CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1857

page_text: application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Newton, at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
8th December 1857.-A communication.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention of certain improvements in obtaining motive power relates,
in the first place, to a means of operating an engine by the employment (in
conjunction with but unmixed with steam,) of the gaseous products of the
combustion of coal or other fuel in a closed furnace, which is supplied with
compressed air, together with such air as may be unconsumed in passing
through the said furnace.
According to one plan of carrying out the Invention, the steam is first
employed at a high pressure to act upon both sides of a piston in a cylinder
resembling that of any high-pressure steam engine, and after it has been
exhausted therefrom it is conducted through a heater arranged within the
closed furnace for the purpose of having additional heat imparted to it from
the gaseous products of combustion and heated air, and its elasticity thereby
increased, and from thence it is conducted to a larger cylinder, one end of
which is connected with a condenser, like the cylinder of a.condensing steam

page_text: engine, and the other end furnished with an exhaust pipe, like the cylinder of
a noncondensing steam engine, but it (the steam) only acts on that side of the
piston of this larger cylinder which is exposed to communication with the
condenser, and after forcing the piston the length of the cylinder the steam is
admitted to the condenser and is condensed, so as to produce a vacuum in
the cylinder while the gaseous products of combustion and heated air, which
are admitted at the opposito end of the cylinder, act upon the opposite side of
the piston so as to drive it in the opposite direction in order that a recipro-
cating movement of the piston of the larger cylinder may be produced by the
alternate admission of the steam, and of the gaseous products of combustion
and heated air. The heating surfaces of the boiler or generating apparatus
are so proportioned and arranged, that the temperature of the gaseous
products of combustion and heated air is so much reduced by the heat
imparted from them to the water in generating steam, and to the steam after
its generation, or is controlled within such limits that in their use in the
cylinder lubrication with oil can be maintained, and this controlling of the
temperature of the gaseous products of combustion and heated air by a
properly arranged and proportioned heating surface constitutes one of the
most important features of the Invention, which also consists in the method of
employing the steam and the gaseous products of combustion and heated air
from the furnace separately for the purpose of actuating the engine.
The principal parts and essential features of novelty of this part of the
Invention are,-
1st, an apparatus for generating steam to be used in conjunction with but
unmixed with the gaseous products of combustion and heated air from a
furnace to actuate an engine. The heating surfaces are so proportioned and
arranged as to control the temperature of the products of combustion and
beated air, and prevent their admission to the engine cylinder at a temperature
higher than that which admits of lubrication with oil or grease without
destruction to such lubricating material.
2nd, the employment of the gaseous products of combustion and heated
air in conjunction with but unmixed with steam to actuate an engine. The
steam is used in the first place in one cylinder, and allowed to exhaust into a
heater arranged within the closed furnace of the steam boiler, so as to be
superheated or receive an additional quantity of heat in order to increase its
expansive force before its admission to another cylinder, in which it acts
alternately with the gaseous products of combustion and heated air.
3rd, the employment of the gaseous products of combustion and hot air to
'act on one side of a piston, on the other side of which steam acts upon what

page_text: is known as the "condensing" or "low-pressure" principle, that is to say,
after having acted on the piston it is condensed, in order to produce a vacuum,
while the products of combustion and heated air act on the opposite side as
herein described.
The Invention relates, secondly, to the generation of steam in a boiler
heated by a closed furnace which is supplied with compressed air, and the
admixture with such steam of the gaseous products of combustion of the coal
or other fuel consumed in the said furnace, and such portion of compressed
air as may not be consumed therein, and the employment of such mixture as
a motive agent to actuate the piston of an engine; such mixtures have been
before used, or proposed to be used, by others, but under a system of operation
different to that which constitutes the present Invention, which consists as
follows:-The steam generated at a high pressure in the boiler, is superheated
by passing it through a heater within the closed furnace, or heated in the
steam space of the boiler by pipes, through which the gaseous products of
combustion and heated air from the closed furnace are caused to circulate,
and after being thus heated is conveyed to a cylinder in which it acts upon a
piston in the same manner as it would in a common high-pressure or non-
condensing steam engine, and after exhausting therefrom it is allowed to mix
with the gaseous products of combustion and heated air from the furnace, and
the mixture is conveyed to a cylinder larger than that above mentioned, and
acts therein upon a piston in the same manner as steam in the cylinder of a
high-pressure engine, that is to say, by its direct pressure upon the piston, and
if desired to some extent by its expansion.