IMROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES, AND IN STUFFING BOXES USED THEREIN AND POR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Sheldon Stubbs at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st June 1869.
I, JOSEPH SHELDON STUBBS, of No. 3, Fenton Terrace, in the City
of Lincoln, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES, AND IN STUFFING BOXES USED THEREIN AND
POR OTHER PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in steam engines
and in stuffing boxes used therein and for other purposes.
The improvement mainly consists in reducing by the means herein
described the number of parts, simplifying the construction, and lessen-
ing the cost of steam engines, both portable and fixed, locomotive and
marine. I dispense with cylinder covers and bolts, slide bars, front glands,
slide blocks, gudgeon, column, and bolts, and I employ a cylinder of
the common form but with a partition in the centre, and with two
pistons instead of one. The engine receives the steam from the centre
of the cylinder instead of at each end as in the old form, so that it has
not to be conveyed by passages the length of the cylinder. The steam
is admitted alternately on either side of the partition, and the exhausted

page_text: steam passes out in the usual manner. The two pistons are on the
saine rod, and the connecting rod is jointed to the front piston cover.
The connecting rod travels within the cylinder the length of stroke. I
also propose to modify the cylinder so as to obtain greater power where
required for larger engines, portable or fixed, locomotive or marine, by
adding covers of the ordinary kind to the ends of the cylinder, thus
making four steam spaces and using two pistons. This form necessitates
the use of the ordinary slide motion column and other parts.
The improvement includes a new form of stuffing box which may
be adapted to any description of engine, portable or fixed, marine or
locomotive. The inside of the stuffing box is hollowed into a cavity
concave in its form so that the packing forms a globular ball, or the
stuffing box may be so hollowed that the packing assumes a cylin-
drical shape with convex ends, the rod passes through the centre of the
packing. In each case a plunger passes into the cavity from one side
and its lower end presses on the packing which entirely surrounds the
piston rod, thus enabling it to be readily tightened. The packing is
inserted through the centre of the stufling box, it may be by the passage
for the plunger instead of at the end as in the usual form. The plunger
which assumes the duty of the ordinary gland may have a screw
formed upon it and a similar screw is in this case formed in the holo
or passage into which it is inserted. In this way the packing can be
regulated with an equal pressure round the piston rod. Instead of
this screw cover the old plan of gland and nuts with studs may be
used having the bottom of the cover in a bolt form so as to press the
packing, as in the arrangement with a screw cover or gland. This
form of stuffing box is also adapted for stop valves, and indeed for
almost every other description of valve.