IMPROVEMENTS IN ROTARY ENGINES WORKED BY STEAM, WATER, OR OTHER MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Hoehl, Christopher Brakell, and William
Günther, of the North Moor Foundry Company, Oldham, in the County
of Lancaster, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ROTARY ENGINES
WORKED BY STEAM, WATER, OR OTHER MOTIVE POWER."
Sealed the 31st March 1864, and dated the 5th October 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Hochl, Chris-
topher Brakell, and William Günther at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with their Petition, on the 5th October 1863.
We, WILLIAM HOEHL, CHRISTOPHER BRAKELL, and WILLIAM GUNTHER,
of the North Moor Foundry Company, Oldham, in the County of Lancaster,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ROTARY ENGINES WORKED BY STEAM, WATER, OR OTHER MOTIVE POWER," to be
as follows:-
This Invention relates to rotary engines or wheels acting by the momentum
of the motive agent. For this class of engines, it is well known, that it is
necessary for the moving part or wheel to have a velocity proportionate to the
pressure of the steam, water, or other motive agent, in order to obtain the
greatest amount of efficiency and economy. For this purpose we employ a
combination of inward flow and outward flow turbine wheels in order to obtain
a moderate speed of the driving shaft. The steam, water, or other agent
passes first through the vanes of an inward flow wheel, and enters a space
between it and an adjoining outward flow wheel, and then passes directly
through the vanes of the said outward flow wheel acting upon it partly by
momentum and partly by reaction. From this outward flow wheel the steam,
[Price 8d.]

page_text: water, or other agent has either free exit, or passes through as many series of
inward and outward flow wheels as may be desired. This mode of action
may be reversed, the steam passing first through the outward flow and then
through the inward flow wheel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Hoehl, Christopher Brakell, and William Günther
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 5th April 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
HOEHL, CHRISTOPHER BRAKELL, and WILLIAM GUNTHER, of the North Moor
Foundry Company, Oldham, in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said William Hoehl, Christoper Brakell, and William Günther, Her
special license that we, the said William Hoehl, Christopher Brakell, and
William Günther, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as we, the said William Hoehl, Christopher Brakell, and William Gunther,
our 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 ROTARY ENGINES
WORKED BY STEAM, WATER, OR OTHER MOTIVE POWER," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said William Hoehl, Christopher Brakell,
and William Günther, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under our, or their, or one of our or their hands and seals, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said William Hoehl, Christopher Brakell,
and William Günther, do hereby declare the nature of oursaid Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement, that is to say:
This Invention relates to that class of rotary engines known as " turbine

page_text: wheels," in which the steam, water, or other motive agent acts principally by
nomentum on the buckets of a wheel, thus imparting motion to it, the speed
of which corresponding to the highest efficiency, bears a certain ratio to the
velocity of the acting steam or other agent, which speed is always incon-
veniently great when steam of the usual pressure is the motive agent.
Our Invention consists ina combination of inward and outward flow turbinė
wheels, by means of which a greater efficiency is obtained at a moderate
speed than can be obtained by a single wheel at the same speed. In order to
obtain this object, we pass the steam or other motive agent successively
through a series of inward flow and outward flow turbine wheels in such a
manner that each succeeding wheel receives the steam after it has acted upon
the foregoing one. The velocity with which the steam or other motive agent
passes through the turbine wheels is thereby less than it would be if it was
allowed to escape from the first wheel direct to the free atmosphere or to a
condenser, and the wheels will work with greater efficiency at a moderate
speed than a single wheel would do under similar circumstances.
These improvements will be clearly understood by referring to the Figures
and letters on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a
vertical section representing one of our improved combinations of inward flow
and outward flow turbine wheels adapted for working a fan. Fig. 2, a hori-
zontal section of the same at A, B, shewing the steam chamber and the
inward flow wheel; Fig. 3, a horizontal section of the outward flow wheel;
and Fig. 4, a vertical section of another of our improved combinations of
turbine wheels.
In the arrangements shewn in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, the steam or other motive
agent is guided through ports a, a, surrounding or partly surrounding the
inward flow wheel to the vanes or buckets b, b, of the said inward flow wheel
in such a direction that it enters the same (when the wheel is working at its
proper speed) without any shock, and flows through its buckets towards the
centre. Having passed the buckets of the inward flow wheel, it collects in
the space c enclosed between the inward flow and outward flow wheel, from
which space it passes through the buckets d, d, of the outward flow wheel in
a direction towards the periphery. After the steam or other motive agent has
passed this set of wheels, it passes either to the exit or exhaust pipe e, or if
5 desirable through another se: of wheels in every respect similar to the pair
described; the space c between the inward flow and outward flow wheels will
thus be filled with steain (when steam is the motive agent) of an intermediate
pressure between that of the steam acting on the first wheel and the exhaust
steam (or the steam acting on the following set of wheels if more than one

page_text: set is applied). This intermediate pressure causes the steam to flow through
the buckets of the outward flow wheel, and impart to it a certain motion or
amount of power, while at the same time it retards the motion of the steam
through the inward flow wheel, thus enabling the set of wheels to give a
higher efficiency at a more mederate speed than a single wheel would do.
When the exit pipe e is above the wheels, the shaft to which they are fixed
works without much friction in consequence of the weight of the shaft and parts
connected to it being counteracted by the steam or other agent which escapes
to the under side of the inward flow wheel.
In the arrangements shewn in Fig. 4, the steam or other agent is guided
first through properly constructed guide vanes to an outward flow wheel g,
on leaving which it is collected in a chamber surrounding the wheel, from
which it is conducted through guide vanes i to an inward flow wheel m, and
from this it either escapes to the free atmosphere or a condenser, or, if
desirable, through another set of wheels in every respect similar to the above,
and so on.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and the manne rin
which the same is to be performed, we desire it to be understood that we
claim the combination of inward flow and outward flow wheels, and the com-
bination of outward flow and inward flow wheels, and the general arrangement
of a steam turbine and fan, as herein described and illustrated in the accom-
panying Sheet of Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Hoehl, for and on behalf of
myself and the said Christopher Brakell and Williama Günther, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Second day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
Signed, sealed, and delivered by
the said William Hochl, in the
presence of
E. J. HUGUES,
WILLIAM HOEHL. (L.S.)
Patent Agent,
Manchester.