AN IMPROVED GOVERNOR FOR MARINE AND OTHER STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1858

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION. left by Alfred Vincent Newton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd
October 1858.-A communication.
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 "AN IMPROVED GOVERNOR FOR MARINE AND
OTHER STEAM ENGINES," to be as follows:-
This improved governor consists of a small steam engine working inde-
pendently of the engine, whose speed is to be governed and applied so as to
drive certain mechanism which offers an unvarying resistance to its motion,
and is combined with mechanism driven by the engine to be governed, the
whole of the mechanism being so combined as to work a regulating valve
which controls the supply of steam to the last-named engine. The supply of
steam is regulated by a double puppet valve mounted in a box, having an
inlet passage to which is connected the steam pipe of the engine to be
regulated (or main engine), and an outlet passage which communicates with
the valve chest of the main engine; the inlet is between the two valve seats of
the double-headed valve, and the outlet passage has two branches which com-
municate with the box between its ends and the valve seats. The valve stem
projects through a stuffing box at one end of the valve box, and the one head
of the valve is made just so much larger than the other head as to cause the
minimum pressure of the steam in the steam pipe by its action on the excess
of area on that head, to overcome the friction on the valves and their stem,
and keep the valves as far open as is permitted by the mechanism which is
employed outside of the valve box to control the opening of the valve.
The steam supplied to the regulator engine from the valve box is taken

page_text: from the inlet side of the regulating valve. A conical valve is applied to the
steam pipe for regulating, by means of a diaphragm regulator box with which
it is connected, the pressure of the steam supplied to the regulator engine.
In a line with the stem of the double-headed valve is a hollow shaft fitted
to rotate, but not permitted to move longitudinally in its bearing. To one end
of this shaft a bevil wheel is attached, which gears with another bevil wheel
on the crank shaft of the regulator engine, and at the other end of the shaft is
a disc, on the face of which, and facing the end of the valve stem, are two
similar semicircular spiral projections, which are equivalent to wedges or
portions of screw threads; passing through the hollow shaft is a solid shaft
which is fitted to its bearings, so as to be capable of moving longitudinally
therein, and carries at its outer end a pulley to receive a driving band running
from a pulley on the shaft of the engine to be regulated near its other end;
this shaft carries a disc, the counterpart of that on the hollow shaft and
intended to work in contact therewith; they are each provided with stop pins
to prevent the wedge-like projections of the respective discs rotating too far.
The end of this shaft is intended to be in contact with the outer end of the
stem of the regulating valve when that valve is open.
When steam is admitted to the valve box it presses open the double-
headed valve, and passes through the outlet to the main engine as well as to
the regulator engine, and sets both in motion; while the main engine gives
rotary motion to the pulley shaft and its disc, the regulator engine gives rotary
motion to the disc on the hollow shaft in the same direction, the regulator
engine meeting only with a uniform resistance. The pressure of the steam
against the larger head of the main regulating valve will keep the valve stem
in contact with the end of the pulley shaft, and the valve less or more open
according as there is a tendency of the pulley shaft disc (driven by the main
engine) to rotate faster or slower than the other disc driven by the regulator
engine.
As the speed of the pulley shaft disc exceeds that of the disc with which it
is in contact, the double-headed valve will be forced near its seats, and the
supply of steam to the main engine will be proportionately cut off until the
speed is sufficiently reduced. The contrary effect will be produced when the
disc on the pulley shaft moves nearer to its contact disc, which it will do by
reason of being driven at a lower speed than that actuated by the regulating
engine.