IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES AND IN BOILERS AND FURNACES USED THEREWITH, AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1837

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
ELKINGTON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His late most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, this Seventeenth day of February, in the seventh year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Henry Elkington, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Henry Elkington, my exors, admors, and assigns,
or such others as I, the 'said Henry Elkington, my exors, adññiors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time, and at
all times hereafter during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick upon Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM
ENGINES AND IN BOILERS AND FURNACES USED THEREWITH, AND OTHER PURPOSES; "
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said Henry
Elkington, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His
said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Elkington, do hereby declare that the nature of my Invention, and the

page_text: manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer-
tained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say:-
My Invention consist, first, as regards the improvement in steam engines,
in certain modifications of a rotary engine.
Secondly, in a mode of employing the escape steam, as it rushes from
cylinders of steam engines, as a source of power, by an apparatus known as
Barker's mill; and also in a new method of gaining an increase of power in
locomotive engines used on railways, by causing the steam, as it escapes from
the cylinders of the engines, to rush into the atmosphere in a direction con-
trary to the direction of the progression of the engine, so that the high
pressure steam, as it escapes into the atmosphere, will, by its re-action, assist
in propelling the engine in the direct line of its progression.
Thirdly, my improvements in boilers consist in substituting for the hori-
zontal tubes, at present employed in locomotive engine boilers, short tubes,
perpendicularly place, and connected with an upper and lower chamber; the
tubes containing water, the fire and hot air passing between and amongst
the series of tubes.
Fourthly, in a mode of constructing boiler furnaces for obtaining gas when
generating steam, and for employing the hot coke as it is drawn from the
retorts for feeding the boiler furnace.
I will now proceed to describe my improvements on rotary steam engines.
Figures 1, 2, and 3, are three variations of my improved engine when com-
plete. Figure 3 represents a section of the interior of the engine, shewing the
manner of reversing the steam ways, and which constitutes the first part of
my improvement. a, a, is the cylinder; B, one of the pistons' fixed on to the
cylinder, so as to strike the valves on the centre of the rod. C is the shaft, which
is larger in the interior of the cylinder, as shewn in the plan of Figure 3. D is
the steam passage through the shaft. E, the steam passage up the piston, com-
municating with the passage in the shaft. F, F, is the piston attached to the
shaft. His the valve, working inside the piston, as shewn in the Drawing. I is
the rod of the valve, which works through a bridge or guide in the centre of the
steam way on each side of the piston. This valve admits the steam from the
boiler to work the engine; and Figure 4 is a section of the reverse valve, which
allows the steam to escape from the cylinder into the atmosphere or condenser.
The action of the valves will be readily understood by reference to the
.Drawing. The engine cylinder and engine shaft move alternately in the same
direction, the movement being governed by a ratchet and pall or otherwise, as

page_text: hereafter described; and it will be seen, that when the piston F, which is now
in motion, reaches the piston B on the cylinder, the two valve pins will strike
against the piston B, and reverse the steam ways, when the piston and the shaft
will be retained, and the piston B and the cylinder will be moved in the same
direction. The advantage of this plan of the valves over the slide valves is, that
the steam is reversed quicker, and there is no waste of steam in the steam ways
in the shaft as when the steam is blown out on the same side of the shaft as
it enters. In Figure 1, a is the cylinder; b, b, the ratchet wheels; c, c, are
friction rollers, which work against other friction rollers d, d, attached to the
working shaft e, which latter friction rollers d, d, have one half of their circum-
ference larger than the other, and are placed so that when the wheel c on the
shaft is revolving, and in gear with its fellow wheel or roller on the working
shaft, the other wheel c on the cylinder is out of gear. I prefer each piston
respectively to travel through three quarters of the revolution instead of one
quarter, as has been before attempted, during which the larger wheel travels
through half a revolution; but that is not material, my improvement in this
engine being the application of friction rollers in place of toothed wheels; the
object of the rollers is to allow the wheels to exchange at the exact time that
the valves are reversed, which is difficult to do with the toothed wheels without
danger to the wheels. f, f, are metal framings, fixed firmly on the framework
of the engine, into which the bearings of the shaft e are fitted, so as to slide
laterally; ;g, g, are strong screws, by twining which the bearings of the shaft e
are moved to or from the engine shaft, and the wheels or rollers brought in
contact at the same time, and by this means any necessary pressure may be
exerted on the rollers; and it is necessary to state that the power of the engine
will be limited by the pressure employed; that is to say, if the pressure be in-
sufficient for the power of the engine, the wheels would slip in the manner of
the wheels on an edge railway. It will be necessary therefore. to adjust the
degree of pressure according to the degree of power to which the engine is
required to work.
In Figure 2, my improvement consists in substituting for the ratchet wheels
b, b, toothed wheels, working into segments of wheels on the working shaft, in
the same manner as the working wheels c, c, of the engine work into the large
segments d, d, on the working shaft, but with their diameters reversed. Thus,
in Figure 2, the small wheels c, c, perform one revolution while the large seg-
ments on the shaft e perform half a revolution; and while the small segment h
on the shaft e perform half a revolution, the large wheels i, i, on the engine shaft
perform only one quarter of a revolution, which causes the valve pins to strike
against the fixed piston and reverse the steam ways. The engine shaft and

page_text: cylinder travel constantly in the same direction, but at different speeds, and
the power is gained by the difference of leverage, as will be well understood by
reference to the Drawings. Figure 3 is a sectional elevation of another plan
of working this kind of engine. In this modification the engine, shaft revolves
constantly, the cylinder being retained stationary by a ratchet, shown in the
Drawing, as attached to the periphery, of the cylinder, but which may be placed
otherwise, as in Figure 1. When the steam ways are reversed the cylinder
is driven at a rapid rate, and overtakes the working shaft with its piston
(which continues to revolve by the momentum of the velocity of the fly
wheel); when the steam ways are again reversed, and the steam acts upon
the propelling piston on the shaft, there being strong clicks k, fixed in any
convenient part, to take into the ratchet, and prevent the return of the
cylinder.
My claim as relates to these improvements in rotary engines extends,-
First, to the manner of shutting off and admitting the steam into the cylinder
by the valves before described.
Secondly, in substituting friction wheels or rollers in lieu of toothed wheels
and segments, as shewn in Figure 1.
:
Thirdly, in substituting toothed wheels and segments in lieu of the ratched
and pall, as shown in Figure 2.
And fourthly, a method of working the engine, by causing the shaft to
revolve constantly, the cylinder moving at intervals, in the manner described.
I shall now describe my improvements in steam engines as relates to a
method of using the waste steam as it escapes from the cylinders of engines.
a, a, Figure 4, is a hollow shaft, which is connected to and forms in part the
eduction way for the steam, on to which is affixed a light wheel, having tubes
b, b, connected with the passage a, a, through which the steam passes and
finally escapes by the contracted orifices c, c, in the manner of Barker's mill.
On to the hollow shaft a, a, Figure 4, may be keyed a wheel or pulley, by which
the motion may be communicated to other machinery; or the same shaft may
be continued through the case d, d, and carry a wheel or pulley on the other
side, as convenient. d, d, is a cylindrical or other casing, enclosing the appa-
ratus, and having a connexion with the condenser or atmosphere, as desired.
In Figure 5, two jets are shewn, e, e, for the purpose of condensing the steam.
My improvement in steam boilers consists in substituting for the series of
long horizontal tubes used in locomotive boilers a series of short vertical tubes,
as represented in the Drawing at Fig. 6. The fire-place is made the same as
in the ordinary boilers used in locomotive engines, and the draught is through
and amongst the series of tubes, which tubes are always filled with water. The