US309591A - Regulating steam-supply to compound engines - Google Patents

Description

3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

(No Model.)

G. 'WESTINGHOUSR Jr. REGULATING STEAM SUPPLY TU *COMPOUND ENGINES.

No. 309,591. Patented Deo. 23, 1884.

Illlllllllllllllllll (No Model.) 3 Sheets- Sheet 2.

G. WESTINGHOUSE, Jr. l REGULATING STEAM SUPPLY T0 GOMPOUND ENGINES.

No. 309,591. Patented Deo. 23,1884.

'W6/@M i (No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 3.

Gi WESTINGHOUSE, Jr.

EEGULATING STEAM SUPPLY To GOMEOUND ENGINES.

No. 309,591. Patented Deo. Z3. 1884.

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GEGRGE VVESTINGHOUSE, JR., OF PlTTSBUR-G, PENNSYLVANIA.

REGULATENG STElVl-SUPPLY T0 COMPOUN ENGINES.

SPECIFICATONi'orming part of Letters Patent No. 309,591, dated December 23, 1884. Application filed March 14, i884. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom/ t may concern,.-

Be it known that I,4 Gnonen Wnsrrnc- HOUSE, Jr., a citizen of the United States, residing at Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented or discovered certain new and useful Improvements in Regulating Steam-Supply to Compound Engines, of which improvements the following is a specification.

Io In the accompanying drawings, which make part of this specication, Figure l, Sheet l, isatransverse section through the cylinders of a two-cylinder compound reciprocating engine, illustrating an application of my invention; Fig. 2, Sheet 2, a longitudinal section through one cylinder of a compound rotary engine, illustrating another application; and Fig. 8, Sheet 3, a transverse section at the line .fr .fr of Fig. 2.

2o The object of my invention is to enable increase of power above that normally and usually exerted to be developed in the operation of a steam-engine in accordance with and as required by additional resistance encountered in the performance of temporarily increased duty imposed from time to time upon the engine.

To this end my improvements consist in a novel method of and means for effecting an 3o increased supply of steam to two or more pistons of an engine upon the application of increased duty thereto, and in the combination, with an engine having two or more pistons, of a governor or regulator and supply ports 3 5 and passages controlled by said governor, and leading from a communication with a main steam-pipe to the supply sides of said pistons, all as hereinafter more fully set forth.

In the operation of steam-engines of various 4o descriptions a temporary increase of power is frequently necessary or desirable, to enable the engine to perform duty in excess of that within its normal capacity, such duty being comparatively infrequent or of such short duration as not to render economical the permanent employment of an engine of higher power than that which is required to be developed under ordinary conditions of operation. To render such increase of power practicable in an engine having more than one piston, as in a compound `reciprocating engine,

or a rotary engine having a series of pistons, whether simple or compound, I automatically and coincidently supply two or more pistons of the engine with steam under and in accordance with the degree of additional duty imposed, regulating such increased supply by and terminating it with such additional imposition of duty.

In the practice of my invention I provide 6o a governor or regulator, l, of any suitable construction, and connect the same with a governor-valve, 2, iitting seats in a valvechest, 3, and controlling the admission of steam from a main supply-pipe, Ll, to a main steampassage, 5, leading to the primary piston of the engine, and an auxiliary or supplemental steam-passage, 6, leading to a secondary piston-#that is to say, one which is subsequent to the primary piston in the reception of 7o steam. The capacity of the main steam-pas sage 5 and the relation of the governor-valve thereto are such that when said passage is fully opened to the steam-pipe 4 bythe move- .ment of the governor-valve the maximum quantity of steam required in the normal operation of the engine shall be supplied to the primary pistou thereof through the main steam-passage 5, and the valve is so set relatively to the opening of the supplemental 8o steam-passage 6 that said passage shall not be opened to the steam-pipe until after the maxi-- mum admission of steam through the passage 5 shall have been effected. Upon theapplication of duty greater than that within the S5 capacity of the engine under the maximum steam-supply afforded tothe primary piston through the passage 5 the continued traverse of the governor-valve, effected by the increased resistance upon the governor, opens 9o the supplemental steam-passage 6 to the steampipe 4 to a greater or less degree, proportionate to the resistance, and by affording a further supply of steam from the main steampipe 4t through the passage 6 to the primary 95 piston, or to another or secondary piston of the engine, correspondingly increases its power during the continuance of the duty imposed, upon the cessation of which the governor closes the supplemental passage 6, and 10o continues its regulation for the normal 0peration ofwthe engine by controlling the main passage to the primary piston, in the usual manner.

My invention is illustrated in Fig. 1 as applied in connection with a two-cylinder compound reciprocating engine, the main steampassage 5 supplying steam to the steam-chest 7, and thereby to the primary'piston-that is to say, the piston of the high-pressure cylinder S-and the supplemental steam-passage 6 supplying, under increased duty of the engine, steam to the steam-chest 9 and piston of the low-pressure cylinder 10, said piston, which in the construction is a secondary piston, thereby receiving steam directly from the boiler in addition to its normal supply-to wit, the exhaust-steam of the high-pressure cylinder 8.

vIt Will be obvious that in an engine having more than one low-pressure cylinder' and piston the supply of steam directly to each of said cylinders and pistons may be eiibcted by supplemental passages controlled by the governor-valvc in a similar manner.

Figs. 2 and 3 illustrate the application of ymy invention to a compound rotary engine having two or more cylinders, 11, each of which is fitted with a piston-drum, 12, secured upon and adapted to rotate with a shaft, 13, and carrying a series of pistons, l-l, the construction of said engine being fully set forth in another application for Letters Iatent by me led March 10, 1884, Serial No. 123,590. In the normal operation of the engine steam is admitted, as before described, through the main steam-passage 5, and acts successively upon the series of pistons of the high-pressure cylinder in the rotation of the drum. Upon the application of duty greater than the maximum in normal operation steam is admitted through the supplemental passage 6 to the eX- haust-passage leading to the low-pressure cylindcrs, and acts directly upon the pistons thereof, as in the former case.

The engine'may be constructed to use steam expansively or cut off'at a fraction of the active traverse of its pistons when in ordinary operation, and one supplemental passage may be led into the high-pressure cylinder, so as, when opened by the governor-Valve, to supply steam thereto for the full stroke or active traverse of its pistons, while a second supplemental passage, alsoopened by the governorvalve under further increase of duty, supplies steam directly to the low-pressure pistons. Such specific embodiment of my invention being, however, set Yforth in my application Serial No. 123,590 aforesaid, is not, per se, claimed as of my present invention.

I claim herein as my invention- 1. The improved method of increasing the development of power from steam-engines, which consists in affording a direct supply of steam coincidently to each of two or more pistons of a steam-engine in accordance with the application of an increased duty or resistance thereto, and by regulating mechanism actuated to effect said supply in and by said application, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination, with a compound engine, of a governor, a governor-valve, and passages controlled by said valve and establishing direct and independent communication from the main steam-supply pipe to the receiving side of two or more pistons of the engine, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

GEORGE W'ESTINGHOUSE, JR.

lVitnesses:

R. H. VHrTrLEsnY, J. SNOWDEN BELL.

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