CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGINES TO BE WORKED BY AIR OR OTHER GASES
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lanc, in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Seventeenth day of January, in the second year of Her
reign, and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-
nine, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Newton, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said William Newton, my executors, admors, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said William Newton, my executors, adiñors,
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and law-
fully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonics and Plantations
abroad, an Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGINES TO BE WORKED
BY AIR OR OTHER GASES," being a communication from a foreigner residing
abroad; in which said Letters is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said
William Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, parti-
cularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in
Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and

page_text: immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Newton, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention of
Certain Improvements in Engines to be worked by Air or other Gases, and the
manner of carrying the same into effect, are described and ascertained in
manner following, reference being had to the three sheets of Drawings here-
unto annexed (that is to say):
The said improvements consist, firstly, in a combination of apparatus or
machinery (the parts of which taken separately are known), by means of which
combination the mechanical force obtainable from the alternate dilation and
condensation of a body of air or gas, by transferring it alternately from a
heated to a cold medium, and from a cold back to a heated medium, is pro-
duced and transmitted to actuate machinery in a more efficient manner than
has hitherto been practised.
And the said improvements consist, secondly, of certain other particulars,
which I will hereafter describe and ascertain..
The several known parts of apparatus or machinery, the combination of
which forms the first part of the said improvements, are, firstly, a vessel.
adapted to contain the air or gas, and to perform the double office of a heating
vessel and of a condenser, one end of such vessel being for that purpose
exposed to heat, while the other is surrounded by cold water, or otherwise kept
cool. Secondly, a vessel adapted to fit into the vessel above mentioned, not,
however, so as to fill the same entirely, but leaving a sufficient vacant space
therein to contain a body of air or gas, and performing (by means of suitable
motions given to it), the operation of displacing, when moved in one direction,
the body of air or gas contained in the heated space at one end of the air
vessel; and when moved in the opposite direction, the body of cooled air or
gas contained at the opposite end of the said vessel. And, thirdly, apparatus
or machinery so constructed and connected with the air vessel as to transmit
the mechanical force resulting from the alternate dilatation and contraction of
the air through the medium of water, or some other similar fluid of the kind,
commonly called incompressible.
In Sheet I., Fig. 1, I have represented the simplest form of engine, embody-
ing the aforesaid combination of parts. a, a, b, b, are two cylindrical vessels,
closed at the top and bottom, which are to contain the air or gas intended to
work the engine, which I will call throughout the following description the air
cylinders; they are enclosed in external cylinders c, c, the upper ends of which

page_text: communicate by apertures d, d, with a furnace F, while their lower ends are
filled with cold water at e, e. The lower ends of the air cylinders communicate
by bent pipes g, h, with a cylinder B, which I will call the working cylinder;
the air cylinder b communicating with the upper part thereof above the piston
C, while the other air cylinder a communicates with the lower part of the
working cylinder B beneath the piston C. The working cylinder B, and pipes
g, h, are filled with water, or some other incompressible fluid, as shew in Fig. 1.
The principle on which the quantity of water is to be regulated, will be stated
herein-after. D and E are the displacing vessels; they are hollow cylinders,
closed at both ends, and filled with some substance being a non-conductor of
heat, and are made shorter than the air cylinders a, a, and b, b, see the Figure,
and are of less diameter, so as to slide up and down very freely, and leave a
very narrow annular space between such displacing vessels and the internal
surfaces of the air cylinders. To the lower ends of the displacing vessels D, E,
are fitted stems or rods l, l, which pass through stuffing boxes in the bottoms
of the outer cylinders or cases c, c, and are used for moving the displacing
vessels D and E up and down, as will be herein-after explained; F is the
furnace; and G, the chimney. The heated air and flame from the furnace pass
through the holes d, d, into and circulated round about in the spaces around
the air cylinders a, a, b. b, which spaces serve as flues, and thence such hot air
and flame pass through the pipe H, in which are registers 1, 2, to regulate
the draft into the chimney G. i, i, is an external casing or jacket, filled with
some non-conducting material, and enveloping the upper part of the apparatus
to prevent the loss of heat from the furnace and upper part of the air cylinders
by radiation. The cold water reservoirs or condensing cisterns at e, e, must be
kept regularly supplied with fresh cold water, as the water in them becomes
heated by the working of the engine; that will be done by means of pumps
wrought by the engine, but which I have not thought it necessary to shew on
the Drawings, as there needs be nothing peculiar about such pumps or the
mode of working them. The operation of the engine delineated in Fig. 1 is as
follows:-
I will first observe, that in order to avoid repetition, we will suppose that
common air is intended to be used to work it, and that it is intended to work
the engine on the footing of keeping up such temperatures at the heating and
condensing ends of the two air cylinders respectively, that the body of air
contained in each cylinder shall occupy, when in its expanded state at the
heated end, double the space occupied by it in its state of contraction at
the condensing end, as shewn in Fig. 1, where the body of air 3, which is in
its expanded state, is shewn as occupying twice the space 4, where the body

page_text: of air is cooled down into its contracted state.
On the other hand, the water
in the air cylinder b is nearly level with the bottom thereof, while in the
vessel a it rises up to the line 5, so as to occupy so much of the space not
occupied by the displacing vessel as the body of air by reason of its con-
traction will not fill. In the position of the parts in Fig. 1, they are in
equilibrio; the pressure exerted by the body of air 3, in the air vessel b, b, on
the surface of the water in the pipe h, being balanced by the pressure of the
body of air and the column of water in the vessel a, a. But if the displacing
vessel D be drawn down so as to displace the body of cold air 4, while the
other displacing vessel E is raised up so as to displace the body of hot air 3,
then the body of cold air 4 will, on reaching the heated end of the air
cylinder a, a, become rapidly expanded into double the space which it
occupied at 4, while the body of hot air 3, being by the opposite motion of
the displacing vessel E transferred to the colder condensing end of the air
cylinder b, will, with like rapidity, be contracted into half the space it occupied
at 3. The result will be, of course, an increase of pressure at the upper end
of the air vessel a, a, which will act through the medium of the column of
air between the displacing vessel D and the cylinder a, a, on the surface of the
water at the line 5, causing such surface to sink and a diminution of pressure
in the space beneath the displacing vessel E. Therefore, the column of water
on the upper surface of the piston C, will be relieved of part of the pressure
upon it, while an increased pressure will act on the column of water pressing
against the under side of the piston, and, consequently, the said piston will
rise with a force regulated in its intensity by the difference between the
pressure of the body of heated and dilated air in one of the cylinders, and
the pressure of the corresponding body of cool and contracted air in the other
air cylinder. If now the motions of the displacing vessels be reversed (viz.),
the displacing vessel E pulled down, and the displacing vessel D raised, a
corresponding change of pressures on the opposite sides of the fluid in the
pipes and hand the working cylinder B, will take place, viz., the pressure
on the surface of the fluid in the air vessel b, b, will be increased, and that on
the surface of the fluid in the vessel a, a, will be diminished. The fluid will
therefore descend in the vessel b, and rise in the vessel a, and will cause the
working piston C to make a descending stroke; and thus the reciprocating
action of the piston C will be continued so long as alternate up and down
motions are given to the displicing vessels D and E. The diameter and
length of the stroke of the working piston C, and the quantity of water or
other fluid used to transmit the mechanical force produced by the engine, are
so proportioned with reforence to the capacities of the vacant spaces left for
I

page_text: the air at the ends of the air cylinders respectively, that at each stroke of the
piston C, the volume of water displaced will be equal to the capacity filled
with cold air at 4 in the cylinder a, a, and to half the capacity represented as
filled with hot air at 3 in the cylinder b, b. The heated air in descending to
the lower ends of the air cylinders will of course give out part of its heat
to the surfaces of these cylinders and of the displacing vessels in the middle
of their lengths. That heat, or a considerable part thereof, will be taken up
again by the cold air in passing up from the condensing ends of the air
cylinders to their heated ends; and to increase this effect, the spaces between
the air cylinders and the displacing vessels in the middle parts of their lengths
are partially filled, when the engine is made on a large scale, with very thin
plates of metal coiled or placed round them, so as to expose a very large
surface; or, instead of such coils of thin plates, one or more concentric cylinders
of extremely thin metal or wire gauze may be slipped over the displacing
vessels in the spaces between them and the air cylinders. In an engine of
the dimensions shewn in Fig. 1, such apparatus would, however, not bo
necessary or convenient. The lower ends of the displacing vessels may be
provided with a series of plates of thin metal fastened one to the other, as
seen at 7 and 8, Figure 1, which, when the said displacing vessels are drawn
down, descend into the condensing water at the lower ends of the air vessels,
and becoming cooled thereby, assist when the body of heated air is brought
down to the lower ends of the air vessels in cooling the same more rapidly.
The piston rod of the working piston C will be connected by suitable inter-
mediate machinery with a fly wheel and other necessary parts, to transmit the
motion of the piston C, to actuate any millwork or machinery. The engine
must be first started by hand, but after it has been started its motion will be
kept up by connecting the rods or stems 1, 1, of the displacing vessels with
canis, turned round by or from the axis of the fly wheel, such cams being of
proper forms alternately to raise and allow the descent of each displacing
vessel D, E, at the proper time for reversing the motion of the piston C. I
will not at present describe in detail the arrangement of the mechanism for
moving the displacing vessels; and, note, I have described the engine as of
double action, with two air cylinders and displacing vessels, but it is plain that
a single stroke engine may be constructed on the same plan, having a suitable
counterweight, as in the single acting steam engine.
I will now proceed to describe another and more complete arrangement of
an engine constructed according to the same improvements. The said engine
is represented in Figs. 2, 3, and 4, in which I have shewn the working parts
necessary for keeping up the action of the said engine, but the general

page_text: features and properties of the engine Figures 2, 3, and 4, are the same as
those of the engine already described. Figure 2 is. a sectional view of the
engine taken at the line Y, Y, of the sectional plan. Fig. 3, which is taken at
the line Z, Z, of Figures 2 and 4; and Figure 4 is a transverse section taken
at X, X, Fig. 3. The engine stands on four columns 2,2, see Fig. 2, fixed to
a ground plate 3. To the upper ends of these columns is bolted a strong
cast-iron plate 4, having cast out of it two large pipes or passages 5 and 6,
one of which, viz, the one marked 5, is in communication by a pipe such
as h, Fig. 1, with the upper part of a cylinder, such as the cylinder B, Fig. 1,
above the piston thereof, and the other marked 6, by a pipe such as g,
Fig. 1, with the lower part of such cylinder below the working piston. It has
not been thought necessary to shew such working piston and cylinder and the
communication pipes corresponding to g and h, in the Drawing. The air or
gas vessels a, a, b, b, are twelve in number, arranged in two detachments of
two rows of three each, see the plan Fig. 3, bolted down on the plate 4, which
is covered with a leather to serve as a packing to make the joints of the air
vessels a, a, and b, b, air-tight, the plate 4 serving as a bottom to them. The
air vessels a, a, and b, b, communicate by passages 7 and 8 respectively, see
Fig. 4, in particular with the pipes 5 and 6, corresponding to the detachment
of which they form respectively parts, viz:-The vessels a with the pipe 6,
and the vessels b with the pipe 5, and the six air vessels are in communication
with each other by small pipes 9, 10, see Fig. 2, so that the positive or
negative pressure within all the six air vessels a or b of each detachment acts
on the surface of the water in the pipe 5 or 6 belonging to such detachment,
and is, consequently, communicated to the working piston (not shewn as afore-
said in the Drawing) as if it proceeded from one air vessel. Four pillars 11,
rise up from the plate 4, which are used to frame the cistern 12, containing the
condensing water surrounding the lower ends of the air vessels. The air
vessels are not cylinders as they have been described in reference to Figure 1;
but instead thereof, the air vessels are to be cylindrical for a considerable
portion of their length, terminating in long cones. The displacing vessels D
and E are of course of corresponding form, see the dotted lines representing
them in Fig. 2, adapted when raised to fill up the conical ends of the air
vessels. The furnace F and its flues are supported by framework mounted on
a third plate 13, which is fixed to the upper end of the pillars 11. The heat
of the furnace passes into the flues f, f, see Figure 2, surrounding and heating
the upper end of the air vessels, and passes out under the division 14 up the
exit flue g, and thence through the short pipe 15 into the chimney 16. In
the pipe 15 is a register 16, which is connected with regulating apparatus for

page_text: the purpose of maintaining a uniform temperature to avoid any injury which
might arise from too great an intensity of heat. The regulating apparatus is
composed of a close vessel 17, see Fig. 2, filled with common air. This com-
municates by a pipe 18 with another close vessel 19, communicating by a
passage 20 with the open-topped vessel 21, the vessels 19 and 21 are partly
filled with water, and on the surface of the water in 21 is a float 22, con-
nected by a link 23 with the outer end of an arm 24, put on the square of
the axis of the register 16: When, therefore, the heat in the flues raise the
temperature of the air in the air vessels too high, the air in the vessel 17
partaking of such heat becomes expanded and depresses the water in the
vessel 19, and raising the float in the adjoining vessel 21 partially shuts
the register 16, and vice versa. The mechanism for moving the displacing
vessels in this engine by the motion of the engine itself, is shewn in all the
three Figures. 24 is a shaft, carrying two cams 25 and 26, one of them,
viz, 25, intended to operate on the displacing vessels E, and the other, viz', 26,
on the displacing vessels D; corresponding levers 27 and 28, carrying friction
The ends of
rollers 29 and 30, are mounted on two standards 31 and 32.
those levers, see Figs. 3 and 4, branch out into forks which support frames 33
by links 84, and to each of these frames 33 are keyed the lower ends of the
six stems 35 of the corresponding detachments of displacing vessels, the said
stems of the displacing vessels passing through stuffing boxes in the bottom
plate 4 of the air vessels, see Fig. 4. The axis 24 is turned by the fly wheel
shaft A, by means of the bevel gearing shewn at 36, 37, 38, in Figure 3,
furnished with a clutch box and handle 39.
Now, the operation of this engine is as follows:-Suppose it to have been
started by hand, by turning round the spanner 40 on the axis 24. Now,
suppose the six displacing vessels D to be filling the upper ends of their respec-
tive air vessels, the lower ends of which, therefore, will contain cold air, the
other six displacing vessels E being in the contrary condition, as shewn by
Figures 2 and 4, and the upper ends of the six corresponding air vessels con-
taining volumes of heated air. Now the axis 24 continuing to be turned round
in the direction of the arrow, Fig. 2, the cams 25 and 26 will (by acting
through the levers and other parts above described) produce the following
action, viz., the cam 25 will, during the first quarter of its revolution raise the
six displacing vessels E to the tops of their respective air vessels so as to dis-
place the bodies of heated air in the upper ends thereof, while during the same
time the other cam 26 will have allowed the six displacing vessels D to
descend down to the level of the water at a, Fig. 4, in the lower ends of the
air vessels a, a, viz., through a space equal to half the space through which the

page_text: vessels E will have been moved. The effect of these motions will be to have
increased the pressure on the surface of the water at x, Fig. 4, and to have
diminished it on the surface of the water at y, consequently the working piston
(not shewn as aforesaid will have commenced an ascending stroke. The cam
25 continuing to turn, will then during its next quarter of a revolution allow
the displacing vessels E to remain stationary at the upper ends of their
respective air vessels, until the working piston has nearly finished. its ascending
stroke, while during the same time, by the shape of the cam 26, the other dis-
placing vessels D will have descended with the descending surface of the water
contained in their corresponding air vessels nearly to the bottoms of such air
vessels. The third quarter of the cam 25 corresponds to the first quarter of
the cam 26, and the fourth to the second. The cams, therefore, continuing
to turn, the motions are reversed, viz., the displacing vessels D will be
raised through the whole height through which they are to move, while tho
displacing vessels E will be caused to go through half their descending
motion, and then the displacing vessels D will be kept stationary, while the
displacing vessels E complete their descent; the effect of which will be to
reverse the pressures on the opposite surfaces of the water at a and y, and so
to cause the return or descending stroke of the working piston. It must be
observed that the cams 25, 26, should be set forward a little on their axis, that
is, they must be set with relation to the working piston, so as to commence
reversing the motions of the displacing vessels a little before the end of each
stroke of such piston. The object of applying the train of level wheels 36, 37,
and 38, and the clutch box 39, by means of which either of the level wheels
36 and 37 may be made the driving wheel at pleasure, and the other thrown
loose, is to allow of reversing the motion of the fly wheel, without reversing the
motion of the engine. This mode of communicating motion is well known,
and requires no further explanation.
It remains to be observed, upon the construction of the engine, Figs. 2, 3,
and 4, that in order to relieve the cams from the weight of the displacing
vessels D and E, they are suspended by a pair of chains 41, 42, the lower end
of the chain 41 being attached to the levers 27 at 43, see Fig. 2, and the other
chain being attached to the levers 28. The upper ends of these chains are
attached to the opposite ends of a vibrating beam 44 moving on a centre at
45, see Fig. 4, and in order to compensate for the different velocities of motion
of the opposite sets of displacing vessels hercin-before mentioned, the centre of
the supporting beam itself is hung by a bolt 46 upon springs 47, see Fig. 2
and 4. The springs 47 can be adjusted as to amount of resistance by the nut
In the spaces between the displacing vessels and the air vessels, coils or
48.

page_text: laps, or one or more concentric cylenders of extremely thin metal, not shewn
in the Drawing, may be placed if required, for the purpose already stated in
reference to Figure 1. It will not, however, be found in general necessary to
apply this method of increasing the surface to take up heat from the air in its
passage between the heating and condensing ends of the engine in engines in
which the surface exposed by the air vessels themselves are so large as they are
when the construction Figs. 2, 3, and 4, is adopted.
In Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4,-Sheet 2, I have represented another mode of con-
structing an engine, according to the first part of the said improvements.
Figure 1 is a section, Fig. 2 a front view, Figure 3 a horizontal plan, and
Figure 4 a detached plan of a particular part. The engine is to be double, like
those already described, that is, to have two air vessels and displacing vessels
acting in opposite directions, see Figure 2; but they are counterparts of each
other in point of construction. The air vessels are each composed of two
vessels, viz., firstly, a cast-iron cylinder a, a, the upper end of which is conical,
see Figure 1, and the lower is a cylinder of the diameter of the lower of the
cone; secondly, an external cylinder 6, 6, firmly rivited to the vessel a at the
upper end with an air-tight joint. To the lower end of such outer cylinder b
a flange is revited, by which it is fastened down upon the upper plate c, c, of a
strong cast iron vessel C, C, Figures 1 and 2. The space 3 between the
vessel a, a, and its outer cylinder b, see Figure 1, forms the air chamber
or vessel, and is, as will be seen by the Drawing, cylindrical through part of
its length and conical through the remainder. In it is fitted the displacing
vessel d, e, of a corresponding form and dimensions. It may be made, as
represented in the Drawing, of thin copper, strengthened in the inside by circular
plates, which serve at the same time to keep the air contained in the inside of
the displacing vessel in separate layers, and thereby more effectually render it
a bad conductor of heat. To make the displacing vessel slide up and down
truly on the cylindrical part of the internal vessel a, a, two brass collars are
fitted at g, 9, 9.9. To the bottom of each displacing vessel are attached also
two strong elbow bars h, h, which carry the upright rods or stems i, i, and
to the upper end of those rods i, i, the chains 1, l, are fastened which embrace
the arch heads of arms m, m, mounted on axis n, n, resting in bearings fixed
to the beams of wood 2, 2. 4 is the axis of the cams o, p, which are placed
side by side, see Fig. 3, and from each of the arms m, on that side of the
engine, see Fig. 2, a bent arm or strong spring 9 descends, carrying a roller r,
which bears against the rim of the corresponding cam. The two opposite dis-
placing vessels will, by the arrangement thus made for suspending them,
balance each other except so far as greater pressure at particular parts of

page_text: action of the engine on one than on the other will disturb their equilibrium,
and hence the cams will not be exposed to much friction from the weight of
the displacing vessels; but if requisite to neutralize any effect arising from
such weight of the displacing vessels, the arms m, m, may be respectively
balanced by counterweights hung on the ends of levers fixed on the axis n, n,
as shewn by dotted lines in Figure 2. The fire grate and furnace are repre-
sented at s,-t; the furnace. being, in fact, formed by the upper end or conical
mouth of the interior vessel a, a, of the air vessel. The fuel is placed in a
moveable conical fire box s; all the lower part of which, as well as the bottom,
is an open grating, through which the atmosphere air entering through the
cylindrical passage a, a, at the bottom, see Fig. 1, can freely obtain access to
the fuel contained in such fire box, and thence passing up into the furnace it
heats the conical sides thereof, and passes through the bent pipes u, u, into the
outer casing 6, 6, of the upper end of the air vessel, and after circulating all
round the same, passes away through the pipes v, w, into the chimney a.
Between the cylinder b and the displacing vessel are interposed one or more
cylinders of thin metal or wire. gauze, see, , Fig. 1, for the purposes herein-
before mentioned, in reference to the engines in Sheet I. In an engine of this
construction it will be generally adviseable to introduce them. A lid is placed
over the mouth of the furnace, and therein a proper fire door is made for
supplying the fire box with fuel; the two wells C, C, in which the rods i move
up and down, serve at the same time as communication cisterns to establish
the fluid communication between the air vessels and the working piston
of the engine in the cylinder 6, see Figure 2. The two wells or cisterns C, C,
belonging to each air vessel, communicate for that purpose through a common
pipe D, see Fig. 1, to another pipe E, F; one of the pipes E, F, being in com-
munication with the upper part of the cylinder 6, above the piston thereof, and
the other with the lower part of such cylinder, see Fig. 2, where the dotted
lines marked with the Figures 6, 7, 8, and 9, represent the position of the
cylinder, the circle of the crank pin, the piston rod of the working piston,
and the connecting rod, through which parts the motion given to the working
piston may be transmitted. y, y, see Fig. 1, is the apparatus of thin plates,
attached to the under side of the displacing vessel, to assist in cooling the
condensing part of the air vessel.
Now, the operation of the engine, Figures 1, 2, 3,.and 4, Sheet 2, will be
in principle the same as that of the engines, Sheet 1; the continued recipro-
cating motion of the piston of the working cylinder 6 depending on the
alternate raising of one of the displacing vessels, see Fig. 2, while the other
descends, by which alternate rising and falling the air space 3 of each air

page_text: vessel will be alternately occupied by heated air in a state of expansion
and cold air in a state of contraction, and thus alternately there will be a
given pressure on the surfaces of the fluid in the bottom of one of the
vessels, see Figure 2, while above the column of water contained in the
opposite air vessel there will be a diminution of pressure, and vice versa.
The alternate rising and falling of the displacing vessels is produced after
the machine has been once started by hand (which is done by means of
spanners 8 fixed on the pins 9 at the ends of the levers m) by the rotation
of the shaft 4 causing the two cams o, p, to act through their respective
arms and m, chains 1, rod c, and bent arms h. And note, there are springs
at 12, see Figure 2, for catch pins on the levers m to strike against, if
the motion of the engine should be too violent from too great a pressure
of air, or otherwise. The prominences and circular portions of the cams o
and p must be of course set out with reference to the extent of expansion
of air or gas with which the engine is intended to work, keeping in view also
in setting out such cams that each displacing vessel should in its turn rise
rapidly, and should then remain stationary until the other displacing vessel
has descended to the bottom of its course, or in other words, till the working
piston has nearly finished its stroke, and should then have its motion reversed
a little before the piston commences the return stroke. The object of bending
down the arms into the cisterns C, C, and suspending the displacing vessels
by the rods i passing up again through stuffing boxes, (as shewn in Fig. 1 par-
ticularly, is to take advantage, whenever air or gas of a pressure above that of
the atmosphere is used to work the engine, of the difference of, pressure on the
rods i within the cisterns (which being in connection with the air vessels will
have the same internal pressure as the air vessels), and on the same rods where
they are exposed merely to the atmospheric pressure. By giving a sufficient
sectional area to the said rods they may be made to balance, either entirely or
nearly as may be desired, the weight of the displacing vessels, and by the same
means the rods i, i, may be made to perform the office of safety valves by
stopping the descent of the displacing vessels, and thus prevent the air from
becoming heated and expanded whenever the maximum of pressure for which
the engine is intended has been exceeded. When intended to have this effect,
the diameters of the rods i will be made such that the pressure upon them in
the ordinary working of the engine will not quite balance the displacing ves-
sels, but that whenever the prescribed limits of pressure for which the engine
is calculated are exceeded in the cisterns C, the rods i will press upwards with
a force such as to keep the displacing vessels suspended, and thus prevent the
body of cold air from being transferred to the heating part of the air vessel.

page_text: In Sheet 3, Figures 1 and 2, I have represented another mode of con-
structing an engine according to the said improvements. I have only shewn
one of the air vessels and displacing vessels, but the engine is intended to be
double. It will not be necessary to do more than describe the parts composing
this form of the engine, as its operation will be just the same as that of the
engine last described. a, a, b, b, form the air vessel, the conical vessel a turning
back into the cylinder b, b, to which it is fixed. The cylinder b, b, is cast with
an enlarged part at the lower end, see Fig. 1, to allow of the lifting stems i, i,
of the displacing vessel, to work in it through stuffing boxes at 2, 2. The
displacing vessel D is composed of the cylinder D, and conical vessel d, both
made of thin plate, and the space between them filled with some non-con-
ducting substance. The displacing vessel is represented as about half raised.
3, 3, is the space occupied by the air when heated; and 4 is the space occupied
by the air when cooled and contracted; 5 is the water communicating the force
arising from the alternate dilatation and contraction of the air through the
pipe L to the working piston of a cylinder or barrel, such as already referred to
in describing the preceding engines, and not shewn in the Drawing. F is the
fire grate attached to a tube f, the whole enclosed in a conical tube p, so that
it can be taken out bodily. The external air enters into the ash pit g through
the tube f, passes up through the grate bars h, and thence to be distributed
through the spaces 1, 1, corresponding to flues, and through the pipes m, which,
after conveying the heated air all round the jacket n of the air vessel, convey
it away into the chimney by the pipes o. 9 is the hinge door of the ash pit,
to clear it out when the furnace is removed. The motions of the displacing
vessels D, d, in order to transfer the body of air alternately from the hot to
the cold medium, and vice versa, will be produced by cams connected with
such displacing vessel, and set in motion from the main axis of the engine by
mechanism similar in its arrangement to that already described for the like
purpose, in reference to the engines previously described. 6 is a plate filled with
small holes like a cullender, for the purpose of taking up and retaining for a
few instants the water contained in the lower part of the condensing chamber
at 5, when the displacing vessel, having descended therein, is being raised again.
This is instead of the apparatus of circular plates, described in reference to
the Figures in Sheets 1 and 2, in order to assist in keeping the condensing part
of the air vessels cool. The said condensing part of the air vessel may be kept
cool, either by surrounding it with a cistern of water, in the manner described
in reference to the Figures, Sheet 1, or by connecting it with some other vessel
so kept cool.
Fig. 3 represents a fourth mode of constructing an engine according to the

page_text: said improvements. It is intended to be double, like the engines already
described, but I have only shewn one of the air vessels and displacing vessels
in the Drawing. In this construction the positions of the parts are reversed,
viz., the heating chamber is at the bottom of the air vessel, and the condensing
chamber at the top thereof. a, a, a, a, is the air vessel; and D, d, the dis-
placing vessel. The latter is suspended by a rod 2 (made hollow for lightness)
and a chain 3 from the arch head of the beam 4, the opposite end of which
carries a counterweight 5. To the bottom of the stem 2 is fastened by a screw
and washer, a cup leather 6, the edges of which are turned up, see the Figure,
in order to prevent any of the water, which communicates the force of the
engine to the working piston (not shewn in the Drawing), from passing down
into the hot end of the air vessel. F is the furnace and fire grate; the heated
air therefrom passes up into the conical vessel 7 in the interior of the mouth
of the air vessel, and thence down by the surface of the cone a of the air
vessel, whence it passes up into the jacket 8, and thereout into the chimney 9.
The water, which transmits the force of the engine through the medium of the
working piston, communicates from the air vessel, shewn in Figure 3, through
a pipe 10 to one side of the said working piston, while the water in the cor-
responding air vessel, not shewn in the Drawing, is by another corresponding
pipe placed in communication with the other side of such working piston,
when the displacing vessel D, d, in Fig. 3, descends, while the displacing
vessel of the corresponding part of the engine, not shewn in the Drawing,
ascends, the hot air contained in the heating part of the air chamber at 12,
Fig. 3, passes out thereof through the bent pipe 13, and ascending through
the pipe 14 and the bent pipe 15, passes by the edges of the ball 16, and
descending into the upper end or condensing chamber of the air vessel becomes
there contracted; consequently the air vessel, Fig. 3, will be then full of air
in a state of contraction, while the air in the other air vessel of the engine
will, by the opposite effect of its displacing vessel, have become heated into a
state of dilatation. There will therefore be diminution of pressure on the sur-
face of the communicating fluid in the vessel a, a, and pipe 10, Fig. 3, while
there will be increase of pressure on the surface of such fluid in the other air
vessel of the engine, and consequently the working piston will be set in motion.
The action is just the same as in the engines already described, and needs not
be further described. The weight of the displacing vessel will be balanced by
means of the difference of pressure on the rod 2 within and without of the
air vessel, by duly proportioning its sectional area with reference to the mean
pressure of the air or gas used on the principle pointed out in reference to the
engines, Sheet 2, and Figs. 1 and 2 of Sheet 3. The ball 16 is of such weight

page_text: that the air or gas in passing by does not displace it, but it will prevent the
water communicating the force of the engine from passing by it into the pipe
14, by closing (if the water presses against it) the aperture of the passage, sce
Fig. 3. The pipe 14 is filled with concentric tubes, or else with coils of very
thin metal, so as to allow free passage to the air from one end of the air cylinder
to the other, and at the same time to offer a large surface to take up the heat
of the air as it passes between the heated and the condensing part of the air
vessels.
In the several engines herein-before described the air spaces and the
temperatures have been supposed to be (as more particularly mentioned in
reference to Figure 1, Sheet 1) such that the difference of space occupied by
the air in its utmost state of dilation, and in its contracted state, shall be just
equal to the volume of water or other fluid displaced at each stroke of the
piston; but it will sometimes be desirable so to proportion the air spaces, and
to regulate the heat applied to work the engine, that at the end of each stroke
of the piston there shall be a certain amount of pressure of air not expended
in the air cylinder corresponding to such stroke. In order not to waste such
superabundance of pressure, I establish a communication between the con-
densing parts of the two air vessels of any of the constructions which I have
described, by means of a pipe furnished with a cock or valve, in which (by
suitable mechanism wrought by the engine) will be opened a little before the
change of motion of the displacing vessels respectively, so as to allow the
superabundance of heated air to pass from the air vessel in which it exists
into the other one, where it will be rendered available towards producing the
next stroke.
I have not thought it necessary to delineate on the Drawings such pipe of
communication and mechanism for opening and shutting its cock or valve, as
the mode of applying the same will be sufficiently understood by the foregoing
description thereof.
I have now described several modes of constructing engines to work with
air or gas according to the said improvements, and it remains to state a few
general observations applicable to all such constructions, and any other modi-
fications of their forms which may be adopted by the engineer constructing the
same. Firstly, as regards the air or gas to be employed: common atmospheric
air, or any known gas of such a nature as to expand considerably by heat, and
not to assume the liquid form under such pressures as may be used in engines
constructed according to the said improvements, may be employed, and the
same may be used, either at a pressure not exceeding that of the atmosphere,
or at a pressure of several atmospheres, in which case suitable forcing pumps

page_text: for forcing the air or gas into the engine in a state of compression will be
connected with the air or gas vessels. As regards the proper motions to
be given to the displacing vessels, the cams or other mechanism which may be
devised by the constructor to cause the same to rise and fall should be so set
out as to raise the displacers as rapidly as may be without producing a shock,
and then to leave them stationary until the working piston has nearly finished
its stroke. And as to the fluid to be employed to transmit the force of the
engine, the same may be water or oil or any other fluid having sufficient
fluidity, and the same or nearly the same degree of incompressibility as water;
and it is obvious that various constructions of the mechanical parts used to
transmit the motion of the fluid to actuate machinery may be employed.
Having now described the said improvements in engines to be worked by
air or other gases, and the manner of carrying the same into effect, I do hereby
declare that under the Letters Patent herein-before in part recited I claim, as
constituting the first part of the said improvements, the combination of air or
gas vessels and displacing vessels, having such properties as I have described,
with mechanism or apparatus in which water or other such fluid, as aforesaid,
is the medium for transmitting the forcible motion arising from the difference
between the pressure of the heated air and that of the cold air; but I do not
claim any of the parts of the said combination in their separate and distinct
character.
I claim as constituting a further part of the said improvements the method
which I have described of connecting two air vessels by a passage to be opened
at suitable intervals, as I have explained, so as to transfer the unexpended
pressure of air or gas which may exist in one of such air vessels into the other
of such vessels.
I claim further, as applied to engines operating by means of air or gas
vessels and displacing vessels, the method which I have described of applying
intermediate metallic surfaces in the spaces through which the air passes
backwards and forwards between the heating and the condensing ends of the
air vessels.
And I claim, lastly, the mode of suspending and balancing the displacing
vessels, described in reference to the Figures in Sheets 2 and 3, so as to expose
one end of the rods by which such vessels are suspended to the same pressure
as the interior of the air vessel, while the other end bears only the pressure of
the external air, for the purposes herein-before mentioned.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Newton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of July, One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-nine.
WILLIAM (L.B.) NEWTON.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twelfth day of July, in the
Third year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said William
Newton came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknow-
ledged the instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the instrument aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made in the Fifty-fifth year of the reign
of His late Majesty. King George the Third.
Inrolled the Seventeenth day of July, One thousand eight hundred and
thirty-nine.