Improvements in or relating to the Lubrication of Multiple Cylinder Engines.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd Mar., 1898-Accepted, 14th May, 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to the Lubrication of Multiple Cylinder
Engines.
A communication by the ISBELL-PORTER COMPANY, of No. 245, Broadway, in the
City, County, and State of New York, United States of America, Manufacturers.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S., M.I.M.E., of the Agency for Foreign
Patent Solicitors, 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, and 6, Bank Street, Manchester, both
in the County of Lancaster, 118, New Street, Birmingham, in the County of War-
wick, and 322, High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
In multiple-cylinder engines it is essential to the effective service and durability
of the engine that there be ample and uninterrupted lubrication of the crank-
bearing, especially when the engine is run at high speed; and it is the object of
this invention to provide means for the automatic, continuous, abundant and
economical lubricatior. of such crank-bearing.
This invention is applicable to a multiple-cylinder steam-engine in which the
cylinders are arranged on the engine-body about a common crank-shaft with the
several piston-arms engaging the crank within a chamber in said engine-body,
through which chamber the exhaust steam from the cylinders circulates in its
escape; and this invention consists in the combination with the engine-body bear-
ing the several cylinders and containing a chamber in which the common crank has
play and through which the exhaust steam from the cylinders circulates, together
with the crank and its shaft provided with a lubrication duct and passages leading
to the circumference of the crank, of an auxiliary chamber having an inlet com-
municating with the exhaust aperture of the crank-chamber and an outlet com-
municating with the air, and interiorally adapted to separate from the water-vapour
and therein collect oil carried thereinto from said crank-chamber by the exhaust
steam, together with a tube establishing communication between the lower part of
said auxiliary chamber and said shaft-duct; whereby oil carried by the exhaust-
steam from the crank-chamber will be returned to the crank-bearing, and such cir-
culation of the oil within the engine will be automatic and continuous and will
effect the uninterrupted lubrication of the crank-bearing.
In the drawings
Figure 1 is a rearward side elevation of an engine containing the invention; and
Figure 2 is a vertical section of the same on the line x, r, Figure 1.
The engine shown in the drawings is one in which the pistons are single-acting
on their inward strokes, and in which the ports are governed by slide-valves driven
by eccentrics on the crank-shaft; but this invention is applicable to engines of
this class in which there are variations from such structural features.
A is the engine-body bearing the several cylinders, a, a¹, a², a³, which, in the

page_text: engine illustrated, are radially arranged, in pairs, with those of each pair on dia-
metrically opposite sides of the crank-shaft. The engine-body contains the
chamber, a, which is closed in front by the head, b, and at the rear by the head, b¹,
while a partition, 62, divides said chamber into two compartments, the rearward
one of which is a valve-chamber, apertures, a³, in said partition giving free com-
munication between the two compartments. The steam-chest, a, is formed in said
partition, with steam inlet, a¹².
The single, common crank-shaft, C, has bearings in the head, b, and partition, 62,
and its crank, c, is located in the forward compartment of said chamber, at The
respective arms of the several cylinder-pistons engage the crank in said chamber, at,
similarly to the arm, a', of piston, 8, illustrated in Figure 2. Each cylinder
part, a³, and each steam-chest port, a¹º, is governed by an ordinary form of slide-
valve, d, operated through a rod, d¹, by an eccentric, d², on the crank-shaft; and
each. valve may be provided with an adjustable balance-plate, as shown.
A further description of the structure or operation of the engine shown is unne-
cessary, as the same are well known and will be readily understood.
The shaft, C, and its crank, c, are adapted for the uses and purposes of this inven-
tion by forming the duct, c', longitudinally in the shaft, preferably from its rear-
ward end, and an extension thereof into the crank, with passages, c², extending
radially of the crank-body to its circumference.
In carrying out the invention there is combined with the herein lefore described
parts an auxiliary chamber, E, the inlet, e, of which, preferably at its bottom,
communicates with the exhaust aperture, al, of the chamber, at, and the outlet, e¹,
of which, preferably at the top, communicates with the air; and this chamber is
interiorally adapted, in any well known manner, to separate from the water-vapor
and collect in the chamber, any oil which may be carried thereinto by exhaust
steam from the chamber, at. The said chamber, E, may, for the purposes stated,
be provided with a tube, e², reaching from the inlet port way of the interior height
of the chamber, a hood, e placed above the upward end of said tube and extending
downwardly around the same between the tube and the chamber wall, together with
downwardly inclined annular flanges, et, on the tube, the inside and outside of
the hood and the inside of the chamber wall.
Exhaust steam from chamber, a', entering chamber, E, through said tube, e²,
will impinge against the inner face of the top of the hood, e³, and hence be deflected
and diffused within the depending rim of said hood, passing thence into the space:
between the outside of the hood and the chamber wall; and the oil carried by the
said exhaust steam will be deposited upon the surfaces of the hood and chamber
wall and of the described flanges thereon, and flowing therefrom will collect in
the lower part of the chamber, the water vapors, freed from said oil, escaping from
the outlet, c¹.
Any other known means for interiorally adapting the chamber, E, to effect the
separation of the oil from the vapor of the exhaust steam and the collection of said
oil therein, may be employed in place of the parts and devices herein shown and
described, in carrying out the invention, without material variation from the
essential features thereof.
4
In further carrying out the invention there is combined with the chambered
engine-body, the auxiliary chamber, E, and the shaft, C, and its crank, e, provided
with the described duct and radial passages, a tube, E, leading from the lower
part of said chamber, E, to and communicating with the duct, c¹, in said crank-
shaft; and in the engine shown the tube, E¹, extends through a suitable stuffing- 5
box on the rearward head, b, of the engine-body into the aforesaid duct.
oil-cup, E, may be arranged to feed oil, if required, into the tube, E¹.
An
When the engine is initially started in motion oil, in adequate quantity, is fed
into the tube, E¹, from the cup, E³, and passes thence into the shaft-duct, c¹, and is
thrown off through the passages, ², to and lubricates the crank-bearing. As the 5
oil escapes from the bearing into the chamber, a, it therein mingles with and is,
more or less, taken up by the exhaust steam circulating through said chamber and

page_text: is thereby carried into the chamber E. In the said chamber, E, the oil is, as before
set forth, sepa ated from the vapor and collects at the bottom of said chamber,
whence it flows through the tube, E, into the crank-shaft duct, c¹, and again passes
to the crank-bearing. When an adequate supply of oil has been fed into the
tube, E, as from said cup, E, the supply may be cut off, or reduced to an exceed-
ingly small quantity, and the oil within the engine will pass successively from the
chamber, E, to the crank-bearing and thence to chamber, a', and be therein taken
up and carried, more or less, by the exhaust steam into the chamber, E; so that the
circulation of the oil within the engine will be automatic and continuous and will,
with economy, effect the ample and uninterrupted lubrication of the crank-bearing.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by
my foreign correspondents, I declare that what I claim is:-
In a multiple-cylinder steam-engine comprising an engine-body bearing the
several cylinders and containing a chamber in which the crank of the shaft common
to all the cylinder pistons has play, and through which the exhaust steam from
the several cylinders circulates, together with the crank and its shaft provided with
a lubrication duct and passages leading to the circumference of the crank, the com-
bination therewith of an auxiliary chamber having an inlet communicating with
the exhaust aperture of said crank-chamber and an outlet communicating with the
air, and interiorally adapted to separate from the water-vapor and therein collect
oil carried thereinto from said crank-chamber by the exhaust steam, together with
a tube establishing communication between the lower part of said auxiliary chamber
and said shaft-duct; whereby oil carried by exhaust steam from the crank-chamber
will be returned to the crank-bearing and such circulation of the oil within the
engine will be automatic and continuous and will effect the uninterrupted lubrica-
tion of the crank-bearing.
Datad this 011 L
. 1000
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Agents.