IMPROVEMENTS IN ROTARY ENGINES
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alfred Vincent Newton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th May 1874.-A. communication from abroad by Alpheus
Cornelius Gallahuc, of Morrisania, in the State of New York,
United States of America.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for " IMPROVEMENTS IN ROTARY
ENGINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention mainly relates to that description of rotary engines in
which a radial piston connected with an inner revolving cylinder or hub
is used in concert with radially sliding abutments within an outer
stationary cylinder.
The Invention consists partly in a novel combination of ports and
passages and cocks or valves for introducing steam to the piston and for
reversing the motion of the latter, also in a certain arrangement of
duplicate parts whereby provision is made for keeping up a constant
action, and equalizing the pressure on opposite sides of the sliding
abutments while in motion to relieve the latter of lateral pressure,

page_text: The Invention also consists in a novel means and mode of operating
the abutments, likewise in a hole or passage in the hollow revolving
cylinder for equalizing the pressure on opposite ends of said cylinder,
also in improved constructions of packing for certain portions of the
engine.
The revolving inner cylinder which carries the radial piston is
mounted on a hollow driving shaft. This shaft works at its one or
hollow end through the steam chest of the engine, and is in communi-
cation therewith by one or more radial openings. The steam chest
consists of vertical passages terminating below in a space surrounding
the portion of the shaft in which are lateral openings, and also of an
intermediate passage in communication with a pipe which is parallel
with the hollow engine shaft.
1 The steam passages are controlled by cocks or valves which serve
accordingly as they are turned to pass steam from the steam inlet to the
shaft, and to exhaust from the pipe through the outlet or to admit steam
from the inlet to the pipe, and to exhaust from the shaft through the
outlet according to the direction in which it is required to run the
engine.
The radially sliding abutments are arranged opposite one another and
worked in and out of the external cylinder, (within outwardly projecting
chambers) through rod like extensions of the abutments, which are con-
nected together by a kind of yoke; this yoke receives a reciprocating
motion from a pair of cams which receive an oscillating motion from an
excentric on the driving shaft of the engine.
The revolving cylinder of the piston is packed at each of its ends by
means of duplicate rings made to fit closely, but freely within a circular
and concentric opening in either end cover of the stationary cylinder
between the ends of the cylinder and an outer end plate or cover to the
opening in the main covers of the stationary cylinder; these rings are
constructed the one to overlap or fit within the other and to hold a
packing between them, whereby the rings are not only packed
peripherically but forced apart with an clastic pressure to make a close
joint with the contiguous end of the revolving cylinder without pro-
ducing an undue friction. Steam is admitted to opposite ends of the
cylinder to counterbalance the thrust of the steam as it enters the
engine.

page_text: The packing of the piston is composed of a longitudinal strip and
rectangular end pieces, which latter are in pin and slot connection with
the strip and are acted upon by S shaped springs, while the packing
strip is forced outwards by a bow spring which is adjustable by a
screw.
The packing of the abutments is mainly of similar construction, being
composed of a longitudinal packing strip and rectangular end pieces in
pin and slot connection with the strip, but in such packing semi-elliptic
springs are substituted for the S shaped springs, and the packing is con-
trolled radially in a general way by a bow spring through or subject to,
in case of unusual compression, the action of an interposed stronger and
flatter bow spring.