CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIXED AND PORTABLE PUMPS, SUCH AS PUMPS FIXED FOR RAISING WATER FROM WELLS AND OTHER SITUATIONS, OR SHIPS PUMPS, OR FOR PORTABLE PUMPS WHICH MAY BE EMPLOYED FOR GARDEN ENGINES, OR IN ENGINES FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES, OR FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1820

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JACOB
PERKINS, late of Philadelphia, in the United States of America, but now
residing at Austin Friars, in the City of London, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Third day of June,
in the first year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Jacob
Perkins, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said Jacob Perkins, my exors, adiñors, and
assigus, should. and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIXED AND PORTABLE PUMPS,
SUCH AS PUMPS FIXED FOR RAISING WATER FROM WELLS AND OTHER SITUATIONS, OR
SHIPS PUMPS, OR FOR PORTABLE PUMPS WHICH MAY BE EMPLOYED FOR GARDEN
ENGINES, OR IN ENGINES FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES, OR FOR OTHER PURPOSES;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if I, the said Jacob
Perkins, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument
in. writing under. my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said
Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted,
shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same,
relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Jacob Perkins, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the three Drawings Nos. 1, 2, & 3, hereunto
annexed, and the following description thereof (that is to say):-
In the Drawings No. 1 is a section of a fixed pump for raising water from
wells, or to be used as a ship's pump, and is capable of being also converted
into a forcing pump for extinguishing fires, &c. A, A, is the body of the
pump, which may be made of copper or any other fit and proper material; B,
the plunger; C, the stuffing box. The construction of the plunger and
stuffing box will be given in the references to No. 2. D is an air vessel,
which is to be screwed upon the nozzle of the pump when required to convert
it into a forcing pump or fire-extinguishing engine, when also the engine hose
must be screwed to the end of the nozzle. E, the lower pump box, which is
made water-tight by the stuffing a, a, binding in the contracted part of the
pump b, b. F, the bottom of the pump, which may or may not be enlarged,
as described in the references to No. 2. G, the nozzle of the pump.
No 2 is a section of a portable forcing pump, which may be employed as a
garden engine, or as an engine for extinguishing fires, &c. A is the chamber
or working barrel of the pump; .B, the plunger, occupying half the calibre of
the working barrel A, and working through a collar of leathers or stuffing
box a C, the pump box attached to the plunger B; D, an air vessel affixed
to the top of the plunger B, and which plunger is made hollow for the purpose
of admitting the water to pass into and out of the air vessel D; E, the bottom
of the pump, made sufficiently wide to allow the water to rise slowly enough
to prevent all bodies heavier than itself from passing over the top of the
cistern F, and thereby entering into. the chamber of the pump A through the
valves d, d; G, G, strainers, to prevent any floating substances from entering
the pump; H, H, a platform for the men who work the pump to stand upon;
it is made to fold or turn upon hinges, in order to occupy less room when not
in use; I, the nozzle of the pump; K, K, K, K, the pump handles; c, c,, the
stuffing of the pump box, it.being fixed at such a distance from the valves.b, b,
as to afford a large water-way through the pump box; the valves. b,, b,
are hinged or jointed to the pump box c. f, f, holes through the plunger. B,
for admitting the water to the air vessel D.
No. 3 shews a section of the application of the combined plunger and
common pump box to the common fire-extinguishing.engine. A, the chamber
or working barrel; B, the plunger, occupying half the calibre of the working
barrel, and working through a collar of leathers or stuffing box C; D is. a

page_text: cylinder, being two and a half diameters of the chamber A, and of the same
length as that chamber. The cylinder D encloses the chamber, together with
another cylinder E. The cylinder E is half a diameter larger than the
chamber; it is connected with it at the top by a plate of soft solder or other
proper metal or combination of metals, a, a, a, a, which also connects the
chamber and cylinder D. The chamber A and cylinder D are also connected
at bottom by a similar plate 6, 6. The cylinder E is about two inches shorter
than the cylinder A and D, and of course does not reach down to nor is
connected with the bottom plate b, b. d, d, are holes or water apertures;
F, the piston or pump box; G, the lower valve; H, H, & I, I, the stuffing-
box plates, which also serves to fasten the cylinders to the bottom of the
engine by means of six or more screwed rods and nuts e, e, passing through
holes in the plate H and the bottom of the engine; k, the piston-rod joint;
L, L, the lower valve plate; M, the discharging nozzle; N, N, the air vessel.
The operation of this modification of the pump is as follows:-When the
plunger is raised by the common lever or otherwise, the water follows
the piston F through the valve G; when the plunger which occupies half the
chamber is depressed it displaces half the column of water; this displaced
water passes over the chamber A through the apertures d, d, and down
between the cylinder E and the chamber A, and under the cylinder E into
the air vessel N, N; when the plunger is again raised the water which
surrounds it follows that which has been displaced by the descent of the
plunger, and by this means a constant flow of water takes place at the
nozzle M.
Those parts of these modifications of pumps which I hereby claim as my
Inventions are,―
Firstly, the enlargement of the bottoms of the pumps sufficiently to allow
the bodies heavier than the water to subside by their own gravity, and not to
enter the
pumps.
Secondly, the combining of the plungers and pump boxes so as to produce
a forcing stroke both upwards and downwards; and,
Thirdly, the separation of the valves from the stuffing of the pump boxes, so
as to leave a much larger water-way than in any pumps heretofore made.
In witness whereof I, the said Jacob Perkins, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty.
JACOB (L.S.) PERKINS.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-eighth day of November,
in the year of our Lord 1820, the aforesaid Jacob Perkins came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the First day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty.