IMPROVEMENTS IN VALVES OF STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1885

page_text: I HERMANN KÜHNE, Engineer, of 34, Great Saint Helens in the City of London
in the County of Middlesex do hereby declare the nature of my Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN VALVES OF STEAM ENGINES to be as follows:-
Referring to the accompanying drawings Fig. 1. represents the longitudinal
section and Fig. 2. the cross section of a steam engine cylinder C to which the
valve V is applied in such manner that the back of the valve is nearest to the
interior of the cylinder and the working face f of the valve is furthest away from
the cylinder being the reverse of the usual practice. In like manner the relative
positions of the main steam supply inlet and the exhaust outlet are reversed as
clearly shown in Figs. 1 or 2 where C being the cylinder S represents the steam-
chest connected with the steam supply V is the valve in the body of which is a
valve port or passage v³ directly through which the stean passes from the steam-
chest S alternately to one or other of the passages p p¹ which lead to the interior
of the cylinder. The exit of the exhaust steam from the cylinder is obtained by
means of the same passages ppl which alternately receive the exhaust steam and
pass it through the cavity or passage r formed in the working face of the valve
and which cavity or passage communicates with the exhaust outlet E The
alternate admission to and exit of steam from the cylinder through the valve V
is controlled by the valve receiving a suitable oscillating motion by connection
with an excentric crank cam or other convenient mechanism.
c

page_text: I, HERMANN KÜHNE of 34 Great St Helens in the city of London in the county
of Middlesex, Engineer, 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 :-
The nature of this invention consists in the construction and arrangment of an
improved distributing valve for steam engines and its object is attained in the
following manner
Referring to the accompanying drawings Fig. 1. represents the longitudinal
section and Fig. 2 the cross section of a steam engine cylinder C to which the
valve Vis applied in such manner that the back of the valve is nearest to the
interior of the cylinder and the working face f of the valve is furthest away
from the cylinder being the reverse of the usual practice. In like manner the
relative positions of the main steam supply inlet and the exhaust outlet are
reversed as shown in the drawings, when C being the cylinder S represents the
steamchest connected with the steamsupply V is the valve in the body of which is
a valve port or passage V, directly through which the steam passes from the steam-
chest S alternately to one or other of the passages P P¹ which lead to the interior
of the cylinder. The exit of the exhaust steam from the cylinder is obtained by
means of the same passages P P¹ which alternately receive the exhaust steam and
pass it through the cavity or passage formed in the working face of the valve
and which cavity or passage communicates with the exhaust outlet E. The
alternate admission to and exit of steam from the cylinder through the valve V is
controlled by the valve receiving a suitable oscillating motion by connection with
an eccentric crank cam or other convenient actuating mechanism. The angular
advance and travel or throw of the eccentric or actuating mechanism may be
altered in regard to the position of the main crank of the engine in such manner
as to vary or alter the cut off and thereby effect the distribution of steam to the
greatest advantage.
The form of the distributing valve V may be wholly or partially cylindrical or
conical and its position relatively to the cylinder may be such that the steam is
admitted through the passage E while the passage S serves as outlet as is usual
this modification being effected by changing the relative positions of the steam
port V and the exhaust cavity r within the valve V. The distributing valve V
may be placed midway between the steam passages P P¹ as shown or otherwise or
two such valves may be applied one at each end of the cylinder such valves being
actuated by the same or by independant mechanism.
It will be seen from Fig. 2 that the admission of steam from the main may
be advantageously made in the direction of the axis of the valve V or axially and
the further passage of the steam towards the cylinder ports is effected in the
direction of the radius of the valve V or radially.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is:-
1. A cylindrical or slightly conical distributing valve which serves to control
both the admission of steam to and the exhaust of steam from the cylinder of a

page_text: steam engine and which valve may be made partly cylindrical or partly conical
and be provided with or without an auxiliary port or passage within the body of
the valve for steam admission and also provided with a cavity or recess in the side
of the valve for the exhaust substantially as drawn and described.
2. A distributing valve as above described and arranged so that the steam
enters the valve axially and passes from it radially into the cylinder ports and on
exhausting repasses from the cylinder ports into a cavity or recess in the side of
the valve and thence to the exhaust main substantially as drawn and described.
3. The combination of a distributing valve as above described with an excentric
or any other efficient mechanism so as to obtain a suitable distribution of steam
Dated this fourteenth day of April 1886.
HERMANN KÜHNE,