IMPROVEMENTS IN ROTARY STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edouard Jules Anatole Camere
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 9th February 1869.
I, EDOUARD JULES ANATOLE CAMERE, of Nice, and 37, Boulevard
Bonne Nouvelle, Paris, in the Empire of France, Engineer of Roads
and Bridges, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN ROTARY STEAM ENGINES," to be as follows:-
The rotary machine with eccentric plates, pistons, or diaphragms the
subject of this Invention may serve as a motor working by steam, gas,
or water; it may also act as a water meter and as a suction and force
pump for gas and liquid.
The machine shewn on the accompanying Sheet of Drawing forming
part of this Provisional Specification is composed of a perfectly bored
cylinder of a diameter and thickness varying with the power of the
machine. This cylinder closed at its two ends by solid plates provided
with tightening bolts and stuffing box gland, carries laterally two flanges
or rings pierced with longitudinal ports intended to receive in the case
of a steam or of a water motor the induction and the eduction pipe, and
in the case of pumps and fans the suction and force pipes. These ports

page_text: open into the interior of the cylinder in such a way that the plates or
pistons herein-after mentioned, whatever position they may assume,
prevent any communication between these two openings. The cylinder
is traversed by a shaft passing through the stuffing box glands of the
solid plates out of its axis parallelly with its generators but at a distance
varying with the dimensions of the machine. . To fix the idea I have in
the following explanation assumed this distance to be one-fifth of the
radius of the cylinder. Within the cylinder this shaft presents a rect-.
angular opening and carries two fixed plates or pistons having the total
depth of the cylinder and capable of turning freely within it (or moveable
plates may be adopted, a fixed plate being comprised between them),
According to the above hypothesis they would have for maximum radius
only that of the cylinder. Between these plates is another which may
slide with gentle friction in the opening provided in the shaft as well as
between the first, and formed from two separate pieces by springs so
placed that notwithstanding the eccentricity of the axis of rotation they
may turn in the cylinder and yet keep their edges constantly bearing
against its inner surface. It will be understood that these edges must be
ground so as to present a surface appropriate to the eccentric rotary
movement to which the plates or pistons are submitted, this being easy
to determine geometrically. All the rubbing surfaces should according
to the intended application of the machine be provided with packings of
leather, india-rubber, wood, or metal, in order to lessen the loss of steam,
air, or water, which might take place between the sides of the plates or
pistons and those of the cylinder, but as these packings must bc
analogous to those actually used in machinery I deem it needless to
dwell upon them in the present description.
Fig. 1 of the annexed Drawing is a horizontal section of the cylinder
with the fixed plates or pistons and moveable plate furnished with its
springs; Fig. 2, section of cylinder shewing the ensemble of the plates
or pistons of the rotary shaft.
First arrangement: two fixed plates fitted to the rotary shaft and the
moveable plates sliding between these latter. Second arrangement: one
fixed plate fitted to the rotary shaft and two moveable plates sliding
exteriorly to these latter, L, M, indicate the inlet and outlet orifices;
A, B, moveable plates or pistons; C, fixed plate; D, shaft of the
machine; E, cylinder; R, springs.
I will now describe the action of my machine as a driving engine..

page_text: Suppose the arrangement of plates or pistons to have received a slight
rotary movement in a straight direction and it will be at once apparent
that the length A, O, of the left plate or piston becomes superior to
that O, B. If then steam or water under pressure is introduced by the
port L by virtue of the difference between the lengths A, O, and B, O
of the plates they have a tendency to continue their rotary movement
while forcing out through the port M the steam, air, or water which may
be above them up to the moment when the two parts A, O, and O, B,
become equal, which will happen when the plates again become horizontal.
But if the shaft carries a fly wheel, or if it be coupled to another machine
of the same kind having plates or pistons placed at right angles in
relation to those of the first by virtue of the speed acquired or of the
action of the second machine, the first plates will pass beyond the
horizontal position, and the movements will continue to be produced as I
have above described,
From these explanations it is easy to understand, 1st, that if by a
cock movement the side by which the steam or water is introduced be
changed a rotary movement in inverse direction will be obtained;
2nd, that the tension of the steam may vary during the rotation
without causing a cessation of this movement, from whence results the
possibility of driving this machine by the use of steam with more or less
extended expansion gear.
If we now consider this machine as a tool engine and give to its
shaft a rotary movement in a straight direction, it will at once be
seen that the volume comprised between the plates or pistons and
the cylinder almost nothing at the beginning of the movement will
increase up to the moment that they become horizontal, and that on
the contrary the volume which was above the plates in their primitive
position has been constantly diminishing during this movement,
from whence it results that a suction movement has been produced by
the port L and a forcing one by the port M, phenomena which will
always be reproduced if the rotation continues. From this double
phenomenon arises the possibility of utilizing this machine as a suction
and force pump for liquids and gas. Water being incompressible it
follows that the volume of that which may penetrate a machine of this
kind is constant, inasmuch that whatever may be the pressure of water
this volume is only dependent upon the space left free by the plates
within the cylinder. From this fact it may be concluded that by fitting

page_text: upon the shaft of the plates or diaphragms an indicating apparatus or
register giving the number of revolutions of this shaft it will be possible
to ascertain the volume of water given off by the machine during a
definite period, and this will permit its use as a water meter even under
pressure instead of as a motive power driven by water, or as a pump.