IMPROVEMENTS IN PARABOLIC GOVERNORS, AND IN THE MODE OF APPLYING THE SAME TO STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Weallens, of 12, Elswick Villas, Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, Mechanical Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PARABOLIC GOVERNORS, AND IN THE MODE OF APPLYING THE SAME TO STEAM
ENGINES."
Sealed the 25th September 1858, and dated the 30th March 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Weallens at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 30thi
March 1858.
I, WILLIAM WEALLENS, of 12, Elswick Villas, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Me-
chanical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN PARABOLIC GOVERNORS, AND IN THE MODE OF APPLYING THE
SAME TO STEAM ENGINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the employment of any suitable controlling
mechanism or apparatus, for the purpose of preventing an excess or accumu-
lation of momentum in the balls of parabolic governors during their rising or
falling motions. These improvements consist in the application and use of an
air cylinder similar to the "cataract" employed in pumping engines, or in lieu
thereof a spring or weight may be employed, or other controlling mechanism
or apparatus, the action of which will be fo offer a certain amount of resistance
to the balls when they change their height; or this effect may be accomplished

page_text: by a modification of the parabolic curve in which the balls or gear connected
therewith travel.
In applying this governor to steam engines, it is proposed to use it in con-
nection with an expansion valve, in place of with the throttle valve, so that the
power of the engine will be increased or diminished by varying the degree of
expansion.
SPECIFICATION in. pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Weallens in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
27th September 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
WEALLENS, of 12, Elswick Villas, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Mechanical Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Weallens, Her special license that I, the said William Weallens,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Weallens, 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 PARABOLIC GOVERNORS, AND IN THE MODE OF APPLYING THE SAME TO STEAM
ENGINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William
Weallens, 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 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 William Weallens, 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 state-
ment, 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 employment of any suitable controlling
mechanism or apparatus, for the purpose of preventing an excess or accumu

page_text: lation of momentum in the balls of parabolic governors during their rising or
falling motions. These improvements consist in the application and use of an
air cylinder similar to the "cataract" employed in pumping engines, or in lieu
thereof a spring or weight may be employed, or other controlling mechanism
or apparatus, the action of which will be to offer a certain amount of resistance
to the balls when they change their height; or this effect may be accomplished
by a modification of the parabolic curve in which the balls or gear connected
therewith travel.
In applying this governor to steam engines, it is proposed to use it in con-
nection with an expansion valve, in place of with the throttle valve, so that
the
power
of the engine will be increased or diminished by varying the degree
of expansion.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall
refer to the several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings heretnto annexed, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts throughout all the
corresponding Figures.
Figure 1 of my Drawings represents a side elevation of one form of my
improved parabolic governor in connection with a regulating valve; and
Figure 2 is a section, taken through the guard or sweep of the same.
A, A,
are the governor balls, connected by short stems with the antifriction rollers
B, B, which travel with the balls, the latter describing a parabolic curve when
ascending or descending upon the sweep C, C. The rollers are connected in
the ordinary manner with the slider D by means of two links E, E, and tho
slider by rising and falling imparts motion to the lever F, which is connected
at its opposite end with any convenient form of regulating or throttle valve G.
An air cylinder H is attached to or connected with the slider D, within which
cylinder is a piston I, attached to the spindle K of the governor. In the upper
cover of this cylinder is a small opening or inlet, the size of which is regulated
at pleasure by the conical screwed plug L.
.
The governor spindle may be rotated either by bevil gearing, as shewn at M
in the Drawings, or by a cord and pulley, or other convenient arrangement,
and as the balls, by reason of a change of speed in the engine, move upwards
or downwards, this motion will be limited and controlled by the greater or
less freedom with which the air is allowed to escape from or enter into the
space above the piston in the upper portion of the cylinder, which passage of
air is capable of being nicely regulated or adjusted by raising or depressing
more or less the plug L, herein-before referred to. It is thus obvious that
this air orifice determines the time in which sufficient air can be forced out of

page_text: or drawn into the cylinder to produce an équilibrium of pressure with that of
the external atmosphere, and consequently the speed with which the governor
balls will rise or fall.
:
Figure 3 of my Drawings represents an elevation of a modified form of
apparatus for controlling the rising and falling motions of the governor balls,
and also illustrates the mode of applying the governor to the expansion valve
of a steain engine. In this modification à helical spring His substituted for
the air cylinder previously referred to. The balls in this arrangement cannot
obviously rise without compressing the spring H, which will offer sufficient
resistance to prevent any undue momentum in rising. The regulating motion
of the governor is transmitted to the expansion slide valve G, in place of to a
throttle valve, and this motion is communicated by means of the lever F
working on a fulcrum F¹, and actuated at one end by the slider D, whilst the
opposite end transmits a rising or falling motion through the rod N to the
`block in the suspended link O, which latter is actuated by an eccentric P. To
this block is jointed the end of the rod Q, shewn in dotted lines, which gives
motion to the expansion slide valve G. As the governor balls rise of fall it is
evident that the block in the link Ọ will also rise or fall, and consequently the
travel of the expansion valve will be increased or diminished, and the engine
'made to work more or less expansively.
Figure 4 represents the substitution of a weight H, for the purpose of con
trolling the momentum of the balls, and preventing their too rapid action, such
weight being applied to the under side of the lever F, or of the working centré
'or axis of the same.
Figure 5 shews a modification in the form of the curve of the sweep C, for
the purpose of controlling the regulating action of the balls. To effect this I
propose to make the curve of the sweep rather sharper at the extremities, as
indicated by the full lines in Figure 5, the dotted lines representing the
'ordinary curves. By thus sharpening the curves, they will offer greater
resistance to the rising and falling of the antifriction rollers, and will therefore
considerably reduce the momentum of the ascending or descending parts.
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 would 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 variations may be made therefrom without de-
viating from the principles or main features of my said Invention; but what
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,--

page_text: First, the general constructions, arrangements, and combinations of certain
parts of parabolic governors, as herein-before described.
Second, the application and use to and in parabolic governors of mechanism
or apparatus for controlling the rising and falling motion of the governor
balls, and preventing an undue accumulation of momentum therein, as herein-
before described.
Third, the working of the expansion valves of steam engines by means of
any convenient form of parabolic governor, in such a manner that the speed of
the engine will be controlled by causing such engine to work more or less
expansively, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Weallens, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of September, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-eight.
WILLIAM WEALLENS. (L.B.)