Rotary engine.

No, 769,082. PATENTED AUG. 30, 1904.

C. HENDRICKS.

ROTARY ENGINE.

APPLICATION PILED DEO. 16, 1902.

NO MODEL.

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No. 769,082.

Patented August 30, 1904.

United States Patent Office.

CLARK HENDRICKS, OF RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR TO JOHN JAHN, JR., OF RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA.

ROTARY ENGINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 769,082, dated August 30, 1904.

Application, filed December-16,1902. Serial No. 135,433. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Clark Hendricks, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Riverside, county of Riverside, State 5 of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rotary Engines, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which— i o Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view of a motor or engine embodying the principle of my invention. Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view taken centrally, through the blades and the casing. Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the rota15 tive parts, the shell of casing being removed.

Fig. 4 is a vertical , sectional view showing another form of the invention, and Fig. 5 a diagram showing the successive positions of the folding blades as they travel around the fluid20 chamber.

. The object of this invention is to provide an extremely simple, durable, and efficient rotary engine which may be operated as a rotary pump or compressor, as more fully herein25 after set forth.

Generally the invention in its preferred form consists of a spherical casing in which is rotatably mounted a centrally-arranged sphere and between the Sphere and casing a 30 pair of approximately hemispherical pistons or shells, which nicely fit the spherical wall of the casing and the exterior of the central sphere and are arranged out of . alinement with each other at opposite sides of the 35 sphere, so that their circular edges or plane surfaces shall bear against each other at one point in their circumference, and thereby form a' fluid-chamber extending entirely around the .casing and tapering in opposite directions 4° from a point opposite the point of contact of the edges, and a series of folding blades or partitions resting on the sphere and having their side edges hinged to the said faces, or edges of the hemispherical pistons, and a suit45 able shaft or shafts centrally attached to the hemispherical pistons and journaled in. the casing, whereby when a suitable motive fluid is admitted into the peculiarly-shaped fluidchamber the pressure of the fluid upon the;

blades and the inclined edges of the hemi- 5° spherical pistons will impart a continuous rotary movement to the hemispherical pistons and carry with them the blades, thereby transmitting said motion of the hemispherical pistons to the shaft or shafts. When the device 55 is used as a pump or an air-compressor, power is applied to one or both of said shafts, and as the parts rotate the liquid or air is drawn in at one side of the motor and forced out at the opposite side or some other convenient point, 60 as more fully hereinafter set forth.

Referring to Figs. 1, 2,. and 3 of the drawings by letters, a designates the spherical casing, which may be suitably supported and may be constructed .of two or more.parts sep- 65 arably fastened together for convenience. The letter b designates the two approximately hemispherical pistons inclosed within the casing and having their, convex surfaces nicely fitting the same, these pistons being attached 70 centrally to shafts c, journaled in the casing. The shafts are journaled at an angle to each · other, so that their axial lines shall intersect at the center of the casing, whereby the hemispherical pistons shall lie at an angle to each 75 other out of alinement. Supported within and nicely fitting the concavities in the said hemispherical pistons is the rotatable sphere d, and resting loosely on this sphere are a series of radial segmental plates or partitions 80 V, whose outer edges are curved so as to fit nicely against the interior of the casing and whose inner edges are curved to nicely fit the surface of the sphere. The adjacent faces or edges d³ of the hemispherical pistons b are 85 beveled off outwardly, so that they may fit and bear against each other at one point in their circumference, this point being designated in the drawings by the letter d' and being equidistant from the two shafts c c. 90 Each blade is provided with a binge-joint at its middle, the axial line of the pintle / of the hinge-joint being exactly radial, so that as the pistons rotate the blades will fold and unfold to permit the bevel-faces to assume 95 varying angles to the blades as the latter move away from or toward the point of contact d'. This hinge-joint and the hinge, con769,082 nection to the pistons are constructed in any suitable manner that will permit the two sections of the blade to fold sufficiently to pass the contact-point d'. To permit each leaf or 5 section to fold into the adjacent face of the piston when it passes the contact-point /', the face of the piston is recessed at V. It is understood that packing and stuffing boxes are to be used whenever found necessary. If io steam or other motive fluid be admitted to the fluid-chamber at one side of the contactpoint d’, the pressure against the partitions and the inclined faces of the pistons will cause the pistons to rotate, and as each partition 15 passes the inlet-port the motive fluid will be cut off from the preceding compartment and (when the fluid is of an expansive nature) allowed to work by expansion alone or (when of an inexpansive nature) by momentum un20 til exhausted or forced out. It will be seen that the fluid-chamber always remains of the same cubic area and formation, while the superficial pressure area of each of the partitions is constantly increasing toward a point 25 directly opposite the division-line/', where the exhaust begins to take place. As the pistons revolve the blades successively unfold after they pass the contact-point d' until they reach the exhaust-port, when they begin to 3° fold and continue to gradually fold until they reach the contact-point d'. It will also be seen that the blades are each greater in length than the fluid-chamber at its widest point, so that the blades shall all fold in the 35 same direction, as shown in the diagram in

Fig. 5.

It is obvious that any suitable arrangement of ports may be employed, one possible ar rangement being illustrated in Fig. 2. By 4° closing cocks 2 34 and opening cocks 5, 6, and 7 and adjusting the three-way valve 1 so that the motive fluid will enter the engine through pipe g the steam or other fluid will enter the fluid-chamber just to the left of the contact45 point d' and cause the pistons to revolve, the main exhaust taking place through valve 5 and the auxiliary exhaust through valves 6 and 7, these latter outlets being simply to prevent compression of any of the motive 50 fluid that may remain in the compartments after the rear partitions of each compartment pass the main exhaust-point, it being obvious that a free outlet must be provided for each of the compartments during the period 55 it is decreasing in size—that is, while it is moving toward the point d'. To reverse the motor, it is simply necessary to adjust valve 1 so as to direct the motive fluid through pipe g' into the engine in the right side of the 60 contact-point /', close valves 5, 6, and 7, and open valves 2, 3, and 4. To use the engine as a compressor or pump, adjust valve 1 to admit fluid to pipe g, open valves 2, 3, and 4, close valves 5 and 6, and apply power to one 65 or both the shafts, whereupon the air or other fluid will be drawn in and compressed and forced out through valve 7.

It is of course understood that any other suitable arrangement of valves and ports may be used to adapt the apparatus for use as either 70 a reversible or non-reversible engine or compressor or pump and that therefore the arrangement I have shown is only suggestive of the many arrangements I may fina lly adopt. It is further obvious that the power may be 75 taken off from or applied to one or both the shafts, though I have, shown but one shaft provided with a band-wheel /. When but one shaft is to be used as a power-shaft, the other one may simply be a stub-shaft stepped So in a bearing formed in or secured to the interior wall of the casing and need not extend out through the same. It is obvious also that a great many other changes in the construction may be made without departing from 85 the spirit of the invention in the least, and 1 may state that I have in mind a number of modifications and minor changes that may be resorted to to render the apparatus particularly suitable to special uses, and especially 90 with regard to rendering it reversible as well as convertible. Onesuchmodification isshown in Fig. 4, in which a shaft is attached rigidly to the central sphere, and the blades arc also attached thereto by the pintles δ³ of their hinge- 95 joint. The rotary pistons are done away with, and the casing is shaped so as to fit directly against the sphere and to provideafluid-chamber of the same shape as in the other form of the engine, the inclined faces d² of the rotary, pis- 100 tons being replaced by the stationary inclined faces d³ of the casing. The blad es are of cou rse not hinged to the inclined faces of the fluidchamber, but bear and slide upon the same as the sphere rotates, the pressure of the motive 105 fluid serving to keep the leaves of the blades pressed tightly against the respective inclined faces, as is obvious. To insure the blades opening immediately after they pass the inlet port, the contacting faces of the leaves are no provided with flat springs δ¹, which are adapted to be compressed into recesses in the leaves when the same fold together in passing the narrowest part or throat of the fluid-chainher.

It will probably be essential in this form of 115 the engine in view of the fact that the inclined walls of the fluid-chamber do not rotate to space the blades closely enough to each other to insure the forward end of each succeeding blade entering the throat before the motive 120 fluid is let in behind the preceding blade to prevent the motive fluid passing directly to the exhaust side.