IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1829

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
BANKS, of Patricroft within Barton-upon-Irwell, in the County of Lancaster,
Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Thirtieth day of September, in the tenth year of His reign,
give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Banks, my exccutors, administrators,
and assigns, His especial licence that I, the said Thomas Banks, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of
fourteen years therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained
a proviso that if I, the said Thomas Banks, should not particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and scal, and
cause the same to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months then next and immediately after the date of the
Letters Patent now in recital, that then the said Letters Patent, and all
liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly cease,
determine, and become void, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto
had, may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Banks, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention
consists,―
First, of an improved method of supplying the main cylinder of the steam
engine with steam, and carrying off the same by means of a pipe acting with
or by an alternating circular movement as herein-after described; and,
secondly, in conveying liquid tallow or other lubricating matter to the rubbing
surfaces of the piston and cylinder, down the interior of the piston rod.
And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Thomas Banks,
do hereby declare that the manner in--which-my-said- Invention is to be per-
formed is set forth and ascertained by the Drawing in the margin of these
presents, and the following description thereof :-
Fig. 1, in the Drawing in the margin of these presents, represents a vertical
section of a moveable pipe to be attached to the main cylinder, and of the
turned part of a main steam pipe which I insert into the upper end of the
said moveable pipe; the junction of these pipes is tightened and adjusted by
means of a stuffing box,.a,section whereof is also shewn. The lower end of
the said moveable pipe I insert into a stuffing-box joined to. the condensing
cylinder, or where no condenser is used it may be supported in any eligible
manner. In Fig. 1 the dark shades on the edge of the pipe are intended to
shew the shell.or crust of the pipe. The two large.collars (m, m, m,m,) shew
where the pipe is to be attached to the main cylinder by.circular boxes, through
which are passages to convey the steam from the pipe to the upper and lower
surfaces of the piston. The shaded parts a, b; a, b, represent four quadran-
gular openings or orifices in the said moveable pipe, each pair of which orifices
a, b, and a, b, are separated by a space at least equal to the breadth of the
orifices. The orifices in the main cylinder should be of the same form and
magnitude as those in the said moveable pipe. A spiral plate or fixed par-
tition is shewn at e, e, e, which may be conveniently cast with and as part of
the pipe; divides this part of the said moveable pipe longitudinally into two equal
spirally-formed.compartments or chambers. The steam flows-into one chamber
at d, which chamber terminates immediately below the orifice a, and is
continually full of steam. The letters e, e, shew the termination or ends of
the said spiral plate at the opposite ends of the pipe.. Hence it will be, seen
that if the upper orifice a, in the said moveable pipe,-be-oposite to the upper
orifice: in the main cylinder, the steam rushes in above, the piston, which
immediately descends; then by a small circular-motion of the said moveable
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1 2 3
t1
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page_text: 1
pipe from 6 to a, the exhausting orifice 6 is presented to the upper orifice of
the cylinder, and the supplying orifice a below is presented to the lower
orifice of the main cylinder. Now the piston rises, until by a reverse motion of
the pipe the upper orifice a is again brought opposite to the orifice in the
cylinder, and the lower exhausting orifice 6 is brought opposite to the lower
orifice of the cylinder. Thus by a small alternate motion of the pipe the upper
and lower parts of the cylinder are alternately filled and emptied. When the
spaces between the orifices in the said moveable pipe are brought opposite to the
orifices in the main cylinder, the engine is at rest; and thus by the alternate
action of the pipe, as before described, the steam engine is regularly supplied
with steam, and kept in action, or stopped and brought to rest, at will.
Fig. 2 in the Drawing in the margin hereof represents a piston and piston
rod. The vessel a is connected with the tube in the piston rod marked by
dotted lines, and is furnished with a cock at b. The tube through the centre
of the piston rod communicates at right angles with another tube passing
through the piston, one end whereof is shewn at c.
Fig. 3 shews the edge of a brass ring, a horizontal section of which is shewn
in (4). The edge of this ring is grooved, as shewn at f, and has two upright
pieces cast to it, as shewn at g, g, and g, g. In the piston is a recess d, e,
fitted to receive the upright pieces g, h, which have holes marked by dotted
1 1
1 1
lines at g, f, in Fig. 4, corresponding with the tube e passing through the
piston. The dotted lines about the piston at k, k, in Fig. 2, shew the situation
of the brass ring when fixed to the piston. Ati, i, is shewn the bottom plate of
the piston, and the dotted lines at 1, 1, shew the top plate. The space between
the bottom plate i, i, and the brass ring k, k, is to be filled with suitable
packing; the brass ring 3-and 4 is next laid on, as shewn at k; then a second
packing occupies the space between and I, and the upper plate 1,7, is then
screwed down to the piston. If the vessel a be filled with liquid tallow, and
the cock at 6 open, the tallow will flow through the piston rod, the tube c in
1
the piston, and the holes g, f, in the brass ring, to the inner surface of the
cylinder, between the two layers of packing. The number of tubes through
the piston and the brass ring may be increased, if considered desirable.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Banks, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty.
THOMAS (L.S.) BANKS.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fourth day of March,
in the eleventh year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Fourth, the
said Thomas Banks came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument!
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-
fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.