IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Edward Merritt, of Rochester, in the
County of Kent, Drawing Master, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER."
Sealed the 14th March 1862, and dated the 17th October 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Edward Merritt
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 17th October 1861.
I, THOMAS EDWARD MERRITT, of Rochester, in the County of Kent,
Drawing Master, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS POR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of
apparatus for obtaining motive power, intended to be worked either by the
action of steam, gases, compressed air, rarified air, water vacuum, or atmo-
spheric pressure, whereby, when worked by steam, for example, a considerable
economy of steam, and consequently of fuel, is effected.
According to this Invention it is proposed to employ a cylinder and piston,
the latter fitting accurately into the former, but in lieu of working therein, as
in ordinary steam engines, it is stationary, whilst the cylinder itself receives
the reciprocating motion due to the steam or other pressure therein. The
bore of the cylinder may be only one-half the size of an ordinary cylinder

page_text: for the same power, but its two ends, upon which the steam operates
alternately, are enlarged or expanded, so as to obtain the desired area for the
steam to exert its pressure upon; for example, a six-inch cylinder of the
improved construction, having its ends expanded to a diameter of twelve
inches, will be as effective, other things being the same, as a cylinder of
twelve inches bore on the old system. The piston rod is provided with two
steam passages running longitudinally within it, and opening respectively on
opposite sides of the stationary piston. The outer end of these passages
communicate with an ordinary slide box and valve, or any other convenient
valvular arrangement for governing the inlet and outlet of the steam or other
medium employed to and from the cylinder. The cylinder works between
suitable guides placed either vertically, horizontally, or in an oblique direction;
and in order to still further economise steam, the space intervening between
the piston and each cylinder cover may be partially filled in by causing the
covers to protrude inside the cylinder, or by making an enlargement or bulge
on each side of the piston, which will enter such space, and so reduce the
steam room therein. If found desirable, the cylinder may be enclosed in a
steam jacket, the pipe for supplying the steam thereto being made to work
through a stuffing box in a stationary steam pipe, or a flexible pipe may be
employed for such purpose.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Edward Merritt in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 17th April 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
EDWARD MERRITT, of Rochester, in the County of Kent, Drawing Master,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Thomas Edward Merritt, Her special license that I, the said
Thomas Edward Merritt, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Thomas Edward Merritt, 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

page_text: of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Edward Merritt,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my hand
5 and seal, or under the hand and seal of one of them, 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 Thomas Edward Merritt, 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, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and
to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
My said Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of
apparatus for obtaining motive power, intended to be worked either by the
action of steam, gases, compressed air, rarified air, water vacuum, or atmc--
spheric pressure, whereby, when worked by steam for example, a considerable
economy of steam, and consequently of fuel, is effected.
According to this Invention it is proposed to employ a cylinder and piston,.
the latter fitting accurately into the former, but in lieu of working them, as
in ordinary steam engines, the piston is stationary, whilst the cylinder itself
receives the reciprocating motion due to the steam or other pressure therein:
The bore of the cylinder may be only one-half the size of an ordinary
cylinder for the same power, but its two ends, upon which the steam operates
alternately, are enlarged or expanded, so as to obtain the desired area for the
steam to exert its pressure upon; for example, a six-inch cylinder of the
mproved construction, having its end expanded to a diameter of twelve inches,
vill be as effective, other things being the same, as a cylinder of twelve
nches bore on the old system. The piston rod is provided with two steam
assages running longitudinally within it, and opening respectively on opposite
ides of the stationary piston. The outer ends of these passages communicate
ith an ordinary slide box and valve, or any other convenient valvular
rrangement for governing the inlet and outlet of the steam or other medium
mployed to and from the cylinder. The cylinder works between suitable
ides placed either vertically, horizontally, or in an oblique direction, and in
der to still further economise steam, the space intervening between the
ston and each cylinder cover may be partially filled in by causing the covers
protrude inside the cylinder, or by making an enlargement. or bulge on..

page_text: each side of the piston, which will enter such space, and so reduce the steam
room therein. If found desirable, the cylinder may be enclosed in a steam
jacket, the pipe for supplying the steam thereto being made to work through
a stuffing box in a stationary steam pipe, or a flexible pipe may be employed
for such purpose.
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 hereunto annexed, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts throughout all the
Figures.
Figure 1 of my Drawings represents a vertical section of a portion of a
steam engine shewing my present improvements, and Figure 2 is a transverse
section of the piston rod.
A is the steam cylinder, which in place of being of a uniform bore
throughout, as has heretofore been the case, it is expanded considerably at
This cylinder may or
each end, the expanded parts being shewn at a, a.
may not be surrounded by a steam jacket B. According to my Invention the
cylinder is made to reciprocate in lieu of the piston, which remains stationary,
and therefore, when not intended for an oscillating engine, the cylinder is
guided between two guide bars C, C, suitable guide blocks D, D, being cast on
the outside of the jacket or cylinder, or otherwise secured thereto. E, E, are
the end covers of the cylinder; they form also the enlargements a, a, berein-
before referred to, and are bolted to the main portion of the cylinder at b, b.
F is the piston, which is stationary, and which may be made hemispherical
on its upper and under sides, as shown, so as to partially fill the steam space
at each end of the cylinder, and thereby prevent to a certain extent unneces
sary waste of steam. The piston is secured to the tubular piston rod G
which passes through an ordinary stuffing box H, formed on the lower cover
The lower end of the piston rod, according to this modification, is enlarged as
at I, I, so as to form a valve face, in which the ordinary steam and exhaus
ports are formed. J is a slide valve, actuated by the valve spindle K, which
is worked by eccentrics or otherwise, and L is the steam chest, which is bolted
to the valve face, whilst the whole is firmly bolted down by bolts at c, c, t
the bed plate M. d, d', are the two steam ports, which communicate with
passages made along the interior of the piston rod, as shewn clearly i
Figure 2, and communicate at their upper ends by corresponding orifices i
the piston at e, e¹, with the upper and lower portions of the cylinder respec
tively. The exhaust takes place in the usual manner through the exhaus
port f. A pipe N, secured to and opening into the jacket of the cylinder

page_text: serves to supply the same with steam direct from the boiler, or, if preferred
the exhaust steam may be directed into this jacket. This pipe slides inside
the fixed steam pipe N¹ when the cylinder is at work, a suitable stuffing box
at O serving to keep the joint steam-tight. Motion is transmitted from the
5 reciprocating cylinder to the main shaft of the engine either through a con-
necting rod P, jointed to the upper cylinder cover, and connected to a crank
on the main shaft, or to a beam as in the ordinary beam engines. By
suitably working the slide valve, the steam may be directed alternately into
the upper and lower portion of the cylinder, and as the piston is a fixture, it
follows that the cylinder will receive the reciprocating motion hitherto usually
imparted to the piston.
Figure 3 represents a vertical section of another modification of engine
constructed according to my present Invention. In this arrangement the form
of the cylinder A remains the same as in the one previously described, so far
as regards the enlarged or expanded ends a, a, but in lieu of having the steam
passages cast inside the piston rod, I make this rod solid, and key it down to
the bed plate at M. The steam passages are cast in the cylinder, and ter-
minate in the ordinary steam ports d, d¹, made in the valve face, in which
also is made the ordinary exhaust port f. J is the slide valve, actuated by
the spindle K in any convenient manner, and enclosed in the steam chest L,
which is bolted to the side of the cylinder. In this arrangement it is
necessary that the steam pipe Q should be capable of following the motions
of the cylinder, for which purpose it is made to slide steam-tight through a
stuffing box R in the fixed steam pipe Ș.
Figure 4 shews my Invention as applied to an oscillating engine, the
cylinder A, with its expanded ends a, a, being attached directly through the
brackets T, T, (which are bolted to the cover thereof,) to the crank U on
the main shaft. In this arrangement the piston rod is jointed at its con-
nection with the bed plate, and I prefer to secure it to a crosshead V, capable
of rocking in bearings W, W, bolted down upon the bed plate. The steam
and exhaust ports and passages may either be cast in the side of the cylinder
tself, as in the arrangement last described, any suitable valve gear being
employed for working the valves, or they might be disposed inside the piston
od, as in Figure 1, the oscillating motion of that rod being made to effect
be desired opening and closing of the ports.
In some cases, where the expanded ends of the cylinder would be incon-
enient by reason of their occupying too great a space, I propose to make
uch expansion on two diametrically opposite sides only of the cylinder, as

page_text: shewn at Figure 5, in lieu of carrying such enlargement entirely round the
cylinder, as in the previous cases.
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 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,―
1st, the general constructions, arrangements, and combinations of machinery
or apparatus for obtaining motive power, as herein-before described.
2nd, the combination of a stationary piston with a reciprocatory cylinder,
having its bore enlarged at each end, for the purpose herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Edward Merritt, have to this
my Specification hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of
April, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
THOMAS EDWº. MERRITT: (L.S.)