IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF PRODUCING AND REGULATING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Bourne, of 66, Mark Lane, in the City of
London, and County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF PRODUCING AND REGULATING MOTIVE
POWER."
Sealed the 22nd December 1870, and dated the 30th June 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Bourne at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th June 1870.
I, JOHN BOURNE, of 66, Mark Lane, in the City of London, and
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF PRODUCING AND
REGULATING MOTIVE POWER," to be as follows:-
I produce motive power from the heat derived from the combustion of
solid liquid or gaseous fuel, such combustion being in some cases slow
like that which takes place in the furnaces of steam boilers, and in some
cases rapid like that which occurs when gunpowder or gas mixed with

page_text: air is exploded. When coal is the fuel employed I reduce it to powder,
and gasify it by burning it with a limited supply of air or oxygen in
close chambers, whereby carbonic oxide is generated; and when a liquid
hydrocarbon is the fuel employed I vaporize it in a retort or otherwise
before it enters into combustion. The motive power is sometimes
generated by burning the gaseous fuel in the furnace of a steam boiler,
and at other times is generated by burning or exploding the fuel mixed
with air or oxygen in a close vessel under pressure, steam, or water, or
both being injected among the hot products to increase their volume
and reduce them to such a temperature as will enable the composite
fluid to be employed for working engines like steam engines, or for
propelling vessels by reaction, or for working any turbine or other motor.
or for setting back the atmosphere or some other fluid back through a
certain space by its re-entrance into which power may be obtained. The
gas employed to generate the heat and power may be carburetted
hydrogen or common coal gas, but I prefer carbonic oxide as being more
economical. And I economise the heat in motive-power engines,
whether steam engines, or engines worked by a mixture of steam and the
hot products of combustion, by causing the feed water to flow through a
small orifice with so great a velocity that the stream will enter the
boiler, but will be heated in its passage by being made to pass through
the educted steam or other waste hot fluids with which the naked jet of.
water is made to come into contact. I regulate the speed of motive-
power engines not by an ordinary governor formed with balls rotating
round an axis, but by an elastic hoop or hoops or an elastic sphere or
spheroid so rotated upon an axis that the centrifugal force acts against
the elasticity, and produces an amount of tension which being trans-
mitted to the throttle valve governs the engine. The form of governor
I prefer is a hollow sphere of thin brass cut by a saw into spherical
segments, resembling the divisions of an orange or the longitude lines
traced on a globe; one pole of the sphere is fixed upon the axis, while
the other is free to move in or out, and to it the rod of the throttle valve
is attached. When the sphere is put into rapid rotation its centrifugal
force causes it to bulge out at the equator, the effect of which is to
retract the free pole and so to close the throttle valve.
In steam engines I form the cylinder proper of a bush or pipe of
wrought iron or steel set in another cylinder which constitutes the steam
jacket and in all cylinder engines whether moxed by strom.

page_text: fluid I form the sides of the crank of metal discs, having counterweights
attached to them to balance the momentum of the reciprocatory parts
of the engine. I also provide a passage through one or both ends of the
crank shaft to receive oil from the crank shaft bearings, and to transmit
it to the crank pin bearing, to which it is impelled by the centrifugal
action of the crank, and I apply paddle boxes to encircle the discs to
catch the superfluous oil which they throw off by centrifugal force. I
also introduce a small oil pump worked by the engine to suck up the oil
from a recess or vessel into which it runs from the bearings through
gutters or other appropriate channels formed in the sole plate or framing,
or through other suitable conduits, and to force this oil through all the
bearings so as not merely to lubricate but also to cool them.
The portion of the educted steam of steam engines not condensed by
the feed water heater above described I condense by a jet of cold water
forced into the eduction pipe by a pump, or otherwise with sufficient
velocity to emerge from the vacuum which subsists within the condenser.
The necessary energy for this purpose instead of being wholly or chiefly
derived from the condensed steam itself, as in some other contrivances,
is derived from an extraneous and independent source, such as a pump.
To prevent incrustations from forming in steam boilers which would
retard the generation of steam and diminish the motive power I apply
to the boiler a galvanic battery, which may be of the kind used in
electro-plating, but arranged to transmit the current in the reverse
direction so as to dissolve off from the surface of the metal the scale
deposited by the water, or to prevent the deposition of such scale.
Finally, in the case of motive-power engines running at a high speed
I reduce the speed by the employment of a differential arrangement of
friction surfaces. A pulley surrounded by a number of small rollers is
rotated in one direction and rotates the rollers by friction, while a strap
encircling both rollers and pulley and moving in the opposite direction
with a slightly different speed also rotates the rollers, but as the diving
surfaces move at somewhat different speeds the result will be that the
small rollers will rotate slowly round the central pulley, carrying with
them the annulus by which they are supported, and which annulus may
be toothed to impart a slow motion. Instead of the strap resting on
the rollers a metallic band or drum may be made to encircle them,
which drum the strap or belt may drive. The interposed rollers may
be formed of india-rubber, or may be thin hollow inetallic rollers Cub

page_text: spirally, or otherwise made sufficiently elastic to maintain a regulated
pressure on the periphery of the central pulley and the interior of the
encircling ring.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Bourne in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 30th December 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BOURNE, of 66, Mark Lane, in the City of London, and County of
Middlesex, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-third
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said John Bourne, Her special licence that I, the
said John Bourne, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said John Bourne, my executors, administrators, and
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 THE MEANS OF PRODUCING
AND REGULATING MOTIVE POWER," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said John Bourne, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Bourne, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, that is to say :-
I. I produce motive power from the heat derived from the combustion
of solid, liquid, or gaseous fuel, such combustion being in some cases
slow like that which takes place in the furnaces of steam boilers, and in

page_text: some cases rapid like that which occurs when gunpowder or gas mixed
with air is exploded. When coal is the fuel employed I reduce it to
powder, and gasify it by burning it with a limited supply of air or
oxygen in close chambers, whereby carbonic oxide is generated; and
when a liquid hydrocarbon is the fuel employed I vaporize it in a retort
or otherwise before it enters into combustion. The motive power is
sometimes generated by burning the gaseous fuel in the furnace of a
steam boiler, and at other times is generated by burning or exploding
the fuel mixed with air or oxygen in a close vessel under pressure, steam
or water, or both, being injected among the hot products to increase
their volume and reduce them to such a temperature as will enable the
composite fluid to be employed for working engines like steam engines,
or for propelling vessels by reaction, or for working any turbine or other
motor, or for setting back the atmosphere or some other fluid through
a certain space, by its re-entrance into which power may be obtained.
The gas employed to generate the heat and power may be carburetted
hydrogen or common coal gas, but I prefer carbonic oxide as being more
economical, and this carbonic oxide I prefer to generate by burning
coal dust in a limited quantity of atmospheric air, though I also generate
it either in whole or part by conducting superheated or other steam
through carbon contained in heated retorts or other hot vessels. The
coal dust I prefer to inflame before it enters the main body of the
gasifier by projecting it, mixed with a suitable proportion of air, into a
portion of the hot carbonic oxide resulting from a previous combustion
or generation, to the intent that the coal dust may rather heat than cool
the vessel into which it is projected by being made very hot itself before
entering. The incombustible part of the coal will either be melted in
the gasifier into slag, and will flow out in the manner in which the slag
flows from an iron smelting furnace, or it will be discharged as dust
with the gas, which by being carried through a somewhat small orifice
will generate a high velocity in the current. Of this velocity the
incombustible dust will partake, but its momentum being much greater
than that of the particles of gas it will be carried forward like small shot
discharged from a gun, while the gas is conducted by side channels in a
reverse direction. In this way the dust will be separated from the gas
on the same principle on which sparks are separated from smoke, or on
which spray is separated from steam in steam boilers. The combustible
gases or vapours I generally mix before combustion with a certain
quantity of atmospheric air, but not in such quantity as to form an

page_text: 'explosive mixture, and I transmit the mixture through minute orifices
before combustion, so as to obviate risk of explosion not merely by the
cooling action of minute orifices but by the cooling action of a large
measure of expansion.
In order that the nature of my Invention and the means by which
the same is effected may be particularly described and ascertained, this
Specification is accompanied by two Sheets of Drawings marked I.
and II., which Sheets of Drawings have figures and letters marked
thereupon, to which reference will herein-after be made.
In the Sheet of Drawings marked I. Figures 1 to 9 represent various
forms of my gasifier for coal dust. In Figures 1 and 2, which are
vertical and horizontal sections, A is the body of the gasifier, which is
partially filled with pieces of coal or coke through a plug at the top;
B is a jacket through which the carbonic oxide generated in the gasifier
ascends; and B¹, B₁, are pipes through which it descends to the tuycres
at C; through these tuyeres the air enters. A portion of the gas mixed
with any dust it may contain is sucked by the inducing action of the
tuyeres into the gasifier and is inflamed, and the coal dust being mixed
with the air before its passage into the tuyeres it follows that on
emerging into the hot gas mixed with air it is inflamed, and passing up
through the incandescent coke or coal it is converted into carbonic oxide,
of which the portion not consumed in inflaming the coal dust passes
away through the passage E to be used for generating steam, or for any
other purpose for which carbonic oxide is required. The ashes or
incombustible matter is removed through the opening D, which is closed
by a moveable door when the gasifier is in operation. In Figure 3 the
air mixed with coal dust as introduced at A into the central pipe B, and
meeting the hot gas at C resulting from the combustion or gasification
of the fuel previously introduced, the coal dust is burned and the incom-
bustible portion falls into the slag chamber D, whence it is from time
to time removed through a door. The gas passes off in the direction
shewn in the arrows, and ascends through a mass of coal, coke, or
incandescent brickwork introduced-through the plugs E, E; it escapes
through openings F, F. In Figure 4, A is the body of the gasifier into
which the coal dust and air are introduced tangentially at C, sucking in
part of the hot gas through B, and so inflaming the dust; D is a slag
door, and E a plug for introducing coke, coal, or other incandescent
substances through which the products of the combustion ascend the

page_text: better to generate the gas. The tangential jet maintains a whirlpool of
dust and air in A. In Figure 5, A is the central pipe of the gasifier;
B, B, B, inclined slits through which the hot gas is sucked by the
inducing current of air and coal dust entering at C; and D, D, are plugs
through which coke, coal, pumice, or other suitable substance is intro-
duced for the gas to pass through on its passage to the outlets E, E. In
Figures 6 and 7, A is the central pipe of the gasifier, in which a whirlpool
is maintained by the tangential jet of air and coal dust entering at B,
and the effect of this arrangement will be partly to balance the gravity
of the coal by its centrifugal force, so that it will descend slowly and be
heated in its progress. At the bottom of the conical central tube it
encounters a number of small converging tuyeres C, C, bringing in gas
and air, which will direct a blow pipe heat upon the descending dust
and so inflame it, and melt the incombustible parts of it into slag, which
will fall to the bottom of the chamber, whence it will be periodically
removed. The radial tuyere pipes will serve as bars to support a mass
of coal, coke, or other material to be made very hot and introduced
through the plugs D, D. E, E, is a sheet-iron casing surrounding the
gasifier, to which the air of the blast is first introduced to heat it. The
coal dust is to be reduced to a uniform powder by first crushing it
between rollers or otherwise, and then feeding it continuously through
any suitable instrument in front of a blast of air, or in such other way
that the air will carry it continuously into the gasfier. It is to be in all
cases ignited by the air of a current of the hot gas, so that it will enter
the hottest part of the gasifier in a heated condition; and I prefer also
to heat the air and the dust before they are projected into the gasifier
by passing them through hot pipes or other hot vessels with or without
the addition of steam. The carbonic oxide thus produced may be used
for any heating purpose whatever, the novelty in this part of my
Invention being not in any particular application of the carbonic oxide
but in the manner of its generation from coal dust inflamed by a
portion of the hot gas resulting from the gasification of fuel previously
introduced.
1

page_text: cone or other convenient form, or it may be a cylindrical coil like a watch
spring, in which the centrifugal force alters the relative positions of the
spindle and containing case, which change of relative position is made
to act upon the throttle valve by any convenient connection.
In Figure 10, Sheet II. in the Drawings is represented one form of my
governor, consisting of a hoop rotated on its diameter by means of a
pulley attached to the hoop and threaded upon a hollow pillar, through
which a spindle passes to give motion to the throttle valve. The lower
pole of this hoop is retained in the same plane, but its upper pole is free
to move up or down as the hoop alters its figure from the centrifugal
force. At the equator additional leaves may be introduced to give the
spring additional strength at that part, and also stop blocks to prevent
the flexure from exceeding a prescribed quantity. In Figure 11 the stop
blocks and extra leaves are absent, but the hoop is corrugated, and
Figure 12 is the same as Figure 11, except that the hoop is plain.
Figure 13 is the same in all respects as Figure 10, only that the motion
is taken to the valve from the exterior of the shifting pole instead of
being communicated by a rod passing through the hollow pillar. In
Figure 14, instead of a hoop a globular coil of elastic wire is employed,
and Figure 15 is the same as Figure 14, except that the form of the coil is
somewhat different. In Figure 16 a conical coil of flattened wire is shown
(which however may be round or of other form), and the rotation of this
cone causes each ring of the coil to enlarge its diameter and so reduce the
altitude which correspondingly affects the throttle valve. In Figures 17
5 and 18 the form resembles that of a watch spring set in a case and
rotated upon a spindle. The centrifugal force causes each coil to
increase its diameter, to do which the spindle must be turned round
relatively with the case, and the turning round the spindle in the case is
made to move it on end by screwing the spindle, whereby the throttle
valve is opened or shut.
In Figures 19 and 20 a more detailed representation of one form of
the governor is given, in which A is a metallic ball cut into spherical
segments; B, B, is the valve box; C, C, the throttle valve, which
is in this case of the double heat kind; D, the spindle connecting
5 the valve with the elastic metallic sphere; E, a hand wheel by which
the valve may be raised or lowered; and F, a pinching screw to retain
the hand wheel E at any prescribed point of adjustment; G is the
pulley by which the elastic sphere is rotated.

page_text: III. I economise the heat in motive-power engines, whether steam.
engines or engines worked by a mixture of steam and the hot products.
of combustion, by causing the feed water to flow through a small orifice.
with so great a velocity that the stream will enter the boiler but will be
heated in its passage by being made to pass through the educted steam
or other waste hot fluids with which the naked jet of water is made to
come in contact. The apparatus I employ for this purpose is shewn in
Figure 21. The water enters through the highest pipe connected withi
the instrument, and passing with great velocity through an annular
orifice like that of a Giffard's injector passes through the waste steanr
which enters by the pipe next below. The energy of the water is
sufficient to carry it into the boiler, but in its passage it is heated to the
highest point or nearly so by the waste steam. In steam engines
I form the cylinder proper of a bush or pipe of wrought iron or steel set
in another cylinder which constitutes the steam jacket, and in all
cylinder engines, whether moved by steam or any other fluid, I form the
sides of the crank of metal discs having counterweights attached to
them to balance the momentum of the reciprocating parts of the engine
according to Letters Patent previously taken out by me.
I also provide
a passage through one or both ends of the crank shaft to receive oil
from the crank shaft bearings, and to transmit it to the crank piu
bearing, to which it is impelled by the centrifugal action of the crank;
and I apply paddle boxes to encircle the discs to catch the superfluous
oil which they throw off by centrifugal force. But the special feature of
novelty in this part of my present Invention is that I cast the discs and
crank pin in a single piece of steel, iron, or other metal. I also
introduce a small oil pump worked by the engine to suck up the oil from
a recess or vessel into which it runs from the bearings through gutters
or other appropriate channels formed in the sole plate or framing, or
through other suitable conduits, and to force this oil through all the
bearings, so as not merely to lubricate but also to cool them.
IV. The portion of the educted steam of steam engines not condensed
by the feed water heater above (in that part of this Specification
marked III.) described I condense by a jet of cold water forced into the
eduction pipe by a pump or otherwise with sufficient velocity to cinerge
from the vacuum which subsists within the condenser. The necessary
energy for this purpose instead of being wholly or chiefly derived from
the condensed steam itself, as in some other contrivances, is derived
from an extraneous and independent source, such as a pump..

page_text: V. To prevent incrustations from forming in steam boilers, which
would retard the generation of steam and diminish the motive power, I
apply to the boiler a galvanic battery, which may be of the kind used
in electro-plating, but arranged to transmit the current in the reverse
direction, so as to dissolve off from the surface of the metal the scale
deposited by the water, or to prevent the deposition of such scale.
VI. Finally, in the case of motive-power engines running at a high
speed I reduce the speed by the employment of a differential arrange-
ment of friction surfaces. A pulley surrounded by a number of small
rollers is rotated in one direction, and rotates the rollers by friction,
while a strap encircling both rollers and pulley and moving in the
opposite direction with a slightly different speed also rotates the rollers;
but as the driving surfaces move at somewhat different speeds the result
will be that the small rollers will rotate slowly round the central pulley,
carrying with them the annulus by which they are supported, and which
annulus may be toothed to impart a slow motion. Instead of the strap
resting on the rollers a metallic band or drum may be made to encircle
them, which drum the strap or belt may drive. The interposed rollers
may be formed of india-rubber or may be thin hollow metallic rollers,
cut spirally, or otherwise made sufficiently elastic to maintain a regulated
pressure on the periphery of the central pulley and the interior of the
encircling ring. The friction surfaces instead of being arranged con-
centrically may be arranged in two parallel planes like bevel wheels or
crown wheels set on the same shaft and revolving in opposite directions
with somewhat different velocities, and the friction rollers would in such
cases be like bevel pinions gearing with both wheels and revolving like
planets round the central shaft with a velocity proportionate to the
different speeds of the friction surfaces. Other arrangements of an
equivalent character may it is obvious be adopted, the only necessary
conditions being that the motion shall be communicated by friction
through rollers acting upon pullies, discs, or other surfaces moving at
different velocities and in opposite directions, so that the resulting speed
is the difference of these velocities.
Having now particularly described the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the samo is to be performed, I wish it to be
understood that what I claim is,―
Firstly. The means of producing motive power and its utilization in
the manner described in that section of this Specification marked I. and

page_text: illustrated in the Drawings Figures 1 to 9, and the construction and
application of the gasifiers for gasifying the fuel for the production of
motive power as illustrated by the same Figures and described with
reference thereto.
Secondly. The construction of governors for regulating the speed of 5
motive-power engines in the manner described in that section of this
Specification marked II. and illustrated in the Drawings, Figures 10 to
20, Sheet II.
Thirdly. The arrangement for heating feed water, Figure 21 in
Sheet II. of the Drawings, the construction of the eranks of engines, and 1
the lubrication of parts of engines in the manner described in that part
of this Specification marked III.
Fourthly. The means of condensing the educted steam of engines as
described in that section of this Specification marked IV.
Fifthly. The prevention of incrustation in steam boilers by the precise 1
means indicated in that portion of this Specification marked V.
Sixthly. The arrangements for reducing the speed of engines running
at a high velocity as described in that section of this Specification
marked VI.
In witness whercof, I, the said John Bourne, have hereunto set my 2
hand and scal, this Twenty-first day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
Witness,
M. A. SOUL,
Patent Agent,
4 and 5, Cross Street,
Finsbury Square,
London.
JOHN BOURNE. (L.S.)