IM- PROVEMENTS IN ROTARY ENGINES
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Monteith at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 1st July 1876.
JOSEPH MONTEITI, of Carstairs, in the County of Lanark, North Britain. "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN ROTARY ENGINES."
This Invention, which relates to improvements in rotary engines, is a further
development of the Invention for which Letters Patent were granted to the said
Joseph Monteith, dated the 28th day of October A.D. 1875, and numbered 3753.
According to the present improvement the engine has one curved cylinder and
piston and a curved piston rod, but in place of one end of the cylinder being open,
as is the case with the engine described in the Specification filed in pursuance of a
proviso in the aforesaid Letters Patent, both ends of the cylinder are under the
present improvements closed, and steam is admitted alternately to each side thereof.
Both the cylinder and piston rod are provided with grippers or clutches in lieu of
the spring stops described in the aforesaid Specification, which alternately grip or
catch upon the fixed ring circle stops or the equivalent thereof within which the
engine is contained, so that the alternate moving forwards of the cylinder and
piston carries round the main or driving shaft to which they are attached by arms
or levers as described in the aforesaid Specification.
In place of the curved cylinders and curved piston rods described in the aforesaid
Specification, under one feature of the present improvements both straight cylinders
and straight piston rods are used. The cylinders are in this case carried in trun-
nions or bearings, so that they may oscillate correspondingly with the alteration
of angle they make with the arms or levers at all points of the stroke.
Under another feature of the present improvements one or more straight cylinders
are used but which do not oscillate. In this case the piston rod (or rods) is (or are)
attached by a moveable joint (or joints) to the piston (or pistons).
Under another arrangement of the engine constructed in accordance with this
Invention a cylinder circular in side elevation, with pistons rotating radially therein,
is employed. The cylinder is stationary, and the pistons are fixed at their inner
ends to the main or driving shaft of the engine, on which abutments, whose trans-
verse sections correspond to those of the cylinder and pistons, are also loosely carried,
or the pistons may be stationary and the cylinder free to rotate. An abutment is
provided for each piston, and whilst the pistons are being driven by steam or other
power the abutments are held stationary by grippers, clutches, or stops.
piston alternately is driven by and drives the other (or others when more than
two are employed) by admitting steam between the piston, which is for the time
[Price 2d.1
Each

page_text: being the motor and its abutment. The steam so admitted rotates the main or
driving shaft, and the pistons through one half of a revolution (or through a lesser
are, according to the number of pistons employed in the engine), and at the same
time it brings another piston into position to receive steam between itself and its
abutment, by which means the continuous rotation of the main or driving shaft of
the engine is effected.
In place of using cylinders of circular section they may also be of square or
rectangular section with the pistons of corresponding shape.
It is to be understood that the grippers or clutches herein-before mentioned are
applicable to all the arrangements of engines herein-before described, as well as to
that described in the aforesaid Specification in place of the spring stops set forth in
the aforesaid Specification.