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Frederick Ellsworth Sickels (September 20, 1819; [1] Gloucester County, New Jersey – March 8, 1895; Kansas City [2]) was an American inventor, best known for the invention of a cut-off valve for steam engines in 1841. Sickels grew up in New York City, [3] where his father was Chief Health Officer. [4]
Control is by a small three-way steam valve (“forward”, “stop”, “back”) and a separate indicator showing the position of the rod and thus the percentage of cutoff in use. When the steam valve is at “stop”, an oil cock connecting the two ends of the locking piston is also closed, thus holding the mechanism in position.
The usual locomotive valve gears such as Stephenson, Walschaerts, and Baker valve gear, can be used with either slide valves or piston valves. Where poppet valves are used, a different gear, such as Caprotti valve gear may be used, though standard gears as mentioned above were used as well, by Chapelon and others.
In a steam engine, cutoff is the point in the piston stroke at which the inlet valve is closed. On a steam locomotive, the cutoff is controlled by the reversing gear.. The point at which the inlet valve closes and stops the entry of steam into the cylinder from the boiler plays a crucial role in the control of a steam engine.
The valve gear, actuated by connection to the driving wheels, ensures that steam is delivered to the piston with precision. Types are slide valves, piston valves or poppet valves. [2] [3]: 62 Valve chest / Steam chest Valve chamber next to the cylinder (24) containing passageways to distribute steam to the cylinders. [6]: 41 [3]: 75 Firebox
A locomotive's direction of travel and cut-off are set from the cab by using a reversing lever or screw reverser actuating a rod reaching to the valve gear proper. Some larger steam engines employ a power reverse, which is a servo mechanism, usually powered by steam.
The valve itself can be a drop valve or a Corliss valve. Trip valve gear was applied to larger stationary engines. It was not used in transport applications, [ft 1] as it was not suitable for high speed. [1] The trip point of the valve mechanism, and therefore the cut-off, would be adjusted either manually or automatically by the governor.
The Baker valve gear replaces the expansion link of the Walschaerts gear with an assembly of levers and links which produces the same effect of allowing continuous variation valve travel. The remainder of the gear is the same, so that the return crank and combination lever take the same form, although the proportions are usually modified.