IMPROVEMENTS IN BLOWING ENGINES
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Carnegie Kirk, of Glasgow, in the
County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN BLOWING ENGINES."
Sealed the 8th October 1867, and dated the 11th April 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Carnegie Kirk
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 11th April 1867.
I, ALEXANDER CARNEGIE KIRK, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BLOWING ENGINES," to be as follows, that is to say
This Invention of improvements in blowing engines consists in using in a
horizontal cylinder a piston fitted with valves and supported by a trunk so as
not to bear injuriously on the bottom side of the cylinder, the trunk being
carried in the cylinder ends or covers, or in external bearings or guides.
Valves are fitted to the cylinder ends or covers, and these and the piston
valves may be arranged for drawing in air or gas through the trunk and piston
and expelling it through the cylinder valves or vice versa.
With the improved arrangement large areas can be very conveniently
obtained for the inlet and discharge valves, with at the same time a very
small amount of clearance or cushion of air enclosed at the end of the stroke.
The trunk is by preference supported in guides or bearings outside of the
cylinder, and being from its form very rigid effectually bears up the weight of

page_text: the piston and prevents it from rubbing on the bottom side of the cylinder.
When air is to be drawn in through the trunk this part is formed with open
ends or other openings external to the cylinder, to which openings the air is
allowed free access, whilst casings are provided on the cylinder ends or covers
to receive the expelled air and to conduct it into the delivery pipes or
passages. If the air is delivered from the trunk one or both ends thereof
must work through stuffing boxes into closed receivers or delivery passages.
The improved blowing engine may be worked by any convenient motive
power.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander Carnegie Kirk in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 10th October 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
CARNEGIE KIRK, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Alexander Carnegie Kirk, Her special licence that I, the said Alexander
Carnegie Kirk, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Alexander Carnegie Kirk, 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN BLOWING ENGINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Alexander Carnegie Kirk, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their bands and seals,
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 Alexander Carnegie Kirk, 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

page_text: following statement in writing, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings, that is to say:-
My said Invention consists in adapting to a horizontal cylinder a bollow
piston fitted with valves, and fixed on and supported by a trunk or hollow
piston rod, so as not to bear injuriously on the bottom side of the cylinder, the
trunk being carried in the cylinder ends or covers, or on external bearings or
guides. Valves are fitted to the cylinder ends or covers, and these and the
valves in the piston may be arranged for drawing in the air or gas through the
trunk and piston, and expelling it through the cylinder valves or vice versa.
The necessary reciprocating motion is imparted to the piston by means of
the trunk from any suitable prime mover, a very convenient prime mover for
the purpose being a horizontal cylinder steam engine, to the piston rod or rods
of which the blowing engine trunk may be directly united.
With my improved arrangement large areas can be very conveniently
obtained for the inlet and discharge valves, with at the same time a very
small amount of clearance or cushion of air enclosed at the end of the stroke.
I prefer to support the trunk on guides or bearings outside of the cylinder,
and this trunk being from its form very rigid effectually bears up the weight
of the piston and prevents it from rubbing on the bottom side of the cylinder.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing the
same may be properly understood, I have hereunto appended a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings, to be herein-after referred to, and representing a
blowing engine as constructed with my improvements, and a steam engine for
actuating the same.
My improved blowing engine is shown in plan in Figure 1, and in
longitudinal vertical section in Figure 2.
The engine consists of a cylinder 1, with ends or covers 2 formed with
valve openings and fitted with valves 3; the cylinder ends 2 are also formed
with ordinary stuffing boxes for the passage of a hollow trunk 4, to which is
fixed a hollow piston consisting of two discs 5 disposed a short distance apart;
the piston discs 5 are formed with valve openings, and are fitted with valves 6,
and these valves, as well as those 3 in the cylinder ends are represented as
arranged for drawing in the air through the trunk 4 and piston 5, and
expelling it through the cylinder ends into casings 7 formed upon the cylinder
ends, and communicating by branch passages 8 with the main 9, by which it
is led away for use. To admit the air into the trunk 4 openings 10 are
formed at or near the opposite ends of it, the trunk being sufficiently long for
these openings to be always beyond the cylinder stuffing boxes; openings 11
are also formed in the trunk 4 at its middle to admit the air into the space

page_text: between the piston discs 5; at the ends the trunk has fixed upon it cross-
heads 12, which rest and slide upon guide bars 13 fixed upon the masonry
or foundation, and by these means the weight of the trunk and piston is
effectually borne up, so as to prevent the injurious rubbing of the piston on
the bottom side of the cylinder. The piston discs 5 are represented as fitted
with ordinary leather packings, and the valves as made of leather in the
ordinary way, but these as well as other minor details may of course be
varied according to the views of those making the engine. The trunk 4 is
represented as having directly attached to one end of it the piston rods 14 of
a horizontal cylinder steam engine, by which it is supposed to be actuated.
The trunk 4 is represented as cast in two principal parts, which are fixed
together by means of internal flanges at the middle, and the piston discs 5 are
cast on the trunk one on each part; these parts may, however, be made and
fitted together in any other convenient way. If it is wished to deliver the air
from the trunk 4, instead of drawing it in thereby, one or both ends thereof
must be arranged to work through stuffing boxes into closed receivers or
delivery passages, and the valves must be correspondingly reversed in their
positions.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, I have to state that
I do not claim making a blowing cylinder horizontal, nor with any particular
kind of valves or minor fittings, but that what I believe to be novel and
original and claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part
recited Letters Patent is, the adapting of a hollow piston and trunk to a
blowing engine cylinder, with the valves arranged so as to draw in the air
through the trunk and piston and deliver it through the cylinder ends or vice
versa, substantially as herein-before described, and the supporting of the trunk.
and piston on external guides, substantially as berein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Carnegie Kirk, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT;
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
ALEXANDER C. KIRK. (L.S.)