IMPROVEMENTS IN Loco- MOTIVE ENGINES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Walter Neilson, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN Loco-
MOTIVE ENGINES."
Sealed the 5th June 1855, and dated the 22nd February 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Walter Neilson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd February 1855.
I, WALTER NBILSON, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES" to be as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention relates to the general arrangement of various details of
locomotive engines and boilers for the purpose of obtaining a more convenient
disposition of the working parts than has been hitherto accomplished. The
Invention is capable of judicious application to many varieties of locomotive
engines, but as adapted to six-wheeled outside cylinder engines it may be carried
out under this form. The front and central portion of the engine is supported
upon four running or carrying wheels, the front axle being just within or
behind the overhanging smoke box, whilst the central or intermediate axle is
at a point slightly to the rear of the boiler's longitudinal centre. The outside
cylinders are disposed between these wheels, being bolted by side flanges to the

page_text: main frame. From these cylinders connecting rods pass to outside crank pins on
the two driving wheels, the axle being placed clear outside of the fire box and
directly beneath the driver's foot plate. The whole of the valve link details
and the feed pumps are placed to the rear of the driving axle. The valve
chests are placed on the inner sides of the cylinders, and are arranged with the
valve faces towards the centre of the engine, somewhat inclined to the vertical
line. Each valve spindle continued from the stuffing box of the casing or
chest works in a strong guide fixed to the framing of the engine. To this
valve spindle is attached the valve connecting rod, which passes back between
the driving wheels and fire box to the after end of the frame. This end of the
valve connecting rod is attached to and suspended by a strong link or inverted
lever, the fixed end of this lever being suspended from and working in bearings
on the back end cross bar of the framing. In this same lever is fixed the stud
pin and block, which works in and receives its motion from the expansion link,
the link being attached to the eccentric rods in the usual manner, and
suspended directly from the levers on the reversing shaft, the reversing shaft.
being placed across the engine immediately under the foot plate. The reversing
lever or handle is fixed to this shaft, and passes directly up to the hand of the
driver on the foot plate of the engine. The valve and feed pump eccentrics are
fixed upon the driving axle under the foot plate, the feed pumps being fixed to
the back end cross bar of the framing, and worked direct from their eccentrics
in the usual manner. A part of the foot plate at the very rear of the engine is
portable on hinges, and can at any time be raised, exposing the valve and feed
gear; in a similar manner two small covers over the eccentrics can be raised,
thus exposing the eccentric gear and driving axle boxes to the view and access
of the engine driver. In constructing locomotive boilers according to this
Invention, a steam chamber is formed on the top of the boiler, so as to extend
the entire length, or the greater portion of the length of the boiler. This steam
chamber must in shape be a portion of a cylinder, or it may havo any other
convenient contour, and its internal space is divided from the main boiler space
by a horizontal diaphragm, which answers as a stay whilst the steam passes
through perforations in this diaphragm to the steam chamber above, whence:
it is conducted to the working cylinders in the usual manner.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Walter Neilson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
22nd August 1855.
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 Twenty-second day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth 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
LOCOMOTIVE 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 bo
filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
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 the general arrangement of various details of
locomotive engines and boilers for the purpose of obtaining a more efficient
action as well as a more convenient disposition of the working parts than has
been hitherto accomplished. The Invention is capable of judicious application
to many varieties of locomotive engines, but as adapted to six-wheeled outside
cylinder engines it may be carried out under this form. The front and central
portion of the engine is supported upon four running or carrying wheels, the
front axle being just within or behind the overhanging smoke box, whilst the
central or intermediate axle is at a point slightly to the rear of the boiler's
longitudinal centre. The outside cylinders are disposed between these wheels,

page_text: being bolted by side flanges to the main frame. From these cylinders con-
necting rods pass to outside crank pins on the two driving wheels; the axlo
being placed clear outside of the fire box and directly beneath the driver's
foot plate. The whole of the valve link, details, and feed pumps are placed to
the rear of the driving axle. The valve chests are placed on the inner sides
of the cylinders, and are arranged with the valve faces towards the centre
of the engine, somewhat inclined to the vertical line. Each valve spindle
continued from the stuffing box of the casing or chest works in a strong
guide fixed to the framing of the engine. To this valve spindle is attached the
valve connecting rod, which passes back between the driving wheels and fire
box to the after end of the frame. This end of the valve connecting rod is
attached to and suspended by a strong link or inverted lever, the fixed end of
this lever being suspended from and working in bearings on the back end cross
bar of the framing. In this same lever is fixed the stud pin and block, which
works in and receives its motion from the expansion link, the link being
attached to the eccentric rods in the usual manner, and suspended directly
from the levers on the reversing shaft, the reversing shaft being placed across
the engine immediately under the foot plate. The reversing lever or handle is
fixed to this shaft, and passes directly up to the hand of the driver on the foot
plate of the engine. The valve and feed pump eccentrics are fixed upon the
driving axle under the foot plate, the feed pumps being fixed to the back end
cross bar of the framing, and worked direct from their eccentrics in the usual
manner. A part of the foot plate at the very rear of the engine is portable on
hinges, and can at any time be raised, exposing the valve and feed gear. In
a similar manner two small covers over the eccentrics can be raised, thus
exposing the eccentric gear and driving axle boxes to the view and access of
the engine driver. In constructing locomotive boilers according to this Inven-
tion a steam chamber is formed on the top of the bojler, so as to extend the
entire length or the greater portion of the length of the boiler. This steam
chamber must in shape be a portion of a cylinder, or it may have any other
convenient contour, and its internal space is divided from the main boiler space
by a horizontal diaphragm, which answers as a stay whilst the steam passes
through perforations in this diaphragm to the steam chamber above, whence it
is conducted to the working cylinders in the usual manner.
And in order that my said Invention may be properly understood I shall
now proceed to describe the several explanatory Figures on the two Sheets
of Drawings hereunto attached.
Figure 1 on Sheet 1 of my Drawings is a complete side elevation of
another form of locomotive engine, being an eight-wheeled bogie tank engine,

page_text: as constructed under one modification of my improvements; Figure 2 on the
same Sheet is,a half sectional plan of the engine, corresponding; Figure 3 on
Sheet 2 of my Drawings is a transverse sectional elevation of the same engine,
one half of such section being taken immediately behind the valve gear, but
shewing the peculiar form of boiler, in section also, as at a line of the engine
further forward. The other half section is taken in front of the driving wheels,
and shews the cylinder, bogie wheel, and frame. Figure 4 on the same Sheet
is a front end elevation of the engine as looking on the smoke box. In this
arrangement of engine, which is the one I prefer for carrying out my Invention,
the continuous side frames A run flush from end to end, the water and coke
tank B being at the extreme rear, and carried upon the pair of after running
wheels C. The large driving wheels D are disposed with their axle running
across the engine, just beneath the driver's platform, and close to the fire box
end. The front portion of the engine is carried upon the bogie frame E,
supported on four wheels F of the same size as the rear wheels. This
bogie frame works in passing curves upon the vertical central stud bolt G
connected to the main frame, the top of the side pieces of the bogie frame
being arranged to act as a railway for the action of the supporting pulleys or
wheels H of the steam cylinders. These pulleys are set so as to allow the
weight upon them to act in a line slightly in front of the bogie's centre of
horizontal oscillation, thus taking the bearing point for the boiler's weight clear
forward of the bogie frame centre. The outside steam cylinders J are bolted
by side and end flanges to the main frame at a point near the longitudinal
centre of the boiler. The piston of each cylinder is fitted with an overhanging
slide block L, projecting to the upper side, to work upon the single horizontal
guide M, stayed between the cylinder, stuffing box, and the bracket N. The
connecting rod joint is at the centre O, the connecting rod itself being repre-
sented in its opposite positions by the blue lines P, as it passes to the outside
driving crank pin Q of the driving wheel. The feed pump R is bolted to the
main frame, directly behind the piston rod slide movement, the plunger S
being linked to the steam piston rod at the connecting rod centre O, so that
the pumping strain is in the direct line of the steam piston rod. The feed
water is brought from the tank by the curved pipe T to the pump barrel, and
it is delivered therefrom to the boiler through the upper curved pipe U and
the clack V. The steam chest is on the top or upper side of the cylinder, the
working steam being brought from the longitudinal steam cell or chamber W
of the boiler through the descending pipe X, the exhaust of the used steam
taking place through an inside branch and the pipe Y leading to the blast
pipe. The steam slide valve spindle is connected by the long horizontal link

page_text: rod Z, which, for the sake of strength and lightness, may be made tubular,
passing back to the valve link details, the whole of which are disposed beneath
the driver's platform and behind the driving axle. The after end of this link
is jointed at a to the upper end of a lever 6, keyed by its lower eye upon the
external end of a short horizontal rocking shaft. The opposite end of this shaft
carries a second or descending pendant lever c, also forged or fast upon the
shaft, its lower eyed being connected to the curved reversing link e by the
usual joint stud block, the sliding end of which fits the curved link slot. The
driver's reversing lever is at f, fast on one end of the transverse shaft 9, which
also carries the counterbalance weight lever h. This shaft g also carries a back
lever i, the connecting link of which passes downwards to a central side joint
stud fast to the curved reversing link e. In this way the reversing link is
suspended during its working action. As represented in the Drawings, the
link is in the forward gear, the reversing handle being passed forward, so as to
bring the link e to its most elevated position, so that the action of the lower
eccentric rod k is giving effect to the valve spindle through the lower end of
the reversing link e, the pendant lever c, d, its short rocking shaft, and the
external lever b, and link rod z. When the engine is to be reversed, the driver
draws back the lever f, and thus depresses the reversing link e, until the upper
eccentric rod comes into working line with the stud of the pendant lever c, d.
The details are obviously the same for both valvular arrangements, the
reversing shaft g being passed right across the engine. The transverse section,
Figure 3, clearly represents my arrangement of longitudinal steam chamber W,
which extends along the boiler's entire length, being divided therefrom merely
by the horizontal perforated plate m, which plate permits the passage through
of steam, and at the same time acts as a strong stay for the boiler. The
regulator or stop-valve lever handle is at n, a rod from which passes forward
to a slide valve disposed in the chest on the top of the long steam chamber.
The brake apparatus is confined to the two wheels of the tank end. It is
worked by the usual screwed hand wheel spindle, in gear with a nut o, in the
end eye of a lever p, the shaft of which carries a lever, connected in the usual
manner with the parallel brake block link movement, to which are attached
the four brake blocks q, embracing the hind or rear wheels.
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 the principles or main features of my Invention; but what

page_text: 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 locomotive engines, as
herein-before described.
Second, the system or mode of working the link valve gear of locomotive
engines by means of eccentrics placed or carried upon a driving axle situated
at the rear of or behind the fire box of the engine.
Third, the system or mode of arranging and working steam slide valve
details of locomotive engines, wherein the actuating eccentrics are disposed at
a point between the link movement and the slide valve, the eccentrics and link
being at the rear of the fire box.
Fourth, the system or mode of arranging and constructing the boilers of
locomotive engines, wherein a steam chamber, the transverse section of which
is a segment of a cylinder, is attached to the upper side of the boiler and open
thereto, with an intermediate rectilineal stay between the boiler and such
chamber.
In witness whereof, I, the said Walter Neilson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of August, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-five.
WALTER NEILSON. (L.s.)