Improvements in Compound Steam Engines.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 6th Dec., 1890
Complete Specification Left, 27th Aug., 1891-Accepted, 3rd Oct., 1891
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Compound Steam Engines.
We GEORGE EDWARD BELLISS and ALFRED MORCOм both of Ledsam
Street Works Birmingham in the County of Warwick Engineers and Boiler
Makers do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows :-
Our invention has reference to compound steam engines in which the high
pressure and low pressure cylinders are arranged side by side the exhaust or low
pressure steam from the high pressure cylinder being conveyed to the low pressure
cylinder for working the piston in that cylinder the rods of the pistons in the two
cylinders working cranks situated at opposite points on the driving shaft; and our
said invention consists of the combinations or arrangements hereinafter described
of the slide valves and steam ports of the said engines whereby their construction is
simplified and their action made very efficient. According to one part of our
invention we arrange the steam ports in such manner that they can be operated by
slide valves situated in line or one in advance of the other and fixed on the same
valve rod and worked from the same eccentric. The high pressure slide valve and
the low pressure slide valve are of the piston type and of the same diameter and
both work in a valve casing situated preferably on the centre line between the two
cylinders. Both the slide valves are open at top and bottom and are hollow or
tubular for the passage of steam through them. The high pressure valve works
over the steam supply passage and over the two ports of the high pressure cylinder
and takes its steam on the inside or concave face as in an ordinary slide valve and
exhausts directly into the low pressure valve the low pressure or exhaust steam
from the high pressure cylinder passing through the hollow or tubular low pressure
valve to one or other of the ports of the low pressure cylinder the exhaust or low
pressure steam passing over the outside or convex face of the low pressure valve.
The low pressure valve works over the ports of the low pressure cylinder and the
exhaust port between them substantially in the same way as an ordinary slide
valve. According to another part of our invention the ports of the low pressure
valve are placed one at either side of the high pressure valve both valves being on
the same valve spindle as before described. The high pressure valve is of the
usual type of piston valve the steam being taken around the body of the valve
between the ports and exhausting through a port in the said valve into its tubular
prolongation at either side. The low pressure valve consists of cylinders attached
to each end of the high pressure valve the said cylinders being of larger diameter
than but co-axial with the high pressure slide valve. The exhaust steam from the
high pressure cylinder passes from the high pressure slide valve through the
tubular prolongation described of the high pressure valve to each end of the low
pressure slide valve and after the said exhaust high pressure steam has done its
work in the low pressure cylinder is exhausted through a passage formed between
the barrels of the high pressure and low pressure valve chambers and the top and
bottom ends of the low pressure valve.
Dated the 6th day of December 1900
W. T. WHITEMAN,
Agent for the Applicants.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Compound Steam Engines.
We GEORGE EDWARD BELLISS and ALFRED MORCOM, both of Ledsam
Street Works Birmingham in the County of Warwick, Engineers and Boiler
Makers do hereby declare the nature of our invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :-
Our invention has reference to compound steam engines in which the high
pressure and low pressure cylinders are arranged side by side the exhaust or low
pressure steam from the high pressure cylinder being conveyed to the low pressure
cylinder for working the piston in that cylinder and also to double acting engines
in which two cylinders are arranged side by side, the rods of the pistons in the two
cylinders working cranks situated at opposite points on the driving shaft; and our
said invention consists of the combinations or arrangements hereinafter described
of the slide valves and steam ports of the said engines, whereby their construction
is simplified and their action made very efficient.
According to one part of our invention we arrange the steam ports of the high
pressure and low pressure cylinders of the compound engine in such manner that
they can be operated by slide valves situated in line, or one in advance of the
other, and fixed on the same valve rod and worked from the same eccentric. The
high pressure slide valve and the low pressure slide valve are of the piston type
and of the same diameter and both work in a valve casing, situated preferably on
the centre line between the two cylinders. Both the slide valves are open at top
and bottom and are hollow or tubular for the passage of steam through them. The
high pressure valve works over the steam supply passage and over the two ports of
the high pressure cylinder and takes its steam on the inside, cutting off on the
inner or adjacent edges of the rings and exhausting directly into the low pressure
valve, the low pressure or exhaust steam from the high pressure cylinder passing
through the hollow or tubular low pressure valve to one or other of the ports of
the low pressure cylinder, the cut off taking place on the outer or remote edges of
the rings. The low pressure valve works over the ports of the low pressure
cylinder and the exhaust port between them substantially in the same way as an
ordinary slide valve.
According to another part of our invention, the ports of the low pressure valve
are placed one at either side of the high pressure valve, both valves being on the
same valve spindle as before described.
The high pressure valve is of the usual type of piston valve, the steam being
taken around the body of the valve between the ports and exhausting through a
port in the said valve into its tubular prolongation at either side. The low
pressure valve consists of cylinders attached to each end of the high pressure valve,
the said cylinders being of larger diameter than but co-axial with the high pressure
slide valve. The exhaust steam from the high pressure cylinder passes from the
high pressure slide valve through the tubular prolongation described of the high
pressure valve to each end of the low pressure slide valve and after the said exhaust
high pressure steam has done its work in the low pressure cylinder, is exhausted
through a passage formed between the barrels of the high pressure and low pressure
valve chambers and the top and bottom ends of the low pressure valve.
In applying our invention to two cylinder double acting engines of this type in
which steam of the same pressure is used we prefer to take the steam in between
the two hollow valves at the side and to arrange the ports so that the steam edges
for the one cylinder are at the extreme edges of the double slide valve and the
steam edges of the other cylinder at the edges of the parts forming the double
valve which are adjacent to each other. The exhaust is taken into a chamber
surrounding the valve casing.

page_text: We will now proceed to describe with reference to the accompanying drawings
the manner in which our invention is to be performed.
Figure 1 represents in vertical section, a compound steam engine having a high
and low pressure cylinder arranged side by side, the slide valves and steam ports of
the said cylinders being constructed and arranged according to our invention.
Figure 2 represents a modified arrangement of the slide valves and steam ports
of the same kind of engine.
Figure 3 represents in vertical section a double acting engine of the same type to
which our improvements are applied.
We will first describe the arrangement of the compound steam engine represented
in Figure 1.
a is the high pressure cylinder and a the piston of the same; b is the low
pressure cylinder and the piston of the same, the rods of the pistons a' and b' in
the two cylinders working cranks situated at opposite points on the driving shaft;
cis the high pressure slide valve and d the low pressure slide valve situated in line
and fixed on the same rod e and worked from the same eccentric; f is the valve
casing in which the valves c, d work and in which the ports are made, the said
casing being situated between the two cylinders a and b.
It will be seen by an examination of the drawing that the two slide valves c, d
are of the piston type, both valves being open at top and bottom and are hollow
or tubular for the passage of steam through them; g, h are the steam ports of the
high pressure cylinder and i is the steam supply passage between the said ports g, h,
the said passage i receiving steam from the branch pipe ; k, are the steam
ports of the low pressure cylinder and m is the exhaust port between them
opening into the exhaust pipe m². The high pressure valve c works over the steam
supply passage i and over the two ports g, h of the high pressure cylinder and
takes its steam on the inside edge at of the valve and exhausts directly into
the low pressure valve d as indicated by the arrows on the right hand side of
Figure 1.
It will be seen by an examination of the drawing that the high pressure piston a³
is at the bottom of its cylinder and the low pressure piston is at the top of its
cylinder. The exhaust or low pressure steam from the high pressure cylinder a
escaping from the open port g passes through the hollow low pressure valved to one
or other of the ports k,l of the low pressure cylinder b, the exhaust or low pressure
steam passing to either port over the outside edge at d of the low pressure valve d
and the steam after it has done its work in the cylinder passing to the exhaust
port m at the middle part of the said valve d. The parts being in the respective
positions represented in Figure 1, the port h of the high pressure cylinder a is open
to the steam supply passage i and the piston a³ is receiving steam on its underside,
the port g being open to the low pressure valve d and the exhaust steam from
above the piston a' is passing through the open port 9 into the valve d and from
thence over the outside of the end of the valve d'into the open port k to the
upper side of the low pressure piston b, the port 7 being open to the exhaust
passage m and the exhaust steam from the underside of the low pressure piston
escaping by the said open port into the said exhaust passage as indicated by the
arrows.
When the positions of the valve pistons c, d are reversed by the action of the
eccentric working them the operating ports are reversed; that is, the lower port h
is open to the exhaust in the high pressure cylinder a and the steam supply passage i
is open to the upper port g. At the same time the port of the low pressure
cylinder 6 is open to the exhaust steam passing from the port of the high
pressure cylinder a into the hollow slide valves c, d, and the port k is open to the
exhaust passage m of the low pressure cylinder 6 as will be understood by an
examination of the drawing.
We will now describe the modified valves and ports represented in Figure 2.
a is the high pressure cylinder and a² its piston; is the low pressure cylinder
and 6 its piston; i is the steam passage and the pipe in connection with the said

page_text: passage for supplying steam through the ports g, h to the high pressure cylinder a
by the reciprocating motion of the high pressure slide valve c on the rod e, the
said valve c also supplying the exhaust steam from the high pressure evlinder a
to the interior of the said valve exactly in the manner described with respect to
the arrangement Figure 1 but in the arrangement Figure 2 the low pressure slide
valve connected to the rod e is made in two parts marked respectively d and d', the
said parts being situated at either side and constituting tubular prolongations of
the high pressure slide valve c. The parts d, d' of the low pressure valve are of
greater diameter than the valve c; k, are the ports of the low pressure cylinder b,
the said ports opening into the exhaust passage m in connection with the pipe m³
and are opened and closed respectively by the parts d and d' of the low pressure
valve.
It will be seen by an examination of Figure 2 that the live steam is admitted
around the body of the valve c to the steam passage i to be supplied to the
cylinder a and the exhaust steam from the cylinder a passes through a port in the
valve e into its tubular prolongation or valve d or d' at either side from whence it
passes directly by the port k or into the cylinder b (as indicated with respect to
the port k and valve d) and the exhaust steam from the low pressure cylinder b
having done its. work passes by the port k or and through the valve d or d to
the exhaust passage m (as indicated with respect to the port and valve d¹) the
action of the several parts being substantially the same as that of the corresponding
parts of the arrangement Figure 1.
We will now describe the double cylinder engine represented in Figure 3, in
which steam of the same pressure is used in both cylinders and supplied from the
same steam pipe. a is one of the cylinders and a² its piston; & is the other
cylinder and its piston; c, d are the two ports of the cylinder a and e, fare
those of the cylinder b; 9, 9 are the exhaust passages of the cylinder a and go, g
are the exhaust passages of the other cylinder b, the said exhaust passages 9,9³, 9³, 9*
opening into the common pipe ; is the steam supply passage connected with
the pipe is the piston slide valve supplying steam to the cylinder a and
cutting off steam on its inside edge as well as exhausting into the passages 9, g²;
k, are the two parts of the other slide valve situated above and below the valve i
for supplying steam to the cylinder and exhausting into the passages g³, 9'. The
said valves i, k,l are fixed on the same rod m which is worked by an eccentric as
before described. It will be seen that the middle port in the slide valve i is of such
a length that the steam from the steam supply passage is always open to the
interior of the valve i and its tubular prolongations & and for supplying steam
either to the port e or f of the cylinder b. In the drawing it will be seen that
steam from the steam supply passage his passing by the port d to the underside
of the piston a² in the cylinder a while steam is being exhausted from the said
cylinder a by the port which is open to the exhaust passage g.
Steam is also
being supplied through the tubular piston valves to the port e which is opened by
the position of the top valve k, and from the port e to the upper side of the
piston of the cylinder 6 and exhaust from the said cylinder is being drawn
through the other port into the exhaust passage g₁ which is opened by the
position of the bottom valve l. Thus, steam is simultaneously supplied to the
underside of the piston in one of the cylinders and to the upper side of
the piston in the other cylinder and the reverse, and exhaust also drawn from
both cylinders.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that we claim
as our invention :-
First The construction and combination of the parts of the slide valves and
steam ports of compound steam engines in which a high and low pressure cylinder
are arranged side by side the rods of the pistons in the said cylinders working
cranks situated at opposite points of the driving shaft substantially as hereinbefore

page_text: described and illustrated in Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings; that is to
say, the use of slide valves of the hollow or tubular piston kind open at top and
bottom, and arranged in line and fixed on the same valve rod and worked from the
same eccentric, the said slide valves being combined with steam ports and operating
them substantially as described and illustrated.
Secondly-The modification of the said slide valves and steam ports herein-
before described and illustrated in Figure 2 of the accompanying drawings, in
which modification the low pressure slide valve is made in two parts which are
situated on either side the high pressure slide valve and form tubular prolongations
thereof.
Thirdly The construction and combination of the parts of the slide valves
and steam ports of double cylinder steam engines in which two cylinders are
arranged side by side the rods of the pistons in the said cylinders working cranks
situated at opposite points of the driving shaft substantially as hereinbefore
described and illustrated in Figure 3 of the accompanying drawings, that is to say,
the use of slide valves of the hollow or tubular piston kind open at top and
bottom and arranged in line and fixed on the same valve rod and worked from the
same eccentric the said slide valves being combined with steam ports and operating
them substantially as described and illustrated.
Dated the 27th day of August 1891.
W. T. WHITEMAN,
Agent for the Applicants.