Alternating piston rotary apparatus

Rotary apparatus having a casing shaped to form generally a toroidal hollow annular chamber therein, said casing having an opening into said chamber which is circularly continuous about the central axis of the torus, inlet and exhaust means through the structure that defines the toroidal chamber and communicating with that chamber, said apparatus also having two generally wheel-like and generally figure of revolution shaped piston carrier members, which are mounted rotatably with their axes at the central axis of the torus, said piston carriers each having a flange-like generally continuous peripheral portion, exactly two pistons on each piston carrier and carried by a flange portion of each of said two piston carriers and fitting within the toroidal chamber in alternating occurrence about the toroid as respects which piston carrier each piston is carried by, a flange-like portion of each of said piston carriers serving to close at least in part the circularly continuous opening in the toroidal chamber that was left by the casing, a generally radial slot opening through an intermediate portion of at least a first piston carrier, a crankshaft extending through said slot, a crankpin of said crankshaft located in said slot, and said crankshaft extending into a portion of the second piston carrier, a ring gear with inwardly facing teeth fixed to the casing concentric with the central axis, a gear wheel operatively connected to said crankshaft and having a pitch diameter one half of the ring gear's and mounted within the ring gear and meshing with it and having its teeth sweep through the central axis, leaving a crescent shaped empty space between the ring gear and the gear wheel that has half its diameter, a rotary header member to that side of the ring gear which is farther from the first piston carrier, said rotary header member being journaled for rotation about the central axis and having secured in it the crankshaft's axial journal, whereby this rotary header member rotates at the same rate as the revolutions of the crankshaft bodily (as distinguished from the crankshaft's rotations), a functionally similar rotary header member being provided beyond the ring gear, to the opposite side from the first mentioned header member and mounted for rotation about the central axis, said rotary apparatus also including at least one other member that passes through the crescent-shaped open space and secures the two opposite header members to each other, for firmly securing the two headers against relative motion or looseness of either with respect to the other, the headers and connected parts that rotate with the constituting a drum assembly.