IMPROVE- MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGULATING THE SPEED OF STEAM-ENGINES AND OTHER MOTORS
Year: 1884

page_text: I, ALBERT SÖDERSTRÖM of N° 8 Badstugatan, Stockholm, in the Kingdom of
Sweden, Engineer do hereby declare the nature of my said invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGULATING THE SPEED OF STEAM-ENGINES AND OTHER
MOTORS " and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
The main feature or basis of these regulators is that the entire power produced
by the motor is transmitted to the shaft of the machine or apparatus it is called
upon to drive, by the intervention of one or more springs which may vary as
regards their shape and the materials of which they are made: thus for stationary
engines in general, these springs may be adapted in such a manner that the angle
of torsion between the driving shaft and the driven shaft augments or diminishes
in the same measure as the resistance presented by the driven shaft, for this
reason, this class of spring regulators may be denominated "Torsion Regulators;"
whilst for marine engines driving screw propellers, for which a rapid acting regu-
lator during rough weather at sea is particularly useful and desirable, these springs
should preferably assume the form of two disks one of which should be bolted to
the motor shaft and the other to the screw shaft which disks will be more or less
compressed, according to the variations of the propelling action of the screw, which
compressions will produce slight longitudinal displacement of the screw shaft.
By means of certain mechanical agents or parts which I have described below,
I transmit these relative motions of the springs instantaneously to the piston or
valve that regulates the speed of the motor, so that the latter passes exactly the
amount of steam or of water required for causing the motor to run at a constant
speed.
In order that my invention be clearly understood and easily put into practice,
I will describe the same in detail in conjunction with the seven figures of the
accompanying drawing, in which :
Fig: 1 is a lateral elevation, partly in section, of one of my regulators adapted
to a three cylinder engine that drives a dynamo-machine for producing electricity.

page_text: .
Fig 2 a front view of the regulating spring combined with another essential
part, partly in section,
Fig: 3 a lateral elevation of the latter part.
Fig 4 a combination of my spring regulator with a centrifugal governor.
Fig 5 & 6 represent a lateral and front elevation respectively of an arrangement
of springs suitable for very powerful engines. This modification is drawn on a
smaller scale than the preceeding figures and Fig: 7 represents a disk shaped spring
which is better adapted for marine engines driving a propeller.
a fig: 1 and 2 is a volute spring placed between the motor and the dynamo-
machine, its outer extremity is attached in a box b which is bolted to the fly-
wheel c of the motor shaft whilst its inner extremity is keyed in the sleeve d
which is made fast on the end of the dynamo shaft, in such manner that the
relative position of the two shafts changes in accordance with the variations
resulting from the resistance offered by the induction coil to the rotary motion
whilst being driven by the motor.
I place a ring e round the hub of the sleeve & from which project three legs f
fig: 1, 2 & 3, these legs form a tripod and they slide in three notches or ways cut
out in the periphery of the sleeve d and their extremities contact on three beli-
coidal surfaces cut in the hub of the fly-wheel c, which helicoidal surfaces can be
assimilated to the commencement of a triple threaded screw; thus directly the two
shafts move relatively one to the other, a simultaneous motion is imparted to the
ring or disk e in the longitudinal direction of the two shafts. By means of a ring h
which is pressed against the disk e by a spring z and which is suspended by a
universal joint in a fork formed on the upper end of a lever i pivoted at i¹ to the
framing of the dynamo, the lower end of the said lever is likewise actuated with a
to and fro motion, which by means of the coupling rod and the bell crank lever
is transmitted to the vertical rod q² carrying on its upper extremity the wedge m,
which is in this manner caused to rise and fall. This wedge travels between the
friction roller n attached to the framing of the motor and the friction roller o fitted
on the lower arm p of a lever fulcrumed at p' and the upper arm of which actuates
the rod of the regulating valve.
The wedge m and the friction roller n may, if desired, be replaced by a cam
mounted on the axis of the roller n.
By the aid of the mechanism above described, I impart instantaneously to the
regulating valve a position which corresponds with the resistance to be overcome,
in such a manner that the speed of the motor is practically invariable. In order to
regulate the motion of the regulating rod, the wedge has to be adjusted to an angle
more or less. acute and accordingly to a line more or less straight and when a cam
is adopted it has to be adjusted in the same manner according to a curve which has
to be found experimentally.
When motive power is transmitted through a belt or through toothed gears,
I apply the spring or springs between one of the first pullies or wheels and the
shaft on which the said pulley or gear is mounted, in other respects, I make use of
the above mentioned system of parts for transmitting the relative movements of the
shafts (driver and driven) to the regulating valve.
In the case of very powerful engines which transmit a very large amount of
forco, I prefer substituting to the volute springs, straight springs composed of one
or more blades which I arrange like the arms of a wheel, or again I make use of
spiral springs or buffer springs r¹ & q' located as shown in the fig: 5, 6, between
the arms springing from a hub on the main shaft and arms springing from a
hub on the driven shaft. The relative motions of these two shafts are transmitted
by rods & bell crank levers to a ring or disk e¹ passed loosely on one of the shafts
and which is thus caused to travel to & fro in the longitudinal direction of the
shafts, which travel, I transmit to the rod of the regulating valve by means of
mechanical agents or parts similar to those above described in reference to fig: 1.

page_text: The above described regulators work rapidly and with sufficient precision for
ordinary purposes, but in cases where the utmost possible rapidity of action and
precision are required, as for instance when driving dynamos and specially those
supplying one single arc lamp, I prefer combining the above kind of regulators
with a sensitive centrifugal governor in the following manner: instead of actuating
the rod of the regulating valve directly by the upper extremity of the lever p,
I adapt to such end of such lever a small b·ll crank lever 8, fig: 4 fulcrumed on an
axis & and in such a manner that the short arm of this lever actuates the rod of the
regulating valve, while the extremity of its long arm is jointed at 8 with a rod t
which is connected at u with the centrifugal governor which latter raises or lowers
the same according to the variations in speed of the motor.
If in the first instance, it is supposed that the centrifugal regulator is not
working and consequently that the axis u of the rod t is stationary, then the little
bell-crank lever a is actuated by the lever into positions parallel with itself and
the valve regulating rod is actuated as though it were driven directly by the upper
extremity of the lever p. But, if in consequence of slight variations in the pressure
of the steam or of more or less water being carried over with the steam, the action
of the lever p alone on the regulating valve would not suffice to impart the exact
position to the valve requisite for maintaining the motor at the required speed and
in consequence the latter would run either too fast or too slow, in such case the
centrifugal regulator comes into action and raises or lowers the link t in such a
manner as to incline more or less the bell-crank lever 8 and in so doing rectify the
slight defect in the position of the regulating valve. By means of the above com-
bination, notwithstanding sudden and serious variations in the resistance of the
driven shaft the speed of the motor will not vary above 1 or 2 revolutions in 600.
For engines driving screw propellers, the two above mentioned disks w, ware
adapted as shown in fig: 7, one of them being bolted on the flange v of the motor
shaft and the other on the flange x of the screw shaft, whilst by their outer
peripheries they are bolted together as shown. Any longitudinal movements of
the screw shaft are transmitted to the disk y which is passed on the screw shaft
and from thence by levers, rods and a wedge or by a cam to the regulating valve
in the manner above described.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performned, I declare that what
I claim is: in spring regulators for steam and other motors:
First. a volute spring such as a, fig: 1 & 2, placed between the driving shaft of
a motor and a driven shaft or between one first pulley or toothed gear and the
shaft on which such pulley or gear is mounted, as well as a spring box b, for
motors running at high speeds as above described and illustrated in fig: 1 & 2 of
the annexed drawing.
Second. Helicoidal surfaces and tripod f, f, f, contacting with the above surfaces
and serving the purpose of transforming the relative motion of the shafts into
longitudinal motions as above described and illustrated in fig: 1, 2 & 3 of the
accompanying drawing.
Third. the ring which is pressed against the disk e of the tripod and which is
suspended by a universal joint in the fork of the lever i, as above described and
illustrated in the fig: 1, 2 & 3 of the accompanying drawing.
Fourth. an adjustable wedge m or an adjustable cam as above described and
illustrated in fig: 1 of the accompanying drawing.
Fifth. Straight springs composed of a single or of several blades, as well as
spiral springs or buffer springs located between arms attached to the motor shaft
and arms attached to the driven shait, as well as the mechanical parts consisting
n levers, rods and other agents as above described or their equivalents for the
urpose of converting the relative movements of the two shafts into longitudinal
notion in the central line of the said shafts, as above-described and illustrated in
g: 1, 5 & 6 of the accompanying drawing.

page_text: Sixth. The combination of one of my regulators with a centrifugal governor by
means of a bell crank lever & and a rod t as above described and illustrated in
fig: 4 of the accompanying drawing, and
8
Seventh. The disk springs w, w applied to the shafts of a motor and a marine
engine driving a screw propeller in the manner and for the purpose above described
and illustrated in fig: 7 of the accompanying drawing.
CAT 1001"