IMPROVEMENTS IN VALVES AND THEIR ARRANGEMENT, AND IN THE COMBINATION OF, MECHANICAL ACTIONS FOR WORKING, GOVERNING, AND REVERSING THE MOTION OF THE SAME AS PRIME MOVERS, AND REGULATING THE SUPPLY AND DISCHARGE OF FLUIDS TO AND FROM THE CYLINDERS OF FLUID MOTIVE POWER ENGINES OF EVERY DESCRIPTION, AND REVERSING THE MOTION OF THE SAME; PARTS OF WHICH ARE APPLICABLE TO PUMPS.
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Seaville Truss at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th January 1877..
THOMAS SEAVILLE TRUSS, Civil Engineer, of 154, Sea Side, Eastbourne, in the
County of Sussex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN VALVES AND THEIR ARRANGEMENT, AND
IN THE COMBINATION OF, MECHANICAL ACTIONS FOR WORKING, GOVERNING, AND
REVERSING THE MOTION OF THE SAME AS PRIME MOVERS, AND REGULATING THE
SUPPLY AND DISCHARGE OF FLUIDS TO AND FROM THE CYLINDERS OF FLUID
MOTIVE POWER ENGINES OF EVERY DESCRIPTION, AND REVERSING THE MOTION
OF THE SAME; PARTS OF WHICH ARE APPLICABLE TO PUMPS.".
These improvements consist in the construction of slide valves and cone seated
valves and their arrangement, and in the combination of mechanical actions for
working, governing, and reversing the motion of the same, as prime movers for
regulating the supply and discharge of fluids to and from the cylinders of fluid
motive power engines of every description, and reversing the motion of the same,
and consist in the construction of a slide valve to work in a chamber attached to
the engine cylinder and over three ports, the centre port being for the fluid passing
from the cylinder, the other two ports for fluid passing into the cylinder, one of
such ports communicating with the top, and the other with the bottom of the
cylinder. The slide valve is constructed so that its external area covers the whole
of the ports, and in the centre portion of this slide valve is constructed a recess
or chamber which is open to the three ports before mentioned when the external
area of the slide valve covers the whole of the ports, but which chamber is only
open to the discharge port, and one of the ports communicating to either the top or
bottom of the cylinder, just prior to either of the ports communicating with either
the top or bottom of the cylinder being opened to receive the motive power fluid
under pressure, by being uncovered by the sliding of the slide valve. To this
slide valve a spindle or rod is fixed, which passes through a stuffing box and gland
to the outer side of the valve chamber, and the end of the spindle or rod outside of
the chamber is attached to a link, which I will call the valve link, by a pin passing
through the same. The other end of this link is attached to a pin that works in a
quadrant, the radius of which is the length of the valve link, that is, from the
centre of the pin connecting it to the valve spindle or rod to the centre of the pin
in the quadrant to which it is attached, and which works in the quadrant. The

page_text: quadrant works on a pivot pin fixed in a bracket attached to the cylinder framing
in the centre of the quadrant's radius, and in the centre of the are forming the
quadrant, and the centre of the quadrant is so arranged that when the valve link
and valve spindle or rod are in a line with each other, the slide valve in the chamber
covers the three ports before described. Attached to the quadrant is a frame or
plate on which at a right angle triangle to the arc of the quadrant and at about the
distance of half the length of the valve link a stud is fixed, on which one end of
a guide link hinges, the other end of this guide link is connected to the pin working
in the quadrant, to which is also attached the valve link. In the centre of the guide
link is fixed a stud which works in a groove in the side of a nut with a screw
thread in it, through which nut passes a spindle with a screw thread on it. This
spindle rotates in two fixed bearings on the quadrant plate, and to one end of the
spindle is attached a small wheel, which when turned moves the nut to or from the
centre of the quadrant that the stud fixed in the guide link works in, which guide
link when so moved moves also in the same direction the valve link, and also inoves
the slide valve. By this means the supply of the motive power fluid under pressure
supplied to propel the piston in the cylinder of the engine is regulated to act for
the whole travis of such piston on it, or for any lesser distance to the cutting off
such supply. At a right angle triangle from the centre of the radius of the
quadrant, and in the direction of the arc of the quadrant taken from the centre of
the arc of the quadrant, and at about the distance equal to half the length of the
quadrant a stud is fixed to the quadrant plate, and to this stud is connected one end
of a shackle link formed of a screw bolt and nut, the other end of which is connected
to a lever, the fulcrum of which lever is a stud attached to the engine framing, and
at the other end of this lever is fixed a stud in which rotates a friction roller, which
friction roller works in an endless curvilinear groove in the face of a disc (known
in mechanics as a cam); the form of this groove is determined by the full travis to be
given to the slide valve, the lap of the valve (that is the excess in length of the
valve over what is required to cover the whole of the ports before described) and
the greatest length of the travis of the piston in the cylinder, the motive power
fluid under pressure shall act upon the piston, for the least and greatest radius of
such groove from the centre of the disc determines the full travis of the slide valve,
the other radius determine the opening of the ports communicating with the top
and bottom of the cylinder, and to their full opening, from each of which radius at
the points on the same determinal as described, and from any given position of the
engine crank on the shaft rotated by the piston governed by the slide valve, a
suitable line is drawn, and an endless curvilinear groove of the form required is
obtained, this disc is keyed on the crank shaft of the engine in the position to the
crank as before described, so that motion of the piston in the cylinder is motion
to the crank shaft, and also motion to the several parts as described.
When solid fluid under pressure is the motive power of the engine in the top
and also in the bottom of the cylinder of the engine a cone seated valve is placed;
each of these valves are constructed with a spindle to receive a coil spring, the
action of which is to close of themselves and open to suction from within the
cylinders. To the chamber seating of these. valves tubes are attached which
are connected to a tank containing the like solid fluid; through these valves
the cylinder is supplied with the fluid at low pressure from such tank, when the
motive power fluid under pressure is cut off from the cylinder by the slide valve
herein before described, thus the cylinder is always kept full of solid fluid at the
motive power pressure or at low pressure. When the motive power fluid is elastic
the last described cone seated spring valves are dispensed with, and the recess in the
centre portion of the slide valve herein-before first described may only be open
to the centre port when the external area of the slide valve covers all the ports.
For some purposes one eccentric may be substituted for the endless curvilinear
groove in the face of the disc, having its strap connected to the shackle link stud
on. the quadrant. The last described cone seated spring valves are also applicable
to all classes of pumps for hydraulic and other purposes.

page_text: As my said improvements are capable of various modifications without departing
froin the principle thereof, I do not restrict myself to material, dimensions, or the
precise form or position of the several parts, or to the forming of the endless
curvilinear groove in the face of a disc, as the groove may be formed on the circum-
ference of the same, or to the employing of the lever to connect the quadrant with
the endless curvilinear groove, as a rod may be substituted for the same.