CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES, AND IN ENGINES OR APPARATUS FOR RAISING, EXHAUSTING, AND FORCING FLUIDS
Year: 1848

page_text: HUMPHRYS' SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
HUMPHRYS, of Holland Street, in the County of Surry, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourth day of January,
One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, in the eleventh year of Her reign.
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Edward Humphrys, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, Her especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Edward Humphrys,
my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Edward Humphrys,
my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the islands of Jersey, Guernsey,
Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES,
AND IN ENGINES OR APPARATUS FOR RAISING, EXHAUSTING, AND FORCING FLUIDS;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Edward
Humphrys, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an Instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Edward Humphrys, hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following Specification thereof, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
Firstly, my Invention has relation to that class of steam engines known by
the name of direct-action engines, and to their application to the driving of
marine screw propellers, through the medium of multiplying wheels, and
consists in a new and improved arrangement and disposition of the parts of
such engines when so applied. Figure 1 of the Drawings hereunto annexed
represents a top plan of as much of a pair of direct-action screw propelling
engines as is necessary to shew the nature of this part of my Invention;
Figure 2 an end view thereof, and Figure 3 a side view. A is the screw shaft;
B, B, pinions attached to the screw shaft; C, C, driving wheels, which gear
into the pinions B, B; D, D, the cylinders, the pistons of which are connected
by rods E, E, to pins F, F, on the outside of the driving wheels; and G, G, the
air pumps, which are worked by cranks or excentrics on the shaft I. In this
improved arrangement, the driving wheels occupy the positions usually assigned
to the engine cranks; that is to say, each wheel revolves in a space between
a straight line drawn through the centre of the piston rod of the adjoining
cylinder and a parallel line drawn through the adjoining bearing of the main
shaft, and the so placing of the driving wheels enables the pistons to be
connected directly to them, instead of through the intervention of cranks,
as usual.
Secondly, my Invention, in so far as regards engines or apparatus for raising,
exhausting, and forcing fluids,--such as steam engine air pumps, atmospheric
railway pumps, &c.,-consists in the employment, in such engines or apparatus,
of spring valves, of the description represented in Figures 4 and 5 of the
Drawings annexed and shewn, as applied to the air pump bucket of a steam
engine, in Figures 6 and 7. Figure 4 is a top plan of one of these valves, and
Figure 5 a section of it on the line b, c. M is a square metal plate, in which
apertures a, a, a, are made for the inflow or outlet of the fluid. Each aperture
is covered by a piece of steel or other like flexible metal, of about a sixteenth
of an inch in thickness, which is made fast at one end by screws d, d, while
the other end is left free, so that while it yields with the greatest readiness
to the pressure of the fluid, it closes instantly again on the cessation of the
pressure, without noise, or any liability to derangement. In Figures 6 and 7,
the apertures a, a, are in pairs, and each spring cover is enlarged at one end to
a size sufficient to cover one pair of apertures. And so in other cases the

page_text: forms and numbers of the apertures and spring covers, and their relative pro-
portions the one to the other, may be varied according to circumstances.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, in the several
parts thereof, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that
the improvements which I claim as constituting my said Invention are as
follows:-
First, I claim the placing of the driving wheels in direct-action marine
steam engines between a straight line drawn through the centre of the piston
rod and a parallel line drawn through the adjoining bearing of the main shaft,
that is to say, in the space occupied by the crank in ordinary engines; and
also the causing of the pistons to act on the driving wheels without the inter-
vention of cranks, as usual, both as before described.
Second, I claim the employment in engines and apparatus for raising,
exhausting, and forcing fluids of spring valves, constructed and acting as
before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Humphrys, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.
Enrolled the Fourth day of July, in the year of Our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and forty-eight.