IM- PROVEMENTS IN DIRECT-ACTING STEAM PUMPING ENGINES AND STEAM FIRE ENGINES
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Shand, of 75, Upper Ground Street,
Blackfriars, in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN DIRECT-ACTING STEAM PUMPING ENGINES AND STEAM FIRE
ENGINES."
Sealed the 18th February 1870, and dated the 1st September 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Shand at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st September 1869.
I, JAMES SHAND, of 75, Upper Ground Street, Blackfriars, in the
County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN DIRECT-ACTING STEAM PUMPING ENGINES AND STEAM FIRE
ENGINES," to be as follows:-
My improvements enable me to obtain by simple and direct means
an uniform action in my pump and perfect equilibrium of all the parts
in motion, that is to say, I obtain a continuous flow through suction
inlets and delivery outlets, very desirable when used as a steam fire

page_text: engine, and in effect resembling a rotary action. I also obtain greater
thoroughfares through my valves than can be by the usual means in
equal areas of barrel and bucket.
My steam pumping engine is composed of three steam cylinders
arranged in line with each other, and the piston of each attached
through its rod directly to a ram and bucket, each of which work in one
of three pump barrels, also in line opposite the cylinders. In the attach-
ments of the piston rods to their respective rams a slot is formed, or
what is generally known as a slotted cross head, into which work the
journals of a three-throw or equilateral crank, the shaft of which having
three excentrics fitted thereto each actuating a slide valve to admit and
discharge the steam working the pistons all the working parts are thus
made to balance each other. For compactness I prefer working the
three-throw crank by means of slotted cross heads, but ordinary con-
necting rods may be used for this purpose. Each pump barrel is
connected at bottom to one suction chamber, and at top to one pump
head, by which the supply and the delivery is made common to all
three pumps, producing the uniformity before named, rendering the
action soft, unaccompanied by the voilent thud and vibration produced
by the ordinary reciprocating pump when speedily driven. The steam
and exhaust pipes of the cylinders are also connected each into one,
thus constituting but one engine and pump, with continuous instead
of the ordinary jerking and intermittant action usual in the ordinary
pumps.
The suction and delivery valves are usualy composed of a
number of vulcanized india-rubber disks fixed over as many gratings,
the outline of each grating being circular, these being formed in a flat
plate (also a disk) and forming the foot valve or bucket, and of suitable
diameter to the barrels. The size of the rubber disk is by this arrange-
ment limited, as being circles within the boundary of a larger circle
they can be made no larger than to touch each other.
In my arrangement the seats are of a pyramidal form, the inclined
faces of which allow of larger circular gratings than can be obtained
in the flat valve seat of disk form before described. By these means
I greatly increase the thoroughfares through the gratings and obtain
an increased flow of water through the suction and delivery valves.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Shand in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 19th February 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
SHAND, of 75, Upper Ground Street, Blackfriars, in the County of
Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her:
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give.
and grant unto me, the said James Shand, Her special licence that
I, the said James Shand, my executors, administrators, and assigns,,
or such others as I, the said James Shand, my executors, adminis-.
trators, 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 DIRECT-
ACTING STEAM PUMPING ENGINES AND STEAM FIRE ENGINES," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said James Shand, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing 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 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 James Shand, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to.
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement:-
My improvements enable me to obtain by simple and direct means
an uniform action in my pump and perfect equilibrium of all the parts
in motion, that is to say, I obtain a continuous flow through suction
inlets and delivery outlets, very desirable when used as a steam fire
engine, and in effect resembling a rotary action. I also obtain greater
thoroughfares through my valves than can be by the usual means in
equal areas of barrel and bucket.

page_text: My steam pumping engine is composed of three steam cylinders
arranged in line with each other, and the pistons of each attached
through its rod directly to a ram and bucket, each of which work in
one of three pump barrels, also in line opposite the cylinders. In the
attachments of the piston rods to their respective rams a slot is formed,
or what is generally known as a slotted cross head, into which work
the journals of a three-throw or equilateral crank, the shaft of which
having three eccentrics fitted thereto each actuating a slide valve to
admit and discharge the steam working the pistons all the working
parts are thus made to balance each other. For compactness I prefer
working the three-throw crank by means of slotted cross heads, but
ordinary connecting rods may be used for this purpose. Each pump
barrel is connected at bottom to one suction chamber, and at top to one
pump head, by which the supply and the delivery is made common to
all three pumps, producing the uniformity before named, rendering the
action soft, unaccompanied by the violent thud and vibration produced
by the ordinary reciprocating pump when speedily driven. The steam
and exhaust pipes of the cylinders are also connected each into one, thus
constituting but one engine and pump, with continuous instead of the
jerking and intermittent action'usual in the ordinary pumps. The suction
and delivery valves are usually composed of a number of vulcanized
india-rubber discs fixed over as many gratings, the outline of each
grating being circular, these being formed in a flat plate (also a disc)
and forming the foot valve or bucket, and of suitable diameter to the
barrels. The size of the rubber disc is by this arrangement limited, as
being circles within the boundary of a larger circle the valves can be
made no larger than to touch each other.
In my arrangement the seats are of a pyramidal form, the inclined
faces of which allow of larger circular gratings than can be obtained in
the flat valve seat of disc form before described. By these means I
greatly increase the thoroughfares through the gratings and obtain an
increased flow of water through the suction and delivery valves.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 is a front elevation of my steam pumping or steam fire engine,
in which I have shewn the slotted cross head and the connecting rod
arrangements; Fig. 2 is an end elevation with the frame broken away
to shew the arrangement of cross head; and Fig. 3 is an end elevation

page_text: partly in section shewing the arrangement of connecting rod and the
pyramidal valve seats. The letters of reference indicate the same parts
in each Figure.
A are the steam cylinders, the pistons of which are connected directly
to the rams B by the two piston rods C in the connecting rod arrange-
ment, and by the single piston rod D and the foot piece E in the slotted
cross head arrangement. The connecting rods F or the slotted cross
heads G transmit motion to the three-throw or equilateral cranks H, pro-
ducing a rotary motion of the crank shaft I, on which are fixed the three
eccentrics J for working the steam slide valves. Attached to the ram B
is the bucket K, in which the gratings of the pyramidal valve seats
are shewn, also the india-rubber valves in section with their guards.
L is one of the foot valves, shewn in section, also of the pyramidal
form and fitted to the bottom of each pump barrel; M, the inlet to
suction chamber N from which each pump is supplied; O, the pump
barrels; P, the pump head receiving the delivery of each pump; Q, the
discharge outlets, of which there may be one or several, as required.
In previous arrangements of three-barrel pumps the three-throw crank
has been first actuated and the pumps driven by it, but in my arrange-
ment the pumps are worked direct from their pistons and not through
the cranks, as I drive the crank shaft from my pumps by means of a
connecting rod or from the slotted cross head, for the purpose of working
the steam slide valves and to regulate the motion of the pumps, but not
to work the pumps as heretofore. This arrangement I claim.
I also claim the improved pyramidal form of valve seat, as by means
of the enlarged circles I obtain on the inclined faces, while restricted in
the size of pump barrel, I get a greater thoroughfare or enlarged arca
through their gratings.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Shand, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
JAMES SHAND. (L.S.)