Ericsson Hot-Air Engine, Patent Model
date: label: date made
content: 1860
label: patent date
content: 1860-10-09
name: label: inventor
content: Ericsson, John
notes: label: Description
content: This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to John Ericsson, October 9, 1860, no. 30306.
label: Description
content: This engine employs two “equilibrium" pistons in connection with two cylinders and a work piston to prevent diminution of the working pressure during the stroke of the work piston.
label: Description
content: The engine consists of two “equilibrium” cylinders placed in line end to end and a short distance apart. Within each cylinder is a hollow equilibrium piston, both connected by a long piston of relatively small diameter, called the working piston, which passes through airtight stuffing boxes in the heads of the equilibrium cylinders. The cylinders are connected to a heater and to a water-cooled chamber, through suitable valves and passages, so that both ends of one equilibrium cylinder are simultaneously in communication with the cooler. The pressure being higher in the heater than in the cooler, the effect is to force the working piston out of the cylinder in communication with the heater into the other. The equilibrium pistons move with the work piston and circulate the air in the cylinders to the heater or cooler and back to the respective cylinders, maintaining a constant pressure in each cylinder throughout the stroke. When the piston has completed its stroke the valves are reversed and a continuous motion is produced. This engine includes the regenerator or “heat deposit vessel,” which was a feature of most of Ericsson’s engines. In this construction it is a vessel filled with disks of wire cloth, which are heated by the hot air passing from the cylinders to the cooler and, in turn, give up this heat to the air passing from the cooler to the heater.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: This description comes from the 1939 Catalog of the Mechanical Collections of the Division of Engineering United States Museum Bulletin 173 by Frank A. Taylor.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
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: Engine
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
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content: Bulletin 173
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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
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: ER.309822
label: accession number
content: 89797
label: catalog number
content: 309822
label: patent number
content: 30,306
objectType: label: Object Name
content: engine, hot air, model
label: Object Name
content: patent model, engine, hot air
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass, wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 3/4 in x 10 3/4 in x 6 in; 19.685 cm x 27.305 cm x 15.24 cm