181].] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



360 



IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF MARINE 

 STEAM ENGINES. 



(Wilh an Engraving, Plate VUI.) 



Abstract ofSpeciJtcalion of a Patent granted 16/A March, 1841, to Joseph 

 Mauds'aij, of the firm of Maudslay, Sons, and Eicld, Enginiers, 

 harnhdh. 



These improvements relate to llie arrangement of certain parts of 

 steam engines of that kind, (usually termed direct action engines), 

 whereof the centre of the cylinder is situated immediately beneath 

 the axis of the cranks, and are assigned for the purpose of producing 

 and applying a greater amount of steam power than has heretofore 

 been avai'.able within a given space or area on ship board, and for the 

 purpose of applying a greater length of stroke and connecting rod in 

 a given height, than can be obtained (in a direct action engine) by any 

 other means, and the lower end of the connecting rod guided without 

 any lateral pressure on the piston or piston rods. 



They consist in disposing the connecting rod in a space which is 

 left vacant for its reception, (together with the requisite appurtenances 

 of that rod) within the central part of the steam cylintler, and within 

 tlie central part of the piston whicli works up and down in the said 

 cylinder, the steam cylinder having for that purpose a small cylinder 

 fixed concentrically within it, and the piston being a broad ring or 

 annulns, which encompasses the said small cylinder, and tits into the 

 annular cylindrical space which is left between tlie interior of the 

 steam cylinder, and the exterior of the said small cylinder. The an- 

 nnlar piston is moved alternately up and down in the said annular 

 cylindrical space, by tlie force of steam acting therein, but which steam 

 does not enter into the interior of the small cylinder, neither is any 

 piston or part of the piston fitted therein, but tlie interior of the small 

 cylinder is left open at top and vacant within, for the connecting rod 

 and its requisite appurtenances to work in, with liberty for that rod 

 to move up and down therein, and likewise wilh liberty when so mov- 

 ing, to incline as much as it requires to do, from a vertical position 

 alternately on one side of the vertical and then on the contrary side 

 thereof, in consequence of the upper end of the connecting rod accom- 

 panying the motion of the crank pin in its circular orbit ^in the usual 

 manner of connecting rods), whilst the lower end of the said rod 

 moves alternately up and down in a vertical line, that line being at 

 the central line or imaginary axis of the steam cylinder, and which 

 axis w'onld in ordinary steam engines be situated in the centre of the 

 solid metal of the ordinary piston and piston rod, but according to my 

 improvements in the arrangement and combination of the various 

 parts, the said vertical line or imaginary axis of the steam cylinder, 

 is situated in an Ojien space which, as already stated, is left vacant for 

 the purpose of receiving the connecting rod, together with its appur- 

 tenances within the central part of the steara cylinder, and within the 

 central part of the annular piston, in consequence of the small cylinder 

 being fixed concentrically within the interior of the steam cylinder, 

 and in consequence of the cylinder cover, as well as the piston being 

 each a broad ring or annulus, and each being suitably fitted to the 

 annular cylindrical space between the two cylinders, but without cover- 

 ing or occupying the interior of the small cylinder. 



These improvements will be more fully understood by a reference 

 to the accompanying engraving, and the following description thereof, 

 in which lig. ) is an elevation of the said engine taken longitudinally, 

 fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section corresponding to the side ele- 

 vation fig. 1, fig. 3 is a horizontal plan of the upper part of the engine, 

 and fig. 4 is a horizontal section of the cylinder thereof; fig. 5 is a 

 transverse vertical elevation and section representing two such engines 

 disposed side by side for combined action; one of the two engines in 

 fig. 5 being represented in elevation, the other in section. The same 

 letters of reference denote the same parts in all the figures. 



The exterior or large cylinder is shown at a a, the interior and 

 smaller cylinder concentric to it at b b, and an annular piston at c c, 

 having two piston rods d d, working through stuffing boxes in the 

 annular cover of the cylinders, the upper ends of which rods are 

 affixed by keys to the T shaped cross head e, c, e, e, at the lower ends 

 of which cross head there is a slider y, working within the inner cylin- 

 der, to this slider f one end of a connecting rod g is attached, the 

 other end of the rod being attached to the crank pin of the crauk h, 

 on the propelling shaft. 



From this arrangement it will be perceived that by the ascent and 

 descent of the piston e c, the rods d d, will cause the cross head e f, to 

 move perpendicularly up and down, and in so doing to raise and de- 

 press the slider/, with the connecting rod g, which rod will by that 

 means be made to give rotary motion to the crank li, and thereby 

 cause the paddle-wheel shaft i to revolve. The rods j;, connected to 



No. 50.— Vol. IV.— October, 1841. 



the slider/, will at the same time work the levers or beams k k, to 

 which the rods of the air pump /, are attached. 



Having fully described the invention, the patentee desires it to be 

 understood that he does not claim the use of two concentric cylinders 

 and an annular piston, but he claims as his invention the use of tlio 

 space within the interior cylinder for the lower end of the connecting 

 rod to work in, whereby the ultimate length of stroke and connecting 

 rod within a given height is obtained, and the lower end of the con- 

 necting rod guided without any lateral pressure on the piston or piston 

 rods. 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOJC. 

 FASCICULUS XXXII. 



" I must have liberly 

 MMtlial, as large a charter as the tt\nils, 

 To blow on whom I please." 



I. On'E of the prettiest little bits of street architecture about town 

 that I know of is tlie front of a small house adjoining the Polytechnic 

 Institute, in the upper part of Regent Street; — a very clever and 

 artist like specimen of Italian, in which rustication of a more than 

 usually finished and picturesque character has been very happily ap- 

 plied — of that kind which may be termed mixed rustication, both ver- 

 miculated rustics and moulded ones with plain faces being employed, 

 — as has likewise been done in the new houses on the soulh side of 

 Lowndes Square. The character thus produced is at once rich and 

 sober. The archway forming the entrance to some livery staWes, on 

 one side, is not the least agreeable feature in the design, nor is it anjr 

 compliment to it to say, that it is in infinitely better taste than the huge 

 slice of architectural gingerbread which Nash clapped by way o£ 

 frontispiece, against that mass of ugliness the Royal Mews at Plmllco. 

 How that Nash did palm his Brummagem stull' upon old George the 

 Fourth ! — and took pretty good care to be paid for It In sterling cask 

 — good and lawful money of the realm! 



II. Because It does not happen to be as big, as tawdry, and as ugly 

 as one of the Regent's Park Barracks — those genteel Union Work- 

 house aflfalis — no one has been able to discern any merit at all in the 

 specimen above referred to. The Paddlngton or Paddy style — the 

 horrible mushroom monstrosities which are now springing up in that 

 district, and which are apparently directed by some Nash the second^ 

 some genius well qualified to be the successor of that mighty master, 

 — are far more to John Bull's taste, and according to his notion of 

 "genteel houses." 



III. " Can you give me any sure general rule for my guidance by 

 adhering to which I sliall always be certain of attaining superior 

 beauty in composition and design ?"^ — Such was the question once put 

 by an architect to a connoisseur of acknowledged taste, who thereupon 

 replied : " My advice was asked the other day by a writer who wished 

 me to Inform him what rule he should attend to in order to raise him- 

 self in the literary world. My counsel to him was : be original if you 

 can, be Interesting if you are able. As I answered him, so now I 

 answer you : display both invention and taste, and into whatever yon 

 do take care to put character and effect. I know of no other general 

 rule ; but if you can act up to that, I believe you will find It a suffi- 

 ciently efficacious one." A plain answer to a very simple question! 



IV. It is a wonder that Pugln has not shown up the range of Brum- 

 magem Gothic buildings in the Temple, — most trumpery and tasteless 

 as to character, though, no doubt, not very trumpery — perhaps of 

 most sterling merit, as to cost. Not a little strange, too, is it that he 

 did not have a fling at that notable example of Civic Gothic the facade 

 of Guildhall, which Is such a perfect monstrosity that It deserves to 

 be pulled down. 



V. Besides giving Turner a tremendously heavy blow — one almost 

 sufficient to demolish him, and put him quite liors de combat, the re- 

 viewer of the "Exhibitions," in Blackwood, deals a few home strokes 

 at Stanfield, and also at our present English view-mania. " What," 

 he asks, " must the inhabitants of all the tumbledown places on the 

 Rhine and the Rhone think of us, our scenery, our buildings, anil our 

 taste, when they learn that representations of their beggarly edifices 

 and their abominable outskirts form the chief ornaments of our Royal 

 Exhibition?" — "Nor in respect to architecture," he afterwards ob- 

 serves, " are our views always In good taste. The low and the mean, 

 the decayed and the poverty-stricken, are often thought to be the only 

 picturesque, as iS picture must indulge in vile associations. Let not art 

 take habitat in "rotten rows," nor vainly imagine that the eye should 



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