IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR TRANSMITTING MOTION AND FOR IK. PARTING POWER BY LIQUIDS OF DIFFERENT DENSITIES SUCH AS WATER AND MERCURY."
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Gérard Marquis of Montrichard, Ranger, of 2,
Rue Ste. Appoline, Paris, in the Empire of France, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR TRANSMITTING MOTION AND FOR IK.
PARTING POWER BY LIQUIDS OF DIFFERENT DENSITIES SUCH AS WATER AND
MERCURY."'
Sealed the 4th May 1869, and dated the 17th November 1868:
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Gérard Marquis of
Montrichard at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 17th November 1868.
I, GERARD Marquis of MONTRICHARD, Ranger, of 2, Rue Ste Appoline,
Paris, in the Empire of France, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR TRANSMITTING MOTION
AND FOR IMPARTING POWER BY LIQUIDS OR DIFFERENT. DENSITIES SUCH AS WATER
AND MERCURY," to be as follows:-
The machinery forming the subject-matter of this Invention consists
in the employment of liquids put in motion in pipes to transmit power
[Price 8d.]

page_text: by reason not only of their incompressibility but also of their weight.
The applications of these mechanical elements are numerous, I will
here describe the general mechanism, taking for an example a water
pump for draining a mine.
In the accompanying Drawing there is a pipe E, F, provided with
two valves M, N, which carry the water from the drain well E, this
pipe communicates in the spaces between the valves with one of the
branches B of a U-shaped tube, the other branch A of which is pro-
longed to the "motor," from which point the action is produced at
the point O. The lower portion of the U-shaped tube is shut with
mercury, on which two columns of water B, F, and A, O, rest. When
the machine works the "motor " acts alternately on the column of,
water A, O, with a pressure, then with a sucking action either by
means of a piston, or by a mercurial pump, or by any other means
capable of compressing and sucking the liquids. During the pressure
the level of the mercury descends from A¹ to A2 in the branch A and
ascends from B₁ to B in the branch B, the column of water B, F,
running back with it, of which a volume runs equal to the volume
travelling to the level of the mercury at B. During the suction the
level of the mercury rises from A to A¹ in the branch A, and redescends
from B to B in the branch B, and the machine displaces a volume
of water equal to the volume travelling through the level of the
mercury in B, if care is taken only to allow to pass to the pipe intended
to convey the suction water the height of the liquid column that the
atmospheric pressure is capable of putting in motion. The action of
the machine is determined by a pressure and a suction ; exercised
alternately with the surface of the column of water A, O. The suction
power is limited to the power of the atmospheric pressure, and I
recommend in practise to keep it at a height of water of or about twenty-
four feet. As regards the pressure the only limits are the power of
the driving machines, it must be calculated in such manner as to be
able to put in motion all the liquid contained between the points. O
and F, and to produce a difference of the height m between the levels
of the mercury in the branches A and B of the apparatus. This
'difference in the level of the mercury takes place during the pressure
with a resistance which becomes powerful during the suction, and
which is calculated in such manner as to produce with the suction k
a total power capable of determining the motion of the liquids contained

page_text: between the points F and O, and to bring back the mercury to the
level A', B', these conditions being algebrically placed all the dimensions
of the machine can be calculated, thus constructed it presents a certain
analogy to a pump in which the column of water A, O, would fill
the orifice of the pipe, and the mercury A, B, the double office of
piston in respect to the water raised in the pipe E, F, and the counter-
poise in respect to the liquid rod A, O. The branches of this machine
dipping into the mercury are made of iron or of a material unattackable
by mercury. The valves, the pipes, and all the parts of the machine
of which I have not made any special mention are constructed similar
to the analogous parts of other pumps. When it is required to obtain
a continuous delivery double machines are employed, where one presses
while the other sucks, and where the discharge may be still regulated
by the pressure of the receivers in compressed air. When it is required
to throw water to high elevations, to diminish the pressure supported
by the valves, simple or double pumps may be placed at different
heights. If the pumps placed at different heights are simple they
can be all driven by means of a simple liquid rod, if they are double
two liquid rods are employed, all these pumps may be driven by
independent rods. The size and shape of all the parts of the machine
must vary according to the effect or power each pump may be required
to produce, so that the accompanying Drawing must be only considered
more as a diagram than anything else with nothing determined as to
sizes or form of the machine.
The foregoing description is sufficient to explain the mechanismi
employed for transmitting to a distance the work of a pump with a
liquid or gaseous current, and even to exercise a pressure or a rarefication
on the gas if fluids of this nature are used, but besides motion can
be transmitted to solid bodies in the following manner :-Supposing
the receiver B entirely free at the upper surface and a solid float of a
volume V and weight P¹ is placed in the receiver, and supposing the
level of the mercury to be at an intermediate point B between B'
and B, so that the float can be supported by the mercurial column B', B³.
If at this moment the level of the mercury in B is raised the liquid
will exercise on the float a pushing action which would have the value
V, D-P, when the float is entirely immersed, and if it is fixed to a
machine on which it has to overcome a force G less that V, D-P, it
will produce a work equal to Ge, calling e the space in which the

page_text: pushing action of the mercury can take place. Then the level of
the mercury redescending from B2 to B, the same float will act in
descending with a power P, and if the resistance G of the machine
is less than P it will then produce a work equal to G'e', in marking
by e the last space travelled. Thus would be. transmitted to a solid
body an alternate work having a successive value Ge, G'e, Ge', G'e'..
and so on. It will be thus understood that a series of floats can thus
be put in motion by means of mercury enclosed in U-shaped tubes and
receive motion by a liquid rod descending on the same support worked
by a sucking and pressing "motor" placed at the point O. The fitting
up of these machines only requires a calculation of the equilibrium of
liquids and of the floats which come from known scientific theories
and known powers.. This system may be applied to the raising of water,
to the driving, compressing, or rarefication of gas, to driving by floats
of tool machines for workshops, and all machines generally where it
would be found advantageous to do away with the rigid action of solid
levers by the elastic and soft action of floats moved by liquids. I
would observe that it may be in some cases useful to substitute for
the water of the liquid rod entirely or partially other liquid oils, for
example when the motor will act on this rod by a piston.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Gérard Marquis of Montrichard in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 8th May 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GERARD
Marquis of MONTRICHARD, Ranger of 2, Rue Ste. Appoline, Paris,
Empire of France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of November, in theyear
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Gérard Marquis of Montrichard, Her special
licence that I, the said Gérard Marquis of Montrichard, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Gérard Marquis
of Montrichard, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-

page_text: after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands; and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR TRANSMITTING MOTION AND FOR IMPARTING
POWER BY LIQUIDS OF DIFFERENT DENSITIES SUCH AS WATER AND MERCURY,'
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Gerard Marquis
of Montrichard, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
J
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Gérard Marquis of Montrichard, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement:-
JA..
This. Invention relates to improvements in machinery for trans-
mitting motion and for imparting power by equilibrating two liquid's
of different densities, the densier being used as a liquid piston for
operating the suction or forcing of fluids and gases as herein-after
described. If in a U-shaped tube two liquids of different densities are
placed the heights of the liquid columns which equilibrate one another
are in inverse proportion to the densities of each. If these liquids be
water and mercury, for instance, a column of mercury of inconsiderable
height equilibrates a column of water of considerable height. The
equilibrium may take place not only with a column of water resting
upon the mercury, but also with a column of water sucked up in a
siphon forming a prolongation of one of the branches of the U-shaped
tube. The use of this densier liquid, generally mercury, in the lower
curve of a U-shaped tube, or in the lower part of two receptacles of
any convenient shape communicating together, where the said liquid
serves to equilibrate either a column of water which is supported, or
one which is sucked, or both, as in Fig. 1 of the accompanying Drawings
or equivalent pressures of gases, and performing at the same time the
functions of piston aswill be herein-after described, constitutes the special
object of the present Invention. Let us suppose in the. first instance
this liquid piston as being applied for the lifting of water. The liquid

page_text: Wi
piston pump equilibrated when constructed in the simplest manner
will be made in the following manner:-A lifting pipe E, F, provided
with two valves opening in the ascending direction communicates in
the intervals of the valves with one of the branches of the U-shaped
tube which contains the mercury. The other branch A of the U-shaped
tube communicates with a motive machine, an oscillatory motion is
imparted to the column of mercury enclosed in the U-shaped tube
either by merely exerting upon the liquid surface O intermittent
pressure which displaces every time the liquid piston from its equilibrium
position, to which it ever tends to return by reason of its weight, or by
exerting upon the liquid surface O successive pressures and suction,
the result of, which induces an alternative to and fro movement of the
mercurial levels. These effects are produced either by the direct and
intermittent action of the steam on the liquid surface O which may be
covered over with a fatty layer, either by a solid piston or any sort of
alternative pressure machine, actuated by any sort of motive power.
The to and frol movement of the mercury in the branch B produces with
the valves the effect of an ordinary pump piston and induces the ascent
of the liquids in the direction E, F, when the machine is applied to
the lifting of liquids. It may be further applied to the movement of
gases, to their compression, and rarefaction. In these latter applications
the dimension
of the mercurial piston are no longer calculated in
proportion to the liquid columns set in motion as in the water pump,
but in proportion to the elastic force of the compressed or rarefied
gases. The form and the dimensions indicated by Fig. 1 of the accom-
panying Drawings are not absolute; they must vary according to the
height the amount of water delivered by and the situation of each pump.
The parts of the U-shaped tube which are in contact with the mercury
should be made of a material noncorrosive to mercury; such as iron,
cast iron,” alúminium, glass, wood, gutta percha, caoutchouc. When
it is desired to obtain a continuous delivery or supply of water com-
pressed air récipients may be employed as in other pumps and two
liquid piston pumps working inversely to each other, that is, the one
forcing whilst the other sucks, may be coupled together. All the
accessory organs of other pumps are generally applicable to the liquid
piston pump,
the piston of which is the main novel feature. With
respect to'
to the steam it is regulated by slide valves or taps,
needless to
to stop to describe known systems, I shall merely indicate
the taps with four or three branches which may be employed. The
221 17
It is

page_text: tap with four branches distributes the steam to the double liquid pistons.
It is represented in Fig. 2 of the accompanying Drawings in horizontal
section; the tap with three branches regulates the steam for a single
piston. It only differs from the previous by the suppression of the
branch corresponding to the second piston.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and the
manner of carrying the same into effect, what I claim is, an apparatus
in the lower part of which assuming the shape of a curved tube or
divided into two compartments communicating together, a liquid of
great density is used as counterweight to a column of liquid of lighter
density sucked or supported or both simultaneously, answering the
purpose of a piston, substantially as herein-before fully set forth and
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Gérard Marquis of Montrichard,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day
of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and int.
G. MIS DE MONTRICHARD. (L.s.)