US9874A - Rotary steam-engine - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

RICHD. C. BRISTOL, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

ROTARY STEAM-ENGINE.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 9,874, dated July 26, 1853.

To am whom t may concern Be it known that I, RICHARD C. BRISTOL, of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rotary Engines -to be Driven by Steam or Any Vapor, Fluid, or Gas; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure l, is a perspective view of a rotary engine, having my improvement-s. Fig. 2, is a section of the same, taken at right angles to the axis; and Fig. 3, is a longi tudinal section of the same. Fig. 4, is a longitudinal section of the abutment packing. Fig. 5, is a face view of the same; and Fig. 6, is a transverse section of the same. Fig. 7 is a perspective view of part of one of the cylinder heads, with the side of one of the small radial cylinders removed, to show the pistons upon which the steam acts, to move out the slider.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts, in each of the several figures.

The description of rotary engine herein referred to, to which luy-improvements are applied is that consisting of an outer fixed cylinder, having open ends, with an inner cylinder or wheel, so fitted to it, as to close its ends, and have a channel or steam way within it, outside the said inner cylinder or wheel; the outer cylinder having one or more abutments, which project from its inside, and fit to the periphery of the inner cylinder or wheel; and the latter having sliders or wings, upon which the steam, vapor, fluid, or gas, is made to act, for the purpose of giving rotation to it, by being admitted between them, (the sliders or wings,) and the abutment or abutments. In engines of this description and others of a similar character, practical experience has proved that one of the greatest hindrances to their successful operation has been in the radial action of the sliders or pistons and in making these parts steam tight by keeping them up to their bearing or rubbing surface. Springs and various mechanical arrangements have been employed for pressing the sliders outward to a bearing, but such devices are, on many accounts, objectionable, and it has frequently been proposed, as a substitute for these devices, to cause steam to act upon the inner ends of the sliders to press them outward; for this purpose, both plug and piston valves have been inserted in the body of the revolving cylinder and so arranged that, in either direction of the engines travel, they admit steam from the main channel or piston race, by ways or passages from the steam sides of the pistons or sliders to the inner ends of the said sliders to press ithem outward, but this action has been found defective for the following reason; the outer ends of the sliders necessarily become rounded on their edges by the wear of them in passing the abutments so that, in time, the `outer ends of the sliders present but a small surface for contact and steam freely penetrates between the outer ends of the sliders and the stationary cylinder whereby the effect of the steam on the inner ends of the sliders is counteracted or neutralized and steam escapes past the rounded bearing surface of the outer ends of the sliders to the exhaust and consequently vdetracts from the eiiiciency and economy of the engine; or, the friction of the sliders in their recesses or grooves, by the pressure of steam on their one side or face only, in passing the abutments has heretofore been such as to rob materially from the power of the engine and to make the .action of the sliders in radiating outward sluggish so that, in running the engine fast, steam has passed the slider before it has completed its outward radiation, the pressure of steam on the inner ends of the `sliders being insuflicient to overcome with the requisite rapidity or promptness the friction of the sliders in their recesses and the counteracting force which is exerted by the steam on the rounded outer ends of the sliders before adverted to; this tendency of the sliders to bind or stick, and the insufficiency of the specified arrangement for working them outward and permitting them to move freely inward, causes much irregularity in the action of the engine and not unfrequently produces entire stoppage as, ifk

To remove these defects in the rotary engine is the object of my invention.

In the accompanying drawing of a rotary engine A, (F ig. 1,) is a quadrangular framing, supporting, on opposite sides, two plumber blocks, B, which receive the jour* nals of the main shaft S, to which the inner cylinder or steam wheel, D, (see Figs. 2 and 3,) is secured.

C, is the outer cylinder, which is bored true and parallel, and faced at the ends; it is surrounded by a double steam pipe or band, E, and is furnished with two lugs, F, o-n opposite sides of its axis; the lower faces of the said lugs being slightly convex,

fare bored to correspond with the size of the jinterior of the outer cylinder, and faced tov lit closely to its ends, and are fitted tightly, ,by grinding or otherwise, over the inner ,"heads, M, M, and that part of the outer ends, O, O, which corresponds in size with, 5M, M. to press tightly against the ends of the outer cylinder, by set-screws, Z, Z, working in female screws in the fianges, P, P, of the `outer heads, and thus make a steam-tight lwvorking joint, between the outer and inner cylinders, moving always with the latter g and the heads. lfor edges of the sliders, as extend beyond the ends of the cylinders, must be made of metal that is soft enough to batter up when pressed Eby the steam against the inside of the packiing rings, and thus wear off, to make up for the wear of those parts of the edges within gthe cylinder, and of the interior of the cylinand resting on suitable bearing faces, on the top of the framing, at a suitable height to keep its axis in line with the axis of t-he shaft, S. The convexity of the lower faces of the lugs is to make them serve as rockers, upon which the cylinder is capable of vibrating to a certain extent. The double steam pipe or band has two passages, b1, both entirely encircling the cylinder, but independent of each other; the former communicating with the interior of the cylinder, through openings, c, c, and d, CZ, shown in Fig. 2; and the latter communicating with the same through opening, c1, c1 and 1,6Z1, whose positions are indicated in the above figure, by dotted lines. The passages, Z), b1, communicate, by means of ports, e, el, with the interior of the steam-chest, G, on the top of the cylinder; the said steam-chest being provided with an exhaust port, f, between, e, e1, and being furnished with a slide valve, H, which is capable of being moved by a handle, I, so as to open either steam port, and bring the other into communication with the exhaust port, or to close both steam ports.

J', is t-he steam pipe, and K, the exhaust pipe, which is furnished with a valve L.

The inner cylinder or steam wheel, D, is connected by four arms, L, z, L, 71 with its hub, g, which is firmly secured by keying or otherwise, to thev shaft, S; its outside is turned preferably true, and its ends are faced, to make the length precisely the same as that of the outer cylinder. Heads, M, M, which are faced true on both sides, and turned to the same size as the bore of the outer cylinder, are secured tight-ly by bolts to the ends of the inner cylinder, D. The arms, h, 72 L, z, of the inner cylinder, have radial slots, z', z', z', z', to receive the sliders or wings, N, N, N, N, and corresponding slots are made in the heads, M, M, extending to their outer edges; the slots are planed or otherwise made true inside, and are wide enough to allow of a small amount of steam room on either side of the sliders. The sliders extend all across to the outer faces of the heads, M, M, with which their ends are Hush, and they have arms, y', j,

z der.

,toward the outside of the heads, to allow of :the movement of the arms, when the sliders Iare thro-wn out.

Q, Q, are stiff metal packing rings, which These packing rings are caused So much of the outer corners R, R, are the cylinder abutments, which 'are secured to the interior of the outer cylinfder, and packed to fit closely to the inner cylinder, and to the inside of the heads, M, M. The face packing, m, m, is made in two pieces (see Figs. 4t and 5,) with a draw 01 tongue joint; and each piece has a lug, n, -near the outer end, with an inclined face. It .is kept tight to the face of the inner cylinlder, by screws, 0, o, which work in female screws, through the cylinder, and press upon a follower, 29,' and, to the heads, by wedges, g, g, which are made to act on the inclines on ,the lugs, by means of screws, 1, r, which iwork in female screws, through the cylinder.

Side packing pieces, s, s, are attached to the face packing, by draw or tongue joints, (see Figs. .Land 6.) The abutments rise with an easy curve, above and below, in order that Athe sliders may have an easy motion.

T, T, are the small pistons, by which the sliders are moved outward toward the inner face of the cylinder C, and made to form tight joints with it; they are connected by eyes, t, t, to the ends of the arms, y', j, which project through the slots, lc, 7c, and work in small cylinders, U, U, outside the heads, O, O. These small cylinders are radial to 'Il ll gal the large cylinder, arid are formed partly in bosses, cast on the heads, O, 0, and partly in plates, u, u, bolted to the said bosses; they are open at their outer, but closed at their inner ends. The reason for thus making the cylinders, U, U, in two parts, is that the connection may be properly made between their rods and the slides, which could not so well be done, without removing the outer sides of the'cylinders. rllhe plates, u, u, also cover and close the slots, ir,- in F ig. 7, the plate, u, is omitted, to show the inside of the cylinder, U.

V, is the cone, or plug, and W, the seat of the cut-off cock; the latter is placed just outside the steam chest, in the steam pipe; and the former is attached to a shaft, e, which is represented in the drawing as receiving motion through a spur-wheel, w, from a toothed ring, placed outside one of the rings, Q; but

it may be driven by a train of light bevel gearing from the shaft, S. lThe passage, y, being made diametrically through the plug, V, will make a communication from the steam pipe to the steam-chest, twice, at regular intervals, during each revolution. As the engine shown contains four sliders, and each slider requires to be acted upon by the steam, as it passes either set of steam openings in the cylinder, the steam communication requires to be opened four times during every revolution of the engine, consequently the plug, V, requires to rotate at double the velocity of the engine. rlhe position of the passage, y, in the plug of the cock, in relation to the sliders, must be such as to admit the steam, as the sliders pass the abutments; and the time of cutting off, will depend upon the width of the passages in the plug and seat of the cock, which must be made narrower or wider, according as it is desired to work more or less expansively.

The operation of the engine is as follows :-The steam, when the engine is working, is admitted tothe inside of the cylinder C, through either of the ports c, el, and pipes or passage, b1, according to the direction in which its rotation is required; the exhaust being made through the opposite port and passage to those through which the steam is admitted. `When the engine is at rest, both ports, c and e1, are closed by the valve, H. Before starting, the valve, L, in the exhaust pipe, must be closed, (as shown in Fig. 4,) in order to make the steam, when it is admitted, force out the pistons, U, U, U, U, to draw out the sliders. The steam, when admitted, iills all the steam space within the engine, and reaches the pistons through the small space in the slots, in the arms of the inner cylinder and the heads, M, M, and, O, 0. The valve, L, is opened as soon as the sliders are drawn out; t-he exhaust then commences and the engine starts. The pressure of the steam on the sliders forces their exhaust sides close up against the inside of the slots in the arms of the inner cylinder, and in the heads, M, M, and makes tight joints; and the pressure on the pistons makes a tight joint between the sliders and the cylinder, C. F or the sake of illustrating the operation more perfectly,M suppose the steam port, e, te be open, as it is shown in the drawing, the passage or pipe, Z), is kept constantly filled with steam, which enters the cylinder, C, through the openings, c, c, and (l, (l, causing the inner cylinder to rotate in the direction of the arrow l, shown in Fig, 2; and, after performing its duty, escaping through the openings, d1, (ll, into the passage, b1, which is in communication with the exhaust pipe. in the position represented in 2, the sliders, N NW, having steam on both sides, are in equilibrio; but the sliders N, N, having the space in front of them in communication with the exhaust, are acted upon by the pressure of the steam, which forces them tight against the exhaust sides of the slots in the arms of the inner cylinder, and in the heads, M, M; and a small port-ion of the steam escaping, through the spaces left on the steam sides of the slots, passes into the cylinders, U, U, and acts upon the pistons.

As soon as the sliders shall have moved far enough from their present position, to have passed the openings, cl, (Z, (Z1, (Z1, those N, and N", will be acted upon by the steam; and the spaces betweenvthem and the sliders in front of them, will be open to the exhaust; the sliders, N, N, will then be in cqm'lz'brz'o, no steam being on either side. As the rotation continues, the latter sliders, continuing a equilibrio will come in contact with the rising part of the abutments, and will be forced in toward the axis; but, immediately after passing the packed face of the abutment, the steam, through, 0, and, (Z, will enter the cylinders, U, U, and force out the pistons, so as to keep them close to the abutment, and gradually move them out to the inner face of the cylinder, C. The intermediate sliders are similarly acted upon, in their proper succession. The reason for having double sets of ste-am and exhaust openings, is to enable the sliders to be forced in and drawn out, in passing the abutments, while 'in equilibrio, or with an equal pressure on both sides; and such object being obtained, only the weight of the sliders and pistons has to be moved, with the addition of the friction of the latter.

Thus, it will be seen, that, by the combi natio-n and arrangement of the steam ways or passages with the abutments and sliders having outward radiating pistons (T), as described, -the sliders in passing the abutments will be exempt from all lateral friction by pressure of the steam on their one entering 4 side or face both in moving outward and inward so that they will work freely in their recesses or grooves, and that the outward radiating pistons (T), by having their outer face exposed to the atmosphere, will give that promptness and certainty of action to the sliders in radiating outward which is necessary to establish a steam tight joint between the sliders and the stationary cylinder and which frequently fails or is but imperfectly established when the sliders are pressed outward by steam acting on their inner ends only, as explained; the outward radiating pistons will present no more resistance than that induced by their own friction o-r weight to the inward movement of the sliders; sticking' o-r failure of the sliders will be avoided and a tight but free action of the working parts obtained.

The engine is stopped by bringing the valve (H) to such a position as to close both steam ports, and will be reversed by bringing it to a position that will place the steam port which is open, in communication with t-he exhaust, and open the opposite steam port.

Vhat I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination and arrangement of the outward radiating pistons, or their equivalents, with the sliders, steamways or passages and abutment-s, in such manner that the sliders are free from lateral friction by pressure of the propelling medium in passing the abutments and are worked outward and kept up to their bearing by the pistons substantially as specilied, whereby promptness and certainly is insured in the outward action of the sliders, counteract-ing pressure to their inward radiation removed and a tightbut free action of the sliders throughout their entire travel produced, essentially as set forth.

R. C. BRISTOL.

Vit-nesses:

H. WALES, O. D. MUNN.

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