US572372A - Half to charles h - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) 3 Sheets---Shivaet 1.

J. H. REYNOLDS.

AIR COMPRESSOR.

No. 572,372. Patemedneg. 1, 1896.

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Am ooMPREssoR. No. 572,372. Patented Deo. 1, 1896.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN H. REYNOLDS, OF NEW LONDON, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-v I-IALF TO CHARLES H. KLINCK AND FRANK H. BURP'EE, OF SAME PLACE.`

AIR-COM PRESSOR.

SPECIFICATION `forming part of Letters Patent No. 572,372, dated December 1, 1896. i Application filed April Z8, 1896. Serial Nox 589.4742. (No model.)

To a/ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN H. REYNOLDS, a citizen of the .United States, residing in the city and county of New London, and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Air Compressors, which improvements are fully set forth and described in the following specification, reference being had to the accompanying three 1o sheets of drawings. Y

The immediate object of this invention is the production of a peculiar form of air-compressor, by means of which the force and flow of water, as distributed under high pressure in ordinary service-pipes, may be utilized, thus making it possible to accumulate and hold in reserve for power or refrigeratin g purposes a vast amount of energy that is now wasted.

zo My said apparatus is intended to be placed in a line of water-pipe in suoli manner that whenever a faucet or valvel is opened at the delivery end of the pipe the fiow of water therethrough will serve automatically to start 2 5 said appartus into action, causing it to compress a certain quantity of air and force the same into a receiver, from which it may be used as needed.

To aid in explaining my newly-invented 3o apparatus, I have provided the annexeddrawings, in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation of said apparatus, and Fig. 2 shows, principally in vertical section,the air-compressingmechanism. Fig.

3 is a plan view of those parts located below line a; of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is an elevation of 'one of the water-cylinders and its piston-rod, showing particularly the mechanism'for controlling the valve'through which the water 4o enters said cylinders. Figs. 5, 6, 7, and 8 are detail views of a rotary valve through which the water in the cylinder escapes after having performed its work.

I have illustrated my invention as includ- 4 5 ing two systems of water and air compressing cylinders, as by such an arrangement a more constant or continuous outflow of water may be maintained, for the reason that when one system stops the other system starts into ac- 5o tion and the outflow of water is thus interrupted, but inasmuch as the two systems are substantially alike I shall give a vdetailed description of only one. Y

Referring to the drawings, the letter a denotes the base upon which my device is mount- 5 5 ed, and b a top plate supported somewhat above said base by means-of vertically-extending rods or bolts c, the opposite ends of which are securely clamped to the base a and plate b, respectively, by means of nuts c', said 6o base 0;, plate b, and rods c thus forming 'a rigid framework inclosing and supporting the operative portions of my device.

To accomplish the compression of air by means of my device, one or more sets of cylinders are provided, (preferably two,) each set composed of what I term a water-cylinder d and an air-compression cylinder7 e.

Cylinders d and c are in vertical alinement with each other, the former being mounted, 7c as shown, upon base a and the latter depending from the under side of plate b. A pistonrod j' is provided common to both cylinders d and c, said rod bearing upon one end a piston g of pecular construction to coact with the water-cylinder CZ and upon its opposite end a piston 7L of the ordinary type to coact v with the air-compression cylinder.

By the :introduction of water under pressure into cylinder d a reciprocating motion of 8o piston g within said cylinder is attained, and through rod f similar motion is imparted to piston h, the movement of which latter within its cylinder e serves to compress air therein and to drive such compressed air into a receiver, as is fully explained hereinafter.

It has already been stated that my device is placed in the line of water-pipe, and it is the pressure of water caused to flow therethrough by the opening of a faucet or valve 9o at the delivery end of such line of pipe that I have utilized to operate the system of pistons just described.

Referring now to the manner in which said flow of water serves to operate the pistons and 4to the construction of the cylinders and other elements of my device immediately connected with the controlling of said iiow of water, Fig.2, the letter la denotes a pipe by means of which water is introduced directly into the roo cylinder d, said pipe k leading into the lower end thereof. Piston g has centrally located on one face a boss g, and extending through said piston and into said boss from the opposite face is a cone-shaped chamber g2, from the smaller end of which a number of openings gslead outward through boss g". Boss g' serves also to receive that end of piston-rod f that is coincident with piston g.

Reference-letter m denotes a conical shell which when my device is assembled is seated in and snugly fits the cone-shaped chamber g2, but is free to be revolved therein.

Piston-rod f is tubular throughouta'portion of its length, as at f, and such tubular portion is adapted to :receive a stem or rod m', extending from the smaller end of the conical shell m, Fig. 2. Rod m is provided near its free end with an arm m2, projecting at right angles thereto, said arm passing outward through an opening or slot f 2 in the tubular rod f. The conical shell m is provided with openings m3, similar to the openings g3 of boss g.

It will now be readily understood by reference to Figs. 2, 7, and 8 of the drawings that shell fm may be so revolved in its seat as to carry its openings m3 either into or out of alinement with openings g3, thus providing 'means of communication through piston g to the opposite end of cylinder CZ. Uien piston g is in its lowest position, with its conical shell m so located as to close the passage through openings m3 and g3, as shown in the left-hand cylinder of Fig. l and also in Fig. 7, the introduction of Water through pipe 7c into said cylinder serves to drive the piston g upward within the cylinder, this upward movement also carrying upward rod f and the inner rod m until piston g'has nearly reached the opposite end of the cylinder CZ, when the arm m2, projecting from rod m through the opening f2 of rod f, comes in contact with a fixed cam n, supported upon a framework 91X, mounted on posts c. Further upward movement of the said traveling parts now causes the end of said arm m2, engaging cam n, to follow the outline of said cam, which engagement effects the partial revolution of rod m within rod f, and when. piston g has reached its highest point in the cylinder d (the position shown in dotted lines in the left-hand cylinder d) said rod 'm' and its connected shell m will have revolved sufficiently to bring into coincidence the openings m3 and the openings gg, as shown in the right-hand cylinder of Fig. 2 and in Fig. 8, when the water will be allowed to pass freely from the lower portion of cylinder d through the piston and thence through a pipe o, leading from the cylinder-head d to a faucet at the delivery end ot' said pipe. l

To guard against any possibility of the return or backward flow of water through pipe O into cylinder CZ after the flow of water from pipe 7o is shutoff, a Valve O' is located in-pipe O, the construction of which is such that water can pass therethrough only in the direction of the arrow adjacent thereto. It will therefore be readily understood thatV the flow of water from cylinder CZ will force open said valve O and allow the water to pass out, but any attempt of the water to return to cylinder p will result in the closing of the valve. So soon as the iiow of water is shut off piston g at once commences to descend by gravity, (or by aid of the companion piston g when a double-cylinder system is employed, as hereinafter descrbed,) the arm m2 in such downward movement engaging a suitable cam n2 when the piston g has nearly reached the lower end of the cylinder, such cam serving to swing the arm in the direction opposite to that when engaging cam n, and thus revolving rod m and its shell m in the proper direction to again close the passage through openings m3 and g3, and this last-named result is accomplished just as the piston reaches the bottom end of cylinder p. The piston is then again ready to travel upward so soon as the iow of wateris turned on.

To control the flow of waterfrom pipe 7c into cylinder d, so that such iiowlmay be shut off when the highest point in cylinder d has been reached by the piston g, and in order that the piston may be allowed to return to its lowest position to be again acted upon by the iniiow of water, the following-described 'automatically-acting mechanism has been provided:

Reference-letter p denotes a vertically-extending rod supported at its upper end in the free end of an arm p', secured to one of the posts c, and near its lower end having a bearing a in the base c, which rod p is capable of a vertically-reciproeating movement in its said bearings.` Located in the pipe 7s is a valve 7s', on the stem 702 of which is located an arm k3, the free end of which is slotted to receive either the end of rod p or a pin p2, projecting therefrom, and on said rod p are collars 273194. Fixedly secured to rod fand projecting at right angles therefrom is an arm f3, the free end of which lies in the path of said collars p3 p4. VVhen valve 7o' is open and the iiow of water from pipe 7c is forcing the piston g and its rod upward, such movement of rod f correspondingly raises the arm f3, the free end of which latter engages collar p3 just before the piston g has reached its highest point in cylinder d or approximately at the time that the conical shell fm. begins to revolve to allow the passage of water through piston g, said arm f3 and collar p3 being so located on rods f and p, respectively, that such engagement of the parts is accomplished atthe time stated. Continued upward movement of rod f now acts through arm f3, engaging collar p3 to correspondingly draw upward the said armi? and toraise the free end of the arm k3, securedto the lower end of said rod p until rod f has reached its highest position, as shown in 4dotted lines, Fig. 4C, when rod p will have been raised sufficiently to rockl arm 7c3 from the position shown in full lines to that shown in dotted lines, and will IOO IIO

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thus have resulted in rocking the valve-shaft k2 sufficiently to close valve 7o and bring it into the position` of the right-hand valve of Fig. 2. As the piston moves downward again the rod p will be left in its highest position until arm f3 engages the collar. p4, which it does just before piston g has reached thebottom of the cylinder, when rod p is forced downward, rocking arm k3 into the position shown in full lines, Fig. 4, thus again opening valve lo just as the piston g has reached its lowest point, after which the various operations described again take place and are repeated so long as there is a flow of water through pipe la.

The manner in which lthe flow of water is utilized to impart a reciprocating movement to piston g and connected parts being now understood, an explanation will be given of the manner in which such reciprocatingmovement accomplishes the compression and storage of compressed air.

Cylinder e is provided with inlet and outlet passages, (shown in the drawings as pipes s and 15,) each of which is provided with valves s' and t', said valves being of such construction as to allow the passage of air therethrough in the direction indicated by the arrows adjacent to each, the tendencyT of air to pass in the opposite directions resulting in the automatic closing of said valves and preventing such passage. When piston h moves downward in cylinder e, it tends to create'a vacuum in said cylinder, and to overcome such vacuum air rushes thereinto through inlet s, forcing open and passing freely by valves s', piston g being now in the position shown in the left-hand section of Fig. 2. So soon, however, as the return movement of said cylinder commences it begins to drive before it and compress within cylinder e the air just admitted. The air now seeks an outlet through pipes s and t, but is prevented from passing out through pipes s by the automatically closing of valves s', as described. The forcing of air into passage t, however, opens valve t', thereby allowing the current of air to pass through pipe t to a suitable receiver o.' The air thus forced into the receiver is prevented from returning to the cylinder e by the check-valve t. It will now be readily understood that air can enter cylinder e only through pipe s and leave only through pipe t.

Vhile I have thus far described a single system of water and air compression cylinders, I have shown in the drawings a double system forces downward the rod fand connected parts of the companion system, which return movement is thus more satisfactorily accomplished than when dependent upon gravity. l

When the double system is employed, the valve stem or shaft k2 is preferably made suficiently long to engage pipe k of each system and thus to support upon each end avalve 7c. These valves are set at a quarter-turn to each other, so that they may admit and shut ofi' the ilow of water alternately to their respective cylinders g. Then valves k2 are arranged in the manner just described, only a single rod p and connected parts for controlling valves c is required, but it will be readily seen that, if desired, each valve 7c' may have its own controlling mechanism.

In the accompanying drawings the pipes k are shown as leading from a common pipe 7a4, to which they are joined by means of a T h5. This feature is also carried out in the case of outlet-pipes o, leading from cylinders d, and with the pipes t, leading from cylinders e. In the former case the pipes are connected by a T 02, from vwhich a pipe o3 leads'to the outlet or faucet, and in the latter case pipes t lead to a T t2, from which a pipe t3 leads to a receiver o.

Assuming now that a device of my described construction is provided, the opening of a faucet at the delivery end of pipe o3 causes water to flow from pipe 7a4, through pipes k,

into and through cylinders CZ, setting in motion the operative parts of my device in the manner described and passing thence from said cylinders through pipes o and vo3 and through the said faucet. The movement of pistons h within the cylinders e results in the compression -of air and the storing of it in receptacle o, from which it may be drawn for desired uses.

My device as a whole is very simple in its construction, is not expensive to build, and utilizes to good advantage the otherwise lost power present in all ordinary water-service pipes.

Having thus described my invention, I claim IOO IIO

l. In an air-compressor, in combination,

two superimposed cylinders, a piston for each of said cylinders mounted upon a single piston-rod as set forth, a rotary valve mounted piston-valve to open and close the same.

3. In combination, in and with a line of water-pipe a water-cylinder having a piston posite ends are connected with said pistonrods, means for automatically introducing,` Water into one of the cylinders of each pair, and means consisting,` of rotary Valves Within said pistons and mechanism for operating the same whereby the Water in said cylinders may pass the pistons and he discharged, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

JOHN H. REYNOLDS. lVitnesses:

FRANK H. ALLEN, MAY RITCHIE.

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