Porter’s Patent Model of a Steam Engine Governor – ca 1858
date: label: date made
content: 1858
label: patent date
content: 1858-07-13
name: label: inventor
content: Porter, Charles T.
notes: label: Description
content: This model was filed with the application to the U.S. Patent Office for Patent Number 20,894 issued to Charles T. Porter of New York, New York on July 13, 1858. The patent was for an improvement in controlling the speed of a steam engine by use of a fly ball governor. This design was one of the earliest weighted fly ball governors. It differed from the common fly ball governor in that the balls were of very light weight, and the governor was intended to be operated at much higher speeds of rotation. The governor included gearing that rotated the fly balls at approximately ten times the speed of the engine's rotation. The design did not suffer from the increased friction of heavy fly balls which would reduce responsiveness. The inventor claimed the advantages of his design were more sensitive and rapid responses to small changes in engine speed. The Porter governor design was used in the Porter-Allen engine introduced about 1867, and the weighted fly ball principle was widely used from then on.
label: Description
content: The patent model is constructed of cast iron and steel. All of the key elements of the patent are illustrated by the model. It includes a hand crank to permit demonstration of actual operation. A full description of the workings of the governor and diagrams showing the complete design of the patent can be found in the patent document online at the United States Patent and Trademark Office website, www.uspto.gov.
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York
label: associated place
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: Subject
content: Patent Models
label: Subject
content: Steam Engines
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
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content: Engineering, Building, and Architecture
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content: Work
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content: Industry & Manufacturing
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content: Patent Models
label: Exhibition
content: Power Machinery
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Frank A. Taylor. Catalog of the Mechanical Collections of the Division of Engineering United States National Museum, Bulletin 173
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MC.251289
label: catalog number
content: 251289
label: accession number
content: 48865
label: patent number
content: 20,894
objectType: label: Object Name
content: governor, steam engine, loaded type, model
label: Object Name
content: patent model, governor, steam engine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 in x 12 in x 11 in; 30.48 cm x 30.48 cm x 27.94 cm