IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER BY MEANS OF COMBUSTIBLE GAS OR VAPOR, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR."
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Watson, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Engineer, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING
MOTIVE POWER BY MEANS OF COMBUSTIBLE GAS OR VAPOR, AND IN
APPARATUS THEREFOR."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Watson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 26th September 1881.
86
ROBERT WATSON, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer. IMPROVEMENTS IN. OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER BY MEANS OF
COMBUSTIBLE GAS OR VAPOR, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR."
This Invention has for its object the obtainment of motive power by means of
combustible gas or vapor in an improved manner, and without the explosions or
intermittent combustions which take place in existing gas motors.
In carrying out the Invention the combustion is made to take place continuously,
and so as to produce an increased pressure in the gaseous products of combustion,
or in the gaseous mixture of which they form part, which pressure is made to
operate in any suitable motive-power engine, such for example as an ordinary
cylinder and piston with its accessories, and with such adaptations or modifications
of parts as may be found desirable. Combined with the engine details there are
in one modification a pump for compressing air, a pump for compressing the com-
bustible gas or vapor, and a closed receiver capable of withstanding the gaseous
pressure produced. If preferred there may also be separate subsidiary receivers
for the compressed air and for the compressed gas or vapor. The compressed air
and the compressed gas or vapor are led either directly from the compressing
pumps or from the subsidiary receivers through pipes or passages fitted with
suitable regulating valves to a burner or burners of the Bunsen or other suitable
kind, such burner or burners being inside of the main receiver or inside of a com-
bustion chamber communicating with the main receiver through a passage or valve,

page_text: but otherwise closed, excepting the inlets for the air and gas or vapor. The gas
or vapor is ignited at the burner or burners either through a temporarily opened
door, or in any other convenient way, and the heat due to the combustion produces
an increased aggregate pressure which operating in the engine develops motive
power considerably in excess of that required for the compression of the air and
gas or vapor.
The receiver for the heated gaseous mixture may in some modifications be made
quite small, or a mere passage, or the valve casing of the engine may be used for
it. In other modifications the burner or burners may be placed within the cylinder
itself, or in a chamber in constant or intermittent communication with the cylinder,
and when the burner or burners are in the cylinder, or in a space in constant
communication therewith, the supply of compressed air and gas or vapor may be
diminished during each exhaust stroke.
With the herein before described arrangements the quantity of combustible gas
or vapor employed may be very small as compared with the quantity of air working
in the apparatus, the temperature of the mixture of the gaseous products of com-
bustion and air being consequently quite moderate, and in this way it is believed
that the waste of heat will be diminished and the effective power developed be
increased.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Robort Watson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 23rd March
1882.
ROBERT WATSON, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER BY MEANS OF
COMBUSTIBLE GAS OR VAPOR, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR.”
My said Invention has for its object the obtainment of motive power by means
of combustible gas or vapor in an improved manner, and without the explosions or
intermittent coinbustions which take place in existing gas motors.
In carrying out my Invention the combustion is made to take place continuously,
and so as to produce an increased pressure in the gaseous products of combustion,
or in the gaseous mixture of which they form part, which pressure is made to
operate in any suitable motive-power engine, such for example as an ordinary
cylinder and piston with its accessories, and with such adaptations or modifications
of parts as may be found desirable. Combined with the engine details there are
in one modification a pump for compressing air, a pump for compressing the com-
bustible gas or vapor, and a closed receiver capable of withstanding the gaseous
pressure produced. If preferred there may also be separate subsidiary receivers
for the compressed air and for the compressed gas or vapor. The compressed air
and the compressed gas or vapor are led either directly from the compressing pumps
or from the subsidiary receivers through pipes or passages fitted with suitable
regulating valves to a burner or burners of the Bunsen or other suitable kind, such
burner or burners being inside of the main receiver, or inside of a combustion
chamber communicating with the main receiver through a passage or valve, but
otherwise closed, excepting the inlets for the air and gas or vapor. The gas or
vapor is ignited at the burner or burners either through a temporarily opened door,
or in any other convenient way, and the heat due to the combustion produces an
increased aggregate pressure, which, operating in the engine, develops motive
power considerably in excess of that required for the compression of the air and gas
or vapor.
The receiver for the heated gaseous mixture may in some modifications be mado
quite small, or a mere passage, or the valve casing of the engine may be used for
it. In other modifications the burner or burners may be placed within the cylinder
itself, or in a chamber in constant or intermittent communication with the cylinder,
and when the burner or burners are in the cylinder, or in a space in constant
communication therewith, the supply of compressed air and gas or vapor may be
diminished during each exhaust stroke.
With my improved arrangements the quantity of combustible gas or vapor
employed may be very small as compared with the quantity of air working in the
apparatus, the temperature of the mixture of the gaseous products of combustion
and air being consequently quite moderate, and in this way I believe that the
waste of heat will be diminished and the development of effective power be
increased.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing the same
may be properly understood, I hereunto append a Sheet of explanatory Drawings
to be hereinafter referred to, and representing a motive-power engine as constructed
according to one modification for carrying out my Invention.
Figure 1 on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings is a plan, Figure 2 is a side
elevation, Figure 3 is a sectional elevation of the upper part of the side opposite to
that shown in Figure 2, and Figure 4 is a sectional end elevation. In these Drawings
9

page_text: the same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts wherever they
are repeated.
In the modification shown in the Drawings the motive-power cylinder 5 is
inverted, and placed vertically over a crank shaft 6, which it actuates in the
ordinary way, the crank shaft being carried in bearings on the lower part 7 of a
frame formed with a hollow standard 8 at one side. This standard 8 carries the
motive cylinder 5 and other parts, and is formed or fitted with guides 9 for the
piston rod crossheads, and the upper part of it 10 is used as a reservoir for
the compressed air. The motivo cylinder 5 is formed with the usual passages and
ports 11, the latter being in a casing 12 which is extended at one side to form the
combustion chamber, and an ordinary slide valve with or without a cut-off valve
may be used to distribute the gases under pressure to the cylinder, the exhaust
gases passing off by a pipe 13.
The air-compressing cylinder or pump 14 is placed beside the motive cylinder 5,
and is worked by means of a second crank on the shaft 6. The bottom of the air-
compressing cylinder 14 is open, and the piston is fitted with one or more lift
valves which open when the piston descends, and when the piston rises the valve
or valves in it close, and the piston forces the air above it through a check valve in
a box is at the top of the cylinder into a pipe 16, which lends it into the
reservoir 10. The pump 17 for compressing the gas is at one side of the air
compressing pump 14, and is situated partly in a reservoir 18 for the compressed
gas, the working part of the pump being a tubular plunger 19, the lower end of
which is connected by a flexible tube 20 to the gas supply pipe 21, which latter is
fitted with a regulating valve 22. The tubular plunger 19 is worked by an arm 23
fixed to the crosshead of the piston rod which works the air-compressing pump,
and in the upper end of the tubular plunger 19 there is a lift valve, whilst there is
a check valve at the upper end of the pump barrel 17, past which the gas is forced
into the reservoir 18 when the plunger 19 rises.
From the reservoir 10 the compressed air passes by two pipes 24, 25, fitted with
regulating stopcocks or valves 26, 27, one 24 of these pipes leading some of the air
in an unmixed state into the combustion chamber 12, whilst the other has connected
to it a pipe 28 fitted with a regulating stopcock or valve 29, and leading the com-
pressed gas from the reservoir 18. The air and gas become mixed in the pipe 25,
and issue from the end 30 of that pipe which is inside of the combustion chamber 12,
and constitutes the burner. The mixed gas and air are ignited at the burner 30
by means of a door 31, which is afterwards closed.
-
The engine is provided with a speed governor 32 driven by means of a belt 33
and pulleys from the crank shaft 6, and the sleeve of this governor is arranged to
act through a lever 34 on a rocking shaft 35, which has levers on it connected to
the various regulating valves. One lever 36 is connected by a link to the gas
supply valve 22, and another lever 37 is connected by links 38, 39, to the valves
27, 29, for regulating the passage of the compressed air and compressed gas to the
combustion chamber 12. The links 38, 39, are made with right-and-left screw
couplings, by means of which the lengths of the links can be varied and the valves
adjusted to a certain extent independently of each other and of the governor.
The motive cylinder 5 is by preference lagged or encased to diminish loss of heat
by radiation, but the air compressing pump 14 is by preference provided with a
jacket or casing, through which cold water is circulated for the purpose of cooling
the air during its compression, and thereby reducing the power required to compress.
it. The exhaust gases may be made to pass through heat exchanging or
regenerating" apparatus, through which the compressed air is passed on its way
to the combustion chamber for the purpose of utilising a part of the heat of the
exhaust gases, the gases and the air passing through different passages of the heat.
exchanging apparatus, or through the same passages at different times.
"
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to the precise

page_text: details herein described or delineated, but that what I believe to be novel and
original, and claim as the Invention secured to me by and in terms of the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is,--
1. The system or mode of obtaining motive power by means of combustible gas
or vapor, wherein air and the gas or vapor are compressed and are burned con-
tinuously, and an engine is worked like a steam engine by the increased pressure
due to the burning, substantially as hereinbefore described.
2. The process of obtaining motive power by burning a combustible gas or vapor
under pressure in a chamber or space in which there is air under pressure in a
larger proportion than is necessary for the mere combustion of the gas or vapor, an
engine being worked like a steam engine by the increased pressure due to the
burning, substantially as hereinbefore described.
3. The combination of a motive power cylinder or engine like a steam engine
with pumps for compressing air and combustible gas or vapor with a combus-
tion chamber or space, the parts being arranged and operating substantially as
herein before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Watson, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-second day of March, in the year of Our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty-two.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
ROBERT WATSON. (L.S.)