Patent ID: 7836697

Claim:
A steam engine comprising: a main shaft for driving a load; a housing assembly with an inner surface and through which the main shaft passes comprising: at least one main gear, the at least one main gear being operably connected to the main shaft; a plurality of pistons, each piston received radially in the at least one main gear, extending past the outer radius of the at least one main gear, and engaged with the inner surface of the housing assembly, each piston driven by steam pressure and pushing steam out of the steam engine; a plurality of steam timing piston engaging members for engaging at least one of the pistons and for allowing the pistons to control the flow of steam into the steam engine; a plurality of steam flow controllers, each steam flow controller operably connected to at least one of the pistons and at least one of the main gears for controlling steam flow to the housing assembly; and a plurality of outer gear shafts, each outer gear shaft being operably coupled to at least one of the steam flow controllers to control at least one of starting and stopping of steam flow into the steam engine.