AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MACHINERY TO BE EMPLOYED IN THE WORKING OF РUMPS
Year: 1824

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOEL
SPILLER, of Chelsea, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Sixth day of March now last past, did give and grant
unto me, the said Joel Spiller, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege,
and authority, that I, the said Joel Spiller, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said Joel Spiller, my executors, adminis-
trators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, frome time to
time and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN
IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MACHINERY TO BE EMPLOYED IN THE
WORKING OF РUMPS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said Joel Spiller, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause
the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
four calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the said recited Letters Patent, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said the said proviso, I, the
said Joel Spiller, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and tho
manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer-
tained by the following Specification, that is to say:

page_text: .
The nature of my Invention of an Improvement or Improvements in the
Machinery to be Employed in the Working of Pumps consists in so regulating
the motion or strokes of the pistons of two pumps relatively with each other,
that the quantity of water or other fluid to be raised or propelled by the
working of such said two pumps shall continually vary during a certain time,
or throughout any given number of strokes made by the pistons of the said
pumps, or that the said pumps may be wrought by any given power or force,
whose intensity shall be uniformly the same, or nearly so, throughout the
operation, whilst the height to which the water or other fluid is to be raised,
or whilst the force with which the water or other fluid is propelled through the
said pumps, is progressively and gradually increasing or diminishing. And the
manner in which I carry my said Invention into effect, or practice the same, is
as follows, that is to say :-I first ascertain or determine the capacity or cubic
contents of the two pump barrels to be employed; or, which is the same thing,
I ascertain the quantity of water required to be raised or forced through
each pump barrel by one stroke of the piston, and in conformity with this
quantity I make. the diameter of the pistons and the length of the pump
barrels to correspond. It is well known that the quantity of water discharged
by one stroke of any pump depends upon the diameter of the working piston
and the length of the stroke, and that it is not necessary there should be any
precise proportion between the diameter of the piston and the. length of it's
stroke; I therefore determine the diameter and stroke as may best suit the
size and appropriation of the pumps.
I will here premise, that my Invention may be employed in working either
lifting or forcing pumps; and a description of its application to one kind will
render its application to another equally well understood.
I shall herein-after describe the manner of applying my said Invention to the
working of two forcing pumps with solid plungers; and as the construction of
such said forcing pumps and plungers are well understood by mechanics, and as
they are in common use, particularly for working hydromechanical or water
presses, I need not be more particular in describing them, and as the working
of hydromechanical presses is one object in which my said Invention can be
advantageously and usefully employed, I will describe it as being so applied. In
order that the effect to be produced or the end to be answered by the introduction
of my said Invention for the working of the said presses may be better under-
stood, I may here remark, that most of the substances, such as raw cotton,
woollen and other cloths, paper, &c. &c., usually exposed to the action or the
compressing force of a hydromechanical press, are of an elastic nature, so that
whenever the operation of pressing such like substances is performed by the
methods now in common use it becomes requisite, as the said operation pro-

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ceeds, to increase the compressing force by employing, first, one man to work
the forcing pump (where the pump is wrought by hand), and then gradually
increasing the number of men until the greatest state of compression required
is effected, or one man is enabled to continue the operation longer by first
using a larger pump, and then a smaller one, and, lastly, by altering the
proportion between the two radii of the lever by which he works the pumps,
and by this means obtaining an increase of mechanical power by steps, or at
intervals only. In describing the manner in which I apply my said Invention,
I will suppose the two forcing pumps (for I employ two) to stand upright, and
at a proper distance from each other, and fixed in the usual way over or near
to a cistern containing water, and from which the said pumps are to be
supplied with water. (In continuing this description I shall herein-after NB
distinguish the two pumps with their plungers respectively by the letters A or
and B, that is to say, I will call one pump A and the plunger A, and the Spee
other pump B and plunger B.) To the lower end of each pump I attach a
pipe (which, for the sake of distinction, I shall call the entrance pipe,) of a PP
sufficient length to reach from the pump to the bottom, or nearly so, of the
water cistern, and upon the upper end of each of the said entrance pipes I
place a valve opening inwards, so as to permit the water from the cistern to flow
into the pump barrel, and to prevent its returning out of it by the same passage;
and I shall call the said valves entrance valves. I also affix to the lower end
of each of the said pump barrels a pipe (which I shall call the exit pipe); and
at any convenient distance from the said pump barrels I unite the said two
exit pipes into one, and at the point or place of junction I unite to them another
pipe (which I shall call the exit main pipe), of such a length as to reach from
the said place of junction to the cylinder of the hydromechanical press, and at
any convenient place between the two ends of the said exit main pipe I
introduce three valves, namely, an exit valve, a safety valve, and a let-off or
discharging valve. The exit valve is made to open outwards, so as to admit
the water to pass from the pump barrels through the exit main pipe into the
press cylinder, and so as to prevent it's returning into the pump barrels. The
safety and let-off valves are similar to those in common use, and such as are
usually applied to hydromechanical presses, and therefore will be sufficiently
understood without further description. The said two pump barrels being
thus arranged, and furnished with two solid plungers, which said plungers I
make of the same diameter and give to each the same length of stroke, let
it be supposed that the press cylinder, the pumps, and the pipes are all fi.led
with water, and in a state ready to begin the operation of pressing, and
suppose that both the said plungers are then made to descend simultaneously,

page_text: the water contained in both the said pump barrels would thereby be forced
from thence through the exit pipes, and through the exit main pipe into the
press cylinder. Again, if the A be raised or drawn up, the pump barrel A
would become filled with water, and we should have one of the pump barrels
filled and the other empty, and the two plungers in opposite positions, that is,
one plunger would be up and the other down. Then from this position let
both the plungers be moved simultaneously, the one upwards and the other
downwards, until each has passed through the whole length of the stroke; it
is clear that the only effect produced by the motion of the two pistons in
opposite directions would be that the water which was previously contained in
one of the pumps would have been expelled from thence through the two exit
pipes into the barrel of the other pump, for by the preceding description of
the said exit pipes it will have been understood that the said two exit pipes
form an open communication between the barrels of the said two pumps, and
that during the operation last mentioned no water would have passed through
the exit main pipe into the press cylinder. Again, let us suppose the two
solid plungers to be placed in another position relatively with each other, that
is to say, let the plunger A be at half the height of it's stroke, and the pump A
to be half filled with water, and let the plunger B be at the bottom, then, if a
simultaneous motion be given to the two plungers in an upward direction
through half the height of the stroke, we should have the pump A full of water,
and the plunger A at the top of the pump, and we should have the other
pump B half filled with water and its plunger B standing at half the height
of its stroke; and the effect produced by the last-mentioned change of position
would be that each of the said pumps had been half filled with water, for it is
evident that during the ascent of both the pistons the water would. be
drawn into each of the barrels from the water cistern through the two entranco
pipes. Let both of the said plungers be again moved simultaneously, but in
opposite directions, that is to say, let the plunger A be moved downwards and
B upwards, through a space equal to half the height of one stroke; by this
change of position of the two plungers a quantity of water equal to half the
cubic contents of one of the pumps would be driven out of the pump A into
the pump B, so that the water would only have changed places from one
barrel to the other, without any of it finding its way into the cylinder of the
press. The plunger A having now descended half way, and the plunger B
being at the top, let both plungers be moved downwards through half the
length of a stroke; a quantity of water will be expelled from each pump equal
to half it's cubic contents, and be forced through the exit and main pipes into
the cylinder of the press. From what I have herein-before said it will be

page_text: clearly understood, first, that whenever the said two plungers have a simul-
taneous motion in the same direction given to them, that is, when both
are made to ascend and descend together with the same velocity, a quantity
of water equal to the cubic contents of both pumps would be driven or forced
into the cylinder of the press at every descent of the two plungers; and,
secondly, that whenever the said two plungers have a simultaneous motion
given to them in an opposite direction to cach other, that is, whenever tho
plunger A shall move upwards whilst B moves downwards, during the whole
length of their strokes no water at all can pass from the pumps into the
cylinder of the press; and, thirdly, that whenever the relative motion of the
two plungers is such as that, whilst one of the said plungers is at the top or
bottom of its stroke the other of the said plungers shall be half way up or in
the middle of its stroke, a quantity of water equal to the cubic contents of one
of the said pump barrels will be forced from the pumps into the cylinder of
the press; and, lastly, it will also have been understood (or at all events it is
apparent) that whenever both of the said plungers are moving upwards that
water will be drawn from the water cistern into the pumps, and, on the con-
trary, whenever the said two plungers are both descending the water will be
driven out of the pumps into the cylinder of the press.
I shall now describe the machinery which I employ in working the said two
pumps, which is as follows, that is to say:-I cause the alternating or up-and-
down motion to be given to the two solid plungers herein-before mentioned by
the revolution of two cranks, and I place the axles of the said cranks in an
horizontal position at any convenient distance above the tops of the aforesaid
plungers, and the said axles are placed parallel and at the same distance from
each other as there is between the aforesaid two pumps; and I connect the
aforesaid two plungers with the aforesaid cranks by means of connecting rods
such as are in common use for working pumps. I determine the distance at
which the aforesaid two pumps shall stand from each other by considering
the nature of the operation to be performed by the hydromechanical press to
which the said pumps are to be applied, having regard at the same time to
the power which is to be appropriated as a first mover to work the aforesaid
pumps, the greatest amount of pressure intended to be given to or required by the
substance to be pressed, the extent through which the piston of the press is to
be forced out of the cylinder of the press during the act of pressing, the rela
tion between the diameter of the piston of the press and the diameters of the
aforesaid two pumps, and the time in which it may be required to perform
the operation. But as all these are extremely variable in themselves, and also
in their combination, it is impossible for me to give any precise directions

page_text: regarding this part of the construction of the machinery, further than by
supposing the axes of the aforesaid two pumps to be placed at the distance of
two feet from each other, and that the relation between the diameter of the
piston of the hydromechanical press and that of the two pump barrels is such
that one operation of pressing requires one hundred strokes of each of the
said two pumps in order to produce a sufficient degree of pressure. It is
obvious that when the operation of working a hydromechanical press first
commences, the material or substance which is about to be pressed presents
little or no resistance to the piston of the press; but that as the piston
advances the resistance or reaction gradually increases; it therefore follows,
that when the operation of pressing first commences the whole of the water
contained in both the aforesaid pumps ought to be forced from thence into the
cylinder of the press, and that as the reaction of the substance under pressure
increases the quantity of water forced into the press cylinder by each succeed-
ing stroke of the pumps should be diminished in the same ratio. In order to
effect this as nearly as possible I make use of two toothed or cog wheels, by
fixing or securely hanging them upon the two axles of the cranks herein-before
mentioned, fixing each wheel in such a position as that the teeth in the said
two wheels shall take into or work in each other, so as that if a first mover be
applied to turn one of the aforesaid axles motion shall be communicated to the
other of the aforesaid axles also by the agency of the said two wheels; and in
order to effect a gradual and progressive change in the relative position of the radii
of the two cranks herein-before mentioned, and thereby to cause the quantity
of water driven out of the pumps by the plungers to be progressively increased
or diminished on every stroke of the said pumps, or on every revolution of the
said wheels, I put a greater number of teeth into one of the said wheels
than into the other; for instance, I put two hundred and one teeth into one
wheel, and two hundred teeth into the other. In commencing the operation
of pressing, the angular position of the radii of the two cranks ought to be
such with regard to each other as that when the said cranks are made to
revolve both the before-mentioned plungers should thereby be made to move
in the same direction, because, by both descending together they will dis-
charge the whole of the contents of both the pump barrels, and produce the
quickest motion of the press when there is the least resistance to be overcome.
But as there is one more tooth in one wheel than in the other, it is clear that
as the wheels continue to revolve the relative or angular position of the two
radii of the said cranks will progressively change until they are diametrically
opposite to each other, or until one of the said wheels has made one hundred
revolutions; and when the cranks are in this position they will cause one of the

page_text: plungers to be ascending whilst the other is descending, and consequently, as
has hercin-before been explained, no water can then be discharged from the
pumps. The pressure having thus been completed, the water may be dis-
charged from the press cylinder by releasing the discharging valve in the usual
way, and, during the removal of the material which has undergone the opera-
tion of pressing from the press, and the putting in another charge, the motion
of the pumps may, under ordinary circumstances, be continued until the radii
of the cranks are again brought into the proper position for commencing a
second operation of pressing; but when the same pumps are required to work
two or more presses in quick succession, the angular position of the cranks
may be brought parallel to each other by hand by any of the well-known
methods for disengaging the teeth of the two wheels during the interval
required for such purpose. Any power may be easily applied as a first mover
by any of the well-known methods; but in all cases I recommend the intro-
duction of a fly wheel, in order to produce a greater uniformity of motion.
In the foregoing description of my Invention I have mentioned a variety of
articles of machinery which are well known and in common use; but I do not
lay any claim to the exclusive use of these in their individual characters; and
although I have described the manner of carrying my said Invention into effect
by the employment of two wheels only, with the relative difference of one
tooth, I hereby declare that the same thing may be done by the combination
and employment of a greater number of wheels, or by a greater relative differ-
ence in the number of teeth where two wheels only are employed, so as that
the operation of pressing may be continued during a longer or shorter interval
of time; and lastly, I declare that my Invention consists in the application of
such a combination of wheels as has herein-before been described to the work-
ing of two pumps, such combination of wheels being so made and calculated
as to produce during the continuance of their revolution a gradual and pro-
gressive change in the alternating motion of two pumps, and thereby capable
of producing a similar effect to that which I have herein-before described,
namely, that of gradually and progressively increasing or diminishing the
quantity of water discharged by every successive stroke of such said two pumps
throughout any given number of strokes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joel Spiller, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Sixth day of July, in the year of our Lord One thou-
sand eight hundred and twenty-four.
J. SPILLER. (L.S.)

page_text: J. S. HARVEY.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Sixth day of July, in the
year above mentioned, the aforesaid Joel Spiller came before our Lord the
King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and all
and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also the
Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute in
that case made and provided.
inrolled the same Sixth day of July, in the year above written.