THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 



Another working model of a rotary engine shown at 

 the Museum is one loaned by Messrs. Fielding and Platt 

 in 1888. "The action of this engine depends upon the 

 oscillating motion which the cross of a universal joint 

 has relative to the containing jaws when the system is 

 rotated. 



"Two shafts are set at an angle of 165 deg. to each 

 other and connected by a Hooke's joint; one serves as 

 a pivot, the power being taken from the other. Four 

 curved pistons are arranged on the cross-piece, two 

 pointing towards one shaft and two towards the other, 

 and on each shaft or jaw are formed two curved steam 

 cylinders in which the curved pistons work. The steam 

 enters and leaves the base of each cylinder through 

 ports in the shaft, which forms a cylindrical valve 

 working in the bearing as a seating. 



"On the revolution of the shafts the pistons recipro- 

 cate in their cylinders in much the same way as in an 

 ordinary engine, and the valve arrangement is such 

 that while each piston is receding from its cylinder the 

 steam pressure is driving it, and during the in-stroke 

 of each, its cylinder is in communication with the ex- 

 haust. There are thus four single-acting cylinders 

 making each a double stroke for one revolution of the 

 driving-shaft. The engine has no dead centres, and has 

 been at 1,000 revolutions per minute." 



It is not necessary to describe other of the rotary 

 engines that have been made along more or less similar 

 lines by numerous inventors, models of which are for 

 the most part, as in the case of those just described, to 

 be seen more commonly in museums than in practical 



