AN IMPROVED SYSTEM OF CONNEXION FOR WORKING THE CRANKS OF WHAT ARE COMMONLY CALLED DIRECT ACTION STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1843

page_text: JAMES
BYROM, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Nineteenth day of April, One thousand eight hundred and forty-
three, in the sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
grant unto me, the said James Byrom, my executors; administrators, and
assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said James Byrom, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
other persons as I or they should agree with, and no others, from time to times
and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED SYSTEM
OF CONNEXION FOR WORKING THE CRANKS OF WHAT ARE COMMONLY CALLED DIRECT
ACTION STEAM ENGINES," within that part of Her Majesty's United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in Her Islands of Jersey, Guernsey,
Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, in such manner as to me, the said James Byrom, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, should seem meet; in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso obliging me, the said James Byrom, particularly to
describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of

page_text: Chancery within six calendar months next after the date of the said Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that the kind of direct action steam engine to which my
said Invention refers is that which is worked by a four armed cross head,
as herein-after explained, and in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said James Byrom, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to
consist in connecting, by means of a two-armed cross head (working over
an ordinary four-armed cross head of a direct action steam engine) the side
crank rods which ordinarily act each upon a separate pair of cranks, and thus
causing them both to act upon one pair of cranks, thereby reducing the number
of cranks upon the crank shaft, and concentrating the powers of the engine.
And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said James Byrom,
do hereby describe the manner in which my said Invention is to be performed
by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings
annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, similar letters being
used to denote similar parts.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
In the Drawing marked No. 1 the Figure represents a vertical back eleva-
tion of a pair of marine engines of the kind called direct action steam engines,
with my said Invention applied thereto, those parts being colored blue which
have immediate reference to my said invention, and which alone it will
be necessary to describe in detail, as the other parts of this and the other
Drawings represent merely an ordinary pair of what are called direct action
engines. A, A, is the ordinary four-armed cross head, allowing the crank rods
B, B, to work in a line with the connecting rods H, H, in manner well known.
Now, it has been usual for these rods B, B, each to reach up to and be con-
nected with a separate pair of cranks on the shafts above, so that for such
a pair of engines as are here shewn there would be four pair of cranks on
the driving shafts C, whereas I shorten the crank rods B, B, as at D, D, and
connect them together by the two armed cross head E, E, working over the
four-armed cross head A, A; and from this two-armed cross head E, E, I
carry up one crank rod F to the pair of cranks G, G, so that the power of each
engine is applied to one pair of cranks. In the Drawing marked No. 2 the
Figure represents a vertical side elevation of one of the said pair of direct
action marine engines; and in the Drawing marked No. 3 the Figure repre-
sents a plan of the said pair of engines, both with my said Invention applied
thereto.

page_text: Now, whereas it is evident that any arrangement of the lower cross head
A, A, that will allow of the crank rods B, B, working without interference
with the connecting rods H, H, may be adopted; for whereas I only claim
as my Invention aforesaid the improved mode of connecting the two crank
rods B, B, of such direct action engines as are worked by a four-armed
cross head by means of the two-armed cross head E, E, thereby converting
into connecting rods and then bringing up one crank rod from that cross
head E, E, to a single pair of cranks upon the crank or driving shafts C
of the engine, whereby I am enabled to reduce the number of pairs of
cranks on the said shafts, to concentrate the power of the engines and make
them work to greater advantage; and such my Invention being, to the
best of my knowledge and belief, entirely new, and never before used within
that part of Her said Majesty's Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, and in Her Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Sark, and Man, and also in
Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, I do hereby declare this to be
my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this my said Speci-
fication doth comply in all respects fully, without reserve or disguise, with a
proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained;
wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my
said Invention.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-
fifth day of September. in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
Inrolled the Twenty-eighth day of September, in the year above written.