US232660A - Air-engine - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) 2 Sheets--Sheet 1.

E. THUEMMLBR. Air Engine.

No. 232,660. Patented Sept. 28,1880.

wjmessss= mvswm ILPErFJiS, PHOTO-UTHOGRAPHER. WASHINGTON. 0 c4 (No Model.) 2 Sheets- Sheet 2] E. THUBMMLER.

Air Engine.

No. 232,660. Patented Sept. 28,1880.

WITNESSES: YINVENTDR:

N. PEYERS. PHuTO-LlTn0GRAPMEm WAsmNGToN, I: O4

llNrrno STATES PATENT Erica.

EDWARD THUEMMLER, OF LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS.

AIR-ENGINE SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 232,660, dated September 28, 1880.

Application filed March 30, 1880.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, EDWARD THUEMMLER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Little Rock, in the county of Pulaski and State of Arkansas, have invented a new and useful Air-Engine, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to air-engines, and the object is to improve the construction and effectiveness of those air-engines in which the air is heated by being passed over or between the hot surfaces of a heater or heating-vessel without passing through the fire or the firechamber; and the invention consists in the construction and arrangement of the parts, as willbe hereinafter more fully described, reference being had to the accompanying drawings and the letters of reference marked thereon.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of an air-engine according to my construction. Fig. 2 is a vertical cross-section of the working parts on the line 00 w.

Similar letters refer to similarparts in both views.

In the drawings, A is a cylinder, in which a suitably-packed piston, a, is reciprocated, and having an extension, B, in which a piston, O, of the kind called the trunk reciprocates through suitable packing y 3 Attached to the, piston a is the rod 1), which passes through a stuffing-box in the bottom of the trunk O and connects to the cross-head 0, and thence, by means of the connecting-rod d, to the crank c. The cross-head o is guided by the slides ff, which are secured on the inside of the trunk G. The cranks g g are set at about a right angle to the crank c, and are connected by the connecting-rods h h to the lugs i 03, secured in the bottom of the trunk O.

k k are supports to the crankshaft, on which are fastened the belt and fly-wheels D D.

E is the heater, supplied with a furnace, and so constructed that while its capacity is small the interior surfaces presented to the passing air shall be extensive.

F is the cooleryconstructed like the heater as to interior surfaces and capacity, and cooled, preferably, by a -fiow of water through and around it. The cylinder Acommunicates with the heater through the pipes Z l and the valves (No model.)

an m, and with the cooler through the pipes an and the valves 0 0. The pipes Z and Z are connected by the pipe p, having a valve, (1.

The operation of my engine is as follows: The engine being filled with air, which may be employed in a compressed state, produced by an airpump worked by the engine itself or by auxiliary power, and the piston (0 brought to its uppermost position, the fire in the heater burning, then, on bringing down the piston a, the air in the cylinder A is forced through the heater E by means of the valve m and pipe I, and thence, by the pipe I and valve m, back into the cylinder A, but on the'upper side of the piston a. The air, having been greatly heated in its passage through the heater, then expands against the trunk G, which precedes the piston or by reason of its cranks being set at about a right angle in advance of the crank connected to the piston to, driving up said trunk, while the piston to is comparatively at rest in the lower part of its cylinder A. Then, while the trunk O is at the upper part of its stroke at comparative rest, the piston to moves rapidly upward, driving the air above it, which cannot. return through the heater on account of the arrangement of the valves m and m, through the cooler F by the valve 0 and pipe a, and back into the cylinder A on the under sideof the piston on through the pipe n and valve 0, thereby abstracting heat and expansive power, and enabling the trunk O on its downstroke, while the piston a moves slowly in the upper part of the cylinder A to compress the air into its original volume, and at the same time to force through the cooler F that portion of air which followed the trunk on its upstroke into the extension-cylinder B. This compression is accomplished by the expenditure of less power than that developed on the upstroke of the trunk G, and the difference is the available power of the engine. The engine has now made one revolution and is on the point of repeating.

The valve q in the pipe 19, when opened more or less, allows a portion of air to pass from beneath the piston a to the space above without passing it through the heater, and thus aproportionally smaller amount of power will be developed. By connecting the valve q to a governor the speed of the engine may thus be regulated.

By the arrangement I have described I cause the air to circulate through the various parts of the engine in one direction only and avoid repassing it uselessly over either the cooling or heating surfaces when shifting it from one side of the piston a to the other. The piston a moves in an approximate equilibrium, since a difference of pressure on its two sides will be equalized either through the heater or the cooler, as will be seen by the arrangement of the valves. The spaces in the heater and cooler are respectively sufficient to allow a free passage of the air only, but. are collectively of too small a volume to seriously affect the working of the engine by the clearance-space they offer.

taking in a fresh charge at each stroke through the pipe n and discharging through the pipe n, the valve 0 being then operated by suitable valve mechanism, which will open said valve and hold it open during the upstroke of the piston a and the downstroke of the trunk O, to permit the discharge of heated air which has performed its expansion, and at other times will keep said valve closed. I

Except in the case just cited of the valve 0, all the valves except the valve q may operate automatically, and single valves may be used instead of double.

I do-not confine myself to the particular construction of engine or valves shown, as the principle of operation may be carried out by obvious modifications.

I employ the word air to represent, briefly, any vapor, gas, or fluid whose thermodynamic properties permit of its being employed in the manner and for the purpose set forth in this specification.

I am aware that prior to my invention airengines have been operated by the alternate heating and cooling of air presented alternately 5 to heating and cooling surfaces. I therefore do not claim such operation broadly; but

What I do claim as my invention, and desire to secure by LettersPatent, is

1. The method herein described of operating an air-engine by shifting the air from one end of a cylinder to the other on opposite sides of a piston reciprocating in said cylinder, thence permitting it to act on a separate power-piston, and in its course from end to end of said cylinder causing the air to pass alternately over heating and cooling surfaces, and always to move in the same direction, substantially as shown, and for the purpose described.

2. The method of operating an air-engine herein described by means of a cylinder provided with a packed piston, to, and a piston or trunk, C, said cylinder connected by suitable pipes and valves with a heating-vessel, E, and a cooling-vessel, F, arranged substantially as shown, and for the purpose specified.

3. In an air-engine, the combination of a circulation-cylin der, A, and piston a, and a power- EDWARD THUEMMLER.

Witnesses:

D. P. OowL, L. BACON.

Images