Improvements in Steam and other Engines.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Nov., 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Steam and other Engines.
I, ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK of the Firm of A. M. & Wm. Clark of 53,
Chancery Lane in the County of Middlesex, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of
Patent Agents, do hereby declare the nature of this Invention (a communication
to me by Moritz Honigmann of Grevenberg, Germany, Manufacturer), to be as
follows:-
This improvement has for its object to heat the expanding steam or working
gases in the engine itself and thereby to obtain a better utilization of the force
of the steam or gases.
The working face of the piston is formed by the side of a long hollow cone
which is received in a corresponding conical extension of the cylinder so that
a large area of heating surface is exposed to the expanding gases. At the com-
mencement of the admission, the piston cone almost wholly fills the space within
the cylinder cone, the narrow annular clearance space left between the two cones
becoming wider as the piston moves outwards. The smaller end of the piston
cone terminates in a cylindrical extension which works through a stuffing box
on the end of the cylinder cone so that expansion takes place not in a large
cylindrical space as usual but in the narrow annular space between the two cones.
The cylinder cone is steam jacketted and the piston cone is heated internally by
steam at a certain pressure and the surfaces of the cones consequently assume the
temperature corresponding to such steam pressure and transmit their heat to the
steam expanding between them. During the admission, and at the commencement
of the expansion, the two cones are so close together that the expansion proceeds
almost along the isothermal curve, they then diverge increasingly or more
increasingly further apart. This causes an extremely rational utilization of the
steam. The engine may be made double-acting, the conical form of the piston
and cylinder being duplicated at the two ends as herein before described.
The improvement is not limited to steam engines but is applicable also to
other expansion engines.
1906

page_text: Patent Agents, do hereby declare the nature of this Invention (a communication
to me by Moritz Honigmann of Grevenberg, Germany, Manufacturer), and in
what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement:-
This improvement has for its object to heat the expanding steam or working
gases in the engine itself and thereby to obtain a better utilization of the force
of the steam or gases.
The means by which this is accomplished are illustrated in the accompanying
drawing which represents a central vertical section of a steam engine constructed
to operate according to this Invention.
The working face of the piston C is formed by the side of a long hollow cone D
which is received in a corresponding conical steam-jacketted extension B of the
cylinder A so that a large area of heating surface is exposed to the expanding
gases. At the commencement of the admission the piston cone I almost wholly
fills the space within the cylinder cone B, the narrow annular clearance space E
left between the two cones B and 1 becoming wider as the piston moves outwards.
In the drawing the annular space E is shewn as of the dimension it assumes when
the engine is at half-stroke.
The smaller end of the piston cone D is prolonged in the form of a hollow
cylindrical extension F which works through a stuffing box on the end of the
cylinder cone B so that expansion takes place not in a cylindrical space of rapidly
increasing capacity as usual but in the narrow annular space between the two
cones. The cylinder cone B is enclosed in a steam jacket G and the piston
cone D is heated internally by steam admitted thereto at a certain pressure and
the surfaces of the cones consequently assume the temperature corresponding to such
steam pressure and transmit their heat to the steam expanding between them.
During the admission and at the commencement of the expansion the two cones B
and D are so close together that the expansion proceeds almost in conformity
with the isothermal curve, they then diverge increasingly or move increasingly
further apart so that an extremely rational utilization of the steam is obtained.
The engine may be made double-acting the conical form of the piston and
cylinder being duplicated at the two ends as hereinbefore described.
The improvement is not limited to steam engines but is applicable also to
other expansion engines.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is:
In a steam or other engine, providing the piston and cylinder with a long
conical extension of the said piston and of the cylinder heated both externally
and internally by steam under pressure and terminating in cylindrical portions
working the one in the other so as to leave between the conical portions only a
narrow annular space in which the working gases whilst expanding receive heat
during the working stroke substantially as and for the purpose specified.
Dated this 26th day of August 1897.
A. M. & WM. CLARK,
53, Chancery Lane, London, Chartered Patent Agents.