Year: 1889

page_text: I EDGAR SIMPSON HARPST. of Tyler in the County of Smith and State of
Texas, in the United States of America, gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of
this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
The invention relates to improvements in steam engines and it consists in the
construction and novel combination of parts as hereinafter set forth.
The object of the invention is to provide a steam engine having few parts and so
constructed as to avoid the use of eccentric slide valve valve rod, piston and connecting
rods, stuffing boxes and glands thus increasing the actual power by decreasing the
friction.
.
Referring by letter to the drawings
A designates a hollow bed and B the cylinder preferably integral with the base
and within which the piston operates.
An oil well C in the bed opens into the cylinder and when filled with oil lubricates
the crank and connections during the revolution of the crank shaft as said crank
passes through the oil.
Steam ports a'have an outward opening a at the top of the cylinder and extend
circumferentially through the shell of the cylinder to an inward opening b.
D shows the exhaust ports arranged at the bottom of the cylinder below the
longitudinal line of the steam-port openings and communicating through the hollow
of the cylinder with the exhaust pipe A¹.
E E designate the steam pipes opening through the cylinder and registering with
the ports a¹.
Fshows the main shaft having bearings G in the cylinder and provided with the
crank portion c. which turns in the middle opening of the piston.
The bearings G preferably extend to the crank through the piston, H represents the
piston which is preferably hollow and provided with opposite steam ports a² which
extend longitudinally for a short distance through the shell and have openings 6 b¹ the
openings bat certain times registering with the inward openings of the steam ports
in the cylinder.
The piston is provided on each side of its open middle portion with diametrically
opposite longitudinal slot openings through which the main shaft extends and allows
the longitudinal stroke of the piston and the said slots are sufficiently wide to allow
the piston to oscillate by means as hereinafter explained, without striking the main
shaft. Annular 'packing rings y are seated in the recesses g' near the outer ends of
the piston.

page_text: The spirally oscillating motion of the piston during its stroke is accomplished as
follows:
II designate laterally curved ways or guides running transversely and vertically
through the open middle portion of the piston at each side of the crank pin and
having their ends resting in the rectangular bearings i through the piston shell. One
of said ways I' is longitudinally beveled or inclined on one side and a key i¹ having.
an inclined surface is placed against the way I' as shown and is designed to adjust the
said way to or from the crank. The vertical adjusting movement of the key 2¹
is accomplished by means of the screw which extends through an opening in the
outwardly turned end of the key and engages a threaded opening in the piston.
A locking nut is placed on the set screw so as to bear against the lower side of the
outwardly turned end of the key and serves to hold said key in its adjusted position.
K designates the crank pin brasses having the longitudinal ribs or projections k¹
preferably pivoted thereon adapted to engage the grooved ways or guides.
The object in so constructing the guide ways and the crank pin brasses is to impart
a spirally oscillating motion to the piston during its stroke in either direction which
motion alternately opens and closes the steam and exhaust ports.
I prefer to make the guides or ways of channel iron case hardened but it is obvious
that the said ways may be made of any suitable material therefore 1 do not limit
myself to the use of channel iron.
It will be observed that the steam port openings b are on a different horizontal
plane and that the piston in oscillating closes the openings at one end of the cylinder
and opens the port at the opposite end and that when the piston is at the extreme limit
of its stroke in either direction, the exhaust port allows the free escape of steam.
The engine herein described is equally adapted to steam pumps.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In a steam engine the curved guides transversely in the piston and the crank
pin brasses having projections adapted to engage said guides substantially as specified.
2. In a steam engine, the crank pin brasses having the pivoted ribs thereon; the
laterally curved guide ways of the piston and the adjusting key substantially as
specified.
3. In a steam engine, the combination with the piston having the longitudinal slots,
the cylinder, and, the crank shaft having bearings therein, of the laterally curved
transverse ways having their ends seated in the rectangular bearings, the inclined adjusting
key having the downwardly turned end the set screw and the crank pin brasses,
substantially as specified.
f
4. In a steam engine, the combination of the cylinder, the hollow slotted piston the
crank shaft having the crank within the piston and oscillating mechanism engaging
the crank pin substantially as specified.
5. A steam engine consisting of a cylinder, a slotted piston having transverse curved
guides and a transverse crank shaft passing through said piston and engaging said
guides substantially as specified.
6. The combination with a steam cylinder and a crank shaft extending transversely
through the same, of an oscillating reciprocating piston having a curved yoke engaging
the crank by a slide movement and provided with ports substantially as specified.
Dated this 2nd day of January 1889
BERNHARD DUKES,
226, High Holborn, London, W.C.,
Agent for the Applicant.