Steam engines were the hot topic throughout the 19th century.  While the concept of the steam engine had been around since the first century and commercially successful engines had been in operation since the early 18th century, the full power of steam power was still being explored throughout the 19th century.

The concept of heating up water to produce steam that would expand and using that expansion to push pistons had been around for quite a while before Sugartown was formed.  But many inventors were still experimenting with steam throughout the 19th century.  There were challenges with steam.  To be successful, an engine had to typically convert the linear motion of the pistons to circular rotating motion.  You also had to be able to regulate the throughput of the steam.  And, it was also an important consideration to ensure that the engine was efficient.  It took some kind of power source to heat the water to make the steam (often coal) and the less coal one could use, the better.

And that’s where Sugartown comes in – with Peter Worrall’s United States Patent No. 144, 722.

Peter Worrall (1833 – 1907) was the son of Abigail and Sharpless Worrall who for many years operated the General Store at Sugartown. During the 1840s, Sharpless Worrall moved with his family to Sugartown, where he took over ownership of the general store and served as postmaster for 20 years.   His son, Peter, after reaching adulthood, traveled west for a number of years and served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.  After the war he returned to Sugartown and became known as a clockmaker, watch repairman, and inventor.  We don’t know everything that Peter may have invented, but we do know that he received a patent in 1873 for the “Improvement in Rotary Engines.”

A rotary engine was simply an engine in which the steam created the rotational spinning of the shaft directly, rather than using a system of gears and such that would be required in a reciprocating engine.  Ideally, this would create a more efficient engine since little energy would be lost in the machinery needed to turn the up and down motion of the piston into rotational movement.  In theory they were great, but few had been successful.  The heat of the steam would often cause changes in the metals used, and as the engine heated up, lots of steam would escape and it would lose efficiency.  But they were still being tinkered with by inventors as a novel idea and they existed in some form, especially for smaller devices.

A compound engine was also something that had been around for some time as a means of increasing the efficiency of a steam engine.  Even after the hot steam did its work and moved a piston, it was often still quite hot.  This hot steam still had energy and a compound engine could take the exhaust from the engine and reuse the exhaust steam, either as it was or by adding additional heat.

from The Jeffersonian, 23Feb1907

Peter Worrall’s application was for an engine that was a compound rotary engine. It was essentially two rotary engines in which the steam exhaust from the first rotary engine would transfer into a second rotary engine both spinning the same axle.

How did it work?  Honestly, I have no idea!  I have read his descriptions multiple times and still can’t figure it out, only that there were pistons within the engine that spun and as they spun they were able to transfer the exhaust into the second engine without losing compression.

Did it work?  Well, I don’t know, but the fact that I’ve never heard of any trains with a Sugartown engine might be a good hint.  In fact, other than finding this patent in the Patent Office, I have found no mention of it anywhere else.  There were lots of inventors out there at this time who were toying around with various ideas related to steam power and many of their ideas, even the patented ones, never saw the light of day.  The hope was that your patent might be a step along the way to a more commercially viable product and a part of your idea would be incorporated and you would receive a part of the fame and fortune.

So, well done, Peter Worrall!  Even if it went nowhere and was never built, his idea for a compound rotary engine has been preserved forever!