Improvements in Apparatus for Storing the Energy given out in Stop- ping Tramway and other Vehicles and for Utilising such Power in Starting the Vehicles or in Assisting in their Propulsion.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 31st Aug., 1899--Accepted, 25th Aug., 1900
Improvements in Apparatus for Storing the Energy given out in Stop-
ping Tramway and other Vehicles and for Utilising such Power in
Starting the Vehicles or in Assisting in their Propulsion.
We, EDWARD GEORGE NICHOLSON, of 185A, Earls Court Road, in the County of
London, Electrician, and FREDERICK WILLIAM ADAMS, of 18, Eldon Street,
Finsbury, in the County of London, Architect and Surveyor, 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 state-
ment:
Our invention relates to apparatus for storing up the energy given out in
stopping tramway and other vehicles wherein the rotation of the road wheels is
caused to impart motion to air pumps for compressing air into a receiver, such
compressors being subsequently made to act as motors for imparting motion
to the road wheels for starting the vehicle or assisting in its propulsion, by
admitting the stored compressed air to the compressor cylinders
We will describe the construction of apparatus which we employ for this
purpose with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 shews a
part sectional front elevation of the combined compressor and motor cylinders
Fig. 2 a front view of mechanism for throwing the compressors into and out of
action Fig 3 a side view of the apparatus and Figs 4 to 10 detached details
A spur wheel a, which is geared with a spur wheel z fixed on an axle of the
road wheel as is indicated in dotted lines in Fig 2, 18 mounted loose on a shaft b
carried in suitable bearings in the framing c fixed to the car frame
The one
end of this shaft caries a crank d to the pin of which are connected the piston
rods eee of the three air compressing and motor cylinders fff arranged at
equal distances round the crank shaft in the well known manner of three cylinder
engines so that by the rotation of the crank shaft the pistons are made in
succession to compress air and force it into a reservoir arranged in any suitable
known manner under the car frame from which the compressed air is subse-
quently admitted to the cylinders again so as to cause them to act as motors,
as will be hereinafter explained
The wheel a has fixed thereto or formed in one therewith a bevil wheel h with
which gear two opposite planet bevil wheels ? carried by a casing, running
loose on the shaft b, as shown more clearly in the sectional side view and front
view at Figs 4 and 5 These bevil wheels 2 also gear with a boril wheel k
fixed on the shaft b.
Surrounding the casing 7 18 a brake band the ends of which are connected
to the short aims of two elbow levers mn pivoted on an axis o carried by the
framing, the oppositely extending long arms of which levers are arranged in
any convenient manner to be actuated by the conductor, the one at the one end
of the car and the other at the other end, so that by depressing either one of
these levers the brake band will be tightened round the casing so as to prevent
it and the bevil wheels is from revolving on the shaft b It will be seen that
the action of the apparatus thus far described will be as follows:-
-

page_text: When the car is running, the brake band is not applied to the casing j, so that
the wheels a and h in being rotated by the wheel on the road wheel axle, will
cause the rotation of the wheels
The wheel & fixed on shaft b, being connected through crank d to the compressor
pistons, will offer a certain resistance to rotation, in consequence of which the
wheels instead of rotating k, will roll round thereon in the well known manner
of sun and planet wheel gear, and the shaft b remaining stationary the com-
pressors will not be actuated.
When on the other hand it is desired to stop the car, or reduce its speed, the
conductor actuates one or other of the levers m'n so as to apply the brake band,
whereupon, the casing, being thus held stationary, the rotary motion imparted
to wheels a end h will be transmitted through to wheel and shaft b, and the
orank & will then actuate the air compressors so that the momentum of the car
will be expended in compressing air in the reservoirs, until the car is brought
to a stand-still or has its speed reduced to the desired extent.
It will be evident that any other known arrangement of coupling, operating
in a similar manner to the sun and planet mechanism may be employed in place
of the latter.
Any suitable known arrangement of valve gear may be employed by means
of which the compressor cylinders are successively put in communication with
the reservoir for charging this with compressed air, and for afterwards admitting
such compressed air to the cylinders for causing them to act as motors for
assisting in starting the car again, but we prefer to employ for this purpose the
arrangement shewn on the drawings
The air passes from the cylinders through tubes ppp to a rotary valve q and
thence through a reversing valve and tubes to the reservoir
This tube may be provided with a check valve suitably arranged for retaining
the compressed air in the reservou and to be opened by a lever operated by the
conductor, when the air is required to act in the motor cylinders or in place of
such valve, the rotation of the wheel a and consequently the actuation of the
cylinder pistons by the compressed air can be prevented until required by pro-
viding on the axis o of the levers mn pawla tt the one or other of which is made
to engage with the teeth of the wheel a when the car has come to a stand-still.
It is of course necessary to keep the brake band 7 applied so long as there is
compressed air in the reservoir in order that the stored power may be transmitted
through the sun and planet wheel apparatus to the shaft 6 and road wheels
of the cal
For this purpose the bake levers mn have pawls u which engage
with teeth on elbow levels er passing through slots in the levers mn and pivoted
at w to the faming and connected to the rod of a piston in a cylinder y the
underside of which communicates with the compressed air reservoir, so that so
long as there 18 air pressure in the latter it will keep the levers forced outward
and thus retain the brake lever in the lowered position with the brake band
applied When the air pressure in the reservoir is expended the piston of y will
descend, and in diawing the levers inwards will release the brake lever m or n
which is then drawn back to its original position by a spring z so as to release
the brake band
A's before stated the valve gear for controlling the action of the compressors
may be variously arranged but we prefer to employ for this purpose the construc-
tion of valve apparatus shewn at Figs. 6 to 10. Fig 6 shews a vertical longi-
tudinal section through the apparatus, Fig. 7 a cross section, Fig 8 a plan view
of the ports in the face of the valve casing Fig 9 a detached side view of the
distributing valve and Fig 10 a cross section thereof
The distributing valve is of a revolving conical form which is rotated by the
crank d, the valve 1 being provided with an arm 2 that is connected to the crank
pin, the axis of the valve being in line with the axis of shaft b The valve
casing 3 has three equidistant ports 444 extending right through it to each of

page_text: which is attached one of the pipes pleading from the ends of the compressor
cylinders.
In the body of the casing are formed four closed annular channels 5, 6, 7, 8,
extending ught round and communicating with ports 9, 10, 11, 12, in the flat
upper face of the casing as shewn at Fig 8. Upon this face is fixed the corre-
sponding face of the casing 13 of the reversing valve 14 which is also a conical
valve
In the casing 13 are formed four ports 15, 16, 17, 18, which communicate respec-
tively with the ports 9, 10, 11, 12. The annular channels 5, 6, 7, 8, also com-
municate by ports 19, 20, 21, 22, with the interior of the casing in which works
the valve 1, there being a set of these porta at each of the three ports 4 The
valve I has two opposite cavities 23, 24, of the form shewn at Figs 9 and 10 and
the valve 14 has firstly a port 25 formed diametrically through it and always
communicating with the opening 26 leading to the compressed air reservoir and
secondly two horizontal channels 27, 28, adapted to communicate with the ports
15, 16, 17, 18, and open to the atmosphere
From this arrangement it will be seen that the action of the valve apparatus
will be as follows Assuming the valve 14 to be in the opposite position to that
shewn at Fig 7, that is to sav, with the port 25 communicating with the ports
15, 16, and the channel 28 communicating with the ports 17, 18 and further
assuming the crank d to be revolving clockwise, then air will be drawn in by
the outstroke of the compressor pistons through 28, 17, 18, 7, 8, 21, 22, 24, and 4,
and be forced by the instioke of the pistons through 4, 23, 19, 20, 5, 6, 15, 16, and
25, into the compressed an reservoir In order now to cause the compressed
air from the resei von to effect the rotation of the crank in the same direction as
before for starting the car, the position of valve 14 has to be reversed by the
conductor, bringing it into the position shewn at Fig 7, with 25 communicating
with 17 and 18, and 27 communicating with 15 and 16 whereupon the compressed
air will pass though 25, 17, 18, 7, 8, 21, 22, 24, and 4-into the cylinders in the
reverse sequence to what it did before, so that the outstrokes of the pistons will
now effect the rotation of the crank in the same direction as before
By moving the reversing valve so that only the outside annular space in the
rotary valve is supplied with air (when acting as motor) the air, being cut off
before the end of stroke, can be made to act expansively by reason of the shape
of cavity on rotair plug.
The piston rods of the three compressor cylinders are preferably all connected
to the crank pin in one and the same plane, the connecting rod beads being
made segmental for this purpose, in the well known manner of three cylinder
motor engines
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is:-
1 In apparatus for storing the energy given out in stopping tramway and
other vehicles and for utilising such power in starting the vehicle the combination
of three au compressor cylinders arranged round a crank shaft receiving rotary
motion from a road wheel axle through a spur wheel loose on the crank shaft
and connected therewith through sun and planet wheel gear or equivalent coupling
mechanism so arranged that for ordinary running the spur wheel revolves loose
upon the crank shaft, while for stopping, the spur wheel is clutched to the crank
shaft by the sun and planet wheel gear, the air compressor cylinders being con-
nected to a compressed air reservoir through valve apparatus so arranged, that
in one position it allows the compressors to force air into the reservoir while in
another position it causes the compressed air to act as motor fluid in the cylinders
Bo as to rotate the crank shaft in the same direction as that in which it was rotated
for compressing the air, substantially as described.
2 In apparatus such as is referred to in the preceding claim, the combination

page_text: of a spur wheel a loose on a crank shaft b and connected thereto by sun and planet
wheel gear h₂ k, a brake band actuated by levers m n, for coupling the wheel a
with the crank shaft b air compressor cylinders f actuated by the crank shaft b
for compressing air into a reservoir and valve gear 7 for causing the compressed
air to act in the cylinders f for starting the vehicle, substantially as described.
3 In apparatus for storing the energy expended in stopping tramway and
other vehicles, such as 18 referred to in the preceding claims, the use of valve
apparatus constructed and operating as herein described with reference to Figs. 6
to 10 of the drawings for conveying the compressed air from the compressors to
the air reservoir and for subsequently causing such compressed air to act as
motor fluid in effecting the rotation of the crank shaft b in the forward direction
on starting, substantially as set forth
Dated the Alot don of Juomet 1800