Improvements in Hot Air Engines.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 12th Sept., 1888
Complete Specification Left, 12th June, 1889-Accepted, 12th Sept., 1889
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Hot Air Engines.
I, CHARLES WELLS, of 115, Great Titchfield Street, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention comprises the use of suitable gas burners with a vessel containing
compressed air, and fitted with the necessary cylinders, pistons, rods, and cranks.
To avoid loss of the compressed air, the communication of the internal motion to
the main-shaft is effected through a pivot which has an angular motion and which is
made practically air-tight by an elastic sleeve which is fixed to it and to the above
named vessel, so that the pivot may oscillate without the escape of any of the com-
pressed air. The angular motion of the pivot is easily converted into the usual rotary
motion by levers, cranks, and rods.
The compressed air is alternately heated and cooled.
13
1000
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Hot Air Engines.
I, CHARLES WELLS, of No. 115, Great Titchfield Strect, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, 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 :-
My invention comprises the use of suitable gas burners with a vessel containing
compressed air, and fitted with the necessary cylinders, pistons, rods, and cranks.
To avoid loss of the compressed air, the communication of the internal motion to
the main-shaft is effected through a pivot which has an angular motion, and which is
made practically air-tight by an elastic sleeve which is fixed to it and to the above
named vessel, so that the pivot may oscillate without the escape of any of the com-
pressed air. The angular motion of the pivot is easily converted into the usual rotary
motion by levers, cranks, and rods.
The compressed air is alternately heated and cooled.
In order that my invention, and the means by which it is to be carried into
practical effect, may be thoroughly understood, I will now proceed to describe them
in detail, referring in so doing to the accompanying figures which are to be taken as
part of this specification and read therewith.
Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation illustrating the embodiment of my invention in the
form of a single acting horizontal engine. This figure is only an illustration of my
invention, and it is to be distinctly understood that its application is not limited to the
particular type of engine illustrated.
Fig. 2 is a detail illustrating the use of the elastic sleeve.
Like parts in the two figures are marked with the same reference letter.
A is the working cylinder; and a, the working piston. B is a pump cylinder;
and b, its piston. The two pistons, a and b, are preferably connected by one piston
rod c common to both.
Both the cylinders A and B open into an air-tight vessel D from which cylinders
flow and return pipes provided with suitable valves are led through the heating
and cooling chambers. Both cylinders, the flow and return pipes, and the chambers,
are charged as above mentioned.

page_text: E is the heating chamber through which the pipe e is led in any way best adapted
for transferring the heat of the gas burner e¹ to it.
F is the cooling chamber through which the pipe fis led in any way best adapted
for cooling it. As one method of cooling this pipe, I have shown the vessel as
connected with a cold water circulation.
The pipe e, it will be noticed, starts from the outer end of the pump cylinder B,
and, after passing through the heating cylinder, enters the outer end of the working
cylinder A. Its function is to convey the cold air expelled from the pump cylinder
by the outstroke of the pump piston through the heating chamber, and to deliver it
after having been heated, past the valve e, into the working cylinder A.
After the heated air has done its work in the working cylinder, it is expelled by the
outer, or return, stroke of the working piston past the valve e, and driven through
the pipe into the cooling chamber, whence it is drawn in due course into the pump-
cylinder, to be forced therefrom through the heating chamber into the working
cylinder, as above described.
The to-and-fro motion of the piston rod c is transferred by the pair of vibrating
cranks e, c, (both fast on the same shaft c³) and the link c, to the crank-pin of the
fly-wheel G. Any other equivalent mechanism adapted to effect the same purpose
may be employed.
h is an elastic sleeve connected air-tight to the side d of the air-vessel D; and its
function is to prevent the escape of the compressed air from the vessel D.
The valves illustrated in Fig. 1 have nothing special about them, and any well
known type of valve and valve-gear may be adopted, provided that the hereinbefore
defined functions may be discharged properly as the nature and intent of my invention
require.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
In a hot air engine using compressed air as above described, the combination of
shaft and elastic sleeve as and for the purpose set forth.
Dated this 10th day of June 1889
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
22, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.