CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STEAM ENGINES, AND THE SUBSEQUENT USE OF THE STEAM
Year: 1818

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
WRIGHT, of Tokenhouse Yard, in the City of London, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His Majesty's most Excellent Majesty King George the Third
did, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourteenth day
of November, in the fifty-ninth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said Richard Wright, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His special licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Richard Wright, my
exors, adñors, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during term of
years therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE CONSTRUCTION OF STEAM ENGINES, AND THE SUBSEQUENT USE OF THE STEAM;"
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the said
Richard Wright, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be in-
rolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the
said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted,

page_text: shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same, relation
being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Richard Wright, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say):
:-
My improvements in the steam engine consist of new working valves and
throttle valve for admitting and shutting off alternately the steam from the boiler
to the cylinder, and from thence to the eduction tube; the throttle valve regu-
lates the supply of steam from the boiler to the cylinder. The valves consist
of a flat plate of brass, steel, copper, iron, or any other suitable metal or
material, and which plate is ground flat on one or both sides and inclosed
within a metal box, which box I fix between the nosel pipes and the cylinder;
one or both of the internal sides of the above box I grind or otherwise make
flat, for the purpose of the valve to slide against; the aforesaid flat plate or valve
I fix in a frame or pair of forceps with a rod passing through a stuffing box,
and which valve I allow to hang free in the said frame or forceps, and take its
seat against the side of the box by the pressure of the steam only; for my
working valve I prefer making the steam way longest in its horizontal
dimensions; but when I apply it to a throttle valve I make it much longest
virtically, by which I can wiredraw the steam with great precission.
37
For the better understanding this Specification, I annex a plan and sec-
tion, wherein A is the flat plate of metal or valvė. B, B, is the metal box,
with its passages for the steam C, C. D, the frame of forceps, with its rod
passing through the stuffing box E, and which rod I attach to the engine for
the purpose of working the valve in any convenient way; I place the flat side
of the steam box according to circumstances, but always on the minor.
pressuré side.
What I claim as my exclusive privilege in the first part of the Patent is the
valves as heretofore described, but not the stuffing box E, and which valves are
moved with much less power, and consequently friction, than any heretofore
in use.
The improvements in the second part, that is, in the subsequent use of the
steam, consists in passing the steam through heated tubes or other vessel or
vessels after it has left the cylinder of the steam engine in its progress to heat
or evaporate other substances, likewise in fixing a valve at or near the escape
passage of the steam, which valve I load with such weights as I find necessary
to produce a counter pressure against the escape side of the piston of a com-

page_text: pressure engine, that I may be enabled to heat or boil with the escape steam
of the engine at a higher temperature than 212 of Ferenheit. The size may
be varied, notwithstanding the scale annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Wright, party hereto, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of December, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighteen.
Inrolled the Eleventh day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and nineteen.