A NEW ROTATORY STEAM ENGINE
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Augusto Barratte, of 39, Rue de l'Echiquier,
Paris, in the Empire of France, and of 4, South Street, Finsbury,
London, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "A NEW ROTATORY STEAM
ENGINE"
Sealed the 5th September 1856, and dated the 28th March 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Auguste Barratte
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
28th March 1856.
1, JOSEPH AUGUSTE BARRATTE, of 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, in the
Empire of France, and of 4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Civil Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention of A NEW ROTATORY
STEAM ENGINE, to be as follows, that is to say:
This Invention consists in an improved construction of rotatory steam
engine, as shewn in the accompanying Drawing.
Figure 1 is a horizontal section of the engine. A, ingress steam chamber;
B, egress steam chamber; C, steam cylinder; C, cylinder cover; D, E, plates
attached to and rotating with the piston F; F¹, piston shaft working in
stuffing boxes G; H, aperture communicating with the ingress steani
chamber; I, slides.
The
Figure 2 is a front view in section shewing the slides in action.
aperture H admits the steam from the chamber before the piston, and thus
gives it a rotatory motion. The dotted aperture J allows the waste steam to
pass to the egress chamber.

page_text: Figure 3 shows a mode of admitting steam through the axis, thus dispensing
with the ingress steam chamber.
Figure 4 is a view of the ingress passage in the piston, allowing the steam
to enter the cylinder.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Auguste Barratte in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 27th September 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
AUGUSTE BARRATTE, of 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, in the Empire of
France, and of 4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Civil Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Joseph Auguste Barratte, Her special license that I, the said Joseph
Auguste Barratte, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Joseph Auguste Barratte, my executors, administrators, and
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 A NEW ROTATORY STEAM ENGINE," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Joseph Auguste Barratte, 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 Joseph Auguste Barratte, 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 thereof, reference being had to the Drawing hereto
annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say:-
This Invention relates to an improved construction of rotatory engine for
employing the expansive force of steam or gases.
Figure 1 on my Sheet of Drawings represents a front view of the new

page_text: rotatory engine. Figure 2 is an end view of the same, partly in section.
Figure 3 is a horizontal section of the cylinder, piston, and axis; and Figure 4
is a transverse section shewing the steam slides and the ports or openings for
the ingress and egress of the steam. On the foundation or base plate a is
placed the cylinder C, firmly secured by iron straps 6 and bolts c, or other'
suitable means, to the base plate. The cylinder is composed of cast iron, and
at each end is a flange, to which is bolted the covers d. To the latter are
fixed stuffing boxes, through which and the cylinder passes the wrought-iron
axis A working in brasses on the bearings or pedestals e; these bearings are
fixed to the bed plate by bolts and nuts f. To the axis, which is made hollow,
as shewn in Figure 3, is keyed, or otherwise fixed, the cast-iron piston B,
which is in the form of a cam, as in Figure 4. This cam is cast with a
hollow cylinder g, which forms a chamber for the steam passing through the
lateral opening h in the side of the hollow axis; an opening O is also made
in the piston for the steam to enter at the back. The head of the piston is
made to work steam-tight by a suitable packing P. To each end of the
hollow cam piston is cast a circular plate E, E, rotating with the piston in
the cylinder C. The width of the piston is regulated so as to form a space or
steam chamber i on each side of the circular plates; G, G, are two steam
slides, working or sliding steam-tight in a guide frame j bolted to the sides
or cast with the cylinder. The steam slides G, G, are actuated by external
cams 7, keyed fast to the shaft A. These cams, which correspond to that in the
cylinder, as they rotate press against the antifriction rollers m, fixed to one
arm of a right angled lever n, working on a stud pin on the cylinder cover,
and, by so doing, causes, by the connecting rods o fixed to the crosshead p,
the steam slide after being withdrawn to recover its former position. The
opposite steam slide is acted upon in the same manner by the right-angled
levers q. A helical spring r is fixed to the crosshead and over the slide rod
to allow the edge or face of the slide to be pressed against the surface of the
revolving cam with a pressure regulated at will; H, H, are the egress ports
or openings formed in the circular plates E, E, for the waste steam to escape
from the space above the semicircular part of the piston to the chambers i, i,
from whence it passes by the forked pipe k fixed by flanges to the cylinder
covers into the air or in a condenser, as may be necessary.
The arrangements for shutting off the steam either by means of the circular
plates of the piston, or by the piston in contact with the cylinder, or by the
different sides of the steam slides, are not described or shewn, as they may be
of the ordinary description.
The action of the engine is as follows:-The steam is admitted from the

page_text: boiler into the hollow axis, the bore of which extends to the centro of the
piston, it then enters through the lateral opening in the side of the axis into
the interior of the cam piston, from whence it enters through the opening O
to the back of the piston, and as it cannot escape past the slides it causes the
piston to rotate in the direction of the arrow. When the piston has passed
the next steam slide the latter closes tight to the piston by the action of the
exterior cams, and the waste steam above the semicircular part of the cam
piston immediately escapes through the egress ports H into the chambers i, i,
and thence through the forked pipe into the condenser or the atmosphere.
By this arrangement the steam from the boiler acts directly and continuously
against the back of the piston, and also directly and constantly egresses into
the air or condenser, according to the position of the piston. The power thus
acting continuously and perpendicularly against the piston is transmitted to
the axis (less that which is required to overcome friction), and a maximum
amount of work is obtained. The steam may be employed expansively in this
engine as in those of the ordinary description.
A modification of the above described axis for admitting the steam to the
piston may be constructed so that the steam can enter through one of the
extremities of the axis, and escape through the other.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same may be carried into effect, I would have it understood that
I do not confine myself to the precise details herein laid down; but what I
_claim is,--
First, the general arrangement and construction of a rotatory steam engine,
as herein-before described and shewn in the accompanying Drawings.
Secondly, the construction of the cam piston with two circular plates, so as
to form steam chambers, in the manner and as herein-before described and
represented in the annexed Drawings.
Thirdly, the mode of regulating the ingress and egress of the steam, so as
to give motion to the piston.
Fourthly, the arrangement and construction of the apparatus for putting
the steam slides in action.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Auguste Barratte, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
BARKATTE, J. A. (L.S.)