IMPROVEMENTS IN GOVERNORS OR SPEED REGULATORS.
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John David Napier and Robert David Napier, of Glasgow,
in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineers, for an Invention of
IMPROVEMENTS IN GOVERNORS OR SPEED REGULATORS.'
61
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John David Napier and
Robert David Napier at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the
18th February 1880.
JOHN DAVID NAPIER and ROBERT DAVID NAPIER, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Engineers. "IMPROVEMENTS IN GOVERNORS OR SPEED
REGULATORS."
This Invention has for its object to improve the construction and action of
governors or speed regulators of the kind in which the operation of rotating blades
on a liquid is employed. Governors made with the improvements are comparatively
small and inexpensive, and whilst having a sensitive and powerful corrective action,
although arranged to act on a throttle valve or other regulating valve without the
intervention of any extraneous force, are not subject to objectionable oscillation.
In carrying out the Invention a shaft of the prime mover, or suitably geared
thereto, and which shaft may be in a horizontal or other convenient position, has
fixed on it a disc having a series of blades fixed on one of its faces. Loose on the
same shaft there is a second disc also having blades fixed on one of its faces, and
the two discs are placed with their bladed sides facing each other, and so that the
blades of the rotating disc just clear those of the loose disc. The shaft passes
through a stuffing box into a box which contains the discs, and in which there is a
cylindrical flange, enclosing and covering the blades and the edges of the discs, but
by preference not touching them. The loose disc has pulley or barrel formed or
fixed on its outer face, and a chain attached to this pulley or barrel transmits the
action to the throttle valve or other regulating valve, or a pinion and rack or other
equivalent may be substituted for the pulley and chain.
Water or other suitable liquid is put into the box, and when the shaft rotates
(which it docs always in the same direction) the action of the blades of the rotating
disc on the liquid makes it tend to impart rotation to the loose disc by acting on
Paving Gi

page_text: the blades of the latter. This tendency to make the loose disc rotate is however
resisted by a counterweight or equivalent applied to the chain, or to a lever
connected to the chain; and this counterweight is adjusted so as to just balance
the rotating tendency of the loose disc when the shaft is going at its proper speed..
When the proper speed is exceeded the resistance of the counterweight is overcome,
and when the speed is too low the counterweight acts in the opposite direction,
there taking place in either case a movement of the loose disc, and of the throttle
valve or other regulating valve.
The blades of the rotating disc are by preference curved with concavities, facing
forwards in the direction of rotation, and the blades of the loose disc are curved
with concavities facing in the opposite direction, the object being to impart a
maximum or considerable rotating tendency to the loose disc.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Robert David Napier in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 16th
August 1880.
ROBERT DAVID NAPIER, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN GOVERNORS OR SPEED REGULATORS."
The said Invention has for its object to improve the construction and action of
governors or speed regulators of the kind in which the operation of rotating blades
on a liquid is employed. Governors made with the improvements are comparatively
small and inexpensive, and whilst having a sensitive and powerful corrective
action, although arranged to act on a throttle valve or other regulating valve
without the intervention of any extraneous force, are not subject to objectionable
oscillation.
In carrying out the Invention a shaft of the prime mover, or one suitably driven
therefrom, and which may be in a horizontal or other convenient position, has fixed
on it a disc having a series of blades fixed or formed on one of its faces. Loose on
the same shaft there is a second disc also having blades fixed or formed on one of
its faces, and the two discs are placed with their bladed sides facing each other,
and so that the blades of the rotating disc just clear those of the loose disc. The
shaft passes through a stuffing box into a box which contains the discs and water
or other liquid. The looso disc has a pulley or barrel formed or fixed on its outer
face, and a chain attached to this pulley or barrel transmits the action to the
throttle valve or other regulating valve; or a pinion and rack or other equivalent
may be substituted for the pulley and chain.
When the shaft rotates (which it does always in the same direction) the action of
the blades of the rotating disc on the liquid makes it tend to impart rotation to
the loose disc by acting on the blades of the latter. This tendency to make the
loose disc rotate is however resisted by a counterweight or equivalent applied to
the chain, or to a lever connected to the chain; and this counterweight is adjusted
so as to just balance the rotating tendency of the loose disc when the shaft is going
at its proper speed. When the proper speed is exceeded the resistance of the
counterweight is overcome, and when the speed is too low the counterweight acts
in the opposite direction, there taking place in either case a movement of the loose
disc and of the throttle valve or other regulating valve.
The blades of the rotating disc are by preferenco curved with concavities facing
forwards in the direction of rotation, and the blades of the loose disc are curved
with concavities facing in the opposite direction, the object being to impart a
maximum or considerable rotating tendency to the loose disc.
And in order that the said Invention, and the manner of performing the same
may be properly understood, there is hereunto appended a Sheet of explanatory
Drawings to be hereinafter referred to, and representing a governor as made with
the improvements. In these Drawings the same reference numerals are used to
mark the same or like parts wherever they are repeated.
Figure 1 on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings is a horizontal section of the
governor, and Figure 2 is a side elevation; Figures 3 and 4 are enlarged face views
of the two discs, and Figures 5 and 6 are sections as at right angles to Figures 3
and 4; Figure 7 is a diagram showing the relation of the rotating blades to those
of the loose disc.
The apparatus comprises a box S, which is shown as rectangular, but which may
be of any convenient form, and this box contains the two governor discs 9, 10,
immersed in water or other suitable liquid. Both discs 9, 10, aro carried on a
horizontal shaft 11, which passes out through a stuffing box in one side of tho
box 8, and has fast on it externally a pulley 12 for a driving belt. Onc, 9, of the
discs is fast on the shaft 11, and the other, 10, is loose thereon, and the loose

page_text: disc 10 has formed on its outer face a pulley 13, round which there passes a
chain 14, having one end fixed to the pulley, and the other to a lever 15. The
lever 15 is connected by a rod 16 to the throttle valve or other regulating valve,
and an adjustable weight 17 is applied to it in a manner to tend to turn the
loose disc 10 in the opposite direction to that of the rotation of the shaft 11.
The discs 9 and 10 are formed with flat faces for some distance from their
central bosses, and with curved rims 18, 19, at their outer parts, the edges of the
rims projecting from the faces of the discs to about the same extent as the
blades 20, 21, fixed to the inner faces of the discs. These blades 20, 21, are
represented as of forms which have been arrived at by numerous careful
experiments, and they yield extremely satisfactory results demonstrating that discs
of small size are capable of exerting ample power for adjusting comparatively large
throttle or regulating valves. The forms of the blades 20, 21, may however be
varied to some extent without materially altering the results. The blades 20 of
the rotating disc 9 are curved, as seen in face view, with their concavities facing
in the direction of rotation, but they are straight in any planes at right angles to
the flat part of the disc. The blades 21 of the loose disc 10 are curved, both as
seen in face view, and in planes at right angles to the flat part of the disc, and
their concavities face in the opposite direction to those of the rotating disc 9 when
the discs are in position. In the diagram Figure 7 the rotating blades 20 are
shown in full lines, and those 21 of the loose disc 10 in dotted lines, and the arrow
shows the direction of motion of the rotating disc 9. The discs 9, 10, are placed
on the shaft 11, so as to be sufficiently clear of each other for no parts to come in
contact even with some unexpected vibration. One eighth of an inch is believed
to be sufficient clearance for discs, the extreme diameter of which is seven inches.
The blades 20, 21, may be conveniently made from sheet metal by cutting and
stamping processes, and be fixed separately to the discs, or discs may be cast with
the blades on them.
Having thus particularly described the said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I have to state that we do not restrict ourselves to the
precise details herein described or delineated, but that what we believe to bo
novel and original and claim as the Invention secured to us by and in terms of the
herein before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
1. The combination of parts constituting a governor or speed regulator, in which
combination a rotating disc driven from the prime mover to be regulated, and
having blades on it causes a liquid in which the parts are immersed to act on a
second disc, also having blades on it, so as to tend to impart rotation thereto, and in
which the tendency of the second disc to rotate is resisted by a weight, the parts
being arranged and operating substantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore
described.
2. The making of the blades of the two discs concave, the concavities of the
rotating blades facing in the direction of their motion, and those of the other blades
in the opposite direction, as hereinbefore described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert David Napier, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand sight hundred and sighty
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
ROBT. D. NAPIER. (L.S.)