IMPROVEMENTS IN BLOWING ENGINES
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Walter Neilson, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
BLOWING ENGINES."
Sealed the 7th April 1854, and dated the 6th February 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Walter Neilson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 6th
February 1854.
I, WALTER NEILSON, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN BLOWING ENGINES" to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a compact and efficient arrangement of the details
of steam engines intended especially for blowing furnaces and similar purposes.
The main frame consists of short rectangularly disposed standards upon the
top of which the vertical blowing cylinder is placed. The piston of this
cylinder is fitted with two rods passing out from the upper side to an overhead
cross head working in vertical guides supported by the framing or by the
blowing cylinder. From the ends of this cross head, side rods pass down to
two end cranks on a fly wheel shaft below. This shaft carries a large spur
wheel at its centre, and two separate external fly wheels one at each end. The
large spur wheel gears with a spur pinion fast on the first motion shaft of the

page_text: engine. The engine, if of the condensing class, consists of a pair of parallel
vertical cylinders supported partly by the blowing cylinder, and partly by
standards passing down to the base and forming ducts for the waste steam.
These cylinders are inverted and their piston rods have connecting rods
passing directly to two end cranks upon the first motion pinion shaft set at
the same horizontal level as the blowing shaft. The two air pumps stand
vertically up from the base beyond the steam cylinder, the condensers being
beneath them. The air pump plungers are worked from the engine piston
rods by vibrating levers, with long and short arms to give the proper stroke.
The steam cylinders may be disposed horizontally instead of vertically, and
this arrangement applies particularly to high pressure engines, the connecting
rods being in such case passed horizontally to their cranks.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Walter Neilson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 5th
August 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WALTER
NEILSON, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Walter Neilson, Her special license that I, the said Walter Neilson,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Walter
Neilson, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BLOWING ENGINES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Walter Neilson, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Walter Neilson, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My said Invention relates to a compact and efficient arrangement of the
details of steam blowing or blast engines intended especially for blowing
furnaces and for similar purposes. The main frame of the machinery con-
sists of short rectangularly disposed standards upon the top of which the
vertical blowing cylinder is placed. The piston of this cylinder is fitted with
two rods passing out from the upper side to an overhead cross head working
in vertical guides supported by the framing or by the blowing cylinder. From
the ends of this cross head, side rods pass down to two end cranks on a fly
wheel shaft below. This shaft carries a large spur wheel at its centre, and two
separate external fly wheels, one at each end. The large spur wheel gears with
a spur pinion fast on the first motion shaft of the engine. The engine, if of the
condensing class, consists of a pair of parallel vertical cylinders, supported
partly by the blowing cylinder and partly by standards passing down to the base,
and forming ducts for the waste steam. These cylinders are inverted, and their
piston rods have connecting rods passing directly to two end cranks upon the
first motion pinion shaft set at the same horizontal level as the blowing shaft.
The two air pumps stand vertically up from the base beyond the steam cylin
ders, the condensers being beneath them. The air pump plungers are worked
from the engine piston rods by vibrating levers with long and short arms to
give the proper stroke. The steam cylinders may be disposed horizontally
instead of vertically, and this arrangement applies particularly to high pressure
engines, the connecting rods being in such case passed horizontally to thei
cranks.
And in order that my said Invention may be properly understood, I shall now
proceed to describe the several Figures on the Sheets of Drawings hereunto
attached.
a
Figure 1, on Sheet 1 of my Drawings, is a complete side external elevation
of one modification of my blowing engine, actuated by pair of vertical low
pressure condensing steam cylinders. Figure 2, on the same Sheet of Draw-
ings, is an end or front view at right angles to Figarel.
Figure 1, on Sheet 2 of the Drawings, is a plan of the machinery arranged
to show more particularly the details of the blowing cylinder valves, with the
steam cylinders and the air pump mechanism. Figure 2 on the same Sheet,
is a separately detailed elevation of the pair of actuating steam cylinders,

page_text: with their piston rods and connections broken away, but showing the first
motion crank shaft in its bearings on the framing, and fitted up with its
two end cranks, its driving pinion, and the eccentrics and connections for the
steam slide valves.
Figure 1, on Sheet 3 of my Drawings, is a complete side elevation of
another form of my blowing engine, wherein long-stroked horizontal high
pressure steam cylinders are used as the actuating power. Figure 2, on the
same Sheet, is a plan of this horizontal cylinder arrangement in correspondence
with Figure 1.
Referring to Figures 1 and 2, on Shects 1 and 2 of my Drawings, I'
shall now describe the first mentioned modification of my machinery.
The foundation masonary A, has bolted upon it the two parallel vertical
side frames B, connected together transversely by two other end pieces
to form a complete rectangular framing. On this framing the large blowing
cylinder C, is bolted down by its lower end. The solid blowing piston has
two piston rods D, working out through stuffing-boxes in the cover, these
rods being cottered at their upper ends into a long cast iron cross head E,
which has its extremities passed through the vertically slotted guides F. The
guides F are bolted down by bottom flanges to the end of the blowing cylinder,
and they are additionally stayed by a pair of transverse tie rods overhead.
Each end of the cross head E has a separate joint stud piu G, of wrought iron
set in it to answer as the joint connections for the external pendant side
rods H. These connecting rods are of timber, with wrought iron end straps,
and their lower ends are jointed upon stud crank pins I, fast in the outside
arms of the fly wheels J. Theso fly wheels, which are very narrow with deep
rims, so as to take up but little room laterally are keyed upon the extremities
of the bottom horizontal shaft K, and each wheel is composed of a set of
eight panelled arms, cast in one picce, with a central boss, each arm having a
dovetailed end for entering laterally into corresponding recesses in the inside
of the wheel rim. The fly wheel shaft runs in pedestals on the base, beneath
the blowing cylinder, and it has keyed upon its centre a large spur wheel L,
of seventy-five teeth, gearing with the pinion M, of twenty-five teeth, giving
a relative speed of three to one. The pinion M is on the first motion or
engine shaft N, running in a couple of base pedestals, and having fast upon it
a pair of end cranks O.
Directly above the shaft N, are the two vertical steam cylinders P, connected
firmly to each other by an intermediate valve chest Q, and bolted by flanges R,
to the blowing cylinder. The two piston rods S, of the cylinders P, work
downwards through bottom stuffing boxes, and have each a tolerably long
3

page_text: cross head T, fitting between the guide frames U, which also form supporting
frames by stretching down from the lower cylinder covers to the framing
standards B. Each piston rod works its individual crank O, by the direct
action of a connecting rod V.
The cross head stud of each piston rod is prolonged on both sides to receive
the connecting links W, for working the air pumps. These links are jointed
at their other ends to studs in the longer arms of the parallel levers X,
oscillating on fixed centres in the standard brackets Y. The opposite shorter
arms of the levers X, are jointed at Z, to links a, passing down to light cross
heads b, on the upper ends of the piston rods c, of the air pumps d. The
upper portions of the rods c, are prolonged to enter guide eyes e, in the
brackets Y, as a parallel motion; and the cross heads 6, are prolonged to carry
the plungers of the hot and cold water pumps f. g. The whole of the con-
densing apparatus is contained in the two rectangular tanks h, bolted to the
foundation and to the framing B, and carrying as well the brackets Y. The
slide valves of the steam cylinders are worked by the rods i, passing upwards
from a pair of eccentrics, set one on each side of the pinion M, on the engine
shaft. The steam from the boiler enters the valve chest by the branch j, and
the exhaust steam passes off by the two elbow branches k, thence flowing
down through the pipes 7. The lower vertical portions of these pipes form
the actual condensers. The cold injection water rushes up these pipes, and
meeting the exhausting steam, the product is drawn off in the usual manner
through the foot passage m.
The top and bottom of the blowing cylinder are
fitted with influx air valves n, divided into minute sections for ease of working,
and the compressed air is expelled from the upper end of the cylinder through
the valved branch o, where windows are fitted, for the purpose of affording
internal inspection. From the bottom of the cylinder, the air passes up by
the vertical pipe p, and the two currents meet and pass away to the furnaces
along the main pipe q. The small steam pistons working at a high velocity
communicate a slow steady motion to the great forcing piston, with all the
uniformity that can be required, and all the parts are well balanced and
appropriately put together.
In reference to Sheet 3 of my Drawings, I have to describe my second form
or modification of blowing engine, wherein a single horizontal high pressure
steam cylinder is used as the actuating power. The whole of the machinery
rests upon the long sole plate A, cast in the form of an open frame and
bolted down to suitable foundation masonry. On one end of this sole plate
are bolted down two parallel vertical side frames or standards B, connected

page_text: As
together so as to form a firm rectangular framing. The large vertically disposed
blowing cylinder C is bolted down upon this framing by its lower end.
in the former arrangement which I have described, the blowing piston is fitted
with two piston rods D, working upwards and carrying at their upper ends
a long cross head E. This cross head has its two extremities fitted into the
pair of vertically slotted guides F, bolted down by bottom flanges to the end
of the blowing cylinder, being stayed by overhead tie rods in the usual way.
The cross head projects outside the guides F, for the purpose of being jointed
at G, to the upper ends of the external pendant side connecting rods H.
These rods are of considerable length, and they are similarly jointed at their
lower ends to stud crank pins I, set in corresponding outside arms of the two
fly wheels J. These fly wheels are of great diameter, but very narrow, and
they are keyed fast upon the extremities of the bottom horizontal shaft K,
running in end pedestal bearings carried by the sole plate being entered
through the central openings in the framing standards B. The horizontal
steam cylinder L abuts by its closed end up against the blowing cylinder
framing; it is cast with a wide side flanged face for bolting down to the sole
plate, and its slide valve chest M is on the top. The single piston rod N of
the steam cylinder works out through a stuffing box in the projecting end of the
cylinder, and its extreme end is attached to the centre of a long cross head O,
arranged at each end to slide horizontally in the slotted guide pieces P, which
are bolted down to the sole plate. The projecting ends Q of this cross head
are formed with joint pins, from which long horizontal action connecting rods
R pass back outside to the stud pins I in the fly wheels. These stud pins
are made sufficiently long to receive the ends both of the rods H. and R, and
thus one set of crank pins answers both for the steam action of the cylinder
L, and the blowing action of the cylinder C, the stroke of both cylinders
obviously being the same. The blast from the lower end of the cylinder C,
passes up along the vertical pipe S, whilst that from the top similarly issues
along the branch T, both currents meeting in the horizontal pipe U, leading to
the furnaces. The other minor details of the engine are similar to those
which I have already described in reference to my first-mentioned modification
of blowing engine.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I may observe in conclusion that I do not confine or restrict myself
to the precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion to describe
or refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without deviating from

page_text: the principles or main features of my Invention; but what I consider to be
novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
First, the general arrangement and construction of blowing engines as
herein-before described.
Second, the system or mode of constructing blowing engines wherein the
piston of the vertical blowing cylinder is actuated by a revolving shaft placed
under the blowing cylinder; this shaft being driven by a steam engine directly
or through the medium of geared wheels.
Third, the system or mode of constructing blowing engines wherein the fly
wheels are placed on the shaft directly connected with or actually giving motion
to the piston of the blowing cylinder.
In witness whereof, I, the said Walter Neilson, have hereunto set my.
hand and seal, this Fourth day of August, in the year of our Lord One.
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
WALTER NEILSON. (L.S.)