Improvements in and in connection with Motive Power Engines.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Oct., 1895-Accepted, 9th Nov., 1895
[Communicated from abroad by WILLIAM EDGAR PRALL, Engineer, residing at
the Hotel Arno, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.]
Improvements in and in connection with Motive Power Engines.
1 WILLIAM HUMPHREY WHEATLEY of the Firm of Wheatley & Mackenzie,
Engineers and Patent Agents of 40 Chancery Lane, London 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:-
In
The invention relates to the use of highly heated water as a motive power.
prior attempts to use heat stored in highly heated water for the production of
work, steam has been taken from above the water and used in a steam engine.
These experiments have not succeeded for the reason among others that the pressure
in the water tank soon falls to the minimum necessary for working by steam and
much of the pressure also was lost in wire drawing and but a small portion of the
heat in the water actually utilized. These objections it has been proposed to obviate
Such attempts
by using water from the hot water reservoir instead of steam.
however, have failed of success by so far as the engines devised have been patterned
after steam engines in respect to the capacity of their cylinders and inlet and exhaust
ports, since a steam engine cannot be operated. by hot water nor indeed can a hot
water engine such as the improved engine herein described be worked by steam.
The present invention therefore has for its object to provide suitable means for taking
measured quantities of water and economically expanding them in an engine for
the production of work, and it consists in the art and mechanism hereinafter
described and particularly pointed out.
In the accompanying drawing which is partially diagrammatic in character
Figure 1 is a side elevation.
Figure 2 is a plan of a frame or platform supporting an engine and accessories.
Figure 3 is a plan on an enlarged scale of a water-measuring cylinder and a
working or expansion cylinder and connected parts.
Figure 4 is a vertical section of the same on line 4-4 of Figure 3.
Numeral denotes a frame or platform of any suitable character supported
upon the axles of a car. Upon this frame is sustained the body of a car these
parts being of any known or convenient form. 2 denotes a pair of cylinders for
holding water heated preferably to from 4000 to 5000 Fahrenheit such temperature
being practicable for the purpose of the invention which, however, is not limited
to this particular range of temperature. The hot water receptacle or receptacles
are thoroughly protected against loss of heat by a non-conducting covering 3, as
also may be the bot water pipes, engine cylinders and other parts.
4 denotes a pipe to convey superheated water from the cylinders 2, or from one of
them, to a water measuring cylinder 5. This measuring cylinder is provided with
a suitable valve chest and valve for admitting the water from the pipe to the
cylinder, and the valve, is provided with means for regulating its movements to
vary the opening of the inlet port or ports for the admission of more or less water
as desired.
Water having approximately the temperature above named will have a pressure
of several hundred pounds and will in practice be expanded from one to two thousand
times. It is therefore of great importance that means be provided for separating
small and regulable charges before utilizing them by expansion in the engine

page_text: "
.
cylinders. For this purpose I have discovered that a small cylinder having a
diameter of about one inch is practicable. From this measuring cylinder the fluid
is admitted successively to other cylinders which as illustrated in the present instance,
are three in number and may have respectively, the diameters, two and a half, three
and a half, and seven inches though the number and size of these cylinders above
given need not be exactly followed. As many as three expanding cylinders however
are necessary to the best results, and it is important that the measuring cylinder
be small and have a relative capacity approximately such as above indicated.
Each cylinder has a piston.. The pistons of the water measuring cylinder 5 and
of the cylinder 6 are fast on a rod 7 and the pistons of cylinders 8 and 9 are fixed
to a single rod ro. These piston rods are connected by a crosshead and rods 11 to
cranks on the shaft 12 of a piston 13 which drives a gear wheel 14 fast on the car
axle as indicated.
15, 15 denote boxes or casings tightly enclosing the rods, cranks and piston rods.
17, 18, 19 and 20 denote. exhaust pipes leading from the bottom preferably of the
respective cylinders to a succeeding cylinder. Pipe 20 however communicates with
a condenser 21, instead of with another cylinder. 22 denotes a cold water tank
which may be carried above the car or elsewhere. 23 is a pipe conveniently
concealed in a post of the car frame and leading to the condenser, and 24 is an
automatically controlled cock to admit water to condense exhaust steam in the
condenser.
25 is a diaphragm chamber communicating with the condenser; and 26 is a
diaphragm hell by a spring 27. 28 is a diaphragm stem having a jointed connec-
tion with a lever 29 attached to the plug of cock 24. The apparatus. is set to
move the diaphragm by an increase of a subnormal pressure in the condenser.
Thus for example it may be set so that the spring and diaphragm will be moved to
open the cock whenever the pressure in the condenser exceeds 3 lbs., that is, when
it is less than 12 lbs. below the atmospheric pressure.
As the cylinder 6. exhausts into this condenser the exhaust steam will be condensed
by admission of cold water as soon as the pressure in the condenser rises above
that desired and predetermined. A partial vacuum is thus maintained in the
condenser, exhaust pipe 20 and exhaust end of cylinder 16, whereby a very
complete expansion is secured and the large amount of heau in the water chargedl
is thoroughly utilized.
30 denotes a pump operated from the car axle removing water from the condenser
to a water tank 31.
The various pipes are provided with suitable cocks and other parts of the
apparatus will have the usual accessories of steam engines and their connections.
In practice lubricating oil will be passed through the cylinders with the water
and steam, and collected from the tank for condensed steam, and the boxes.enclosing
the cranks and connecting rods will contain oil, and the cylinders will be provided
with a steam jacket.
In Figures 3 and 4 is shown suitable valve gear for operating the valves of
cylinders 5 and 6, substantially similar devices (not shown) being used for the
valves of cylinders 7 and 8. 32 and 32 denote slide valves on the inlet side and
33, 34, and 33, 34' cocks or valves on the lower or exhaust side. The plugs of
the exhaust cocks of the cylinders are provided with crank arms connected by
rod's 35, and 35' respectively and the several valves and cocks are suitably moved
by the oscillating lever 36 which is connected by a link 37 and rods 38 to
eccentrics on the shaft which is driven by the pistons. The link is moved in a
well known manner by a lever indicated at 39 to vary the throw of the valves
or to reverse the engine.
As shown the fourth cylinder 8 is much larger than the water measuring
cylinder 5. The latter in practice may have a diameter of about an inch, a
length of about five or six inches and the piston rod a diameter of one half inch or
The valve ports will also be comparatively small and the valves and valve
gear made regulable and set to open the ports with great nicety and accuracy.
more.

page_text: It is obvious that a vapor or gaseous fluid such as steam or air could not be made
to operate an engine such as described, for the reason that sufficient fluid could not
be passed through the first cylinder to overcome the friction of the engine. My
first cylinder will have at most a bolding capacity for water of from about one
fourth to one tenth of that necessary for a steam or air engine and I have found
by experiment that a capacity of from one fifteenth to one twentieth and even less
as compared with the first cylinder of ordinary compound steam engines in an
efficient and practicable dimension. By the term water measuring cylinder or
receptacle is meant herein a cylinder having substantially the relative dimensions
and capacity described, and a measuring cylinder having sufficient capacity to
supply an engine with an operative quantity of steam or compressed air is excluded,
the substantial reason being that one could not be substituted for the other and my
combination of such a water measuring cylinder with the working cylinders of a
compound engine is believed to be substantially new, no one having before made or
even suggested an engine embodying such combination notwithstanding its practical
importance and utility.
The water measuring cylinder and its piston being small as stated the connection
of the piston with a working piston of a larger cylinder is of no importance as
regards the amount of work done, neither is it necessary to place the exhaust
port in the lower part of the water measuring cylinder.
As above in effect stated, such dimensions are required because of the very high
heat pressure and expansibility of the water the quantity of which must be small.
and regulable to permit. the successful utilization of the heat and its conversion
into work and to provide for exhausting the water or steam from the engine.
Further the situation of the exhaust ports at the lower ports of the cylinders is au
important aid to the exhaust operation especially in the larger cylinders for the
reason that in practice only a fraction of the water used can be vaporized and
provision must be made for discharging from the cylinders from one half to two
thirds or more of the water used, which could not be effected by means of the
usual steam exhaust ports.
It has been found impracticable to successfully drive an engine by superheated
water with the use of a single cylinder even when such cylinder was provided with
the essential feature of an exhaust at or near its bottom, for the reason that water
heated to the temperature proposed and having the consequent pressure cannot
be efficiently expanded into steam nor the residue of water controlled and passed:
out of the cylinder. The steam in such cylinder, developed from the superheated
water upon opening the exhaust port, exceeds many times the capacity of the
cylinder and resists the piston urged on its opposite side by the incoming hot
water charge with the effect to bring such an engine practically to a stand still.
In a steam or air engine the volume of fluid on the exhaust side is practically at
its maximum when the exhaust is opened but superheated water will develop many
times its own volume of steam, and so much, that the time required for exhausting
would involve a practical stoppage of the engine.
If it were attempted to develop and expand this large volume of steam from
superheated water in a single cylinder it would require a cylinder capacity of from
fifteen to twenty five times that of any ordinary steam cylinder which would
obviously be impracticable on account of the large initial condensation and also for
mechanical reasons. This initial condensation would greatly exceed that of a steam
engine for the reason that under any conceivable use of hot water it is required to
be cut off much sooner than stean, giving by the usual diagram a much longer
expansion curve so that in a cylinder of the same dimension the initial condensation
would be greater in the use of water, which difference would of course be magnified
if an attempt were made to provide for the expansion of all the steam from super-
heated water by a cylinder of unusual size.
The difficulty of exhausting water and the large volume of steam developed
therefrom is also increased by the incompressibility of the water.
A compound engine and a water measurer to exactly limit the quantity of water

page_text: condenser provided with means for maintaining therein a partial vacuum to receive
the exhaust from said last cylinder of the series, substantially as set forth.
8. In a compound engine adapted to the successive expansion of steam
immediately from superheated water in a series of cylinders, hot water or steam
jackets for said cylinders, substantially as set forth.
Dated this 1st day of October 1895.
WHEATLEY & MACKENZIE,
40 Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Agents.