Improvements in Rotary Engines.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 8th Sept., 1899-Accepted, 20th Jan., 1900
Improvements in Rotary Engines.
A communication from abroad by JOSEPH FAREO MARTINEZ, JOHN SILVA, and
ANDREW JACKSON BOURN, all of Gualala, Mendocino County, in the State of
California, United States of America.
I, JAMES GRIEVE LORRAIN, M.I.E.E., M.I.Mech. E., of Norfolk House, Norfolk
Street, London, W.C., in the County of Middlesex, Chartered Patent Agent, 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:.
This invention relates to improvements in rotary engines, the object of the
invention being to provide an engine of this character which shall be simple in
construction, economical in the application of steam, capable of attaining a high
speed of rotation, and which shall comprise means for preventing wasteful
escape of the live steam.
The invention therefore resides in the novel construction, combination, and
arrangement of parts for the above ends, hereinafter fully specified and particu-
larly pointed out in the claims.
In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of
one of the cylinders of the engine; Figure 2 is a transverse section; Figures 3,
4, 5, are detail views of packing; Figure 6 is a horizontal section on the line a-a
of Figure 2; Figure 7 is a similar section on the line b-b; Figure 8 is a partial
vertical transverse section showing the valve in a changed position; showing also
in dotted lines the driving shoulders of the other cylinders of the engine;
Figure 9 is a top plan view, on a reduced scale, of the engine complete for
reversing; Figure 10 is a longitudinal section through a steam connection;
Figure 11 is a perspective view of a valve; Figure 12 is a partial section similar
to Figure 8, but with the valve in a changed position; and Figure 13 is a
vertical longitudinal section of the engine complete for reversing.
Upon a suitable base is supported the stationary annular casing 2, U-shaped in
cross-section, and in said casing rotates the wheel 3 mounted on the shaft 4.
Upon a portion of the circumference of said wheel is formed a shoulder 5
having a gradual front incline 6 and a sharp rear incline 7. Said shoulder moves
between the opposite walls 8 of the chamber 9, formed by said casing and wheel,
and. in its movement, said shoulder, in each revolution of the wheel 3, raises
an L-shaped valve 10, the vertical member 11 of which slides vertically in
recesses 12 formed in the walls 8 of the chamber 9, and the upper part of said
member 11 slides in a valve casing 13 erected from said cylindrical casing 2.
Said valve is raised by the engagement of the shoulder with the horizontal
member of said valve, and, when said shoulder has passed said valve, the valve is
positively forced down by the pressure of steam upon the horizontal face of the
valve, the end of said valve sliding upon the rear inclined face of the shoulder.
071

page_text: The steam enters the chamber 9 by the steam port 14, and exerts pressure
between the vertical wall 11 of the valve and the rear face 7 of the shoulder 5,
forcing said shoulder onwards and causing the wheel 3 to rotate, the steam
escaping through the exhaust port 15, when the shoulder 5 passes said port.
In order to resist the lateral pressure of the steam upon the walls of the
chamber 9, the wheel 3 is provided with flanges 16 which extend outwards and
parallel with the outside walls 8 of the chamber 9, and' between said walls, and
Hanges 16 are provided packings 17. The sides of the shoulder 5 near its
surface are recessed as shown at 18, and in said recesses are secured spring
plates 19 having their edges 20 bent outwards and bearing against the walls 8
of the chamber 9. The top of the shoulder 5 is similarly recessed and has a
similar spring plate 21. It will be seen that by this construction the pressure
of the steam behind said spring plates 19 and 21 tends to press their edges against
the walls and top of the chamber 9 and to render the same steam tight. And as
the engine is intended to reverse, the edges 23 of the recesses 12 of the walls of
the chamber 9 are rounded so that, when so reversing, the edges of said plates
will not catch against the edges' of said recesses.
The steam does not exhaust through the exhaust pipe 15 directly into the
atmosphere, but into a second cylinder 27 constructed in its main features like
the first, and in which revolves a wheel on the same shaft 4. In this second
cylinder, however, the exhaust port 28 is arranged in advance of the inlet port 29
into said cylinder, said port 29 leading from the exhaust 15 by a conduit 30.
The shaped valve in said second cylinder is between said ports 29, 28 and the
incline 7 on said second wheel corresponding to the incline 7 on the first wheel
is located as regards the common shaft 4 a sufficient distance in advance of the
incline on the first wheel as is indicated by dotted lines in Figures 8 and 12,
so that if any steam escapes direct from the inlet port 14 to the exhaust port 15
when the incline 7 is between said ports, said steam will then propel the incline 71
of the second wheel, which will not have passed its exhaust port. If however,
the incline 7 has passed the valve 10, then the exhaust steam from the first
cylinder will pass out through the exhaust port 28 of the second cylinder without
operating the L shaped valve of said cylinder.
When a reversible engine is desired. I provide two of the above double cylinders
on the same shaft, one pair working in one direction and the other pair in the
opposite direction, and when it is desired to reverse, steam is cut off from one
pair and is admitted to the other pair. The numerals 71 and 7111 in Figure 8
represent the position, in the third and fourth cylinders of the incline therein
corresponding to the incline 7 in the first cylinder. To cut off steam, there is
provided a lever 40 which operates a dog 41 sliding through the aperture 42 on
the rear wall of the valve casing, the end of said dog engaging the rear face of
the valve 10. When said dog is pushed in by the means of the lever 40, then
when said valve has been raised to its highest point by the shoulder 7 in its
revolution, the dog 41 will engage a notch 43 in the rear face of the valve 10
and hold it, closing the steam port 14. The engineer will then shift a similar
valve in the other pair of cylinders which will permit the valve 10 therein to
fall under pressure of the steam and the shaft will begin to rotate in the opposite
direction.
In case the shaft, should stop, in such a position that the valve 10 closes the
port 14, the following construction, which I have provided, will enable the engine
to be started. A pipe 50 leads from the main steam pipe to the conduit 30, and
in said conduit, behind said pipe 50, is a valve 51 comprising flaps opening only
in the direction leading from the first cylinder to the second. Thus if the engine
should stop with the steam port 14 closed by the valve 10, the engineer will
turn a cock 53 in said pipe 50 and let steam in into the second cylinder, and
the valve 51 will automatically close and prevent movement of steam into the
first cylinder. The second cylinder will then be the driving cylinder until the
engine is started, when the engineer will close the cock 53.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion (as communicated to me from abroad), and in what manner the same is to
be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. In a rotary engine, the combination of an annular casing, a wheel revolving
in said casing and having outwardly extending flanges moving against the sides
of said casing, packing between said flanges and sides, a shoulder on said wheel,
an L-shaped valve reciprocating in an extension of said casing and raised by
said shoulder, and a steam port closed by said L-shaped valve, substantially as
described.
2. In a rotary engine, the combination of an annular casing U-shaped in cross-
section, a wheel revolving in said casing having a shoulder revolving against
the circumferential portion thereof, and having outwardly extending flanges
moving against the sides of said casing, a valve casing on said annular casing,
and a valve reciprocating in said casing, said casing having its walls recessed to
receive the ends of said valve, substantially as described.
3. In a rotary engine, the combination of an annular casing, U-shaped in cross-
section, a wheel revolving in said casing having a shoulder revolving against the
circumferential portion thereof, said shoulder having spring plates secured
thereto to pack the same, a valve casing on the annular casing, said casing having
a suitable recess for the reciprocation of the valves, said recess having rounded
sides, and a valve reciprocating therein, substantially as described.
4. In a rotary engine, the combination of an annular casing U-shaped in cross-
section, a wheel revolving in said casing having a shoulder revolving against
the circumferential portion thereof, a reciprocating L-shaped valve raised by
said shoulder, a steam port closed by a horizontal member of said valve in its
reciprocation, and a latch arranged to engage the vertical member of the valve
to uphold the same and close the port, substantially as described.
5. In a rotary engine, the combination of two annular casings, U-shaped in
cross-section, a wheel revolving in each casing on a common shaft and having a
shoulder revolving against the circumferential portion of the casing, the shoulder
in the second casing being in advance of the shoulder on the first wheel, a
reciprocating L-shaped valve in each casing raised by the shoulder therein, and
steam and exhaust ports in each casing, the exhaust port from the first casing,
behind the valve, leading to the steam port in the second casing, in front of its
valve, substantially as described.
6. In a rotary engine, the combination of two annular casings, U-shaped in
cross-section, a wheel revolving in each casing on a common shaft, and having a
shoulder revolving against the circumferential portion thereof, a reciprocating
-shaped valve in each casing, raised by the shoulder therein, steam and exhaust
ports in each casing, a conduit from the exhaust port from the first casing to
the steam port in the second casing, a valve automatically closing rearward
movement of the steam in said conduit, and a suitably controlled steam pipe
eading direct to said second casing, substantially as described.
Dated this 8th day of September 1899
J. G. LORRAIN,
Communicatee