IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING AND APPLY- ING MOTIVE POWER, AND ALSO IN PUMPS
Year: 1850

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
FREDERICK MORRELL, of Fleet Street, in the City of London, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS by Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventh day of November,
in the fourteenth year of the reign of Her present most Excellent Majesty
Queen Victoria, Her said Majesty did give and grant unto me, the said
George Frederick Morrell; my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial
license, full power, sole privilège and authority, that I, the said George
Frederick Morrell, my exors, admors, and assigns, and such others as I,
the said George Frederick Morrell, my exors, admors, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within' that part of Her said Majesty's United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of
Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of Jersey,
Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING AND APPLY-
ING MOTIVE POWER, AND ALSO IN PUMPS;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso obliging me, the said George Frederick Morrell, to cause
a particular description of the nature of my Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, under my hand and seal, to be enrolled. in Her
said Majesty's High Court of Chancery. within six calendar months from the
date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Frederick Morrell, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully
described and ascertained by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed (that is to say) :-
:-
My Invention of improvements relates, firstly, to the construction of certain
descriptions of rotary steam engines.
Secondly, to the. construction of certain parts of reciprocating steam
engines.
Thirdly, to a mode of effecting the condensation of steam applicable to all
descriptions of condensing steam engines.
And, fourthly, to the adaptation and application of modified arrangements
of parts of the above as hydraulic power engines, and as pumps for the raising
and forcing of water.
The first of my improvements is shown in Sheet A, Fig. 1 being a front
elevation of my improved rotary engine to be driven by steam; Fig. 2, a
section showing the interior of the piston disc; Fig. 3, an inside view of the
cylinder cover; Fig. 4, a side elevation, Fig. 5. a sectional elevation, the
cylinder only being in section, and Fig. 6 a sectional plan. A, the cylinder,
secured by bolts to the foundation; B, B', the cylinder covers, which are bolted
to the ends of the cylinder; C, the piston disc, which is of equal diameter to
and fits into the cylinder; it occupies the middle of the cylinder midway between
the two covers. The disc is fixed upon the shaft D, which passes through
stuffing boxes in the covers B, B¹³, into slots or. mortices, in the piston disc, C.
The pistons E, E', are fitted, and are capable of sliding through so as to
protrude alternately on each side of the piston disc. Each of the covers has a
projection which projects into the cylinder, the tops of them coming into
contact with the faces of the piston disc between them. The extent of these
projections upon the two covers is unequal, the projection upon one corre-
sponding to the recess of the opposite cover; the sides of these projections are
curved inclines, along which, and the flat faces of the covers, the edges of the
pistons move as they revolve, these rubbing surfaces being rendered steam-
tight by proper packing. F, F, are the ports or passages for the steam to_
and from the cylinder; G, a valve, box, enclosing an ordinary slide valve, by
which the steam may be admitted, so as to cause the pistons to revolve in
either direction, or to shut the steam entirely off as desired. In the position
of the valve shown, steam is supposed to be admitted by the
passage F¹,
other passage F being the exhaust passage, and the steam thus admitted
the

page_text: is exerting its pressure upon the. piston E¹, and propelling it forward in
the direction of the arrow. The other piston E is diametrically opposite to the
piston E¹, and is at this moment upon the top of the projection upon the
cover B, and consequently exposing no part of its surface to the action of
the steam in the cylinder. The space in the back of the piston E will, by
reason of the other piston E¹ having passed the exhaust port E, be open to
that exhaust. The top of the projection upon the cover B is provided with a
packing Bu, by which steam-tight contact is maintained between it and the
face of the piston disc during the revolutions of the latter. As the piston
disc revolves, the piston E will slide down the curved inclined side of the
projection upon the cover B until it arrives upon the flat surface of the cover,
when the steam, admitted by the passage F¹, will immediately commence
its action of pressure against it to cause it to continue the revolutions of
the disc.
I will now describe a modified arrangement of rotary engine which is
represented in Fig. 7, which is a vertical section of the cylinder showing the
pistons and piston disc in the interior, and Fig. 8 a face view of one of the
covers. A, the cylinder, and.B the cover; C, the piston disc, and E, E', pistons;
D, the shaft upon which the piston disc is fixed. The upper part of the cylinder
is of a curved form, the centre portion containing a packing by which close
steam-tight contact with the periphery of the piston disc is maintained;
F, F, are the steam passages, the entrance of steam through which is regu-
lated by a slide valve upon the exterior of the cover, as before described;
G is a projection, upon the face of the cover B, for the purpose of guiding
the pistons during the revolutions of the piston disc, the lower part of this
being concentric with the cylinder, and the upper portion of a curvature
agreeing to that of the upper part of the interior of the cylinder, so that
the edges of the pistons may always be maintained in close contact with the
surface of the cylinder. H.is another projecting peice upon the cover B for
the purpose of facilitating and ensuring the correct action of the pistons past
the upper portion of the cylinder.
Figs. 9 and 10 represent another modified arrangement of, construction,
Fig. 9 being a 'section of the cylinder, and Fig. 10 a view of the cover. In.
this arrangement the piston disc occupies the entire of the lower portion of
the cylinder, leaving the upper portion, which is of larger diameter than the
lower, open; and it is here, when the pistons are protruded from the discs, that
the steam acts upon them. F, the steam port, and F¹ the eduction port,
which, however, may be reversed when the engine is required to be driven in

page_text: an opposite direction. The projection G, upon the face of the cover,.is: for
the purpose of guiding the pistons in a correct manner.
My next improvement consists in the arrangement of the vibratory engine
shown in Fig. 11, which is a sectional elevation. A, the case, through the
centre of which the shaft D passes. To this is fixed the pistons B, B: F, F,
steam ports upon the shaft D; outside the case is fixed; a crank or lever, to
which the connecting rod E is jointed, and to the crank G, by: which the
reciprocating motion of the pistons B, B, is converted into a rotary motion
at the crank shaft.
My next improvement consists in the arrangement of direct-acting engines;
as shewn at Fig. 12, which is an elevation of part of an ordinary steam
cylinder, with my improved. connecting apparata attached. A, the steam
cylinder, which may have one or two piston rods as desirable. These:carry. the
cross head B, upon which is mounted the bar C; upon this traverses: the
joint block D, which, also carries the pin of the crank E; and as. the piston
makes its stroke, the block D traverses the. bar, and gives rotary motion; to
the crank:
.
'
My improvements in the condensation of steam:applicable to steam engines
consist in the application and employment of a series of receiving vessels, of
considerable cubical content and extended surface, into each of which in
succession the eduction steam from the engine cylinder is received for the
purpose of being condensed, the cold surface of the vessels being the one
medium employed. The series of vessels are first exhausted of atmospheric
air by any ordinary means, and then the exhaust steam from the cylinder is
admitted into one of them (communication being cut off from the remainder)
until the vacuum.is no longer sufficiently effective; the communication between
it and the steam.cylinder is then closed, and that between the next vessel and
the cylinder opened, and so on through the whole series in succession. The
above apparatus may be used in conjunction with.atmospheric engines.
My last improvement consists. in the adaptation of the above-described
arrangements for rotary engines to the construction of pumps for raising and
forcing water, and for hydraulic power engines.
Having described the nature of my improvements, what I claim is,-
First, the several arrangements and constructions, herein described, of
rotary and reciprocating steam engines.
Secondly, the application to steam engines and to atmospheric engines of a
series of receiving vessels for the condensation of steam or air:

page_text: Thirdly, the adaptation and application of the machinery before described
for raising and forcing water, and for hydraulic power engines.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Frederick Morrell, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, the Seventh day of May, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-one.
GEORGE FREDERICK (L.s.) MORRELL.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, by the
within-named G. F. Morrell, in the
presence of
CHARLES BARLOW,
May 7th, 1851.
Enrolled the Seventh day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand