CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF PROPELLING BOATS AND OTHER VESSELS, AND WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO MACHINERY OP VARIOUS DESCRIPTIONS
Year: 1817

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
CLAUDE NIEPCE, of Frith Street, Soho Square, in the County of Middlesex,
Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-fifth day of November, in
the fifty-eighth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Claude
Niepce, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privi-
lege and authority, that I, the said Joseph Claude Niepcc, my exors, adñors, and
assigns, should and lawfully might, during the terms of years therein mentioned,
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies Plantations abroad, the
Invention (partly communicated to me by my brother, Joseph Nicophore Niepcc,
he being a foreigner resident abroad, together with certain additions of my own
invention), for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF PROPELLING BOATS AND
OTHER VESSELS, AND WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO MACHINERY
OP VARIOUS DESCRIPTIONS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso, that if I, the said Joseph Claude Niepce, should 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 Pateut, and all liberties

page_text: and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall forthwith cease, determine,
and become void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may
more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joseph Claude Neipce, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in ànd by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say) :-
My Invention consists principally in employing as an agent expanded air,
produced by combustible matter in a receiver, which escapes through apertures
closed with valves, and which will be like the force of steam, by pressing upon
the surface of the water inclosed in a receiver, move a great number of
machines, and even repel the water with great force. This property of
expanded air I employ to impel vessels, of which my plans will give a parti-
cular explanation. The combustible matter requisite to expand the air ought
to be very inflammable, and able to spread itself into the receiver, that it may
produce a strong flame, and fill the whole of it. To obtain this I have used
lycopodium, a vegatable substance well known, but which is too expensive
for general use. Pulverised resin produces also a very strong flame, as well
as coal well pulverised and heated, and mixed with a fourth part of resin; but
wo prefer essential oils, as they are more divisible, and more readily measured
out than solid combustibles. To make any advantage of the power of expanded
air it is requisite to discover some method of reproducing it, which can only be
done by renewing the air which had produced the first effect, now rendered
incapable of combustion by the loss of its oxygen and production of carbonic
gas; it is therefore necessary to discharge it from the receiver, and to introduce
a fresh supply of air and of combustible matter, which appears to be very diffi-
cult; but I have happily surmounted the obstacles, with the assistance of the
apparatus I am going to describe.
Plate 1st, Figure 1, represents a horizontal section of a navigable vessel
A, B, C, D, and the disposition of the receivers in which the air is expended.
Their form is cylindrical, that form being better calculated to resist the expan-
sion of the air, and terminated by two convex ends. The two receivers or
cylinders F, F, are placed upon a well E, E, E, E, the width of which at the
bottom is the same with that of the vessel, its heighth equal to the greatest
draught of the boat. This well must be made of very strong inaterials. It is
divided by the partition S, S, in the direction of the reel which forms the well
into two separate reservoirs, each communicating with the cylinder above
it, G, G. 9, 99, 9, are the openings made in the cylinder for the air to escape

page_text: through by means of pipes, as may be seen in the second figure of this plan.
G is the pipe or chimney applied to the opening, through which the carbonic
gas escapes from the cylinder F into the open air. The curved pipes g, g, com-
municating with the upper part of the receiver F are those through which the
expanded air enters with force into the well, of which you see a perpendicular
section, as well as of one of the cylinders, in Figure 2. M, M, M, is one of
2 pipes, but in the form of an elbow, both of which are represented by the
same letters in the first Figure. The pipes M have one of their openings in the
well or reservoir of water E, and the other end passes through an opening in the
bottom of the vessel, through which the water issues, and gives the impulse
forward to the vessel. This impulse is in proportion to the quantity of water
displaced, and the velocity with which it is discharged by the expanded air.
T, T, T, are the orifices of three lateral pipes, placed horozontally, and which
make, with the keel of the vessel, an angle of 22° 30, that they may have
the benefit of the force communicated by the water which enters the well.
N is the body of the pump, placed in another separate little reservoir, Fig. 2,
of water. This pump communicates action to the mechanism of the machine,
as will be explained hereafter.
Plate 2nd, Fig. 8, represents a perpendicular section of one of the cylinder
F, F, and of the well E, E, as well as C, C, where is placed the pump intended
to give a rotary motion by the fall of water which descends through the
pipe E, e, from the upper reservoir e, e, A, B, after it has lowered the piston,
the rod of which is connected with a crank h on the axis of the fly wheel
marked H, H, s, t; Fig. 3 represents the axis upon which the inner
cylinder b, b, b, b, and the spiral a, a, a, &c., revolve; the inner cylinder, toge-
ther with the spiral plate attached to it, must be both made of metal. The
spiral plate or screw ought to rub slightly against the inner surface of the
cylinder F, F, in turning round, in order to renew the air, by turning rapidly
on its axis, and draws the exterior air through the openings o, u, o, v, at one of
the ends of the cylinder F, and to make it issue at the opposito end G by
means of a contrivance hereafter described through the table or chimney G.
It is in the barrel h, h, h, h, that the pipe t, t, t, t, is placed, which passes through
the ends of the barrel upon which the spiral a, a, a, &c. a turns, as is scen
in s and t, to receive and throw into the interior of the cylinder the essential
oil which is to produce combustion and expand the air.
Plan 3rd, Figure 6th, represents the machine in front upon a perpendicular
and transverse section of the boat. A, B, C, D, E, E, is the well; T, T, T, are
the three lateral pipes, of which you see the openings outwards on each side of
the well; within the pipes are valves, which shut when the water regains the

page_text: the ex
level which obliges it when pressed by the expansion of the air to rush through
the great pipes M, Fig. 3, Pl. 2, placed at right angles with the lateral pipes,
acts alternately in each, receiving a cylinder, and consequently
in the wells, to propel the vessel forwards with an uniform quickness. M, M,
represents a cistern on the outside of the well, in which is placed the body of
the pump N before mentioned, on each side of which are placed two other
cisterns N, N, seen in Plan 1, Fig. 1, in which the water which gives the
motion to the vessel finds its level; they are closed by valves which open and
shut alternately, to receive the water and to impel it into the upper reservoir
e, e, A, B, Plan 2, Fig. 8. The water of the well which would be repelled by the
expansion of the air might also be brought into the reservoir e, e, if a passage
was opened to it, but some of the heights of the falling column which moves the
pump would be lost, because it should be above the water mark of the vessel
to let the water which had put the pump in motion run away into the sea or
river, or it would be necessary to regain the heighth by various the reservoirs
A, B, e, e, above the deck of the vessel. In Figure 6, Plan 3, is better seen the
movement of the crank and fly wheel H, H, by means of the rod i, i, of the
pump, which is connected with it, as also with one of the arms of the bent
lover all the pipes which have been already mentioned are representeil
in this Figure; there are two others, of which the upper part o, o, communicate
with the chimnics G, G, they are intended to free the well from the air after the
desired effect has been produced, because it should not return into the cylinder,
as it would prevent the renewing of the air which is to be introduced there
afresh, if it remained in the well it would prevent the water from its level in
the same, the lower opening of these pipes is represented upon the upper
surface of the well E, E, by the letter o, o. Figs. 7 & 8 of the third Plan
mark position of the valves of the pipes B, B, B, B, or g, 9, 9, 9, of cach
cylinder with the well, as has been before seen; these pipes are bent that they
may be joined to the upper part of the cylinder and have a valve at C,
Fig. 7 & 8, opening outwards from the cylinder F; the valves open and shut
by the action of the air, and prevent it from returning into the cylinder after
it has exerted its pressure upon the water. M, M, is a little pump placed
upon the curved part of one of the pipes B, B, and working under the bend of
the pipes o, o, Fig. 6, which empty the air from the well; they are closed by a
valve N, 9, placed in their section, and which the little piston O, by its rod 1',
opens and shuts by the power of the expanded air, and falls open again by its
own weight when that power ceases. The pipes D, D, d, d, which terminate
in the little reservoir N of the pump, have also a valve opening outwards; they
are intended to drive the water into the upper reservoir e, e, A, B, Fig. 3, to

page_text: feed the pump N, Fig. 1 and 2; the letters a, b, c, d, Fig. 7, represent a box of
metal divided by a horizontal partition z, z, the essential oil is put into the
lower division, and oil for burning in the upper, to feed four wicks of lamp
round two circular openings, through which pass two little rods of iron g, 9, 9, I,
which are plunged into the essential oil, and take fire in passing through
the flame of the wicks; these two rods rise and fall by the mechanism of
the machine, which is not described here, to shorten the description; the rods
9, 9, open and shut in their motion the trap doors n, n, placed at two holes
made at one end of each of the cylinders F, F, and so communicate the
inflamation to the essential oil thrown into the cylinders, which being reduced
volatile by the interior heat, and pressed by the action of the spiral ventilator to
move to that part, as soon as it reaches these openings it takes fire instantly,
expanding the air, which then escapes through the pipes g, g, B, B, intended
to transmit it to the well E, E. The 9th Figure of the same Plan represents
the other Plan of the cylinders where are four openings A, A, A, A, which
open and shut alternately by means of the rods a, a, a, a, whose handles or
ends are bent, as may be seen in the Figure; the rods receive their motion
from the pully B, C, Fig. 10, to which they communicate by means of the
perpendicular rod a, a. The pully is put in motion by means of two chains
passing over small pullies on the axis A, B, which receives its motion from the
pulley B, C, by the force of a lever loaded at one end by a weight, and which
communicates by the other end to the rods m, n, Fig. 4, which receive
their motion from the bent lover i, i, and weights o, o, Fig. 4, in making
it fall alternately backwards and forwards to open and shut the apertures
A, A, A, A, Fig. 9, in a shorter space of time than if they were put in
motion simply by the bent levers i, that there may be more time for the
action of the air to exert itself, and for the air to be received again into the
cylinders F, F. The Plan 2d, Fig. 4, shews the communication of the pullies
n, n, with the squares or bent levers i, i, moved by the rod of the movcable
crank II, HI, the second or similar circle h, h, has two groves round its cir-
cumference, round which pass two chains represented as well as the moveable
crank in the 6th Fig., Plan 3d; these chains communicate to two other small
pullies y, y, fixed at the extremity of the axle of the ventilators, which are
place, as has been said, in each cylinder, to renew its air; they ought to move
with the celerity necessary to produce this effect, which experiment will prove
to depend upon the difference of the diameters of the two circles h, h, and of
the pullies y, y, and on the longer or shorter play of the piston, which will be
regulated by the aperture of the discharging pipe. In Fig. 5, Plan 2d, may
be seen the machanism which opens and shuts the pipes i, i, and k, k, which

page_text: communicates with the pump h, h, and which open and shut by the assistance
of two perpendicular cocks 'n and r, which move in two boxes in 'the pipes i
and k, the inoveable handles of the cocks correspond to the motion of the rod
L, L, of the pumps, as s represented in the 5th Figure. At the bottom, where
the valves are placed, represented in Fig. 9, Plan 3, there is an opening
D, B, C, through which the pipe of injestion passes B, C, of essential oil, and
enclosed in the reservoir N, P. E is the opening by which it is introduced; it
is stopped up by a lid pierced with small holes to let the exterior air enter
during the action of the pump D, D, which plunges into the essential oil to
turn it by raising the piston in the pipe C, 'C, and driving it into the receiver
through the axis or pipe s, t, Fig. 3, where it becomes volatile and enflamed,
as lia's been before explained. Everything being thus disposed, the apparatus
be put
in motion with the greatest ease and very quickly; it is only neces-
sary to light the lamps, inject the essential oil into the cylinder b, b, Fig. 3,
open the trap valves n, n, Fig. 7, to set it on fire first, because it will not
take fire but with difficulty, -by-the four openings A, A, & before the cylin-
ders shall have become warm; but when once the heat is spread through
the interior the effect is certain to take place, and if the That should increase
too much-afterwards, it will be easy to introduce some means, exterior or
interior, of lessening it so as to keep up a proper and constant temperature.
may
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Claude Niepce, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighteen.
J. C. NIEPCE. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fifth day of May, in
the year of our Lord 1818, the aforesaid Joseph Claude Niepce, (through the
interpretation of Joseph Farey, the said Interpreter being first sworn that he
had truly, distinctly, and audibly interpreted the contents of this Specification).