US554966A - wigzell - Google Patents

Description

` (No Model.) 4 Sheets-Sheet 1.

E. E. WIGZELL.

STEAM ENGINE.

No. 554,966. Patented Feb. 18, 1896.

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(No Model.) l 4 sheets-sheet 2. E. E. WIGZELL.

STEAM ENGINE. No. 554,966. Patented Peb. 18, 1896.

(No Model.) 4 Sheets-A-Sl-let' 3. E. E. WIGZELL. 1

STEAM ENGINE. Y N0. 554,966. l' Patented Feb. 18, 1896.

(No Model.) 4 Sheets-Sheet 4.

E. E. WIGZBLL.

STEAM ENGINE.

No. 554,966. Patented Feb. 18, 1896.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

EUSTACE ERNEST WIGZELL, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

STEAM-ENGINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 554,966, dated February 18, 1896.

Application filed July 3l, 1895. Serial No. 557,747. (No moclel.) Patented in England November 20, 1894,1T0. 22,447, and in France November 22, 1895,1To. 249,192.

To all whom it may concern,.-

Be it known that I, EUSTACE ERNEST WIG- ZELL, engineer, of Billiter I-Iouse, Billiter Street, London, a subject of ller Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, and a resident of High Road, in the county of Essex, England, have invented a new and useful Improvement lin Steam-Engines, (patented to me in England by Letters Patent No. 22,447, dated November 20, 1894, and in France by Letters Patent No. 249,192, dated July 26, 1895 and issued November 22, 1895,) of which the following is a specification.

In my improved engine I place two or more cylinders in a line at right angles to a threethrow crank-shaft, and in each cylinder I use two pistons working in opposite directions with reference to each other and coupled to the several cranks by means of T-shaped or triangular connections, each of which is common to the series of cylinders. Such triangular connections, as they are hereinafter termed, have heretofore been used to connect a single series of pistons in a triple-expansion engine with one and the same crank. In the present arrangement a three-throw crankshaft is utilized, and the steam in each cylinder acts through its pair of pistons and the appropriate connections on all the cranks. The advantages of such an engine are perfect balance, the up-and-down strains being equalized and vibrations overcome; uniform power throughout each revolution of the crankshaft; adaptation for high speed; smaller diameters of cylinders for any given power, and consequently the occupation of less space, and a reduction of the number of working parts in a plant of given power, a single tripleexpansion engine built on my improved principle having the equivalent of six cylinders.

In order that my invention may be the better understood, I now proceed to describe the same in relation to four sheets of drawings hereto annexed, reference being had to the letters marked thereon.

Figures 1 and 2 are sectional elevations of the improved engine, partly in section, in planes at right angles to each other. Fig. 3

- is a side view from the same direction as Fig.

1, with some of the parts shown in Fig. 1 omitted, and with the link-motions of two of the three valves of the engine represented diagrammatically. Fig. 4 is a detail, partly in section, in a plane parallel to that of Fig.

'2; and Fig. 5 is a plan view illustrating the distribution of steam to the three cylinders.

Like letters refer to like parts in all the figures.

The drawings represent a triple-expansion engine with three cylinders A B C placed at right angles to a three-throw crank-shaft D. In each of the cylinders I employ two pistons E and E', F and F', and G and G, which work in opposite directions with reference to each other in each cylinder.

The piston-rods H of the three bottom pistons E, F, and G pass through stuffing-boxes I at the bottom of the cylinders, and are connected respectively by their rods to guideblocks J, K, and L. The two outside guideblocks J and L are joined by short links M and N to two working centers of a triangular connection B'. Such triangular connection may be T-shaped, as shown, or of any convenient shape, and of one part, as shown, or of two or more parts, its essential characteristic being that said working centers andthe center ofthe crank-wrist if joined together by a line would form a triangle. The three centers of said connection B are shown at O F Q' in Fig. 1. The central guide-block K is coupled to the triangular connection B directly at Q, Fig. 1, and the apex Q of the connection is coupled to the central crank of the three-throw crank-shaft, as shown at R in Fig. 2.

The top pistons, E', F', and G', have pistonrods S passing through stuiiing-boxes T in the top cylinder-covers, and at the top ends of these piston-rods respectively there are crossheads U, V, and W. The cross-head V, belonging to the piston E', as best seen in Figs. 2 and 3, is connected by rods X, which pass on each side of the cylinder Ato guide-blocks VY connected by way of the middle centers of triangular connections A' to the side cranks Z of the three-throw crank-shaft. The crossheads U and W, Figs. 3 and 4, are coupled respectively by connecting-rods C and H directly to the outer centers of said triangular connections A', said rods working at the sides of the cylinders B and C, respectively, and

IOO

said triangular connections A working on each side of the aforesaid triangular eonnection B', Fig. l. These parts are so disposed that when the middle crank R, Fig. 2, of the three-throw crankshaft D is at its top center and the side cranks E are at their bottom centers all the pistons are in the middle of their respective cylinders A, B, and C.

In Figs. 2, 3, and 5 I show a inode of opening and closing the ports for the admission of steam and the exhaust. For this purpose I prefer using at the cylinders A, B, and C, respectively, piston-valves X2-B3 C4, each having three pistons B2 C2 D2, as shown at the plane of section in Fig. 2. The valve B2 is here shown with the steam passing in at E2 between the two pistons E and E' of the cylinder A, while the exhaust from the top and bottom of these cylinders is passing out at the two ports F2, as represented by arrows in the ligure. The valves A2, B3, and C are connected with each other by steam-passages I', Figs. 3 and 5, and the valve C4 is connected with the steam-outlet by passages J. The admission of steam, its transfer from cylinder to cylinder under the control of such valves, and its final exhaust are represented by ar rows in Figs. 3 and 5, and means for actuating the valves is represented diagrammatically in Fig. 3. A pair of crank-shafts are represented at K in this ligure; a pair of or* dinary link-motions coupled to said crankshafts are represented at L rods connecting said crank-shafts respectively to the rods of the piston-valves B and C4 are represented at M', and a pair of eccentries on the crankshaft D for actuating said link-motions are represented at N. The valves A2, Figs. 2 and 5, may be worked in substantially the same way directly from the crank-shaft D by means of one or two eccentrics on the latter, in customary manner.

It will be understood that I do not confine myself to any particular kind of valve, or to any mode of working the valves for the inlet and outlet of steam to and from the respective cylinders. Slide-valves or Corliss Valves may, for example, be substituted for pistonvalves, and other like modifications will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art.

I-Iaving thus described the said improvement, I claim as my invention and desire to patent under this specificationl. A triple-expansion steam-engine having two pistons working in opposite directions in each of its three cylinders, a three-throw crank-shaft, a central triangular connection interposed between the rods of one set of pistons, and the middle crank of said crankshaft, and like triangular connections, together with connecting-rods and cross-heads, connecting the rods of the other set of pistons with the outer cranks of said crank-shaft, substantially as hereinbefore specified.

2. In a steam-engine, the combination with a three-throw crank-shaft and cylinders placed in aline at right angles to said crankshaft of two pistons working in opposite directions in each cylinder, a central triangular connection interposed between the rods of one set of pistons and the middle crank of said crank-shaft, and like triangular connections, together with connecting-rods and crossheads, connecting the rods of the other set of pistons with the outer cranks of said crankshaft, substantially as hereinbefore speci lied.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this `specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

EUSTACE ERNEST TIGZELL fitnessesz HENRY NEWTON, J'. W. HoUGH.

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