CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1805

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
MILLER, of Gresse Street, in the Parish of Saint Pancrass, and County of
Middlesex, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, did, by
His Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirtieth day of
October, in the forty-sixth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Samuel Miller, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence
that I, the said Samuel Miller, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON STEAM ENGINES;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Samuel
Miller, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a par-
ticular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty High Court of
Chancery, within six calendar months after the date of the said recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully
and at large appear.

page_text: comprnce
Samuel Miller, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described by the
above Drawings, and the explanation thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Miller, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and six.
SAM MILLER.
(L.S.)
First, I produce steam in a boiler A, represented in the Drawing Fig. 1,
having its fittings up, namely, of safety valves, pipes of supply, float, and
the rest, as usual; and I permit the generated steam to issue out through a
pipe B, C, provided with a regulating cock or valve D, which serves to govern
the emission of the said steam. The said pipe B, C, may either pass out
through the bottom of the boiler as here represented, or through any
other
convenient part. When it passes through the bottom of the boiler, an advan-
tage is afforded to keep the part C very hot; this part of the pipe is made of
an enlarged diameter with its aperture only contracted, and has a valve at E
to prevent the return of the steam when heated.
Secondly, I cause the steam, which issues forth with great velocity at F, to
.strike against pallets or projections duly placed on the circumference of wheel
G, which is driven round thereby with a great velocity, and is used to give
activity as a first mover to other machines. The said wheel G is inclosed in
a receptacle or cave H, rendered steam tight at the axis I, by stuffing or
packing, or by other well-known applications of the like nature. After the steam
has performed its office on the wheel G, it passes through the pipes K, K, for
the purpose of working any kind of piston engine as represented at L, L.
The said steam wheel differs in its action from other rotary engines, its motion
being too swift for packing, as the steam in this case acts with its projectile
'velocity instead of pressure; consequently, it will supply all the purposes of a
fly wheel. Instead of the pipe C, a small boiler or boilers may be used to
receive the steam from the large boiler, fitted up with pipes, cocks, and valves
to receive and shut off the steam alternately, as in Fig. 2.
Secondly, cold or hot water may be injected through the pipe C, to generate
to steam to act on the wheel G; and in this case the steam of the boiler
should enter the cylinder as usual. These pipes or vessels may be made either
to pass through the fire or as partitions to the fire-place, as at Fig. 5. They
may likewise be so constructed as to be cylinders or hollow cones, fitted two
together, so as to allow a small passage for the steam, in order to expose more

page_text: surface to the fire, as in Fig. 4. This method of gaining high steam by
suffering it to pass through a heated vessel from the boiler may be used to
work piston engines without the steam wheel, or the steam may be so strongly
bented as to act on the wheel alone without the pistons.
A further improvement is the fly wheel, Fig. 5, intended to assist putting
an engine into motion. A, the fly wheel, running independent of the axis B;
C, a ratchet, fixed to the axis; D, a catch, with a rod E at one end. When
the engine is to be set in motion, the catch is to be lifted out of the ratchet,
and the wheel turned round. As soon as the steam valve is opened, the catch
is to be forced into the ratchet by means of the rod E, by which means the
wheel will assist to begin the motion of the engine. There may be two
ratchets, where it is required, for the wheel to act both ways.
Lastly, I cause the fire, after it has performed its office on the boiler, to
enter a large cylinder instead of the chimney, the said cylinder to be fitted up
with valves, &c. as a steam cylinder, having a small stream of water running
on the piston. The capacity of the cylinder and motion of the piston should
be equal to the opening of the flue and velocity of the flame as given by the
pressure of the atmosphere through the fire, which may be further adjusted
by the register of the chimney. This cylinder may be placed immediately
under the steam cylinder and condensed at the same time, or may be made to
act independent of the steam cylinder, and is applicable to all sorts of steam
engines.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-eighth day of
April, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Samuel Miller came before
our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Twenty-ninth day of April, in the year above written.