Charles T. Owen
1881 Description and drawing of an air compressor designed and patented by Charles T. Owen, of Chesterfield, 'one of the chief objects of this arrangement being to enable steam to be used expansively in the steam cylinders of such compressors without necessitating the employment of excessively heavy flywheels. Mr. Owen has worked out his plans in several different forms, our engraving showing a side view (partly in section) of one of his compressors with two air and two steam cylinders, these cylinders being disposed vertically. Both steam and air cylinders are single-acting, and each of the former is disposed directly under one of the latter, the air and steam pistons being connected by a piston rod, as shown. Each steam cylinder has live steam admitted to its upper end only, and hence the each pair of tumbling beams with its radius links constitutes a kind of parallel motion, and so long as the lower end of each pair of tumbling beams is guided by the crosshead block so as to move in a straight horizon tal line, the upper end will move in a straight vertical line and will exercise no lateral thrust on the piston rod to which it is attached. ...'[1]