IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Harrison Bolton, William
Whitthread, Edward Bolton, and Thomas Robinson at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 23rd November
1867.
We, GEORGE HARRISON BOLTON, WILLIAM WHITTEREAD, and EDWARD
BOLTON, all of Widnes, in the County of Lancaster, and THOMAS ROBINSON,
of St. Helen's, in the said County, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER AND IN APPARATUS
EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists, first, in obtaining motive power by igniting and
exploding within any suitable engine a mixture of the vapour of a hydro-
carbon liquid with atmospheric air or oxygen, when admixture of the air
or oxygen with the said vapour, or only a part of the air or oxygen required,
is effected or allowed to take place within a vessel or space outside the
cylinder or cylinders or other part of the engine within which the explosion
is caused. Any gas or vacuum engine now in use can be employed, but we
prefer those of improved construction herein-after described. The said
vapour and air or oxygen, mixed as aforesaid, are supplied to the engine by
either of the well known methods of inhalation or injection; we prefer the
former, however, as by it the mixing of the said gases is effected in a simple

page_text: and efficient manner within the same vessel in which the hydrocarbon liquid
is vapourized.
Second. In employing with engines in which hydrocarbon vapour and air
or oxygen are exploded an apparatus devised by us and called "the
vapourizer." This consists of a rectangular or other suitably shaped vessel;
it contains the hydrocarbon liquid, and is so fitted that heat can be applied to
vapourize the said liquid should the atmospheric temperature be insufficient
for that purpose; internally it is divided by partitions, or it is partly filled
with a spongy, fibrous, or porous material which will suck up by capillary
attraction the hydrocarbon liquid. The supply pipe of the engine, that is to
say, the pipe which conveys the mixed gases to the engine, is connected into
the said vapourizer which is fitted with a pipe so arranged that it can be
opened to the air or to a supply of oxygen. When the engine is at work
acting by inhalation the said pipe is opened, and at each stroke air or oxygen
is inhaled through the opening, which passes through the vapourizer and
supply pipe into the engine. The air or oxygen so sucked in mixes with
and takes up in its passage through the vapourizer a quantity of the hydro-
carbon vapour sufficient to form an explosive mixture, or the further quantity
of air or oxygen required is added in the engine in any convenient manner.
When the engine is worked by injection a pump is employed to force or
suck air through the vapourizer and deliver it thence into the engine.
Third. In placing between engines in which hydrocarbon vapour mixed with
air or oxygen is exploded and the vapourizer described above an interceptor
to prevent the flame of explosion, should the valves not be tight from any
cause, from travelling backwards into the vapourizer. This consists of a box
fitted with wire gauze or small tubes. In practice we prefer to place it in
the supply pipe near to the engine.
Fourth. In utilizing the heat generated during explosion of hydrocarbon
vapour mixed with air or oxygen and keeping the cylinder or cylinders cool.
We surround the said cylinder or cylinders by a vessel containing water, and
leave a space in the vessel to contain steam, which we propose to generate
by the heat, or we use the water as a vehicle to convey away the heat from
the cylinders, to raise the temperature of the vapourizer, or to convey heat
where required for any useful purpose.
Fifth. Of an improved construction of engine in which hydrocarbon vapours
mixed with air or oxygen can be exploded so as to give motion to parts of the
said engine and provide power. This consists of a cylinder provided with
valve, piston, piston rod, and other mechanism used in ordinary stationary steam
engines. In the side of the cylinder we make two or more small openings;

page_text: when two cylinders are used we explode on one side of the piston only, and in
this case we make one opening in each cylinder; opposite each of these
openings we place a lighted lamp, jet of gas, or other flame. Explosion of the
mixed gases is made through these openings, first on one side of the piston and
then on the other, by the flame igniting the mixture sucked or forced into
the cylinder. If necessary small valves operated by the engine in the manner
of steam engine slide valves are fitted so as to open and close the said openings.
It will be obvious that this engine can be operated either by the expansion
of the gases which takes place at the instant of explosion or by atmospheric
pressure and the vacuum formed after explosion.