US621586A - Rotary impact or turbine steam-engine - Google Patents

Description

No. eusse.

Patented Mar. 2l, |899. J. M. SEYMOUR, 1R. ROTARY IMPACT 0R TURBINE STEAM ENGINE.

' (Application med mr. 2s, 189s.)

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IIIII indd IIIIIIII. I IIIIII. lljl v i W/ TN E SSE S No. 62I,586. Patented Mar. 2l, |899.

J. M. SEYMOUR, Jn.

RUTARY IMPACT 0R TURBINE STEAM ENGINE.

(Appumion fuea maar. 28, 189s.)

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

NVENTOH ATTORNEY.

O., PNDIO-L/IATHO.. WASHINCTDN, D. C.

UNiTnD STATES PATENT OFFICE.'

JAMES M. SEYMOUR, JR., OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

ROTARY IMPACT OR TURBINE STEAM-ENGINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 621,586, dated March 21, 1899. y Application filed March 28, 1898. Serial No. 675,365. (No model.) I

To all whom it may concern.-

Beit known that I, J AMES M. SEYMOUR, Jr. a citizen of the United States, residing at Newark, in the county of Hudson, in the State of New Jersey, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Rotary Impact or Tur# bine Steam-Engines; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof.

Myimproved engine is of that class in which the steam acts in the form of a rapidly-issuing jet arranged to strike against floats in the periphery of a wheel and the whole suitably incased, so that after the steam has partially expended its force in impelling the rst wheel it is educted and led to a second wheel, which is preferably of the same diameter as the first, but having its float wider and the space provided therefor in the fixed casing correspondingly wider. 'The operation of transferringhe steam from one casing to another continues, each casing or unit being more capacious than the previous one, and finally the ,steam is discharged at a merely nominal pressure.

My floats are set squarely across their respective wheels and are capable of favorably receiving steam to turn the wheel in one direction or the other. I provide two nozzles in the casing for each wheel and have devised anv arrangement of valves by which the direction of the steam is simultaneously changed in all the units when required. In ordinary uses of an engine the going ahead occupies a much larger proportion of the time and of the power than the motion in the opposite direction. I favor the action in that direction by extending the forward nozzle inward into the path of the floats and correspondingly recess the peripheries of the floats or blades to allow them to pass, while the nozzle for the reverse motion is not so extended,

, a portion of its efficiency when in reverse motion being sacrificed to avoid its interference with the motion of the steam, and conseqnently of the wheel in the go-ahead motion.

My invention allows the engine to be compounded to a high degree with an extremely simple form.

The accompanying dra wings form a part of this specification and represent what I consider the best means of carrying out the invention.

supernumeralS.

it in the position for going ahead, and Fig. 6`

in the position for reverse motion. Fig. 7 is a side elevation showing a modification. Fig. 2a shows a modification in the form of one of the details-the floats.

Similar letters of reference indicate colresponding parts in all the figures where they appear.

A is the fixed support, of cast-iron, certain portions being designated when necessary by I employ a series of wheels and inclosing casings, constituting,with their accompanying parts, the several separate units, which are combined in a series, working the steam in succession through each to the next. l

B is a shaft, slender and highly finished to adapt it to run lightly and easily in suitable bearings and stuffing boxes. It extends through in the axial L'line of the several casings and carries a series of hubs B', so spaced as to lie within the several casings. Each hub B constitutes the center and firmly connects' with the shaft a disk B2. Except in certain dimensions a description of the first unit will suffice for all. 4

At the periphery of the disk is fixed a series of plane floats, each radial to the shaft. The hub B', disk B2, and series of floats B3 are stiffiy united and constitute the revolving portion of the first unit.

The revolving parts of the several units increase in Width from the first to the last. I have shown ten with only a moderate increase in the width; but the number of the units may be varied and the 'difference in width greatly increased or diminished.

I have the casings for the narrow units at the beginning of the series thick, so as 4to give more stiffness to resist the tendency to spring apart. The thickness' may be reduced for the lower pressures. The several units are so shown inFigs. 3 and 4. The difference inthe thickness makes the difference in the breadth of the working portion of each less apparent.

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Each unit comprises two principal castings, the first, A', having lugs which are bolted firmly to the bed or base A, and the second and more readily-removable part,A2, attached to A by a series of bolts near the periphery. Each carries a stuffing-box, which will be again referred to farther on. Between the several units are well-lubricated bearin gs A3, held firmly on the base A and accurately in line.

It will be noted that the elevated top or platform A of the base has an opening for each engine, so that the casing of the same will occupy and depend below said platform, the lateral ears A# integral with the peripheral portion of the casting A2, resting on and bolted to the platform. I By this arrangement the engine can be rmly mounted on a substantial base and yet set comparatively low. Figs. 3 and 4 indicate how the base correspondingly receives and supports a plurality of these engines. The intermediate bearings A3 are also bolted on the base.

One overhung end of the shaft B carries a small and accurately-cut gear-wheel B4, from which the power due to the intensely rapid revolution of the shaft is transmitted by ordinary reducing-gear (not shown) to drive any machinery to which this efficient and compact form of engine is adapted.

Returning to the description of the first unit, the steam is introduced to the wheel through a tangential nozzle A, which is provided with screw-threads near its mid-length, by which it is set upright in the part A', with its upper end enlarged and adapted to be turned by a suitable wrench in inserting and removing it from time to time. The upper end is inclosed in a considerable chamber a, which receives the steam through a pipe A5, which will be again referred to farther on. The lower portion of the chamber a, around the tapering nozzle A4, is drained by a pipe A, with ordinary provisions, as a cock, for opening it at intervals or setting it a little open during the entire working, with the effect to insure that the steam allowed to blow down in a strong jet through the nozzle A1 is practically freed from water.V around in a capacious annular chamber a3. The discharge end of the nozzle A4 extends into this channel. (See Fig. l.) The outer edge of each fioat is recessed and the whole so proportioned that they avoid contact with this nozzle, and also leave a considerable passage in which the steam received through the nozzle at an intensely high velocity and directed very effectively against those floats B3 which are immediately adjacent to the nozzle is allowed to travel nearly around, acting on the several fioats more or less efficiently all the way. A passage a at the highest point in the channel a3 provides for the educton. Through this passage the steam rises into a The fioats B3 travel.I

pipe A7, still retaining'a considerable portion.

of its original boiler-pressure, and -is ready to be similarly inducted into the next unit, and so on.

C is a three-way cock of sufficient capacity to allow the steam to move through with little resistance. It is operated bya lever C', connected to a longitudinal rod D, which maybe operated either directly or by a suitable lever or wheel. (Not shown.) Vhen the plug of this cock is in one position, (that shown in Fig. 5,) it directs the steam received through the ed notion-pipe A7from the last-preceding unit, so that it is delivered through the inductionpipe A5 of the next succeeding unit, and so on. Thus conditioned the shaft is revolved in the opposite (the reverse) direction.

When the rod D is moved endwise, it operates all the stop-cocks C, turning each plug into the position shown in Fig. G, and thus performs the important operation of reversing the motion of the engine. In this reversed condition the steam is received from the boiler or from the preceding unit through the pipe A7, as before; but instead of being delivered to the next unit through the ordinary induction-pipe A5 it is delivered through a supplementary induction-pipe AB. This leads to a chamber a2, having a form and ar rangement the vreverse of the chamber a. In this chamber a2 I mount a nozzle A9, which may be similar to the nozzle A4, except that it is shorter. The portion of the time in which an -engine under any ordinary conditions is required to run backward is so small relatively to that in which it runs in the for- Ward direction that We can afford to use the steam less efficiently and less economically in the backward motion. The nozzle A4 for the going-ahead motion extends well into the annular chamber a and somewhat into the path of the floats B3 and by that arrangement increases the efficiency of the jet in the goahead motion; but if there were a corresponding extension of the other nozzle AD such extension would do harm by interfering with the flow of the steam as it accompanies and exceeds the rapid revolving motion of lthe fioats. The nozzle A is therefore extended only so far as allows it to terminate completely outside of the chamber a3.

There is one stop-cock C between each unit and the next and also one between the first unit and the boiler. When the engine is conditioned for going ahead, the steam received from the boiler (not shown) through the pipe A7 is directed at full pressure into the chamber a of the first unit, it parts with its water, if it has any, in that chamber, and the dry steam is discharged therefrom, through the nozzle A4, upon the favorably-presented fioats Thence it flows around faster than the rapid revolutions of the floats, -and consequently of the shaft B, and escapes through the passage a up through the eduction-pipe AT and through the similarly-set stop-cock C 0f the second unit, from whence it flows through the induction pipe of the second IOO IIO

unit in the same manner as vit was received from the boiler into the first unitand with the same effect, except that it is at a lower pressure. The increased width of the second unit allows this lower pressure to be efficient, and the steam after flowing through this unit moves to the third at a still lower pressure, and so on through the series.

The ratio of breadth of the several units, several times before referred to, is important. The rate of rotation of the floats Within all are necessarily uniform, because all are rigidly xed on the same shaft; but the widths of the units and the capacity of the chambers a3 can be so graduated that the pressure of steam received at a hundred pounds in the first unit maybe reduced by uniform steps-- ninety, eighty, seventy, &c.--or it may be reduced by other steps, as eighty, sixty-five, fifty-two and one-half, forty-two, &c., or according to any other ratio. An approximation to the latter rate of reduction may be preferable, so as by giving less difference in pressure in the induction and eduction in the wide terminal units to compensate for the greater area of the floats therein, and thus to attain an approximately 'uniform strain on the several disks B2 andhubs B.

It is not important to the success of my engine to maintain close fits between relativelymoving surfaces except the stuffing-boxes around the shaft. These (shown in Fig. 2) are capable of easy adjustment, so-as to arrest the passage of the steam and .make but little friction.

The tubes A10 on the stationary parts A and A2, respectively, are externally threaded, and each receives an internally-threaded cap E, which latter carries an inner tube E', lying against the shaft, effecting the compression on the packing Gr. An internally-threaded washer I-I of larger diameter may be applied in the position represented to serve as ya jam.- nut to avoid any possible turning of the nicelyadjusted cap by the friction of the shaft. These portions of the casting A A*2 which are adjacent to the plane faces of the disk B2 need not lit tightly. Obviously those surfaces will be more nearly in contact with the rapidlyrevolving disk within when the steam is shut off and the pressureis down than when they are sprung apart by the full force of highpressure steam between them. In any given y unit after the central space around the hub til it has traveled some three-fourths of the circuit and then escapes.

Each annular chamber d3 is lined on its exterior side with a different metal, as copper or brass,` smoothly nished and burnished. The considerable space allowed between such surface and the path of the floats is traversed by the rapidly-moving steam with but very little resistance, except as it acts on the outer edges of the floats, to usefullyimpel the wheel.

It isea-sy to vary the proportion of the expansion occurring in any given unit by simply enlarging the nozzles by which the steam after passing through this unit is discharged into the next. Thus if the first unit receiving the steam from the boiler at a hundred lower pressure and thus utilize more of the force of the steam in this first unit by simply boring out the interior of the inductionnozzle A4 of the second unit.

My engine utilizes the steam at a lower velocity than ordinary'steam-'engines of its class. lf steam at high pressure is allowed to flow directly into the atmosphere, its velocity is some two or three thousand feet per second-too high to be utilized by its impact without great loss in the gearing, which reduces the velocity. ln my engine it has in entering each unit only a moderate velocity due to the difference of pressure between the induction and the discharge in that unit. Thus if in the first unit it is reduced from one hundred pounds to ninety it will have a velocity of something like six hundred and sixty feet per second and about the same velocity in each of the several units. The lower velocity imparted tomy shaft is reduced to practicable speeds with less loss in the gearward motion to extend well into the pathof the blades, making its action peculiarly eflicient; also that my rolling valves are connected independently to a single operatingrod, because it affords facility for control with easy independent adjustment or repairs; also to the fact that my series of units or separate engines are of uniform diameter, but

of successively-increasing width,because this arrangement provides'for an even disposi tion of the ends, bearings, valve-rod connections, &c.

Modications may be made without departing from the principle or sacrificing the ad- IOO IOS

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vantages of the invention. The number of the fioats B3 in some or all'of the units may either direction. Parts of the invention may be used without the whole. I can dispense with the provisions by the cavities a and a2 for drying the steam. There may be two or more jets inducting steam into each unit. Fig. 7 shows such arrangement. They may be distributed uniformly or otherwise. I have shown them aggregated near the main induction-points first shown. I have shown the outer edge of the floats as provided with a nearly semicircular notch in its mid-width. The form of this notch may be varied. It may be found preferable to form the whole outer edge of the float with notches, as indicated in Fig. 2a. It will be understood that there are ordinary provisions for lubricating and for regulating, dac. The regulation may be effected by an ordinary throttle-valve controlling the flow from the boiler.

I claim as my inventionl. A rotary impact steam-engine comprising a wheel with plane floats free to revolve loosely in a suitably-formed space in an inclosing casing, the iioats having each a deep notch in its outer edge and provisions as the gear-wheel B4 and connected parts for communicating power, two jet-nozzles A4 and A9,

- arranged to drive the wheel in opposite directions, the jet-nozzle A4 which drives it in the forward direction being extended into the notches, and the jet-nozzle A9 terminating at a point outside of the path ofthe rotating steam, allsubstantially as herein specified.

2. The combination with a base having the platform provided with a series of transverse openings adapted to snugly receive a corresponding series of engine-casings, of a rotary steam-engine for each opening, the casing of which comprises the castings A', A2, depending below the platform-opening and having lateral integral ears bolted to the platform, and a suitable float-Wheel, impellingjet-nozzle Aand exhaust, substantially as herein specified.

3. A rotary impact steam-engine comprising a wheel with plane floats free to revolve loosely in a suitably-formed space in an inclosing casing, the floats having each a deep notch in its outer edge and having provisions as the gear-wheel B4 and connected parts for communicating power, two jet-nozzles A4 and A9 arranged approximately tangential, adapted to serve alternately to drive the wheel in opposite directions, the jet-nozzle A4 being extended into the float-notches, in combination with other wheels set on the same shaft and corresponding casings each receiving the steam from the preceding and forming a series in which the steam impels the wheels with successively-diminished pressure, and with corresponding three-way cocks C, with provisions for operating the series from a single operating part as the rod D, controlled by the attendant, all substantially as herein specified.

4. A rotary impact steam-engine comprising a casing, the sides of which are thick to prevent springing apart and provide the inner enlargements forming a central hubchamber, liberal float-chamber d3, and narrow connecting annular passage, a lining material for said iioat-chamberadapted to maintain a burnished condition, a shaft bearing in the casing sides and carrying a wheel the web of which moves in the narrow passage and carries at its periphery within the chamber d3 a series of notched floats, in combination with a steam-supply jet-nozzle extending in the path of the notches, arranged approximately tangentially for driving the wheel, and suitable steam-exhau st, substantially as set forth.

5. A rotary impact steam-engine comprising a casing the sides of which are thick to prevent springing apart and provide the inner enlargements forming a central hubchamber, liberal float-chamber a3, and narrow connecting` annular passage, a shaft bearing in the casing sides and carrying a wheel the web of which moves in the narrow passage and carries at its periphery within the chamber a3 a series of notched floats, a steam supply jet nozzle arranged approximately tan gentially and extendingin the path of the notches, in combination with other wheels set on the same shaft and corresponding casings of diminished thickness, each receiving the steam from the preceding and forming a series in which the steam impels the wheels with successively-diminished pressure, and with corresponding three-way cocks C, with provisions for operating the series from a single operating part as the rod D controlled by the attendant, all substantially as herein specified.

6. A rotary impact steam-engine comprising a series of wheels mounted to rotate with a single shaft and each having a series of plane floats deeply notched at their edges, said floats being operated by the impact of the steam applied tangentially on each by jetnozzles A4, A9, the former extending into the,

float-notches, the several units maintaining uniform diameters but successively increasing in breadth and being so connected that the steam shall pass through all in succession, substantially as herein specified.

In testimony that I claim the invention above set forth I afiiX my signature in presence of two witnesses.

J. M. SEYMOUR, JR.

Witnesses:

J. B. CLAUTICE, M. F. BOYLE.

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