CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN. ENGINES TO BE WORKED BY AIR:OR OTHER GASES
Year: 1840

page_text: Air or Gas Engines..
NEWTON'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting:"
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fifteenth day of October, in the fourth year of Her reign,
did; for Herself, Her. heirs, and successors, give and grant, unto me, the said
William Newton, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and autho-
rity, that I, the said William, Newton, my. executors, administrators, and
assigns or such others as 'I, the said William Newton, my executors, adminis-
trators,and-assigns should at any time agree,with,, and no others,, from time to
time and at all, times during the term of fourteen years therein mentioned,
should, and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales the: Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her.: Majesty's Colonies
and Plantations abroad, an Invention of " CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN. ENGINES TO
BE WORKED BY AIR:OR OTHER GASES," being a communication. from a foreigner
residing abroad;, in which said Letters Patent is .contained a proviso obliging
me, the said William Newton, by an instrument; in writing, under my hand and
seal,-particularly to describe and, ascertain, the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to: be; performed, and to cause the same to be
inrolled in Her Majesty's, High Court of Chancery within six calendar months

page_text: next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Newton, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say):-
:-
This Invention consists in improvements upon and modifications of certain
novel constructions of engines to be worked by air or gas, for which a Patent
was granted to me, dated at Westminster, Seventeenth January, One thousand
eight hundred and thirty-nine, being a communication from a foreigner
residing abroad. The present Invention is founded on the same elementary
principles as the former, viz*; the alternate heating and cooling (for the purpose
This is effected in
of expanding and contracting) of a volume of air or gas.
a closed vessel by the reciprocating action of a plunger, which displaces the
volume of air or gas from one end of the closed vessel, and forces it to thé
other end of the vessel, thereby causing it to pass from the heated to the cold
extremities of the vessel, and vice versâ; and the clastic force of the air or gas
being allowed to act at each extremity upon a working piston, thereby commu-
nicates its reciprocating action as a moving power for driving other machinery.
The Inventor considers that, in constructing a machine which shall exert
motive power by the means of changing the elastic force of a volume of air
acting on a piston in the way described, there are certain conditions and
arrangements essential to the effective and profitable working of the engine.
The first thing, therefore, to be observed is, that the surfaces against which the
air or gas comes in contact in its passage from the hot to the cold end of the
cylinder shall be as much extended or enlarged as possible. Secondly, that
the temperatures to which the gas or air shall be raised or reduced shall be
certain and uniform, which may be maintained by increasing or multiplying
the heating and cooling surfaces. at the opposite ends of the cylinder (or, as the
Inventor calls it, generator). Thirdly, employing the same uniform quantity of
air or gas in the vessel during its operations, and maintaining or regulating its
volume at the extremes of temperature, which is done by displacing or shifting
the volume in the generator to as great a distance as possible whilst the pistor
is at its dead point. And, lastly, to insure the durability of the engine, al
.contact between the hot air or gas and the working piston should be avoided
These conditions are more or less complied with in the Invention before

page_text: referred to and patented by me in One thousand eight hundred and thirty-
nine; but as in that instance, the employment' of water as a medium between
the gas and the working piston for transmitting the motive power has been
found to present many difficulties and inconveniences, the Inventor has,
therefore, shewn in the accompanying Drawings an arrangement of parts, in
which water is only used for refrigerating the air, in a similar manner, to that
employed in low pressure steam engines, and has also adopted some arrange-
ments which are more advantageous, and certain parts of the former arrange-
ment, as herein-after described, he has improved and simplified. Although the
number of modifications to which these improvements may be subjected are
considerable, it will not be necessary to describe more than two, one being a
low-pressure engine of one horse power, or thereabouts, and the other a high-
pressure engine of ten horse power, or more, according to the condition of the
compressed air or gas which may be employed in the generation. This second
or high-pressure engine is of more importance than the first, from the unlimited
power which may be given to it, and from the general applicability of which it
is susceptible.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 represents a side elevation of an
engine of low pressure, say, of one-horse power; it is of simple construction,
and easy to be kept in order. Fig. 2 is a horizontal view of the same; and
Fig. 3, a vertical section of the working parts, taken at right angles to Fig. 1.
The generator is heated at its lower part, and the piston which regulates or
limits the space in which the air is to be contained works freely in a stuffing
box; it also serves as a refrigerator. The pump for compressing the air in this
instance is taken away, and the displacing cylinder or plunger actuates the
rod that transmits the motion of the piston to the fly wheel. The generator, or
outer cylinder, is shewn in Fig. 3, at a, a, a, a; it is of thin sheet metal, and
has a stuffing box b, b, b, b, affixed to it above, which is made of cast iron. The
upper part c, c, c, c, of this stuffing box is furnished with four screws d, d, d, d,
having indented or milled edge heads, see Figs. 1 and 2. The heads of these
screws are embraced by a chain e, e, e, e, which the Inventor says is for the
purpose of preserving the parallelism, but that it may be dispensed with. This
stuffing box is surmounted by a copper cap f. f. The apparatus which is
denominated the piston is a thin copper cylinder g, g, its upper end being affixed
to the ring h, h, and to this ring is attached a hollow frustrum of a cone i, i,
(also made of thin metal), its apex being downward. Two rods k, k, connect
the ring h, h, the cone i, i, and the piston g, g, to a double lever I, I, to which
they are attached by bolts m, m, as shewn in Figures 1 and 2. This lever l, l,
is mounted on the shaft n, n, which is supported in bearings at o, o, fixed to the

page_text: standards. A connecting rod pip, is attached by a joint pin to the outer end
of the double lever 1, 1, and through this rod the motion of the piston is
transmitted to the crank and shaft q, q, below which shaft turns in stationary
bearings upon the framework, and carries the fly wheel s; for regulating its
movements. The plunger or displacing cylinder, as it is called, (see-Figure 3,)
is composed of two parts; the lower part t, t; t, t, is of a cylindrical form, made
of bent plates of metal, supported. by internal braces, and is so made as
nearly to fit the interior of the cylinder a; a. The upper part u, u, is also
cylindrical, and has a hollow cone v, v, formed within it, which corresponds
exactly to the form of the conical part ii, of the piston. The upper part of
this cylinder or plunger, (viz,) the space between 'it at u, u, and the cone v, v,
is filled with shavings, sawdust; charcoal, or any other bad conductor of heat,
to prevent radiation; some asbestos is also placed at the lower part of the
plunger or displacing cylinder at w,w, for the same purpose. This plunger-or
displacing cylinder t, u, t, u, is suspended by a rod x, which passes through a
stuffing box in the piston. To the upper part of this rod is connected a chain
y.y, which is attached to the curved part of a tumbling segment lever z, z,
(seen in Figure 1 and 2,) mounted loosely on the shaft n'of the double lever 1, 1,
and this segment lever is furnished with a counterbalance weight the power
of which weight may be regulated by moving it along the horizontal arm that
carries it. The tumbling lever z, z, is acted upon by a small double lever 1, 1,
which, when the lever z arrives at the position of a right angle to the con-
nection rod p, as seen in Figure 1, is arrested in its further progress by small
projecting arms 2, 2, connected to the rod p, (and shewn by dots in this
Figure,) which catches against. a horizontal pin 3, 3, attached to- the said
double lever. The effect of this contrivance is that, as the connecting rod p
descends, the double lever 1, 1, is carried down, with it in the same position, as
shewn by dots. A small antifriction foller 4 is mounted at one end of the
lever 1, and as the said lever descends, the. roller 4 describes a curve of the
form of the figure 8, and thereby comes in contact with the under part of an
arm extending from the tumbling segment lever z, and 'as the lever 1 ascends
it brings up this segment lever with it, and by means of the chains. y, y, and '
roda, raises the plunger or displacing, cylinder t, u, t, u, in the cylinder a, a.
When the double lever 1, 1, has thus raised the plunger, the roller 4 escapes
from contact with the tumbling lever z, and the plunger t, u, t, u, again fall's to
the bottom of the generating cylinder a, a,.on; to a bed of metal filings, which
deadens the shock. A rod-5, shewn in Figure 1, is connected with the double
lever 1, 1, and passes through a block 6, mounted in the standard at 7; and an
adjustable screw nut 8 at the lower end of this rod is intended to stop against

page_text: the block 6, for the purpose of determining the height to which the double
lever 1, 1, shall be raised, and consequently the period for the escape of the
roller 4, and the fall of the plunger or displacing cylinder. When the engine
is required to be stopped, the upper end of the double lever 1, 1, is to be
depressed by means of the rod 5, which thereby prevents the roller 4 from
getting beneath the end of the tumbling lever, and consequently the machine
then stops its evolutions, as the displacing cylinder is not raised. The generator
or outer cylinder a, a, is heated at the lower part by a furnace 9, 9, (see
Figure 3); and the vapours evolved by the combustion circulate round the
cylinder, and ultimately escape by the chimney 10. The upper part of the
generator is refrigerated by the cone i, i, containing cold water, which is to be
continually supplied and allowed to flow over into the cup f, from whence it
runs by pipes II, 11, into the two. lower cups 12. and 13.:. The parts and
arrangements of the engine having been now explained, it's action will be
understood by the following description:-The fly wheel is put in motion in
the direction pointed out by the arrow, and the moment that the piston has
arrived at the bottom of its stroke, the roller 4 will come in contact with and
get below the cam at the end of the tumbling segment lever and raise it.
The cold air or gas which occupied the space between the cones i, i, and v, v,
will be displaced by the rising of the plunger, and will be forced down between
the plunger, or displacing cylinder u, t, u, t, and the outer cylinder a, a, into the
space at the bottom of the generator shewn by the dotted line a, a, where
its temperature becomes suddenly heated by the fire of the furnace. The
elastic force or pressure of the air or gas thus heated in the lower part of the
cylinder immediately increases by the expansion and change of temperature,
and thereby raises the plunger still higher (to the dotted line 6, 6,) and the cone
or pistoni; i, with it. This causes the levers above described to be raised,
and with them the crank rod p, and hence the shaft q and fly wheels to revolve,
by means of which a rotary driving power is. communicated to work other
machinery. During this part of the operation the warm air at the bottom of
the generator expands more and more 'until the roller 4 at the end of the
double lever 1, 1, allows the arm or cam at the end of the tumbling lever z to
escape, when the plunger or displacing cylinder u, t, u, t, immediately descends
by its gravity, and forces up the air or gas occupying the lower part of the
cylinder a, a, through the narrow passage between the plunger and the outer
cylinder into the space between the two cones vandi, where it is suddenly
refrigerated by the cold water contained in the cone of the piston, and which
air or gas by that means becomes contracted in its volume, and thereby allows
the piston to-be-drawn down again by the. rotation.of.the. fly wheel into the

page_text: lower position, as shewn in Figure 3. The Inventor says that this engine may
be worked either at mean atmospheric pressure, or at the minimum pressure of
one atmosphere. In the first case the interior pressure becomes so much
greater than the atmospheric pressure, and the piston receives in its alternate
motion an equal impulsion from one part and the other.. In the second case
a self-acting valve is adapted to the generator opening from without for the
admission of atmospheric air, by which means the internal pressure cannot
sink below the external. The mean pressure becomes necessarily greater, and
the result of it is that the piston is continually being pressed outwards more or
less from the inside to the outside, and it cannot be made to go in except by
the power of the fly wheel,. which. is therefore furnished with a counter-
balance. There is a greater force in this latter case, on account of the greater
density of the air; but this force is less regular, and should not be employed
excepting when it is intended to overcome an intermittent effort like that of
a pump. Therefore, it is proposed to furnish the balance lever l, l, with a rod
to work a pump, if, for example, the engine is intended to raise water..
power,
Having explained the construction and arrangement of the most simple
form of the improved engine, I now proceed to describe a modification of the
ame principles, constituting an engine of about ten horses'
made upon
what the Inventor calls the high-pressure principle, which engine may work
regularly with a single generator; it is economical, compact, and convenient,
either for locomotion or any other purpose. Figure 4 in Sheet II. is a side
elevation of the engine complete; Figure 5 is a vertical section taken longi-
tudinally through the centre of the generator and displacing cylinder; Figure 6
is a horizontal view, partly in section, in which some of the upper parts of
the engine are removed to avoid confusion; Figure 7 is an elevation taken
at the right-hand end of the engine;. Figure 8 is a transverse vertical section
taken in the line Z, Z, at Figure 5; Figure 9 is also a transverse section taken
in the line X, X, of the same Figure; and Figure 10 is another similar
section taken in the line Y, Y; Fig. 11 is a sectional elevation of part of
the apparatus taken longitudinally in the line x, x, of Figure 8; Figure 12 is
a front view of the excentric or cam hereafter described; and Fig. 18, a
transverse section through the same. In all these Figures similar letters of
reference denote corresponding parts. The generator in this engine is placed
horizontally, and though consisting principally of one close vessel, is described
by the Inventor as of four parts.
Firstly, the front cylindrical part a, a, b, b, in which the piston moves; the
part b, b, being the place where the refrigeration of the air takes place through
the medium of an injection. of cold water. Secondly, the middle or intermediate

page_text: part b, b, c, c, also cylindrical, and furnished with a railway, on which the dis
placing cylinder d, d, d, d, slides. This part of the apparatus is externally
exposed to the smoke that passes through the flue from the fire in the furnace
e, e. Thirdly, the hinder part f.f.f.f, which is in the form of a projecting
cone, and exposed directly to the action of the heat which arises from the
furnace. Fourthly, the lateral passage or canal 9, 9, seen in section at
Figure 11, which connects the cold with the warm part of the generator, as
will be hereafter described, and through which the gas or air which is employed
principally circulates. This passage is filled with metallic gauze or metal in
a finely divided state, so that the cold air in passing through it may speedily
acquire the same temperature as that of the gauze. At the end of this passage
there is a system of tubes h, h, through which the air or gas proceeds, in order
that the operation of heating may be completed. The displacing cylinder d, d,
is a hollow vessel, very nearly filling the interior of the generator, excepting the
space before b, b, which contains the air or gas to be displaced or operated upon.
But the displacing cylinder ought to move easily in the generator, and for this
purpose it is suspended from above at its centre of gravity by the bolt i, the
length of which may be regulated at will by a screw j bearing upon the axle k
of two rollers l, l, that slide upon a railway in the box m, shewn in Figure 10,
and which is to be kept properly lubricated. A sliding rod n is connected to
the axle k at one end, and passes through a stuffing box in m.
It is jointed
to a forked frame o, which is connected to one end of a horizontal lever p.
This lever p is moved by a lever q, (see Figure 4,) which lever is actuated by
the cam r, r, on the main shaft, working against the rollers s, t, mounted on a
rocking standard u. This cam or excentric r has two curves, an inner and an
outer one, as seen in Figures 12 and 13. The inner curve bears against the
little roller s, and the outer curve against the larger roller t, and as the cam
revolves it actuates the long rocking standard u, u, connected to the lever
through the medium of the levers p and q, also the rods n and o. Hence, by the
rotation of the cams through the agency of the levers and rods p, q, n, and o,
the displacing cylinder d, d, is moved from one end of the generator to the
other, precisely at the time and with the speed required for displacing and
transmitting the volume of air or gas. The air contained in the interior of the
displacing cylinder has a communication with the space in the cylinder a, a, at
the back of the piston by means of a hollow rod v, v, and a bent tube w, w, in
which there is a valve x, intended to act as a damper, or moderator. As the
capacity of the displacing cylinder is very great, the air contained therein pre-
serves nearly a uniform pressure; and though the volume of air behind the
piston is changed. by the movements. of the piston, yet a mean pressure is pre-
9,
and

page_text: served behind the piston by this communication with the interior of the dis-
placing cylinder, and which causes the air to act as a spring against the piston.
At b, b, (that is to say, in the spaces within the cylinder before the piston,)
the gaseous medium, according 'as it is heated or cooled, produces a pressure
greater or less than that which exists behind the piston, and it is by means of
these changes of temperature in the volume of gas or'air acted upon that the
piston is worked, and the motive power of the engine produced. It will be
that the piston is connected to the main shaft on which the fly wheel and
cams are mounted by means of the rod y, the balance lever z, the connecting
rod a, and the crank 6*. Upon the axle of the large balance lever z, a 'small
vibrating lever c, is mounted, which puts in action two pump rods 'd* and
seen
the first is for forcing water, and the second for compressing or pumping
air. The air pump e forces air or gas through the pipe f*, and bent tube w, w,
into the space a behind the piston, until the mean pressure therein has attained
the degree required. In the engine now describing, this degree of pressure may
be fixed at five atmospheres. When the pump has forced in the required
quantity of air, the piston is to be stopped by drawing out the pin or cotter g.
The other pump & supplies the part 6, b, of the cylinder, with cold water by
means of the bent tube g". The water is delivered from the tube * in the
form of rain into the interior of the generator at the moment when the piston
is about to return, which cools and condenses the warm air that has been
forced from the outer end of the generator. The water falls immediately into
a receptacle h below, in which a float * is placed, and as it rises it allows the
water to escape by a valve below when it has attained a certain level. The
heated vapours from the furnace, after having passed between the series of
bent tubes 1, h, turn round the cone f. f. which forms the end of the cylinder,
and pass along the passages ;* continuing to surround the generator at the
part as far as the vent hole *, from which the vapours ultimately escape
into the chimney m*. That end of the displacing cylinder which is nearest
'the piston runs upon a leather washer 7 (seen in Figure 5), which extends
about half way round it, for the purpose of preventing the water in b, b,
from running into the narrow space between the displacing cylinder and the
generator. When the air or gas in 6, 6,-has become condensed by the cold
water, and the piston brought forward by the action of the 'fly wheel, which is
weighted for this purpose, the air is forced out of 6, 6, and passes along a
n formed in the displacing cylinder for this purpose, see Figures 5, 8,
and 11; part of the cold air proceeds along the narrow channel o*, between the
displacing cylinder and the generator, where it becomes warmed by being
"brought into contact with the heated metal of the generator, but by far the
groove

page_text: greater portion enters the short pipe p*, and goes along the junction pipe g,
which is filled with small pieces of metal or wire gauze, as before stated, and
from thence, through the small pipes h, -h, and elbow pipe q* into the conical
end of the generator, where it is expanded to its greatest volume. . The end of
the junction pipe ġ is separated by a partition *,, which causes the air to pass
through the small bent pipes h, h; but this partition may, if required, have
a valve or door for communicating directly with the elbow pipe q*.
Having now, described the construction and arrangement of this high-
pressure engine, I will proceed to explain the way in which it is set to work.
The displacing cylinder is first to be moved by the handle s*, *, which is
connected to one end of the forked frame o, and by this means (the air in the
generator being sufficiently heated) the engine is started. The respective
movements of the piston and the displacing cylinder, which cause one entire
revolution of the fly wheel, may be divided in four periods. In the Drawing,
the engine is represented at the time when the first period is finished. The
piston has advanced one quarter of its stroke, the displacing cylinder has
nearly arrived at the end of its course, where it should remain stationary until
the piston shall-have-passed .to nineteen-twentieths of its course;; this is the
time of its second period. The third period is when the cold air having by
the reduction of its volume acquired the mean or ordinary pressure, the
displacing cylinder drawn by the cam on the main shaft begins to advance
towards the piston, which being drawn by the fly wheel passes the clead point
of its stroke, and at about the fourth of its retrograde movement it is caught
by the displacing cylinder. At the fourth period all the cold air that was in
b, b, is forced to the conical end of the generator, where its expansion by the
heat has caused it to rise to a pressure greater than the mean pressure that it
possessed when cold, so that it will impel altogether the displacing cylinder
and the piston; the motions of both being now the same and simultaneous
until the time when the piston having arrived at nineteen-twentieths of its
retrograde stroke, the expansion or augmentation of volume of the warm air
has reduced its pressure to the mean pressure in a, which is the time of the
commencement of the first movement. Then the displacing cylinder is
brought back by the excentric or cam, and the warm air returns again
into b, b, where it is recondensed and falls again to a lower pressure than
what exists in a, a. The long lever u, u, see Figures 4 and 8, is mounted
on the end of a shaft u*, which may be shogged on one side in its bearings,
in order to disengage the rollers s and t from the right cam or excentric,
and bring similar rollers * into contact with the left excentric, as shewn
by dots in Figure 8. This arrangement of parts need only be employed in

page_text: locomotive engines, and when it is necessary to reverse the motion of the
main shaft.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Newton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-one.