IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING POWER BY STEAM
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Spence of Pendleton Alun Works,
Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING POWER BY STEAM."
Sealed the 14th January 1853, and dated the 1st October 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter. Spence at
the office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his petition, on
the 1st October 1852.
I, PETER SPENCE, of Pendleton Alum Works, Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING POWER BY STEAM" to be as
follows:
Heretofore in using steam to obtain power it has been usual to
allow it to pass into the atmosphere, or to be condensed immediately
after being used.
Now my Invention consists of causing steam when once generated
to be used over and over again by expanding and contracting it, by
heating and cooling.
Thus the steam being generated passes into apparatus whereby it is
further heated, it then works the engine or engines. The steam is
next cooled and contracted in refrigerating apparatus, and passed again
to the heating apparatus to be again expanded and used in the engine
!

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said Peter Spence, in the Great Seal Patent Office,
on the 31st March 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
PETER SPENCE, of Pendleton Alum Works, Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of October in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the sixteenth
year of Her reign, did for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Peter Spence, Her special licence that I; the
said Peter Spence, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Peter Spence, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times' thereafter during the term therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle
of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING POWER BY STEAM,'"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Peter Spence, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
"
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Peter Spence, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the drawings hereunto
annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon; that is to
say,
Heretofore in using steam to obtain power it has been usual to allow
it to pass into the atmosphere, or to be condensed immediately after

page_text: being used; now my Invention consists in causing steam when once
generated to be used over and over again by expanding and contracting
it, by heating and cooling. Thus the steam after being generated
passes into apparatus whereby it is further heated, it then works the
engine or engines. The steam is next cooled and contracted in refri-
gerating apparatus, and passed again to the heating apparatus to
be again expanded and used in the engine or engines without addi-
tional steam, except to replace the steam wasted by imperfections
of machinery and blown off to prepare the vessel for receiving the
cooled steam. The motive power which I thus obtain I apply in
the ordinary manner, namely, to actuate a piston in a cylinder; but the
distinction which obtains between my Invention and the modes which
have heretofore been in practice with respect to steam engines is this,
that I neither condense the steam after having exerted its expansive
force, nor do I blow off any, except a small portion, into the atmo-
sphere. The general features of the method by which I effect my
object are the following:-After the steam has been generated in
a common boiler, I heat a portion of it in a separate chamber until it
becomes highly elastic; in this state I admit it into the cylinder,
cutting off the supply, however, before the termination of the stroke.
In the meantime I have another chamber into which the steam of the
opposite side of the piston is escaping. This chamber at the com-
mencement of the exhaust contained a small portion of steam in a
highly rarified state, and this is allowed to escape through a valve at
the end opposite to where the exhaust enters. The pipes, moreover,
conveying the exhaust steam to this chamber are allowed to traverse
through the water of the generator, my object being to deprive the
steam of a great portion of its heat, so that when the blow-off is shut
the chamber will be filled or filling with dense steam of low pressure.
At this point, which will about correspond to the point where the
steam in the other chamber was cut off from the cylinder, we have now
two chambers, the one filling with steam at a low pressure, and the
other containing steam highly expanded and of a considerable pressure,
the valve in the exhaust being shut. A communication is now opened

page_text: between the two chambers, when the elastic steam from the latter
chamber passes immediately to the former; in doing so, however, it is
also compelled to traverse through pipes in the water of the generator,
whereby it is deprived of a portion of its heat and contracted in
bulk. At this moment the communicating valves being closed it will
be seen that the two chambers contain steam of precisely equal
pressure, but the steam in the one of them is at a low temperature
and dense, while that in the other is highly rarified by heat, and contains
in consequence but a small portion of the steam originally introduced
therein. This latter expander is now ready to blow off for the com-
mencement of the next exhaust, while the other receives a fresh
accession of steam from the generator which is kept at a pressure of
from thirty to forty-five pounds per inch, and is then rapidly heated,
and thus made ready for admission to the contrary side of the piston.
In order more fully to explain the mode of action I shall proceed
to describe the drawing which I have hereto annexed, premising that,
although it fully illustrates the mode of carrying out my Invention, I
do not confine myself to the precise arrangement therein shown.
Figure 1, is a front view of the engine, and Figure 2, a side view,
showing a section of part of the generator and heaters. Figure 3, is
a plan with the generator in horizontal section, and Figure 4, is a cross
vertical section of the generator and heaters. In Figure 3, a part only
of the connecting pipes is shown on one side, the remaining part being
shown on the other.
The generator I have herein represented is a common cylindrical
boiler A, to which heat may be applied from the furnace B; but as I
prefer the heaters to receive the greatest portion of the heat, I arrange
the flues so that these latter may be acted upon first and the generator
afterwards, as will be readily understood from inspection of the section
Figure 3, and Figure 4. I do not confine myself, howsoever, to any
particular arrangement in this respect, as it is clear many modes of
applying heat may be devised to effect the object required, as, for
instance, two or more distinct furnaces may be used. C, C', are the
heaters or expanders which I have shown, one on each side of the

page_text: strong cast-iron pipe traversing
I prefer each of these heaters to
generator, and each consisting of a
and returning along its heating flue.
be of about the same capacity as the cylinder. At the end nearest
the engine I place a diaphragm e, Figure 2, below which the exhaust
and steam pipes enter, and I attach the several other pipes to a vertical
pipe c'. D, is the working cylinder, with a piston and piston-rod
acting by means of the connecting rod E, on the crank F, in the usual
manner. The cylinder has a slide valve S, for admitting and exhaust-
ing the steam of the ordinary construction, with the exception that it
has two exhaust ports, one leading to one side of the cylinder, and the
other to the other side, so that each side of the piston exhausts through
its own port. This will be seen by the tinted blue lines which follow
the metal bounding the ports. This valve may be worked by an
eccentric S', in the ordinary way, but the connecting details I have
not shown. All the other valves V, V, V, &c. of the series which I here
employ I have tinted, cach of a separate color, and have written
thereon the function to which each corresponds. I have also tinted
the pipes appertaining to each valve of the same color respectively,
so that their course may be traced without trouble. The valves
V, V, V, &c. may be of any of the ordinary constructions, but I
suppose them in this case to be of the kind called double beat or
equilibrium valves, and I actuate them by means of two upright
revolving tappet shafts T, with a separate plate t, for each valve. On
every plate is screwed a camb pięce acting on a roller on the valve
spindle, each camb piece being fixed in such a position, and being of
such dimensions, as to lift and allow to drop its own particular valve
precisely at the moment required for the proper action of the engine.
When I have not sufficient pressure to force down the valve into its
seat I employ weights on the spindle as shown. The shafts T, are
driven by bevel wheels W, from the crank shaft.
The general arrangement of the stationary and moving parts of the
engine being thus rendered clear, let us suppose now that the two
expanders are in the condition they have assumed, as above explained, at
or about the conclusion of one stroke of the piston, namely, that C, con-
tains highly rarified steam while C', contains dense steam, part of which

page_text: it has just received from the generator through the supply pipe. This
steam, as is well known, being out of contract with water, will rapidly
absorb heat and become more highly elastic, and in this state it is
admitted through the steam pipe to the cylinder to commence the
stroke of the piston. In the meantime the exhaust valves open to
conduct the waste steam from the opposite side of the piston to the
former expander C, the steam passing by a circuitous route, as indicated
by the arrows, through the pipes in the water of the generator, and
entering the expander below the diaphragm C, Figure 2; it thus
imparts a portion of its heat to the water, and enters the expander in
a denser state, and it takes the place of the highly rarified steam which
the expander before contained, the latter being allowed to blow off
by opening the blow-off valve, which is only kept open sufficiently-long
for the purpose.
This condition holds good up to the point where the steam entering
the cylinder is cut off by closing the cut-off valve, which may take
place from one half to three fourths of the stroke. The expander C,
being now filled with the exhaust steam, but the other C', isolated and
containing steam expanded and diminished in tension or pressure
in proportion to the capacity of the cylinder up to the cut-off.
This steam has also, in the meantime, been absorbing more heat,
and has become in consequence highly elastic. At this point, therefore,
when the inter-communicating valves are opened between the two
heaters, a part of the steam in C', rushes through the pipes towards
the expander C, to equalize the pressure; at the same time; during its
passage, losing a portion of its heat, which is imparted to the water of
the generator.
These equalizing valves being again instantly closed, the supply
valve is now opened to the expander C, which thus receives a fresh
accession of steam from the generator; and the latter valve being
again closed, the whole of the steam in this expander now rapidly
absorbs heat for the next stroke, while, in the meantime, the steam in
the other heater C', is reduced to a minimum, and is ready to blow off
It will thus be seen that at the commencement of the now ensuing
stroke the relative condition of the two heaters or expanders C, and C

page_text: is exactly the reverse of that which held good at the commencement of
the preceding stroke.
Having now fully described and ascertained the nature of my
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I would
have it understood that I do not claim as new and of my Invention
various parts of the machinery shown and described which are old and
well known, nor do I confine myself precisely to the arrangement and
combinations herein-before described, but I reserve to myself the right
of varying the same; but I claim, firstly, the combination and
application of mechanism and apparatus, as herein-before described, for
causing steam, when once generated, to be used over and over again
for the production of power or motive force by expanding and cou-
tracting it by heating and cooling, however the same may be modified,
so long as the general and peculiar features of my Invention be
retained.
Secondly, I claim the arrangement and mode of super-heating steam
by expanders C, and C', as herein-before described, so as to increase
its pressure.
Thirdly, I claim the arrangement and mode of refrigerating super-
heated steam, and by which low heated steam is generated, as herein-
before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Spence, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Thirtieth day of March in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
PETER SPENCE. (L.S.)
5
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the said
Peter Spence, in the presence of
JNO. COOPER, Solicitor,
Manchester.