IMPROVEMENTS IN CLUTCHES FOR ENGAGING AND Disengaging ParTS OF MACHINERY, AND IN APPARATUS FOR WORKING SUCH CLUTCHES
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Benjamin Walker and John Frederick Augustus
Pflaum, of Goodman Street Works, Leeds, in the County of York,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CLUTCHES FOR ENGAGING AND
Disengaging ParTS OF MACHINERY, AND IN APPARATUS FOR WORKING SUCH
CLUTCHES
"
Sealed the 24th June 1870, and dated the 7th February 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Benjamin Walker and
John Frederick Augustus Pflaum at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with their Petition, on the 7th February 1870.
We, BENJAMIN WALKER and JOHN FREDERICK AUGUStus Pflaum,
of Goodman Street Works, Leeds, in the County of York, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CLUTCHES
FOR ENGAGING AND DISENGAGING PARTS OF MACHINERY, AND IN APPARATUS FOR
WORKING SUCH CLUTCHES," to be as follows:-
This Invention bas for its object improvements in clutches for
engaging and disengaging parts of machinery, and in apparatus for
working such clutches. In order to hold and press together the two
parts of a friction clutch we employ the direct pressure of steam. We

page_text: cause the steam to act upon a piston or equivalent instrument connected
with a plunger or piston in a barrel containing water or liquid. A pipe
connects the barrel with a passage formed in the axis having the clutch
upon it, and the water or liquid in this pipe serves to convey the pressure
of the steam on the piston to the frictional parts which are to be forced
into contact. No valves are requisite, and as soon as the steam piston is
released from the pressure of the steam the frictional parts of the clutch
will cease to be held in contact. In constructing a friction clutch to engage
and disengage an axis and a collar or ring mounted on such axis we em-
ploy a friction band partly encircling the collar or ring, and also passing
over an arm fixed on the axis on which is mounted a ram. When the
water or liquid is forced by the steam pressure against the ram it moves
outwards and so tightens the band on the collar and to such a degree as
to cause it to carry the collar round with the axis. The collar may have
a toothed wheel fixed upon it gearing with a toothed wheel on another
axis so as to communicate power between the axes. Should it be
required to reverse the motion from time to time, that is to say, whilst
one axis revolves always in one direction that the other may be made to
rotate either way, then we use two such clutches by preference on the
same axis and each with a toothed wheel on the collar, the one gearing :
directly with a wheel on the second axis and the other indirectly through
an intermediate wheel. When two clutches are thus used the steam
piston is furnished with two rods, one on either side, and each has a
plunger upon it working in a barrel so that thero is a barrel corre-
sponding with each of the clutches. Olutches such as herein described
may also be worked by water or liquid under pressure from an accumu-
lator or otherwise obtained. The collar may be fitted with expanding
segments.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Benjamin Walker and John Frederick Augustus 3
Pflaum in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 6th August 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, BENJAMIN
WALKER and JOHN FREDERICK AUGUSTUS P'FLAUM, of Goodman Street
Works, Leeds, in the County of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her 3
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of February, in the

page_text: year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the
thirty-third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her licŵrs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Benjamin Walker and John Frederick
Augustus Pflaum, Her special licence that we, the said Benjamin Walker
and John Frederick Augustus Pflaum, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Benjamin Walker and John
Frederick Augustus Pflaum, our 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, excrciso, and vend, within the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle
of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CLUTCHES FOR ENGAGING AND
DISENGAGING PARTS OF MACHINERY, AND IN APPARATUS FOR WORKING, SUCH
CLUTCHES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
· Benjamin Walker and John Frederick Augustus Pflaum, our executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their
hands and scals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 we, the said Benjamin Walker and John:
Frederick Augustus Pflaum, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to bo
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in clutches for
engaging and disengaging parts of machinery, and in apparatus for
working such clutches. In order to hold and press together the two
parts of a friction clutch we employ the direct pressure of steam. Wo
cause the steam to act upon a piston or equivalent instrument connected
with a plunger or piston in a barrel containing water or liquid. A
.pipe connects the barrel with a passage formed in the axis having the
clutch upon it, and the water or liquid in this pipe serves to convey the
pressure of the steam on the piston to the frictional parts which are to
be forced into contact. No valves are requisite, and as soon as the
steam piston is relieved from the pressure of the steam the frictional
parts of the clutch will cease to be held in contact. In constructing a

page_text: friction clutch to engage and disengage an axis and a collar or ring
mounted on such axis we employ a friction band partly encircling the
collar or ring, and also passing over an arm fixed on the axis on which
is mounted a ram. When the water or liquid is forced by the steam
pressure against the ram it moves outwards and so tightens the band
on the collar to such a degree as to cause it to carry the collar, round
with the axis. The collar may have a toothed wheel fixed upon it gearing
with a toothed wheel on another axis so as to communicate power
between the axes. Should it be required to reverse the motion from
time to time, that is to say, whilst one axis revolves always in one
direction that the other may be made to rotate either way, then we uso
two such clutches by preference on the same axis and each with a
toothed wheel on the collar, the one gearing directly with a wheel on
the second axis and the other indirectly through an intermediate wheel.
When two clutches are thus used the steam piston is furnished with
two rods, one on either side, and each has a plunger upon it working in
a barrel, so that there is a barrel corresponding with each of the
clutches.
Clutches such as herein described may also be worked by water
or liquid under pressure from an accumulator or otherwise obtained.
In order that our said Invention may be most fully understood
and readily carried into effect, we will proceed to describe the Drawings
hercunto annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
.
د.
Figure 1 represents a side elevation, Figure 2 a plan partly in section,
Figure 3 a cross section of an arrangement of gearing and friction
clutches as applied to the reversing of a plate mill. The necessary
pressure is derived from a steam cylinder. The letters refer to the
corresponding parts in the different views.
A is the steam cylinder; B, the lever by which the valve is worked,
which admits steam in the one or other end of the cylinder; C and C¹
are the rams connected with the piston working in the barrels D, D',
containing water or other liquid; E, E', are the pipes connecting the
barrels D, D', with the gland F. This is fitted in the end of the shaft G,
and so constructed as to put the pipe E in communication with the
hole in the centre of the shaft G, whilst the pipe E' communicates
with the hole H'. This connection is shown in more detail at Figure 4.
H communicates by a hydraulic pipe, as shown, with the hydraulic

page_text: "
'.
cylinder I, whilst H' communicates with the hydraulic cylinder I'. On
the shaft G are fitted two spur wheels driven by other gearing só
arranged as to cause these two wheels K and K to revolve in opposite.
directions. Between the wheels is keyed the driving arm L, on which
are mounted two rams M, M', fitting in the hydraulio cylinders I, I'.
Each end of the friction band N is attached to the cylinder I and each
end of the friction band N¹ is attached to the cylinder I. Each band
partly encircles a ring O, O', bolted respectively to the wheels K, K'.
It will be seen that if the steam is admitted in one end of the cylinder A
the water is forced out of the. barrel D into the hydraulic cylinder I
and by moving this cylinder in a radial direction from the centre of
the shaft the band N is tightened on the ring O, revolving with the
wheel K, and its motion is communicated by the driving arm L to the
shaft G. Again by moving the piston in the cylinder A in the opposito
direction the pressure is removed from the cylinder I and the ring O
is released, whilst at the same time the pressure is put into the
cylinder I', and the shaft is made to revolve with the ring O'.
Figure 5 shows the arrangement of the valve by which the water or
liquid from an accumulater or store of water under pressure may be
admitted to one or other of the cylinders I and I'. The water from the
accumulater comes through the pipe P, and passes through the hollow
valve spindle Q into the valve chamber R. This valve chamber is
bolted to the end of the shaft G and revolves with it. The valve is
worked by the lever S. The valve is an ordinary three-ported one, and
admits the water either into the hole T in the shaft communicating with
the cylinder I, or into the hole T' communicating with the cylinder I'.
The waste water escapes by an exhaust port and through the pipe U.
It will be seen that by admitting the water alternately into the cylinders
I and I the same effect will be produced as by the movement of the
steam piston in the other arrangement.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, we would have it understood that we
do not confine ourselves to the details described; but we claim, the
combination with hydraulic clutches of apparatus in which the pressure
of steam acting on a piston or equivalent instrument is transmitted
directly to the ram or rams of the clutch without any intervening valves
being requisite, substantially as described.

page_text: We also claim the construction of clutches to engage and disengage
an axis and a collar or ring mounted upon it with a friction band
partly encircling the collar or ring, and also passing, over an arm fixed
on the axis, such band being capable of being tightened by an hydraulic
ram, substantially as described.
In witness, whereof, we, the said Benjamin Walker and John
Frederick Augustus Pflaum, have herounto set our hands. and
seals, this Fifth day of August, in the year of our Lord Onc
thousand eight hundred and seventy.