IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER BY MEANS OF STEAM
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Adolph, of No. 9, Bury Court, St. Mary
Axe, in the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER BY MEANS OF STEAM."-A com-
munication from abroad by Jules Claude Louis Charnoz, residing at
Leipziger Street, Dresden.
Sealed the 28th December 1866, and dated the 3rd July 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Adolph at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 3rd
July 1866.
I, WILLIAM ADOLPH, of No. 9, Bury Court, St. Mary Axe, in the City of
London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER BY MEANS OF STEAM" to be
as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for obtaining
motive power by means of steam. For this purpose two or other number of
vessels aro employed, which are each supplied with liquid from a reservoir
through a passage fitted with a valve opening inwards into the vessel. Steam
is also supplied to each of the vessels by means of a valve, and when the
valve is opened, and steam admitted to the vessel, the liquid is ejected through

page_text: a valve opening outwards into an air vessel, from which a passage lends to a
turbine. The turbine is caused to rotate by the current of liquid, and gives
motion to any machinery with which it may be coupled. After passing from
the turbine the liquid returns to the reservoir, from which it again flows into
the first-mentioned vessels to be again expelled by the action of the steam.
The valves for admitting and cutting off the steam may be slide valves, or
valves of other construction, which alternately admit steam to the vessels, and
then put them in communication with the air. Whilst the vessels are in com-
munication with the air they fill with liquid from the reservoir, and afterwards
the steam expels the liquid and causes it to pass through the turbine as
already described; the vessels are caused to work alternately. If desired, a
condensor may be employed, with which the vessels are put into communica-
tion in place of with the atmosphere, as above described. The liquid
employed may be oil or other liquid capable of being heated without pressure
to a temperature equal to that of the steam employed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed.
by the said William Adolph in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
3rd January 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ADOLPH, of No. 9, Bury Court, St. Mary Axe, in the City of London, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said William Adolph, Her special licence that I, the said William Adolph,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Adolph, 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 APPARATUS
FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER BY MEANS OF STEAM," a communication to me
from abroad by Jules Claude Louis Charnoz, a person resident at Leipziger
Street, Dresden, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
William Adolph, ny executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing

page_text: under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manuer
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 William Adolph, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per--
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained. in. and. by. the following
statement thereof, that is to say:
The machine in question consists of two essential parts.
First, an apparatus arranged to produce an artificial fall of liquid by means
of the pressure of steam..
Second, a turbine upon which this fall or this compressed liquid produces
its action in the ordinary manner. The turbine presents no peculiarity; it
may be one of the many well-known wheels of this sort of form and dimensions
determined in each case by the power of the machine and the work it is
intended to perform. Generally it will be completely enclosed in a case, with
resisting partitions, as is usual with turbines working under a heavy column.
The apparatus producing the fall, and which I call the compressor, is in
principle similar to an ordinary fire pump; it consists in a common tank or
reservoir marked M in the annexed Drawing, two vessels of the same size,
A and B, corresponding with the two cylinders of the said pump; a smalt
air vessel, which is not indispensible, but is useful,, and of which the intention.
is more to ensure a continuous jet of liquid than to maintain a uniform
velocity; lastly, a steam valve of any description similar to those employed in
ordinary steam engines, such as a slide valve, poppet valve, or steam cock.
The two vessels A and B have each at their bottoms two openings provided
with valves, one for the entry and the other for the exit of the liquid. At the
top each vessel has a third opening for the passage of steam. The steam
valve is fixed on the cover or on the side of the vessel, so that the steam
passages may be as short as possible. The two vessels A and B should be
close together, unless local circumstances render their separation necessary,
and then two sets of steam valves should be employed in place of one. The
vessels A and B communicate with the reservoir M by the admission. apertures
E and E supplied by large pipes, or the vessels A and B may, as in a fire-
pump, be placed in the reservoir; these same vessels communicate also with
the turbine by the exit openings S and S', and a double branch pipe of..large
size passing therefrom; it is upon this pipe and in .communication: with it that
the air vessel is fixed. The liquid employed should be a fixed oil or a melted

page_text: fat or other liquid which does not evaporate, or evaporates slowly at the
temperature of steam. In some cases, as when the power to be obtained is
not large, or where the turbine must be of small size and work at a compara-
tively slow velocity, a metal or an easily fusible alloy may be advantageously
employed. Such a substance, on account of its great density, will take, as is
evident, a considerably less velocity than oil under the same pressure. The
vessels A and B should be sufficiently strong to resist the pressure of the
steam; their form is unimportant; they should be of the same height, and
their tops should be sufficiently below the level of the liquid in the reservoir to
cause them to fill rapidly. This level is marked by an ordinary indicator
tube. Two cocks, the one at the top and the other at the bottom, permit of
liquid being added or drawn off as may be necessary.
The apparatus then works in the following manner: - - Assuming that
steam at high pressure is employed with free escape into the atmosphere and
the reservoirs M open at the top, the two vessels A and B will fill with
liquid in consequence of their communication with the reservoir M, the valves
in the openings E, E', opposing but a very slight resistance. The steam
according to the position of the slide will enter, say, the vessel A, the liquid
will be forced from A on to the turbine, and will there produce a certain
amount of work; afterwards it returns by a large pipe into the reservoir M.
The slide changing its position, the steam which has produced its effect will
escape,
the vessel A will re-fill, whilst B, under the action of the steam, will
empty in turn, sending its liquid on to the turbine to continue the work
already commenced. In consequence of the alternating motion of the steam
valve the same operations are indefinitely repeated. The origin of the pressure
which the liquid receives and transmits being indifferent, whether it results
from weight or from the pressure of vapour, the turbine will evidently work as
it would under a natural fall of water of 150 feet or thereabout. I take
no account of the small difference of density of oil and water, as this difference
will have no other effect but slightly to augment the speed of the turbine. If
the compressor under certain aspects resembles a force pump with two
cylinders, it equally resembles a single-acting steam engine also with two
cylinders. The steam distributing apparatus may be the same in either case.
The vessels A and B replace the cylinders and the oil the pistons. Everything
that applies to steam engines in general here finds its natural application. It
may be worked with or without expansion. A fly wheel may be applied to
render the speed regular, or where this is undesirable several turbines may be
mounted on the same axis. Several turbines may also be mounted on the
same axis in order to obtain a greater angular velocity when required, the

page_text: diameter of the turbines being decreased. In the same way the thrust on
the bearing may be reduced to any extent desired. For this purpose a pair of
turbines may be used, the liquid being caused to pass to them in opposite
directions. The ordinary means should be employed for avoiding loss of beat,
such as steam jacketing, or enveloping in non-conducting material. In case
it is desired to work at low pressure, or rather with condensation, whatever be
the pressure, and not with a free escape into the air, it is necessary to add to
the machine, such as above described, an ordinary condensor; the reservoir M
should then be closed and put in permanent communication with the condensor.
The reservoir in this case should be made sufficiently strong to resist the
external pressure. The air-pump of the condensor takes its motion either
directly from the axis of the turbine or from a secondary axis if the primary
is driven too rapidly. A donkey engine may also be employed for this purpose,
as is usual for feeding the boilers of steam engines. With these exceptions
the operation will be exactly similar to that already described for a high-pressure
machine with free escape. Like the air pump of the condensor, the steam
valve should usually receive motion from a secondary shaft revolving at a
moderate speed, say 30 revolutions per minute or less. It is necessary, in short,
to give to the vessels A and B a sufficient time to fill completely without any
tumultuous motion of the liquid. With these conditions the steam will act and
expand advantageously. At the time of starting the apparatus the turbine will
rotato slowly, and the slide valve also moving very slowly, it may happen that
all the oil in one of the reservoirs A or B may pass to the turbine and be
followed by the steam itself before the slide valve has changed its position.
As it is not possible to make the vessels indefinitely large it is necessary, to
avoid the above-mentioned inconvenience, and to arrange that the slide valve may
easily be thrown into and out of gear. This allows of the valve being worked
by hand during the few first revolutions of the turbine, and when the wheel
has acquired about its ordinary velocity then the valve may be geared with the
machine. Where a slide valve is above spoken of it will be understood that any
suitable apparatus for regulating the distribution of steam may be substituted,
indeed probably balanced valves such as are used in Cornish engines will
usually be employed. One of the advantages which this machine presents is
the substitution of a liquid piston for an ordinary piston, thus all loss of steam
by leakage is avoided, whilst the friction is reduced as low as possible, and all
wear and tear avoided. To these advantages there is added that the transforma-
tion of an alternating movement into a continuous circular movement is
obtained without the ordinary intermediate instruments, which absorb a good
deal of power, and require care to keep them in working order. The completo

page_text: separation, it may be to a considerable distance, of the compressor and the
turbine renders this always accessible, even where the space is very limited,
as in a boat or vessel, for example. Upon such boats or vessels the screws
or rotatory pumps may be driven at any desired speed by suitably adjusting
the diameter of the turbines. The employment of rotatory pumps as
locomotive apparatus will no longer present any difficulties.
In working
turbines direct by steam there are two obstacles to contend with, which
are almost insurmountable. First, the expansion of the steam before and
during its action upon the wheel, an expansion which diminishes its speed, its
temperature, and causes a partial condensation, and consequently a great loss
of power. Second, the excessive speed of the vapour at the time it escapes
from the generator on to the turbine, even if it were possible that the vapour
without changing its density should lose its expansibility and behave itself like
a liquid, still to utilize suitably this speed it is necessary to arrange the wheels
to turn with very great rapidity, which in practice is usually inadmissible.
Now by the employment of a liquid intermediate of the steam and the turbine,
with altering the pressure, the two obstacles above mentioned are at once
avoided, expansibility no longer exists, and the speed is reduced for the
extreme pressure of 5 or 6 atmospheres in the boiler to about 100 feet per
minute, or with a low pressure the speed will not be more than half of this;
this is supposing that an oil or grease is used the density of which differs little
from that of water. With other liquids, melted metals for example, the results
will in every case vary inversely as the square root of the density of the liquid
employed.
On the annexed Drawing no scale is given, as the dimensions may be
greatly varied. The proportions also of the several parts may be varied, and
when space admits all the passages should be of large size.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Adolph, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this First day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
WITT
דות חזי
(L.S.)
HITOGY
TAT