IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES.
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hamilton. Ruddick, of Chelsea, in the County of
.
Suffolk, and State of Massachusetts, one of the United States of America,
for the invention of : IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES.
Sealed the 20th December 1867, and dated the 4th July 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Hamilton Ruddick at
the Office of the Commissioners. of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th July 1867.
I, HAMILTON RUDDICK, of Chelsea, in the County of Suffolk, and State
of Massachusetts, one of the United States of America, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES," to be
as follows:-
These improvements relate to a new arrangement of the piston, connecting
rod, and crank shaft with relation to each other and the cylinder, whereby the
power is brought near the work and the machine made more compact, lighter,
and cheaper, and the said improvements consist in arranging within a cylinder
furnished with the usual induction and exhaust valves two single-acting pistons,
one at each end, and' joining them by lateral rods within the cylinder, so that

page_text: they shall be held apart at a proper distance compared with the length of the
cylinder to allow of the desired stroke. Intermediate between these two
pistons I place a cranked shaft across the cylinder, and connect the crank pin.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Hamilton Ruddick in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
2nd January 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HAMILTON
RUDDICK, of Chelsea, in the County of Suffolk, and State of Massachusetts,
one of the United States of America, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Hamilton Ruddick, Her special license that I, the said Hamilton
Ruddick, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Hamilton Ruddick, 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN STEAM ENGINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Hamilton Ruddick, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their bands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 Hamilton Ruddick, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
T
These improvements relate to a new arrangement of the piston, connecting
rod, and crank shaft with relation to each other and the cylinder, whereby the
power is brought near the work and the machine made more compact, lighter,

page_text: and cheaper, and it consists in arranging within a cylinder furnished with the
usual induction and exhaust valves two single-acting pistons, one at each end,
and joining them. by lateral rods within the cylinder, so that they shall be held
apart at a proper distance compared with the length of the cylinder to allow
of the desired stroke. Intermediate between these two pistons I place a
crank shaft across the cylinder, and connect the crank pin on said shaft by a
connecting rod with one of the piston heads.
The following nomenclature and description of parts and their arrangement
will enable one skilled in the art to make or use my improvement.
In the accompanying Sheet of Drawings which are scaled at two inches to
the foot from the working drawings of an engine actually built and run of six-
inch cylinder and five-inch stroke which has been run at a thousand strokes a
minute with eighty pounds of steam. Fig. 1 is a longitudinal horizontal
section; Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section; Fig. 3 shows the plan of the
piston head to which the connecting rod is attached; Fig. 4 is the crank;
Fig. 5, the valve eccentric; Fig. 6 is a vertical section of piston head B¹;
and Fig. 7 is a section of the cylinder and steam chest. Like letters represent
like parts in all the Figures.
To one of
A is a cylinder accurately bored at either end for the pistons whose friction
surface is between the points x, y, and a¹, y¹, Fig. 1; this cylinder is slightly
enlarged at its middle, as shown at a, Fig. 2.. Two single-acting piston heads
B, B', coupled together by rods b, b, are placed at opposite ends of the same
cylinder, and are kept at proper distances apart by shoulders on the rods;
these rods in a non-condensing engine should be of cast iron to resist a
crushing force, as they will never have a tensile strain on them.
these heads B' is attached connecting rod D, as shown in Fig. 1, which
communicates motion to main shaft F by crank E, of which is the crank'
pin, and I indicates the brasses of the connecting rod. Upon the end of the
shaft is affixed a collar G, fixed at any point by means of set screw g, and
this collar carries an eccentric pin to work through connecting rod f, the
valve rod e, which passes through stuffing boxes into the valve chests C, C¹,
in which the slide valves h work; c is the induction port, and d the exhaust
port; H is the band wheel on the main shaft, and in case of portable engines
for temporary use a universal coupling between the side of the cylinder and
the wheel will much facilitate the readiness with which the engine can be set
at work. By moving collar G any desirable amount of lap may be given; the
valves and a link or hook motion can be readily adjusted to make the engine
reversible.

page_text: I do not claim any of the parts of this engine. separately, but claim as my
Invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, the arrangement of pistons
.B, B', rods b, shaft F, crank E, and connecting rod D relatively to each.
other and cylinder A, substantially as: and for the purpose described...
In witness whereof I have hereto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-
eighth day of November, A.D. 1867.
HAMILTON RUDDICK. (L.S.)