IMPROVEMENTS IN ROTARY ENGINES
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Clark at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 17th October
1863. A communication from abroad by George Bradford MacFarland,
of 29 Boulevart St. Martin, Paris, Engineer.
I, WILLIAM CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer and Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ROTARY ENGINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements in rotary steam engines working.
with or without expansion, and constructed so as to be either single or double
acting, the direction of motion may also be readily changed when desired. The
apparatus consists of a cylindrical chamber divided by a partition into two parts,
in each of which is placed an annular disc of smaller diameter furnished on its
periphery with a projecting pallet or piston which fills up the space in the
cylindrical chamber beyond the periphery of the disc and prevents the escape
of steam which is caused to act on the aforesaid pallet. The annular discs are
mounted on an axis carrying a fly-wheel and furnished with a cam which acts
on a lever serving to open and close a slide or valve for allowing of the passage
of the piston and intercepting the steam for which it forms an abutment;
lastly, two eccentrics keyed on the driving shaft impart motion to levers which
open or cut off communication of the steam with one or other of the distri-
buting valves according to the direction of motion of the engine. This change
of motion or reversing is effected by means of a lever fitting in spaces made in
a standard answering to "stop" go "forwards" or "backwards." Cocks are
mounted on the periphery of the cylinder for the escape of the waste steam.

page_text: In order to render these improvements better understood I have represented
them in the accompanying Drawings, Fig. 1 of which shows a longitudinal
elevation of the engine partly in section, in order to show the working parts;
Fig. 2 shows a plan of same, while Fig. 3 represents details of the arrangement
of the annular disc and partition dividing the cylinder and forming two engines
which are suitably coupled together in order to produce continuous action. The
letters serve for all the Figures.
a, framing of the engine supporting the various parts on which is cast the
cylinder b divided into two compartments as above mentioned by a partition c
which is furnished with springs d bearing on a metal ring e serving to keep
the annular disc f up to the surface of the chamber and forming an annular
stuffing box; g, pallet or piston formed on the periphery of disc f, and on which
the steam acts; h, axis or driving shaft on the end of which is keyed the fly-
wheel i, j, cam imparting motion to a bent lever pivotted at point k, this latter
imparts motion to a valve or slide whereby the pallet g is allowed to pass and
which forms an abutment for the steam, the motion is effected by means of
an arrangement of levers m which are returned to position by a spring n or its
equivalent; o, eccentrics keyed on driving shaft h and actuating by means of
levers p one or other of the rods q for regulating the admission or cutting off
the supply of steam admitted into the valve box r; s, reversing lever fitting
into spaces made in standard t and connected to two rods u actuating one or
other of levers p; v, cock for admitting steam into the valve boxes r; a, cocks
for the escape of the steam fitted to the periphery of cylinder b. The whole
being arranged as described and represented in the Drawings it will be readily
understood that the steam, after being admitted into valve box r by means of
cock v, traverses the cylinder in the direction shown by the arrows and acts on
the surface of the piston g so as to communicate rotary motion to disc ƒ and
driving shaft h. The steam after having acted on the piston escapes at cock v
into the atmosphere, or it may pass into a condenser. The slide being kept
constantly closed prevents any escape of steam, while at same time it recedes
to allow the piston to pass during the rotation of the cylindrical disc.