IMPROVEMENTS IN MOTOR ENGINES WORKED BY STEAM OR OTHER FLUID PRESSURE
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Brotherhood, of No. 25, Ladbrooke Gardens,
Notting Hill, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MOTOR ENGINES WORKED BY STEAM OR OTHER FLUID
PRESSURE."
Sealed the 20th June 1876, and dated the 30th December 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Brotherhood at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 30th December 1875.
I, PETER BROTHERHOOD, of No. 25,. Ladbrooke Gardens, Notting
Hill, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MOTOR ENGINES WORKED, BY STEAM
OR OTHER FLUID PRESSURE," to be as follows :—
My Invention relates to a construction and arrangement of the parts
of a steam engine or other motor engine worked by fluid pressure,
whereby I obtain an equilibrium of the moving parts and avoid the
shocks resulting from the reversals of their movements.

page_text: I provide a single acting cylinder fitted with a piston or plunger
which is connected by a connecting rod to a crank on a shaft. I
surround the said cylinder by an outer annular cylinder, also single
acting, and fitted with a piston or plunger connected by two connecting
rods to two cranks on the shaft, these two cranks being set opposite to
the crank first mentioned and one on each side thereof. At the closed
end of the cylinders I provide a rotating or other slide worked from the
crank shaft either by gearing or otherwise, the ports of this slide and of
the cylinders being so arranged and the movement of the slide being so
timed that when the working fluid is admitted into the one cylinder it is
discharged from the other. The pistons are thus caused to move always
opposite to each other so that the moving parts are everywhere balanced,
and the cylinders being single acting the strain on the connecting rods
is always in one direction. .
The outer cylinder may be of larger area than the inner cylinder, and
may be supplied with the fluid discharged therefrom so as to work
expansively, as in compound engines; or the outer cylinder may have an
annular area equal to that of the inner cylinder and be supplied with
working fluid direct from the generator or receiver. Also, instead of
employing an outer annular cylinder as above described, two separate
cylinders may be used, one on each side of the central cylinder.
The cranks and connecting rods are enclosed within a casing com-
municating with the open mouths of the cylinders, the crank shaft
passing through the sides of the said casing. This casing may be
charged with the exhaust- fluid at low pressure, in which case the
connecting rods are always subjected to a thrusting strain, or it may be
charged with the working fluid at high pressure, in which case the
connecting rods are always subjected to tensile strain. Two, three, or
more sets of compound cylinders, such as are described above, may be
arranged round the casing so that their pistons act upon the one crank
shaft constituting a multiple engine.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Peter Brotherhood in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 29th June 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
BROTHERHOOD, of No. 25, Ladbrooke Gardens, Notting Hill, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtith day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Peter Brotherhood, Her special
license, that I, the said Peter Brotherhood, my executors, administra-
tors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Peter Brotherhood, 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 MOTOR ENGINES WORKED BY STEAM OR OTHER FLUID
PRESSURE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Peter Brotherhood, 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 Peter Brotherhood, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, reference being had to the accompanying
Sheet of Drawings and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that
is to say:-
;
My Invention relates to a construction and arrangement of the parts
of a steam engine or other motor engine worked by fluid pressure,
whereby I obtain an equilibrium of the moving parts and avoid the
shocks resulting from the reversals of their movements.

page_text: I provide a single acting cylinder fitted with a piston or plunger
which is connected by a connecting rod to a crank on a shaft. I
surround the said cylinder by an outer annular cylinder, also single
acting and fitted with a piston or plunger connected by two connecting
rods to two cranks on the shaft, these two cranks being set opposite to
the crank first mentioned, and one on each side thereof. At the closed
end of the cylinders I provide a rotating or other slide worked from the
crank shaft either by gearing or otherwise, the ports of this slide and of
the cylinders being so arranged, and the movement of the slide being
so timed that when the working fluid is admitted into the one cylinder
it is discharged from the other. The pistons are thus caused to move
always opposite to each other, so that the moving parts are everywhere
balanced, and the cylinders being single acting, the strain on the
connecting rods is always in one direction.
The outer cylinder may be of larger area than the inner cylinder,
and may be supplied with the fluid discharged therefrom so as to work
expansively, as in compound engines; or the outer cylinder may have an
annular area equal to that of the inner cylinder, and be supplied with
working fluid direct from the generator or receiver. Also, instead of
employing an outer annular cylinder as above described, two separate
cylinders may be used, one on each side of the central cylinder.
The cranks and connecting rods are enclosed within a casing com-
municating with the open mouths of the cylinders, the crank shaft
passing through the sides of the said casing. This casing may be
charged with the exhaust fluid at low pressure, in which case the
connecting rods are always subjected to a thrusting strain, or it may be
charged with the working fluid at high pressure, in which case tho
connecting rods are always subjected to tensile strain. Two, three, or
more sets of compound cylinders, such as are described above, may be
arranged round the casing so that their pistons act upon the one crank
shaft constituting a multiple engine.

page_text: A is a central cylinder enclosed in an annular cylinder B, each being
fitted with a piston a and b respectively. These pistons are connected
by connecting rods a¹ and b¹ to cranks upon a shaft C, the two cranks
to which b¹, b, are connected being set opposite the crank to which a
is connected. At the ends of the cylindors are ports governed by a pair
of slides D worked from a rocking shaft E, which is caused to rock by
an eccentric F on the crank shaft C connected by a rod f to an arm on
the shaft E. G is the steam supply to the slide jacket, and H are
passages by which the exhaust steam from the annular cylinder is
carried down to the casing within which the cranks work. From this
casing it passes by channels I into the condenser J. An air pump K is
worked from an eccentric on the shaft C. Although I have shewn the
outer cylinder B as an annular cylinder it may be readily understood
that instead of one such cylinder there may be two separate cylinders,
one on each side of the central cylinder A. I have also shewn D slides,
for which might be substituted rotating or partially rotating slides of
any known construction. The slides and ports shewn in the Drawings
are so arranged that the discharge steam from the central cylinder is
admitted to the outer cylinder so as to work expansively, as in a
compound engine. The slides and ports might, however, be arranged
so that the outer as well as the inner cylinder should receive strain
direct from the slide jacket. Furthermore, I have shown the engine as
a condensing engine, but it might be worked without condensation, and
in that case the condenser J and air pump K might be dispensed with
and the waste steam discharged by a pipe from the casing containing
the cranks. This casing, according to the arrangement of engine shewn
in the Drawings, receives the waste steam, and consequently the
connecting rods are always exposed to thrust. In an engine of this
kind, however, having both cylinders worked by steam direct from the
boiler, the casing containing the cranks might be charged with the said
steam and the exhaust might escape by the passage G, the slides or
valves being modified to suit this arrangement.
In such a case the
connecting rods would always be subject to tensile strain. Several sets
of compound cylinders such as I have described might be arranged in
line to work upon one crank shaft, or they might be arranged around
the crank shaft as in triple cylinder engines.

page_text: other fluid pressure engine with two pistons or sets of pistons, balancing
each other by their connection to opposite cranks, the said pistons being
fitted in single acting cylinders so that the strain on their connecting
rods is always in one direction, and the connecting rods and cranks
being arranged to work within a tight casing, substantially as herein
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Brotherhood, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of June, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
six.
PETER BROTHERHOOD. (L.S.)