CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Habel, of Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Mechanic, Jonas Holzwasser, of the same Place, Tailor,
and Edward Burns, of the same Place, Mechanist, for the Invention of
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Habel, Jonas
Holzwasser, and Edward Burns at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with their Petition, on the 18th October 1860.
We, EDWARD HABEL, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Mechanic,
and JONAS HOLZWASSER, of the same Place, Tailor, and EDWARD BURNS, of
the same Place, Mechanist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES," to be as follows:-
The Invention relates to that class of engines called "condensing engines,"
in which a partial vacuum is produced in a "condensor" or case in connection
with the steam cylinder, as is well known.
Our improvement consists in the employment of a cylindrical condensor
furnished with an internal piston, upon which the atmospheric air is allowed
to operate, and in introducing steam to such condensor by suitable valves at
intervals for the purpose of maintaining a vacuum therein, instead of the

page_text: ordinary air pump. The steam admitted is to be of sufficient volume and
pressure to expel the air admitted, to move the piston and the water of con-
densation, and to fill the condensor, after which this steam is condensed by
injection of water, and a partial vacuum formed in the condensor, which is
then ready for the admission of air to act upon the position, such operation 5
being conducted alternately above and beneath the piston at each stroke of
the piston of the main steam cylinder.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edward Habel, Jonas Holzwasser, and Edward Burns in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 18th April 1861.
'
TO. ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, EDWARD
HABEL, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Mechanic, and JONAS
HOLZWASSER, of the same Place, Tailor, and EDWARD BURNS, of the same
Place, Machinist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said Edward Habel, Jonas Holzwasser, and Edward Burns, Her
special license that we, the said Edward Habel, Jonas Holzwasser, and
Edward Burns, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said Edward Habel, Jonas Holzwasser, and Edward Burns, 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, exercise, and vend, within
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and
Isle of Man, an Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES,"
upon the condition, amongst others, that we, the said Edward Habel, Jonas
Holzwasser, and Edward Burns, by an instrument in writing under our bands
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 we, the said Edward Habel and Edward Burns,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner

page_text: the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement and accompanying Drawings, that is to
say:
The Invention relates to that class of steam engines called " condensing
engines," in which a partial vacuum is produced in a "condenser" or case
in connection with the steam cylinder, as is well known.
Our improvement consists in the employment of a cylindrical condenser
furnished with an internal piston, upon which the atmospheric air is allowed
to operate, and in introducing steam to such condenser by suitable valves at
intervals for the purpose of maintaining a vacuum therein, instead of the
ordinary air pump. The steam admitted is to be of sufficient volume and
pressure to expel the air admitted, to move the piston and the water of con-
densation, and to fill the condenser, after which this steam is condensed by
injection of water, and a partial vacuum formed in the condenser, which is
then ready for the admission of air to act upon the piston, such operation
being conducted alternately above and beneath the piston at each stroke of
the piston of the main steam cylinder, the object of the Invention being to
dispense with the air pump employed in condensing engines, and to employ
instead of the usual condensing chamber a condensing cylinder, in which
condensing cylinder a piston ascends and descends similar to the piston in the
steam cylinder, the piston rod of such condensing cylinder being connected
to the main driving shaft of the engine to which it is attached.
In order that the Invention may be better understood and explained in
detail, we have hereunto attached a Sheet of Drawings, having letters of
reference marked thereupon, in which Fig. 1 exhibits our improvements as
applied to beam engines; Fig. 2 is a plan view, and Fig. 3 is a sectional
view taken through the condensing cylinder; Fig. 4 is a cross section of the
cylinders and of the pipe which conveys injection water; Fig. 5 is a sectional
view of the condensing cylinders, with piston having descended one-eighth part
of its stroke; Fig. 6 is a sectional view of the same, with the piston having
ascended one-eighth part of its stroke; Fig. 7 is a section of the same,
together with the water pipe which conveys injection water, and the stop-
cocks k, k¹, for regulating the same; Fig. 8 exhibits a cam wheel and cam
fixed upon the rod 1; Figs. 9 and 10 shew a ratchet wheel fitted upon the
cam wheel Fig. 8, together with a catch and spring, which is permanently
fixed upon the cam wheel, the cam wheel being free to move backwards
without moving the ratchet wheel.
The operation of the various parts is as follows:-When both pistons attain

page_text: their highest position, the leading slide valve of the steam cylinder opens a
communication between the under steam canal and exhaust pipe. The slide
valve F also opens a communication between the canal b and the canal a'.
The exhaust steam flows expanding to the. pressure of the atmosphere, and
also, being driven by means of the steam piston, which begins to go down,
drives out the air from the condensing cylinder through the valves V, W, X,
and also the condensing water of the previous condensation, the steam thereby
filling the whole of the condensing cylinder under the piston. If the con-.
densing cylinder is constructed in the exact proportion to the steam cylinder
and to the pressure of the exhaust steam, the air will be driven out by one-
eighth part of the stroke of both pistons, at which time the cock k¹ opens, and
the injection water fills the canal m, and flows through the holes n, n, con-
densing the steam which fills the condensing cylinder, and also the steam
which is flowing from the steam cylinder. During the time of the stroke
the condensing space will gradually decrease, but always in the exact pro-
portion to the quantity of steam which is to be condensed. By means of this
condensation of the steam a vacuum is maintained before the steam piston as
well as before the piston of the condensing cylinder, and atmospheric air being
admitted through the canal a upon the upper side of the piston in the con-
densing cylinder, the power of the engine is increased by atmospheric pressure
corresponding to the area of the piston and the perfection of the vacuum.
The same result follows the rising of the piston in the cylinders. The air is
driven out of the condensing cylinder by exhaust steam, through the valves
G, V, W, Figs. 6 and 7. The exhaust steam is then condensed by means
of the condensing water entering through the upper cock k, canal m, and
holes n, n.
The water which forms upon the piston by the condensation in
the upper part of the cylinder runs by the highest position of the piston C
into the space M, from which it is blown out by the next filling of the steam.
All valves are closed by the pressure of atmospheric air when the vacuum
begins to form in the cylinder. In the time in which the air blows out, a
counter pressure takes place on the steam piston equal to the weight of the
atmosphere and the weight of the valves, but this will lessen the power of
the engine very insignificantly, because the blowing out of the air takes place
in the first part of the stroke of both pistons when fresh steam presses on the
other side of the steam piston, and the crank which is going over the dead
point takes up the least rotating power from the steam piston.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, together with the
method of carrying the same into practical effect, we wish it to be distinctly

page_text: understood that we do not wish to confine ourselves to precise details, but we
claim as our Invention, the novel employment and use of condensing cylinders
within which a piston moves and operates in the manner described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Edward Habel and Edward Burns,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Seventeenth day of
April, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-one.
EDWARD HABEL. (L.S.)
EDWARD BURNS. (L.S.)