Interesting engine question

[crueby]

Is there a title block with a name on that print?    Might be a good patent search if you have a name

Dave

The only name on it is "Atlantic Works Boston 1864". I tried searchin with that name, but only two patents that are unrelated to this engine. Apparently there were a couple companies by that name over the years, but at least one was a major ship engine manufacturer.

There is quite a bit of detail in the high res version of the drawing, some of the views work a lot like the ones on your Ohio engine drawings, where they mix angles of view and have projection lines going across to show which parts are being shown. I am thinking it will be a good CAD excercise to draw and animate this one. Right now I am in the middle of drawing up the steering engine from the Great Eastern, so maybe after that is done.

[steamer]

Joy-ISH too. Each of the curved 'expansion' links is worked by the crosshead of the other cylinder. So each valve is phased at 90° to its piston. So there will be no lap and no expansive use of steam. Reversing both sets of gear is done by the bell-crank. Note that the die block for one valve is 'up' and the other 'down'. This cleverly provides the asymmetry necessary for coordination, just as with cross drive in duplex pumps.

Yeah   I can see the radial part too.    There have been so many perturbations of valve gear.....well.   

[CI]

Looks to be somewhat of a mirror image across the 45 degree axis.

.

[crueby]

Looks to be somewhat of a mirror image across the 45 degree axis.

.

Yeah, I  think you are right. The more times I  go back to look at it the more it makes sense. Can now see how the motion of one crosshead rocks the lever for the other, giving a shorter motion and offset the 90 degrees. At first I  had thought the crank arm on the bracket to upper left of the crankshaft was part of the valve movement,  now I  see that its the control for fwd and reverse, moving the short arcs from one end to the other. That could also effect cutoff like a Stephenson  link normally does.  As Fj45 said, elegantly simple, but deceptive when first seen. Should have a nice eye candy motion when running.

[paul gough]

Late in catching up, but it occurred to me that it is more Gooch like than Walschaertish as the former predates the latter and US did not use Walshaert until 1870s and mostly later. In any case not really applicable or accurate to use these as descriptors. I seem to recollect John Ericsson designing an engine driven gun turret for a ship, maybe it was the Monitor, he was rather active designing marine stuff for US navy including a hot air engined ship. Might be worth chasing up his doings if there is any likelihood of a connection to him. Regards, Paul Gough.

[steamer]

Good point Paul.   Ericson was pretty prolific!

[AVTUR]

Just looked up Ericsson in Wikipedia since I thought I recognised the name in association with the Rainhill Trials. Yes, an interesting engineer but one of very many that falls short of greatness.

I think the reversing gear is of its own and not related to the conventional gears since it relies on the geometry between the two cylinders. The engine would make a good model, though.

 
still

AVTUR

[crueby]

Also just looked up Ericsson on the patent sites, had no idea he had so many inventions, I only knew of his Monitor engine. Lots of stuff, steam engines, compound steam engines, air engines, gun carriages, torpedos...  This particular arrangement does not show up though.

And on the Gooch gear, that still relied on eccentrics from what I see. This one uses levers from the other cylinder at 90 degrees to get the equivelant motion.

Agreed, this would make a good model! Yet another one to add to the list... 

[crueby]

More searching, and seeing conflicting info on who designed the engines in that ship. Some say Ericsson, others list Benjamin Isherwood actually designing them, based off Ericsson's earlier work. The ship had two of the Ericsson style 'vibrating' engines like the one that Rich Carlstedt built the amazing model of from the Monitor. Also found a plan showing the steam piping in the ship, no real details on the engines, but it does show the turret engine hanging upside down from the deck beams underneath the turret.

[paul gough]

The Original Monadnock seems to be a near contemporary of Monitor so maybe the turret engine was just a copy/adaptation of Ericsson’s Monitor turret engine. Maybe no patent taken out by Ericsson for the engine therefore no record. I believe the Monitor was raised and preserved somewhere. Was there any remains of its turret engine so as to make a comparison with the drawing of the Monadnock’s.

[crueby]

The Original Monadnock seems to be a near contemporary of Monitor so maybe the turret engine was just a copy/adaptation of Ericsson’s Monitor turret engine. Maybe no patent taken out by Ericsson for the engine therefore no record. I believe the Monitor was raised and preserved somewhere. Was there any remains of its turret engine so as to make a comparison with the drawing of the Monadnock’s.

Didn't know the  Monitor had a turret engine. Do you know if details about it are known?

[steamer]

There is a whole museum on the subject of the monitor which much of the wreck recoverd and being conserved.

[steamer]

https://www.marinersmuseum.org/exhibit/uss-monitor-center/

[crueby]

Dave - treasure trove there! They have tons of stuff online, am going through things now...   

[crueby]

Bingo!  They have a great model of the turret engine, pictures here:
https://catalogs.marinersmuseum.org/object/CL29202