The Tower Spherical engine was unique in the rotary steam engine market. It was not cylindrical like most of these engines, but actually spherical. The engine was at one time quite widely known, described in detail in magazines in the UK and France, and positively evaluated by experts. It is reported that he did at least one useful job of lighting carriages installed on the locomotives of the Great Eastern Railway in 1885.
Mr. Beauchamp Tower.
The operation of the engine is not easy to understand, but it works like this: a spherical "cylinder" consists of two quarters of a sphere, with a thin circular disc between them. Two quarters of the sphere rotate and interact like a hemisphere, connecting with a pair of hemispheres. Two quarters seem to “expand”, and two “contract” at a certain moment. With the correct timing of intake and exhaust, rotational power is generated.
Animation of engine operation.
The Tower Spherical prototype was designed for direct drive of dynamos and had a speed range of 600 to 1100 rpm. The 10-inch engine (which presumably means a 10-inch internal diameter motor) was reported to consume 37 pounds of steam per hour. The worm on the right uses a small piston pump for forced lubrication.
Drawings from the patent.
The inventor of the unusual mechanism is considered to be Mr. Beauchamp Tower. Beauchamp Tower was the son of Robert Beauchamp Tower, rector of Moreton, Essex. He was educated at Uppingama School in Rutland. At the age of 16, he decided to become an engineer and trained at the Armstrong plant in Elswick, where he remained for several months as a draftsman after completing four years of training. And then he took up the problems of bearing lubrication in high-speed mechanisms. And while observing the operation of the universal joint, I got an idea for my engine.
Promotional video:
Illustration from Nature in 1884.
The French scientific journal Nature in 1884 gives some performance figures for the Tower Spherical:
The only * live * photograph of the Tower Spherical.
Engineers have noted the close relationship between this engine and rotary lobe pumps. There is evidence that in the late 1950s the Tower Spherical was re-invented as a pump. Although this is true or not, as well as the further fate of the "invention" is unknown.