AN ENGINE OR APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER BY AN IMPROVED METHOD OF APPLYING STEAM, GAS, OR HEATED AIR
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hippolyte Lamy, of Paris, (Empire of France,) and
of 45, Essex Street, Strand, London, for the Invention of "AN ENGINE
OR APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER BY AN IMPROVED METHOD OF
APPLYING STEAM, GAS, OR HEATED AIR."
Sealed the 1st January 1858, and dated the 11th July 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Hippolyte Lamy at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 11th
July 1857.
I, HIPPOLYTE LAMY, of Paris (Empire of France), and of 45, Essex Street,
Strand, London, do hereby declare the nature of tho said Invention for
"AN ENGINE OR APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER BY AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF APPLYING STEAM, GAS, OR HEATED AIR," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved means of "obtaining motive power,"
and consists in having two cylinders of the same length and diameter, in each
of which said cylinders there works a piston, each of the aforesaid cylinders
being furnished with two slide valves, for the purpose of opening or shutting
off the communication between the first cylinder and the generators, or
between the first cylinder and the second cylinder, also between the second
cylinder and the generators; these several communications are made by
means of copper tubes. The generators are furnished with four openings, so
arranged that the first gives passage to the steam to the cylinders; the second

page_text: communicates to a safety valve; the third to a pressure gauge, and the fourth
to a reservoir or tank containing water, furnished with the necessary cocks
required for the working of the machine. The two aforesaid cylinders may be
made of a different diameters, or they may be made of the same length and
diameter, with a different length of the stroke of the piston. The aforesaid
cylinders may also be of the same size; when this is the case, it is necessary
to place on the two tubes of communication between the first and the second
cylinder two small cylinders full of wire gauze resting in a reservoir or tank
full of water in communication with the atmosphere.
To put the machine in motion, the fire is placed under the generators, the
said generators having previously being filled with a sufficient quantity of
water, the air is taken off by means of suitable cocks, and when the steam
has acquired the proper tension, two cocks of communication are opened,
then the machine starts. By observing the machine at any time when
working, it will be seen that the steam coming from one of the generators
passes under the piston of the small cylinder and raises it. The steam above
the said piston is forced under the piston of the larger cylinder, the steam above
it is forced into the other generator, which said steam is then conveyed above
the piston of the small cylinder, and so on alternately.
The machine may be worked either by steam, gas, or by means of fluids
capable of producing steam. or by compressed and heated air or gas.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Hippolyte Lamy in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
11th January 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HIPPOLYTE
LAMY, of Paris (Empire of France), and of 45, Essex Street, Strand, London,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Hippolyte Lamy, Her special licence that I, the said Hippolyte
Lamy, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Hippolyte Lamy, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,

page_text: use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN ENGINE
OR APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER DY AN IMPROVED METHOD OF APPLYING
STEAM, GAS, OR HEATED AIE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Hippolyte Lamy, 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 Hippolyte Lamy, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The organic engine is thus named from its being based upon human
organization, and presenting all the phenomena of a regular circulation. It
consists of a heart divided in two distinct parts, each comprising two com-
partments or cells, one of which contains the arterial or acting steam, the
other the veinous steam, or the steam which has already exerted its working
power. The heart is represented by the two cylinders 1 & 2 of Fig. 2 bis,
the motion of the piston exactly simulating the motions of systole and diastole.
There are two lungs B, B, & B', B', the conformation of which resembles as
near as possible that of the lungs and branchia of animals, or present under
a given volume a very large surface. There are to be seen veins, arteries,
valvlets, glands, a stomach, the functions of which are of the same nature as
those of animals. The steam or heated gases represent the blood, and as the
blood consists of a liquid which drifts similar substances, so the steam or the
gases act as it were as vehicles of the heat which constitute the force, the life
of the engine. The leakage corresponds to the secretions, and the radiation
of the engine may be compared to cutaneous perspiration. Thus engines on
our railways may be compared to a man having a vein constantly open, out of
which the blood incessantly runs, and who requires a constant and large supply
of food and drink in order to recover the loss of blood; and therefore we must
in the actual conditions use for our engines very large boilers or generators
of steam, and a large supply of water and coal, in order first to generate the
steam necessary for the engine, and then the said steam having become
useless, to let it out into the air. The organic engine presents four modi-
fications, as follows:-
1st, plain engine at full pressure; 2d, expansive engine; 3d, engine at

page_text: full pressure with resumption of the caloric; 4th, expansive engine with
resumption of the caloric.
Fig. 1 shows the engine at full pressure in the first cylinder. This engine
consists of two cylinders placed side by side (see Fig. 1), or subsequently in
the same axis and with the same rod for the two pistons. In the cylinders
are moving friction pistons, the rod of which moves a connecting rod, which
sets into a motion a shaft provided with a fly wheel. The rod of the pistons
moves through stuffing boxes and engages into a directing ring F. Tho
cylinders are provided with two slide valves, which establish the communi-
cation with either the first cylinder or the reheaters or generators, or with the
two chambers of the second cylinder, and the communication of the second
cylinder with either the two chambers of the first cylinder or the reheaters or
generators. The communication tubes between the second cylinder and the
reheaters or generators are provided with valves S & S¹, set as close as
possible to the slide valves of the second cylinder, in order to avoid spaces
which would be injurious. Between the first and second cylinder, and above
them, are tubes C, D, & C', D', of a larger diameter than the communication
tubes, which contain wire gauzes, or rather, as shown at Fig. 1, a number of
small tubes of about the fifth part of an inch in diameter, and resting in a box
into which water may be conveyed at will by means of a pump operated upon
by the engine; the generators or reheaters consist of two or four cylinders,
according as the engine is to be worked by gases or steam. When air only
or a gas is used, two reheating cylinders only and a feeding gas pump are to
be used; when the engine is worked by steam, then one or two generators
more are to be employed for the purpose of conveying steam into the moving
cylinders, if the machine is being worked by saturated stean, or in the reheaters,
and from there into the moving cylinders if the machine is being worked by
reheated steam. The reheating cylinders are either tubular or annular, and
filled inside with wire gauze intended to increase the heating surface. In
order that the steam pressure may be the same, the two reheaters and the two
generators may be made to communicate by means of suitable tubes. The
generators and reheaters are provided with all the usual appendage, such as
water-mark, stopcocks, safety valves, manometers, feeding pumps, tubes for
admitting or letting out the gases or steain. The slide valves, which may be
of the usual form, are set in motion as in common engines, by means of blocks
or excentrics.
Supposing now the engine is worked by overlicated water steam, the steam
produced in the generators is raised to a pressure of oue or more atmo-
spheres into the reheaters, or the same pressure may be doubled, trebled,

page_text: &c. Supposing for an instant that the steam gets into the reheaters at one
atmospheric pressure, which should under the influence of the same reheaters
be raised to two, if the stop cocks are opened the steam will press against the
surface of the piston, and set the engine into motion. On examining the
engine at any given period, it will be seen, for instance, that the steam comes
to press against the lower surface of the first cylinder's piston. At the same
time this piston will drive back into the second cylinder the steam which has
already exerted its power; on leaving the first cylinder this steam gets into
the refrigeratory C, D, which is surrounded with water at a temperature lower
than or equal to 100° Centigrade, there it lowers to one atmosphere by only
depositing the heat got in the reheaters, and descends beneath the second
cylinder's piston, which will at the same time drive back the most part of
that steam which enters the reheater A', B', with a given temperature. As
the piston reaches the end of its travel the slide valve distribution is shifted,
and the same phenomenon is produced in a contrary direction, and so forth.
1+10 d
Now supposing the engine is worked by gas or air power, for instance, the
two generators are suppressed, and the two reheaters, which of course are
filled with air, are heated. If in such occurrence it is wished to work at two
atmospheres only, it will be sufficient to raise the air to a temperature of 286°,
given by the equation =;d being the coefficient of dilatation or expan-
sion, and 10° being supposed to be the given temperature of the air. When
the air has reached the said temperature of 286° it will have acquired a
pressure of two atmospheres; if then the exit cocks are opened, the air will
press against the lower surface of the piston and set the engine to work.
Supposing, again, that at any period the slide valves are disposed as at Fig. 1,
it will be seen that the air will come and press against the lower surface of
the first cylinder's piston, which will drive up the air that has already exerted
its working power. This air gets into the refrigeratory C, D, surrounded with
cold water conveyed by means of a feed pump, there deposits its heat, and
goes up above the second cylinder's piston, whose function is to drive up the
air as it gradually lowers to one atmosphere. This air rises gradually to two
atmospheres or a little more, and gets into the reheating cylinder A, B, after
raising the valve S'. When the piston has reached the end of its course, the
slide valves distribution is shifted and the reheater which received the air will
now drive it back into the first cylinder, all leakage being made up by the
action of a feeding air pump worked by the engine itself. When it is wished
to move by means of compressed air or gas, it is necessary first to compress
the same into the reheaters, and afterwards heat it without any change in the
work of the engine. The engine may be worked by saturated steam and yet

page_text: undergo no modification or alteration; either a mixture of saturated steam and
overheated steam, or a mixture of gas and vapours saturated or overheated,
may be used at once. The engine may be constructed in a more simple
manner by applying to the cylinders only one slide valve, with two inlets and
one outlet, a single refrigeratory generator and reheater. In this manner the
engine will work very well, but the arrangement shown at Fig. 1 will impart
to it a more regular steady motion. I have contrived an alteration tending to
make in the second cylinder the injurious space as small as possible, which
alteration or modification consists in suppressing the escape of steam from the
slide valves, and placing it on the bottoms of the second cylinder, and sub-
stituting instead of the valves S & S clack valves fitted on the lower bottoms.
I have succeeded also in taking away the refrigeratory box, and consequently
the feed pump intended to convey water into the said box. For that purpose,
instead of placing the two cylinders side by side, as represented in Fig. 1,
I place them one after the other, which allows giving the refrigeratorics a
greater length, and in such a case the small cylinders the refrigeratory consists
of may be substituted by flatened grooved blackened ones, by which the
radiating surface and radiating power shall be increased.
In any case it will still be a saving to make the refrigeratory apparatus
larger, so as to contain a larger supply of water kept at 100°. This water
thus heated may be made use of for vaporizing ether or chloroform, or any
liquid liable to boil at a low temperature. The expansion of steam may also
be used as I already used it, in working effectively another machine or engine
of the same description, the piston rods of which are only an extension of the
piston rods of the principal engine. The second refrigeratory is set higher
than the first, so that the one may be fed with the water of the other. Thus
by applying the working power of the first engine to the second, the beat left
useless in the refrigeratory is made use of and secured.
Fig. 2 represents the expansive engine. The first cylinder is larger than
In
the second one, and the more so as the steam or gas must expand more.
this case, instead of the slide valves, which are preserved in the Drawings for
a better understanding of the engine, common slide valves are substituted
with a motion similar to that given in a similar case, which motion is imparted
by means of excentrics. The remainder of the engine is not altered, and
expansion might take place as well in a separate cylinder, as is usually the
case (Fig. 2, bis.)
Fig. 3 represents the engine with utilisation of part of the heat already
used. The two cylinders are placed side by side; the refrigerators with
metallic gauze in parts C, E, & C', E', and being tubular in parts C, D, &

page_text: C', D', have only a part of their length in the water boxes, the tubular part,
which is nearer to the second cylinder, and the foreparts of the same, are com-
municating either with the steam escapes of the first cylinder or with the
reheaters by means of valves S, S', opening outside and within the reheaters.
The slide valves of the second cylinder are taken away.
In order to better understand the progress of the engine, let us suppose that
non-compressed air is used, which is raised to a pressure of two atmospheres,
for instance, by giving it in the reheaters a temperature of 286°, or 67 calorics.
When the air has acquired the said pressure or even a higher pressure, the
communication cocks are opened, the air comes to press against the surface of
the piston in the first cylinder, and the engine is set into motion. If at any
period the work of the engine is looked at, it will be seen for instance that
the air presses in the first cylinder against the upper surface of the piston,
which drives back into the refrigeratories E', C', D', and consequently up
into the upper part of the second cylinder the air which has already been
acting beneath the first cylinder. On getting through the metallic gauze, the
air leaves there a very great part of its heat, and comes on its issuing from
the tubes about as low as the temperature of the refrigeratory water, so that
on its getting into the second cylinder its temperature is nearly the same as
its original one, or about one atmosphere pressure. At the same time the
piston of the second cylinder drives the air down into the wire gauzes of the
second refrigeratory D, C, E, which it had already gone through, and where
it has deposited part of its heat, which it partly retakes before getting into
the reheating cylinder A', B', by lifting the valve S. Instead of air at tho
ordinary pressure, I may use compressed air or any gas in the same condition
as the air, or steam proceeding from any liquid, or a combination of gas and
vapours. The only difference between this and the first arrangement consists
in the suppression of the slide valves in the second cylinder, and in the dis-
placement of the valves S, S', which are seen at the entrance of the refrigera-
torics.
Fig. 4, which represents the expansive engine with utilisation of the heat,
only differs from Fig. 3 in that the first cylinder is expansive, which requires
such overlaps as are made use of in similar circumstances. In order that the
working of the engine may be better understood, the former slide valves have
been preserved in the Drawings. The working of the engine will prove most
easy for any one to understand, and I do not deem it necessary to say any
more about it.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner

page_text: the same is to be performed, I would have it understood that what 1 claim
is,-
1stly, the manner of circulating steam or gases round a circle which goes.
from the generators or reheaters to the moving cylinders, & from the moving
cylinders to the generators or reheaters, by a different road, as will be seen in
the first Figure.
2ndly, the principles of a construction the same or similar to that described
in the foregoing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Hippolyte Lamy, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eleventh day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
CH FRED VASSEROT, Patent Agent,
45, Essex Street, Strand,
London.
LAMY, H. (L.S.)