Rotary piston steam engine - has oscillating mass on piston to balance forces to prevent distortion and maintain sealing

摘要

The engine has a toroidal stator chamber (1). A rotor (4) carries a piston (3) which travels round the chamber. The chamber has inlet and exhaust ports and is divided by radial vanes which move back to allow the piston to pass. The piston has a sealing strip (11) round it, and has a recess in which there is a mass (12) which can move radially. The mass is connected to the sealing strip by two levers (13) pivoted on the piston. The arms of the levers are arranged so that the moments of the forces produced by the kinetic energies of the strip and mass are equal.