphere to its periphery.
The aforesaid partition passes through this aperture and is made steam-
tight by suitable packing fitted upon the central ball. The said disc
has also a packing ring at its periphery properly fitted to the internal
periphery of the case. One of the halves or portions of the said case
is made fast upon the driving shaft which is supported to turn freely
in situate bearings. The other half or portion of the said case is formed
with a central aperture to admit an oblique or inclined shaft, which is
attached to the ball or sphere of the disc and is extended therefrom
through the said central aperture into suitable bearings which support
it and maintain it at the required angle to the driving shaft. The said
driving shaft is fitted with a stuffing box into which steam is conducted
. from the boiler. From this stuffing box the said shaft has a passage
communicating with a port or passage in the central ball opening
through the disc into the case. The disc is fitted upon this shaft at
a right angle to its axis, and therefore occupies a position oblique to
the axis of the said case. The sides of the latter are inclined to the
same angle, and the disc and inner surfaces of the case are so formed
that the disc fits closely upon the two opposite portions of the said case,
and a chamber is formed between these portions and the fixed abut-
ment in which the steam admitted through the said passage exerts its
force upon the said abutment, and thereby causes the rotation of the
said case and with it the disc and shafts. By making the admission
port or aperture in the ball in the form of a slot, and so arranging the
same that the passage in the shaft alternatively opens into it and leaves
it; or by having a slot in the case so arranged that it passes over and
leaves the passage in the ball. In each revolution of the case I am
enabled to cut of the steam and use the same expansively throughout a
portion of each revolution of the engine. An exhaust aperture is
formed in the said disc on the side of the said partition opposite to that
in which the admission aperture is formed, and communicates with a
passage in the oblique shaft which has a stuffing box connected with the
exhaust pipe. Instead of having the admission aperture in the driving
shaft and the exhaust aperture in the oblique shaft as above described I
may arrange them both in the said oblique shaft.