IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF AIR OR GAS ENGINES
Year: 1861

page_text: man, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF AIR OR
GAS ENGINES." A communication from abroad by John Cleves Symmes,
of the United States of America, but now of Berlin, in the Kingdom of
Prussia.
Sealed 11th June 1861, and dated the 3rd January 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with bis Petition, on
the 3rd January 1861.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF AIR
OR GAS ENGINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to certain means for increasing the effective power of
air or gas engines. At each end of the cylinder containing the working
piston is a cylinder of larger diameter opening into this central cylinder, and
in each end cylinder a piston is fitted. These pistons, which may be termed
the regenerator pistons, are connected together outside the engine, so as to

page_text: work simultaneously, and they are also connected adjustably with the working
piston rod which passes through the hollow rod of one of the regenerator
pistous. Surrounding the inner periphery of the end cylinders are annular air
spaces, which serve for the escape of the heated air from the front to the back
of the pistons, and vice versâ. In these air spaces regenerators are fitted, the
same being formed of thin corrugated metal sheets, which are lapped round
the cylinders. The corrugations run across these sheets at an inclination, and
the upper and lower sheets are arranged so that their corrugations run cross-
wise with respect to each other. On one side of each of the two regenerators
there is a coil of pipes connected with the heating furnace, and on the opposite
side a coil of pipes supplied with cold water. Suppose now the air or gas
confined in the left-hand cylinder to be heated, and the air or gas which is in
the other cylinder to be cold, the working piston will travel towards the right-
hand cylinder. Just as this piston gets to the end of its cylinder, the two
regenerator pistons will be pushed towards the right-hand also, and the heated
air in the left-hand cylinder (slightly cooled by expansion) will pass among
the tubes heated by the furnace fire, and getting thereby a little hotter, will
then pass through the regenerator, circulate around the tubes cooled by water
flowing-through-them,_and_pass_to the other side of the regenerator piston in
a cool state. The reverse process in every respect takes place in the other end
cylinder, the air being heated, and thus the action of the working piston is
maintained. The flues of the chimney are fitted like the regenerators with
sheets of corrugated metal, but the sheets are thicker and the corrugations
longer. The same relative arrangement is also retained, with this difference,
viz., each alternate opening between the plates is closed at top and at bottom,
thus making one set of alternate flues which go clear through. The fresh air
forced by a fan enters the other or closed set of alternate flues near the top
of the chimney, follows them down to the bottom thereof, and then being
warmed by the upward current in the first-named set, feeds the fire, as in the
smelting furnaces known as the hot blast. The packings where the piston
rods of the working and the regenerator pistons leave the cylinder, consist of
a body of vulcanized caoutchouc with a central opening larger in diameter
than the rod which works through it, and in this hollow are sets of open rings
(two or more rings of metal in each set,) which are held to their places by the
caoutchouc (the openings breaking joints), and between them is packed black
lead; blacklead, talc, or such like substance is also employed as the lubricant
of the piston.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 3rd July 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and-sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special license that I, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 "Iы-
PROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF AIR OR GAS ENGINES," being a communi
cation from abroad by John Cleves Symmes, of the United States of
America, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, 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 Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the 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 Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say): -
This Invention, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent,
relates to a novel arrangement and construction of engine whereby air or gas
may be rapidly heated and cooled, and its expansive force applied for
generating motive power. The engine consists, mainly, of three horizontal
cylinders arranged end to end, the end ones opening into and being of much
larger diameter than the middle cylinder. The middle cylinder is surrounded
by the furnace (in which the heat for expanding the air or gas is generated),
and by the flue which leads therefrom. This cylinder is fitted with a piston,

page_text: against the opposite sides of which the expanded air is caused to act alternately
for the purpose of working a crank shaft, with which it is connected in the
usual way of engines; the end cylinders or bulbs are used merely for con-
taining the air or other motive power medium, and they are each fitted with
light pistons, which are connected together by rods, so as to move together,
their object being to bring the air alternately into contact with coils of hot and
cold metal tubes situate on opposite sides of these pistons when the air on one
side of the middle or working piston is expanded, and that on the other side
simultaneously cooled. In the passage leading from the cool to the hot coils
regenerators are situate, the construction and operation of which will be
hereafter described.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 shews the improved air or gas engine
in longitudinal vertical section; Fig. 2 is a diagram shewing the arrangement
for heating the air to be supplied to the furnace by passing it through passages
situate in the furnace flue; and Fig. 3 is a plan view of the same.
A is a closed ash-pit, into which air heated in the chimney or flue is
forced by a fan or equivalent mechanism; F is the furnace, lined with fire-
brick K; B, B', are the bulbs or extensions of the central or middle cylinder W,
which has open ends. The outer ends of the bulbs B, B', are closed by covers
H, H', which are fitted with recesses-to-receive-respectively_the_coils J, J
These coils are surrounded by a covering X, X', so arranged as to allow free
space around the coils. Through these coils J' cold water is caused to
circulate. Near the furnace and flue, and on either side thereof, coils J, J
are placed and surrounded by a covering X, X', like the coils J. In these
coils J hot air from the furnace is caused to circulate. The pistons N, N1, are
connected together by rods Q', and by means of a rod Qattached to the
piston N, and working through a stuffing box C in the cover H, the pistons
are caused to traverse to and fro in the spaces S, S', respectively, their motion
being derived at starting from a hand lever 1, and afterwards by any suitable
arrangement from the crank shaft E. Situate in the space connecting the
heating and cooling spaces that surround the tubes J and J¹ are the re-
generators R, R'. P is the working piston, connected by a rod O, which
passes through the stuffing box C¹ with the connecting rod U of the crank
shaft E.
Supposing now air or any constant gas to be forced by a pump, or any
known contrivance, into the cylinder and bulbs W and B, B', equally, and to
any proper pressure, and that a fire has been kindled at F. Suppose also
that the burnt air is caused to circulate through the tubes J before passing off
by the flues G' and G, and that cold water is caused to flow through the

page_text: tubes J, and to lie between L and H, L' and H. Now, if the handle I bó
pushed slowly to the right, the rods Q and Q, Q', will force both pistons N
and N' to the right. The air in the space S will pass into the spaces con-
taining the hot tubes J, and getting heated will then pass through the rege-
nerator R, where it will part with nearly all its heat, and leaving the rege-
nerator enter the spaces containing the coll tubes J'. Here losing all its
heat it will re-enter the space S, but behind the piston N, in a cold or
contracted state. The reverse process will simultaneously take place in the
bulb B', for the air will enter the space St behind the piston N', and get heated:
If the pressure of the air and its variations of temperature be considerable;
the working piston P will move. But as it depends upon the efficient action
of the regenerator, and as the regenerator only gets its normal effective condi-
tion of heat after many motions of the lever I, suppose it to have attained
that condition, and the parts to be where they are drawn, the piston P is now
travelling to the right; just before it gets to the right end of the cylinder W
suppose the lever I to be pushed as quickly as possible to the right, the air
in the bulb B is now cooled, and that in B' heated, and the piston B therefore
moves to the left. By a proper connection between the shaft and wheel at E
and the lever I, the engine when once fairly started will work itself. The
burnt air or other heating medium after entering the tubes J, performs about
three-fourths of a revolution in the bulbs, and is emitted on each side the fire-
box. It percolates about the cylinder outside in the flue G¹ heating it a
little, and escapes by the chimney G, the tubes J¹, and the spaces L, H, and
L', H', are fed with cold water, the annular spaces between the cylinders X"
and the bulbs B and B', are filled by the regenerators R, R'. These are of
wires, the finer the better, laid in any parallel direction. It is preferred to
lay them at an angle to the piston rod O, and they should always be corru-
gated like a single wire detached from wire gauze. If pressed by the machine
corrugating them, and flattened from a circular cross section to a quadrangular
one it were better. The covering plates X and X', are of cast metal, made
to suit the tubes used. The open spaces around the tubes are largest in
diameter near the axis of the cylinder. The tubes are by preference corru-
gated lengthwise. The motive air passes also between X' and H, H', or B, B¹,
in a thin layer to be cooled or heated thereby. At Y and Y¹, rings of vulca-
nized caoutchouc are to be applied, and at the stuffing boxes C and C' are
bodies of vulcanized caoutchouc enclosing three pairs of metallic open rings,
the openings of each pair breaking joints, and with blacklead, talc, or the
like packed between them. Black lead, talc, or the like is the packing of the
piston P also; M is the bed plate of the engine. The rods Q', Q', are packed

page_text: with blacklead, talc, or the like where they pass through the iron of the
cylinder, and they firmly connect the two pistons N and N₁ together; Z, Z, is
a metal covering for confining the burnt air against the cylinder till it enters
the square chimney G. Fresh air is blown by a fan or otherwise into the
chimney G at g, through a set of corrugated flues herein-after described, thence
out at g', and down to the closed ash-pit A to feed the fire with hot air.
The piston P is long and light, and has its two faces set at such an angle with
the piston rod (according to its angle with the horizon and to the pressure
used), that the lifting component of the pressure shall overcome the tendency
of gravity to produce unsymmetrical friction. These faces are also made so
light as to burst under a less pressure than will burst the cylinder, and thus
should any bursting of the engine take place, it would merely be from one
bulb into the other. The flues before mentioned are made by corrugating
thin sheets of metal at an angle with their length, and laying them together
as shewn at Figures 2 and 3. The numbers 1, 3, 5, &c. of these little flues
are closed above the opening g, and below the opening g'. Into these closed
flues the air comes from the branch pipe g, and is forced downwards, wriggling
its way along the cross corrugated channels, and absorbing the heat from the
metal, which heat has been imparted by the burnt air wriggling its way up
and out through the numbers-2, 4, 6,-&c. of the same flues, and thus an
important economy of heat is obtained.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "Improvements in the
Construction of Air-or Gas Engines," as communicated to me from abroad,
and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be
understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent, I claim the
combination and arrangement of parts as above described constituting the
improved air or gas engine.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Third day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)