US120681A - Improvement in combined steam and air engines - Google Patents

Description

2 heets--Sheet L Iglu" M @l/ or/nbned Air and Steam Engine. 4

Patented Nov. 7,1871..

WILLIAM MONT STORM. Combined Ai'r and Steam Engine. $19,120,681.

Patented Nov. 7, 18,71.

UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE.

WILLIAM MONT STORM, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN COMBINED STEAM AND AIR ENGINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 120,681, dated November 7, 1871 antedated October 2l, 1871.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM MONT STORM, of the city and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful devices to be applied, in combination with non-condensin g steam-engines, for the purpose of controlling to the best effect the conversion ofthe ordinary steam into versicular vapor, similar to natural clouds, by which such engines may be actuated with far greater economy of fuel than is attained under the present practice with the use of steam simply.

As an example of the character and peculiar relative arrangement and coaction of devices un der my present plan, I will now refer to the draw- On Sheet l, Fig. 1, is represented in connection, in vertical longitudinal section, such portions as are necessary to be shown, of a horizontal engine with its piston A at seven-eighths of its stroke. On Sheet 2, Fig. 1, is represented, in section also, an independent single-acting upright air-pump, to be so connected with the engine-say, for exam ple, by chain and pulleys B and B', the chain` pulley B being on the crank-shaft B of the eni gine-that the pump shall be driven two strokes for one of the engine, and so adjusted that its piston O shall be, say, at one-half of its forcing stroke when the piston of the engine shall have traveled, say, seven-eighths of its stroke. At this point the Way-valve admitting the admixed steam and air to the engine shall have just closed and cut oif, (say by lap, if a slide-valve, as shown on the drawing,) so that the compressed air now in the pump, at the pressure of about two atmospheres, may pass through a check-valve, D, into the chest of the way-valve without passing into the cylinder until after the engine turns the center, when the D-valve opens, permitting` it to do so, thus relieving the back pressure on the pump, which, however, just previously, would probably not have much exceeded that of the exhaust, for it is being forced into a space containing little more than that, since its communication with thecylinder has been open till the latter portion of the stroke. On its being closed the air begins to enter, and as we will assume that the steam cut-off x', Sheet 1, closes at onequarter of the stroke or less, according to the pressure of the steam used, so that the engine may work on the expansion principle, the pressure resisting the entrance of the air has been correspondingly reduced, as will be understood. The steam cut-off should always open when the `air-pump piston has completed its forcing-stroke but the cut-olf may be made adjustable as regards its point of closing, even while the engine is running, if necessary. In applying my system to an engine already built, if the way-valve did not cut off by itself' it should be made to do so, or a cut-oif be applied to act with it, and this independently of the auxiliary cut-off x between the air-receiving space and the steam-generator. As the auxiliary cut-off opens, permitting the steam to enter suddenly among the air now occupying the space between it and the piston, there will be such an instant and great increase of tension beyond that in the steam-pipe and boiler that the combined air and steam would flash back, so to speak, through the still open cut-olf into the former, thus wasting force that should have been exerted on the piston. To prevent this I c-ombine with the cut-ofiI a check-valve, E, just above it, as shown. Of course the checkvalve will reopen as soon as the pressure in the cylinder becomes less than that in the steampipe. The air-pump, as near as I have found by trial so far, should be of about one-quarter the contents of the cylinder, irrespective ofthe steampressure carried, for it would seem that the greater the density of the steam the less air in proportion is required, other things equal, to produce the desired result, at least in the main. The stroke of the pump, however, can be made adjustable by a large margin either way. By this arrangement of a pump working' two strokes for one of the engine, or, otherwise, of a pump the movement of whose piston bears such a relation as described herein to that of the engine, there is no difficulty in getting the air into the latter in the early part of its stroke, as explained, dispensing with special valves to admit and cut it off, as also with a reservoir, both of which would be necessary if the pistons of the pump and of the engine were alike in their mode of movement during their respective strokes. I have anticipated the use of a donkey air-pump in some cases-i. e., a pump having a drivingoylinder of its own-the valves admitting steam to which could be so arranged as to be operated intermittently to cause the air to be forced into the engine at the proper time. A double-acting airpump, working stroke for stroke with the engine,

may be employed, and still serve the purposes I have explained, if it is moved by a cam or other suitable device, so that while it should not accumulate too much tension within it too early, as will be understood, the latter portion of its stroke shall be accelerated to catch up, so to speak, with the movement of the engine-piston and complete its stroke, and the delivery of its' air early on the return-stroke of the former. I would prefer, however, in many cases, the single-acting pump, working two strokes for one of the engine, and having the latter portion of its stroke accelerated by a cam or other device besides, as shown in Fig. 1, Sheet 2, by which it is feasible, among other things, to get the air all in as the engine turns the center. But so far as that is concerned I prefer, for the sake of an easier forcing motion, to let the air-pump complete its stroke when the engine-piston has traveled one-thirty-second of its stroke. To the end of preventing the airpump overheating when working at high speed it may be made with a water-tight outer jacket, between which and the barrel proper of the pump the cold feed-water may pass to the heater or boiler. In cases where steam would be expanded to a less pressure in the cylinder of an engine than iifteen pounds per square inch, plus the atmosphere, before the piston ofthe air-pump had traveled half its forcing-stroke to produce such pressure, (or unless the way-valve had previously closed by having a correspondingly greater lap,) then, unless a weighted air-check valve, D, between the pump and engine, was employed, the air, now compressed to supply the next stroke, could pass in at the latter end of the current stroke on what would be about to become the exhaust side of the piston, and the result would be little, if any, better than running the engine by steam simply, as will be understood. In lieu of mechanically weighting the check-valve, its upper surface, exposed to pressure, could be made so much greater than that on the air side as to measurably answer the purpose; but it would not be adjustable, and would be for other reasons objectionable. In certain cases I prefer,

' to a simple weighted air check-valve, a balanced or quasi-balanced one, so weighted that a pressure of not less than fifteen pounds to the square i inch, plus the atmosphere, on the air side shall lift it, irrespective of any less pressure on the opposite side; but, being balanced, even if there was a greater pressure than fifteen pounds, for example, on the steam side, iifteen pounds on the air side would open it, and steam could rush back into the air-pipe were not the supplementary check-valve j employed to prevent this; all

of which will be understood. Check-valve D had best be located as close tothe entrance of the air into the engine as conveniently may be. In certain cases the outlet-valve of the pump itself may be weighted and become the air-restraining or check-valve. A balanced air check-valve is shown by Fig. 2, Sheet 1, in section.

It will be seen that when the adjustments of air-pump, way-valve, check-valve, and the twov cut-offs are once made, they never needbe changed again under any varying circumstances of speed or pressure, and that the engine-driver requires no skill to drive it more than if it were a steamengine simply.

Isolated clouds (vesicular vapors) do not condense under the inuence of mere cold, like steam, and so we see them lioating high in air in the coldest weather, though they may at times be gradually absorbed and diffused into adjoining atmospheric stratums. To condense clouds it is necessary that their electricity should be drawn oif or discharged into some contiguous cloud or the earth, and to the extent that this takes place it disenables them correspondingly to support in a medium a thousand times lighter than itself the water of which their vesicules are formed. To prevent this condensation, therefore, in a cloud-engine cylinder, I insulate it. This is easily done in building a new engine, and also in applying this part (inclusive) of my invention to an engine already built, as will be seen by referring to Fig. 1, Sheet 1. k is the bed-frame, with proper bearings for the foot-anges k; but in lieu of bolting the two together in metallic contact I interpose between them a layer of thickly-varnished hard wood or thick India-rubber canvas, lo. The holes through which the hold-down bolts z are to pass are made much larger than the bolts themselves, and the holes are then to be hushed to it the bolts, with lignumvitae or some other suitable non-conductor of electricity, z. Under the heads and under the nuts of the bolts, and under their usual washers, are placed broader washers of similar material or of varnished rubber-canvas. Thus the cylinder is, as far as conveniently may be, insulated from the bed-frame. Around the cylinder, but not in contact with it, is lagging, or 'a sheetmetal jacket, a', supported at each end by a circumferential rib inside. The jacket is insulated from the cylinder. The piston-rod is insulated in the cross-head L substantially in the same manner, as will be understood. The connectingrod is crotched where it takes onto the crosshead so as to span its central boss L. The metallic continuity of the rods m and m is intercepted opposite these letters by a rigid non-conducting joint of li gnum-vitee or glass, for example, as shown. The direct metallic connection of the iliary cut-off and the steam check-valve is intercepted bya non-conducting joint, N. To describe l this joint let o represent a section of the steampipe, made of glass, embraced by the separated flanges p and p on the metallic portions of the pipe. The upper and lower edges of the glass section o are packed to prevent leak, as will be understood, and clamped between the metallic portions p and p by bolts whose heads and -nuts are litted with non-conducting washers, &c., all substantially in the manner described as relating to the bolting of the cylinder to the bed-frame. o should be thoroughly jacketed to prevent the condensation ofthe steam passing through it, as the adhering Water would tend to destroy or greatly vitiate the attempted insulation. A similar joint is interposed between the air-pipe and the air check-valve. I have frequently observed that in the early morning, even before sunrise, when the air was clear except from certain isolated clouds, that the latter would visibly swell in dimensions, and continue to do so for some considerable time, even such as were near the opposite horizon, and hence as yet not exposed to the more direct rays of the sun. I cannot, therefore, believe that this is the effect of heat, but that it is some eect of light 5 consequently I purpose, in building cloud-engines, to make the heads of the cylinders in part of glass, or to insert into them lenses of as large diameter` as may be practicably convenient, and perhaps in the pistons also 5 but I prefer facing each side of the piston with some sheet metal that will be a good reflector both of light and heat, the latter measurably to prevent the transmission of heat from the steam side to the exhaust side of the piston. In any case the lenses and reflectors would facilitate at all times, even in the ordinary steamengine, especially when it was cold, or when the inner surfaces of the lenses were not much dimmed by moisture, the examination of the condition of the interior without taking off the cylinder-heads. Q indicates the lenses, and the heavy lines R indicate the sheet-metal reilectors on the pistons. When a non-condensing engine exhausts at any considerable pressure, as the exhaust is opened the pressure becomes for an instant reduced far belowT that of the atmosphere, as I have proved by practical test. rIo prevent the reacting blow and full resistance of the atmosphere on the piston, as also the chilling effect upon the interior of the cylinder, I employr on the exhaust a reaction check-valve, shown by Fig. 3, same sheet. S directly receives the exhaust. t is the reaction-valve. u is the exhaustpipe. The rest will be understood.

Having now fully described the nature of my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is as follows:

1. In combination with a steam-engine, the

employment of an air-pump (single or doubleacting) actuated by a cam or other device, so that its movement shall be accelerated or made intermittent in degree of piston-speed as compared with the stroke of the engine at certain portions, substantially as and for the reason explained.

2. In combination with my air-pump and the given engine, the air check-valve D, whose opening is restrained by means such as described, notwithstanding the exposure of its surface next to the air-pump to a greater pressure than that on its opposite surface next to the engine, by which I make the pump itself, during a portion of its stroke, serve as a reservoir of compressed air, that is to supply, combined with steam, the engine proper on its next stroke, and attain other advantages explained.

3. In contradistinction to the corresponding devices designed for use under my patent of September 23, 1851, the employment of the simple or single auxiliary cut-off, between which and the eut-off next to the conduits of the cylinder the air is to be injected direct from the pump and admixed with the steam, all arranged and operating together substantially in the manner and for the purpose explained.

4. In combination with the auxiliary cut-off, the steam-check valve, for the purpose explained.

5. The reaction check-valve on the exhaust, for the purpose explained.

6. 'Ihe employment of the lenses in the cylinder-heads for the purpose explained.

7. The reflectors on the piston, both as reflectors of heat and as auxiliary to the purpose of the lenses, as explained.

8. Electrically insulating or partially insulating the cylinder and its immediate adjuncts, substantially in the manner and for the purpose set forth.

WM. MONT STORM. Witnesses:

GEO. H. ENNrs, M. E. CRAs'ro. (150)

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