Manufacturers Index - Massachusetts Caloric Engine Co.
Massachusetts Caloric Engine Co.
South Groton, MA; Boston, MA, U.S.A.
Manufacturer Class:
Steam and Gas Engines
This page contains information on patents issued to this manufacturer.
Submitting Patent Information
If you find a patent number or patent date by this manufacturer that is not on this
list, please contact the Site Historian.
Key to Links for Patent Information
USPTO = U.S. Patent Office .
Images of the actual patent can be viewed on the U.S. Patent Office web site but
a special TIFF viewer must be installed with your browser in order properly work.
More information on how to configure your computer to view these patents can be
found at TIFF image Viewers
for Patent Images.
DATAMP = Directory of American Tool And
Machinery Patents . A sister site to VintageMachinery.org with information
on patents related to machinery and tools. A much easier user interface than the
USPTO's for finding information on machinery patents.
|
20,782
|
Jul. 06, 1858
|
Reciprocating Steam Engine
|
John Ericsson |
New York, NY |
This is the patent for the steam engine that powered the U.S.S. Monitor that was used during the American Civil War.
Abstract:
The several direct-acting screw-propeller engines hitherto constructed are all more or less objectionable in the following particulars, viz : The horizontal engines occupy too much space transversely in the vessel to admit of being placed in the run. The vertical engines pass through the decks and project so far above the water line as to be useless for war purposes; and all approved double cylinder engines operate on cranks placed at right, angles to each other, which involves a series of bearings, much friction, and liability to derangement from the shafts getting out of line. In addition to these im- perfections, the extreme shortness of the cranks, with the attendant great friction on the crank pins and journals, to say nothing ,of the heavy diagonal thrust of the connecting rods, are serious defects in the direct acting screw propeller engines now in common use. To obviate these several imperfections is the object of my invention which consists in the arrangement of the two cylinders of a double engine in such a manner that their base or bottom ranges with a plane passing through the axis of the propeller shaft , or nearly so, in combination with a certain arrangement of rockshafts, crank-arms, and connecting rods for imparting motion from the pistons to the shaft, whereby I am en- abled, 1st, to bring the cylinders nearer to the propeller shaft, and hence to economize space and construct the frame of the engine of great strength and compactness; 2nd, to avoid the diagonal thrust and friction of the slides unavoidable when the con- netting rod is attached directly to the crosshead; 3rd, to operate the two connecting rods nearly at right angles to each other, which enables me to produce a continuous motion with a single crank on the propeller shaft and with a single crankpin common 8i to both engines; 4th, to employ a crank on the propeller shaft much longer than half the length of stroke of the piston, thereby diminishing the heavy pressure on crank pins and on journals, which has heretofore 81 caused so much trouble by the overheating of the bearings, and at the same time diminishing the strain on the engine frame.
Claim:
The arrangement of the two cylinders in such manner that their base or bottom ranges with a plane which passes through the axis of the propeller shaft or nearly so, in combination with a system of rockshaft crank-levers, and connecting rods, so proportioned, applied, and arranged that the use of a driving crank on the propeller shaft of greater length than half the stroke of the piston is permitted, and that the connecting rods will operate nearly at right angles to each other and will be in line with each other at the termination of each stroke of either piston. |
|
41,612
|
Feb. 16, 1864
|
Reciprocating Steam Engine
|
John Ericsson |
New York, NY |
Abstract:
In all reciprocating steam-engines heretofore constructed, the movement of the piston has produced a concussion or shaking of the bed or foundation upon which the engine has been supported, and a tendency to tear the engine away from said bed or foundation in many cases, to the great detriment of the structure in which the engine is contained. This action has been especially injurious in the case of horizontal engines arranged transversely to the keels of vessels for driving screw-propellers, and has been the great obstacle to the running of such engines at sufficiently high speeds to drive the propeller without the intervention of gearing or its equivalent between the crankshaft and propeller-shaft. In such engines the weight of the piston and its attached piston-rods and crosshead is frequently many thousand pounds, and the inertia of this mass in the starting of the piston-reacts against one end of the cylinder and tends to move the cylinder and bed of the engine toward one side of the vessel, and the force required to arrest the piston as it completes its stroke, after having acquired a great momentum, reacts upon the framing and bed of the engine in the opposite direction to the reaction first mentioned, and tends to move the bed of the engine toward the other side of the vessel. In this way two distinct concussions are produced upon the vessel in a lateral direction during every stroke of the engine, or in every stroke of each piston, when more than one engine or an engine with more than one cylinder is used. The object of this invention is to counteract the above-mentioned effect or tendency of the movements of the piston of an engine and to this end it consists in the connection with such piston of a weight which has a corresponding reciprocating motion, but always moves in an opposite direction to the piston, such weight being equal or nearly equal to the weight of the piston, its rod or rods and their connections with the crank, and moving the same distance, or being heavier and moving a correspondently less distance, or lighter and1 moving a correspondently greater distance.
Claim:
The employment of a reciprocating weigh so connected with the piston of a steam o other engine as to move always in the oppo site direction to the motion of the piston. |
|