CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN METALLIC PISTONS
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BENJAMIN
GOODFELLOW, of Hyde, in the County of Chester, Mechanic, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eighteenth day of December, One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-eight, in the second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs
and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Benjamin Goodfellow,
Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Benjamin Goodfellow, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such
others as I, the said Benjamin Goodfellow, my executors, administratörs,
and assigns, should agree with, and no other, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England and Wales and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN METALLIC
PISTONS;" in which Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said
Benjamin Goodfellow, shall cause a particular description of the nature
my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to
be enrolled in Her 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.
of
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with such proviso, I, the said
Benjamin Goodfellow, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,

page_text: and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereto annexed, and the following
explanation thereof, that is to say:-
My Improvement in Metallic Pistons consists in the particular construction
and arrangement of certain parts of such apparatus, in order to render them
perfectly steam, air, or water-tight by means of metallic packing, and capable
of being used in all situations where such pistons are commonly employed.
These improved metallic pistons are composed of a top and bottom plate of
metal in the ordinary manner, between which are a peculiar combination of
annular springs, intended to constitute a perfect steam or air-tight packing,
and which are brought into action by means of screws bearing both in the bed
and top plate of the piston in order to compress the system of springs, and
thus, by bringing the top plate close upon the bed of the piston, cause the
metallic packing to be brought into perfect contact with the interior of the
cylinder in which the piston is employed. In order to illustrate more par-
ticularly the construction of my improved metallic pistons, and to facilitate the
description thereof, I have attached to these Presents a Sheet of Drawings in
which my improved piston is exhibited complete and in detail, and having
figures and letters of reference marked thereon, similar letters being placed
upon corresponding parts of the apparatus in all the Figures.
Fig. 1 represents a plan or horizontal view of the piston with the cover or
top plate removed; Figure 2, a complete side elevation; and Figure 3, a
section taken vertically through the middle of the same. The piston rod a, a,
has the bottom plate or bed of the piston b, b, secured to its conical end by a
cottar or key in the usual manner; upon this bottom plate or bed an angular
spring ring c, c, is placed loosely, around which are placed two other spring
rings d, d, and e, e, the upper ring d being turned upon its interior surface to
the same bevil as the upper side of the ring c, and the lower ring e being also
turned upon its interior surface to a corresponding angle with the lower side
of the spring ring c; thus, these two outer annular springs being accurately
turned and ground to the plates b and f, form a perfect metallic packing, being
pressed or kept against the interior surface of the cylinder by the action of the
annular spring c, c. The top platef, f, is fixed upon the bed of the piston by
means of the screws 9, 9, 9, and thus, by inclosing the system of annular
springs, keeps the whole apparatus together and forms a perfect steam, air, or
water-tight packing. In order to keep the spring packing from being injured
by the action of any steam that might otherwise get into the body of the
piston, the ends of the springs are furnished with small segmental pieces h, h,
being turned accurately to fit corresponding recesses in the springs d and e,

page_text: which will entirely prevent the admission of steam into the packing or body of
the piston. Figure 4 is a detached plan view of the main annular spring c, c,
and Figure 5 is a side elevation of the same, in which it will be seen that it is
turned somewhat eccentric, and has a series of openings or mortices cut in its
angular periphery in order to assimilate all points of the spring, and impart an
equal action throughout its circumference. Figures 6 and 7 are sectional
representations of the upper and lower annular springs d and e, in order to
shew that their interior circumference is turned to a corresponding bevil with
each angle of the spring c, c; and Figure 8 is a plan view of the same.
Having now fully described the particular object of my Invention, and the
manner of carrying the same into practical operation, I desire it to be under-
stood, that I claim as my Invention the peculiar mode of constructing metallic
packing for pistons, and also their particular arrangement, as shewn in the
various Figures of the Drawing attached to these Presents, that is to say, the
combination of three perfect annular springs, being compressed and brought
into action in the manner and for the purposes above particularly described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Goodfellow, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of June, in the year of our