US131736A - Improvement in steaw and air engines - Google Patents

Description

E. L. BUCKUP. Improvement insteam and Air-Engines. 131,736,

Patented Oct-1,1872.

Witmmi BIC ERNST L. BUGKUP, OF STAPLETON, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN STEAM AND AIR ENGINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 131,736, dated October 1, 1872 antedated September To all whom it may concern:

' Be it known that I, ERNST L. BUcKUP, of

Stapleton, in the county of Richmond and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Steam-Engines, of

which the following is a specification:

The nature of my invention consists in applying to the exhaust-ports of an engine driven by steam, air, or both combined, an apparatus for taking up the heat contained in such steam I or air when leaving the engine, and in forcing cold air again through the apparatus to take up such heat and conduct a large portion of it back to the boiler or other source of power.

In all engines as at present constructed the heat in the exhaust is totally lost, being thrown out into the open air or destroyed in the conof an engine, to pass through chambers G and U, which are filled with transverse partitions a, a of wire-gauze that will take up the heat contained in such exhaust. The water produced by the condensing of the steam may remain in the interstices of thewiregauze in minute particles. I then force a current of cold air, compressed by a piston, T, in an air;

. pump, P, through said chambers O 0 and wiregauze alternately. In doing so the air will expand by taking up the heat contained in the wire-gauze, and at the same time convert into steam a large portion of the water it meets.

This heated air and steam are then conducted back into the boiler through a passage, L,

check-valve F, and pipe V. Thecylinder A draws its supply from a boiler in the same way as other engines,the piston R drivingthe engine in suitable manner. The air-pump cylinderP has a piston, T, driven in suitable'way, preferably in the opposite direction to the piston R. Under certain conditions, however,

both pistons can bemade to'move in the same directions. The exhaust'chambers O 0 above referred to are most conveniently arranged in the slide-valve S, which is moved by eccentric, or otherwise, in such a way that when the engine exhausts through 0 air is forced through 0 in the opposite direction by the air-pump P. As soon as the engine passes the center the eccentric moves the slide-valve S to make the opposite connections. In this manner, while the port .0 of the cylinder Ais opposite chamber O, exhausting through it and out through opening E, the port G of the cylinder P is open, drawing in a supply of air through an aperture, m, and at the same time the port 0 is closed by the slide-valve, and the piston T forces air through the part G and chamber 0 into the passage L which connects with the boiler. Although the opening and closing of the parts have thus been shown to be brought about by the motion of the slide-valve S, the same maybe accomplished by means of other valves having a lifting or a rotary motion. The air-pump P requires no other valves, since the slide-valve S opens and shuts the required passages. To prevent the pressure in the boiler from reacting against the piston T at the time the pressure in the air-pump P is less than the boiler pressure, acheck-valve, F, is placed in the passage L where the same leaves the cylinder A. Instead of only one check-valve two may be used, in which case the passage L would be branched.

The valve-chest D and slide-valve S may be placed on one side of the cylinders A and P, instead of being between them. Each cylinder has in that case a face for the slide-valve to work on, and the cylinders are placed closer otherwise, to their respective opposite ends.

before entering the exhaust-chambers (J and O.

The cylinder A and slide-valve S may also be so arranged that the engine receives the steam or air, or both, through the same openings O and 0 through which it exhausts. The slide-valve has in that case additional openings for connecting the ports 0 and O with the inlet-pipes. Such an arrangement would behest suited for small engines, being more simple than to have separate valve or valves for letting the steam into the cylinder, as represented in Fig. 1.

I do not mean to confine myself, in the construction of these engines, to any particular position of the two cylindersA andP toward each otherwhether they are side by side or one in front or above the other, and whether they are connected with difl'erent cranks or both with one onlyas long as the operation of the slide-valve S, or its substitutes of valves, and pump P, is substantially the same in reference to main cylinder A.

The heated air leaving the chambers G C may be used for other suitable purpose, and not only for further use in the boiler.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is- I 1. The combination of an air-compressin g pump and two chambers filled with wire-gauze with an ordinary steam or air engine, driven so that the gauze shall absorb the heat from the exhaust and return it to the air forced through it by said pump, to be used again in the boiler or for other purpose, as set forth.

2. The slide-valve S containing the exhaustohambers G O filled with wiregauze, substantially as and for the purpose herein shown and described.

ERNST L. BUCKUP.

Witnesses:

GEO. W. MABEE, T. B. MOSHER.

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