Improvements in Air Forcing Apparatus for use in connection with the Fly Wheels of Steam Engines.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 7th July, 1891-Accepted, 22nd Aug., 1891
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by HENRY SMITH ROBINSON of 28, State Street,
Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Mechanical Engineer.]
Improvements in Air Forcing Apparatus for use in connection with
the Fly Wheels of Steam Engines.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent
Agents, 45 Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The object of my invention is to provide means for utilizing the disturbance of
the air produced by the fly wheels of steam engines for the purpose of creating air
currents or blasts which may be utilized in any suitable or usual manner, either for
the purpose of ventilation, for providing a forced draught for furnaces, for
exhausting or removing vitiated air from apartments, or for forcing currents of air
to be heated, and then employed for heating buildings, or for drying, or for other
similar purposes.
The motion of the fly wheel or belt pulley of a steam engine tends to cause a
disturbance of the air, throwing the same outward by centrifugal force from the hub
towards the periphery of the wheel, but such movement cannot be rendered
available as in ordinary centrifugal blowers, for the reason that the continuous
periphery of the wheel or pulley tends to confine the air and does not afford a
tangential path of escape by which the air thrown outward from the hub
towards the periphery can be received in suitable ducts outside of the periphery
of the wheel.
I have discovered that by combining with a fly wheel suitable deflectors or guides,
the air which is thrown outward and carried around with the wheel may be directed
into suitable ducts, affording a strong blast which may be utilized for various
purposes without causing the expenditure of any considerable amount of additional
power by the fly-wheel so that considerable saving is effected whenever it is desired
to use an air blast in establishments provided with an engine.
The invention consists mainly in the combination with a fly wheel, of deflectors
located between the periphery and the axis of the wheel and extended as close as
possible to the inner surface of the wheel rim and to the sides of its spokes and
substantially tangential thereto, the said deflectors gradually curving from their
tangential position and being located at the terminals of ducts or blast pipes so that
the air carried by the wheel and moving mainly in a tangential direction, with
greatest force and velocity near the outer end of the spokes, strikes upon said
deflectors and is carried away by them from the wheel and into the air ducts, the
said deflectors, acting as it were to skim or scoop the air off from the portion of the
wheel by which it is carried.
In some cases it may be desirable to have such deflectors or skimmers as they
may be called, one at each side of the plan of revolution of the wheel, but when it is
necessary or desirable to have the air carried away from one side of the wheel only,
a deflector may be employed at the other side which curves inward towards the
plane of revolution of the wheel, and thus tends to throw the air transversely to the
other side of the wheel, where a skimming deflector takes the air that has thus been
thrown across from the other side of the wheel as well as that from the adjacent
side of the wheel, and directs it all into the air duct or blast pipe.
In the accompanying drawing,
Figure 1 is a side elevation of an air forcing apparatus embodying this invention,
the fly wheel being shown as having two sets of air collecting devices, one arranged

page_text: to take the air from both sides or faces of the wheel, and the other arranged to
throw the air from one to the other side of the wheel and to take the air from the
side to which it is thus thrown.
Figure 2 is a partial section on line 2, Figure 1.
Figure 3 is a sectional view on line y Figure 1, and,
Figures 4 and 5 are sectional details on line and respectively of Figure 1.
The invention may be employed in connection with an engine fly wheel a of any
suitable or usual construction and consists in the combination with said wheel of
certain air deflecting and conducting devices to be described, by which the air
which is set in movement by the fly wheel is caused to produce a definite current
or blast of air in a suitable duct or blast pipe, instead of merely producing
irregular and useless air currents, as is commonly done by the fly wheel of an
engine.
A portion of the periphery of the wheel is enclosed in a casing b which may be
of usual construction and the direction of motion of the wheel is indicated by the
arrow 2, such motion causing outward currents of air from the hub towards
the periphery as indicated by arrows 3, while at the inside of the rim and
near the periphery the air is of somewhat greater density than that of the
atmosphere and is carried with considerable velocity in the direction of motion of
the wheel itself.
Fly wheels as commonly constructed for engines of large size have sufficient
unevenness or irregularity in the periphery to cause a considerable disturbance of
the air, they engaging the air by the projections formed at the junctions of the
spokes with the rim, by the spokes themselves, by the junction between different
sections of the rim, when the wheel is made in sections bolted together, and
otherwise, so that it will not usually be necessary to change existing wheels at all
in order to utilize them in connection with the air ducts and collecting device in
accordance with this invention, although it is obvious that the air engaging
portions of the wheel may be increased if necessary when it is desired to utilize the
air currents produced by the motion of the wheel in accordance with the present
invention.
At suitable points near the outer ends of the spokes and near the rim or
periphery of the wheel suitable deflectors e are employed, said deflectors being
formed at the end and constituting the mouth of a blast pipe or air duct d and so
shaped that their end portions are substantially tangential with the path of
rotation of the outer ends of the spokes so that the air carried by the spokes, and
within the periphery of the wheel naturally strikes upon the said deflectors and is
directed away from the wheel and into the air ducts producing the desired blast in
said ducts.
As shown at the right hand of Figure 1, and in Figures 2 and 3, there are two of
said ducts terminating in deflecting mouth pieces or inlet openings, within, but near
the periphery of the wheel, and one at each side of the spokes thereof, thus making
two independent air passages one taking the air from each side of the wheel which
passages or ducts may, however, if desired be brought into one, in case a single
current of air is used.'
When, however, it is not convenient to take the air from both sides of the wheel
independently, the construction shown at the left hand of Figure 1 and in Figures 4
and 5, may be employed, the same comprising a deflector 2 and air duct d² at one
side of the wheel, which may be substantially like the deflector c and duct d before
described, except that the portion of the deflector extending towards the spokes
makes a greater angle with their path of movement or does not come quite to the
tangential position.
On the other side of the wheel and inside of the casing a deflector e is employed
extending from the inner wall of the casing towards the spokes of the wheel so that
the air carried around in the said casing is crowded over from the wall of the casing
towards the spokes of the wheel, and passes across through the spaces between the
spokes of the wheel to the other side, and enters the mouth of the duct which

page_text: mouth acts with a scooping action upon the air at the same side of the wheel with it.
while receiving the current of air which is forced over from the other side of the
wheel through the spaces between the spokes as before described.
In this manner the air disturbed by the wheel instead of making local currents or
being thrown off from the part near the periphery of the wheel wherever it meets
an obstruction (as for example, where the wheel passes through the floor) and again
drawn in through the centre of the wheel, and carried outwards towards the
periphery of the wheel by centrifugal force; is caused to make a steady current
having a slight exhausting or rarifying action, near the hub of the wheel and
a slight condensing action near the periphery of the wheel, producing a steady
pressure by which a continuous steady current or blast is maintained in the blast
pipe.
It is obvious that the shaping of the ducts and deflectors by which the air is taken
off from the wheel and directed into said ducts, may be varied considerably without
departing from the essential features of construction and mode of operation of the
invention herein described, and will depend largely upon existing conditions of the
wheel and adjacent parts.
It is not essential for the operation of the apparatus herein described that the
wheel should be encased although the casing contributes to the efficiency and may
be made more effective by extending it further inward towards the hub of the
wheel, as shown, than is usually done.
If desired a deflector may be employed at the outside of the rim of the wheel,
in addition to those at the inside of the rim, such deflector in this instance crossing
the space between the wheel rim and inside of the casing.
In other words, the surface e and practically constitute a single curved
deflector having openings in it to accommodate the passage of the wheel rim and
spokes.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by
my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
First. An air forcing apparatus comprising a wheel having a continuous periphery
or rim, as the fly wheel of a steam engine, combined with air ducts and deflecting
mouth pieces therefor, for the purpose of removing the air from the wheel, and
directing it into the said ducts, substantially as described.
Second. The combination of a wheel having a rim and spokes which constitute an
air propeller, with an inwardly curved deficctor at one side of said wheel and an air
duct having an open mouth with deflecting walls at the other side of the said wheel,
substantially as and for the purpose described.
Third. The combination of a fly wheel having a continuous periphery or rim,
with an air duct and a deflecting mouth piece for said duct extending towards the
said wheel, between the rim and the axis of rotation of the wheel, and terminating
in a position substantially tangential to the wheel, substantially as and for the
purpose described.
ated sunday on July 1991.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.