The Richardson Governor
There are two designs of governor associated with John Richardson, who was first an employee of Robert Robey, who founded the Lincoln firm of Robey and Co. in 1854, later, Richardson, Thomas Bell and Frederick Clench bought out Robert Robey to become partners in the firm.
The first design above was known as the 'Robey - Richardson' governor and appears primarily to have been used for portable engines.
Increase in speed caused the governor balls to fly outward, moving collar C toward collar F, this in turn moved the parallelogram shaped key D, causing the eccentric sheave to move with respect to the crankshaft, altering their respective centre positions and hence varying the throw of the eccentric. This in turn varied the motion of the slide valve controlling the admission of steam to the cylinder. It is not know when (or if) this design was patented.
The second design was known as the 'Richardson Patent Governor' Patent No. 14753 of 1885. This was used on a large number of Robey engines, both stationary and portable. In this illustration it is shown as applied to a variable expansion slide valve but other variants were used.
The governor is driven from the crankshaft through the bevel gears at the bottom, this causes the balls to revolve, changes in speed result in the balls moving outward which lifts the central collar and this vertical movement is transmitted to the die block B.
Curved link A is pivoted at the top and driven backwards and forwards from the right by an eccentric on the crankshaft.
If the die block B is in line with the eccentric rod the whole displacement of the eccentric throw is transmitted to the valve rod which is shown to the left of B.
If the engine speed increases die block B rises and the valve rod receives less movement than the eccentric rod, reducing the amount of steam admitted to the cylinder.
If the engine speed reduces die block B moves downwards and the valve rod is then given a larger movement than the eccentric rod, increasing the amount of steam admitted to the cylinder.