IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR UTILIZING MOTIVE POWER, AND APPLYING SUCH POWER TO THE WORKING OF PUMPS OR OTHER APPARATUS OR MACHINERY
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Best, of 22, Great Winchester Street, in the City
of London, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR
UTILIZING MOTIVE POWER, AND APPLYING SUCH POWER TO THE WORKING
OF PUMPS OR OTHER APPARATUS OR MACHINERY."
Sealed the 16th September 1879, and dated the 4th July 1879.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Best at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 4th July 1879.
GEORGE BEST, of 22, Great Winchester Street, in the City of London, Gentleman.
"IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR UTILISING MOTIVE POWER, AND APPLYING SUCH
POWER TO THE WORKING OF PUMPS OR OTHER APPARATUS OR MACHINERY."
This Invention relates to improved apparatus for utilising the motive power
derived from the weight and motion of liquids, and an especial application of the
Invention consists in utilising such motive power when derived from the oscillation
or the rolling or other motion of ships by applying the same to pumping out the
leakage or bilge water thereof, or performing other work on board vessels at sea.
It
The improved apparatus is constructed with a hollow vessel, chamber, or tank,
which may be either cylindrical or of other shape or form, but which I prefer to
construct of an oblong shape, enclosed on all sides, and of iron or other suitable
material. This vessel or tank is mounted horizontally on strong supports by means
of trunnions on each side thereof, so as to allow the tank to swing freely on the
said supports, and at a short distance above the deck of the vessel. The tank is
partly filled with water, quicksilver, or other liquid, but I prefer to use water.
is provided with suitable fittings, which allow of its being filled and emptied as
required. It is important that the tank be not entirely filled with the liquid, but
that sufficient roon shall be left for the liquid to oscillate freely from end to end
within the tank. At both ends of the tank or at its sides and adjacent to its ends,
as may be found most convenient, I attach strong lever arms or bars, which work
by their connecting rods and bars, directly or indirectly, into the tops or openings
of pumps, which are placed sufficiently near to the tank to be worked by means of

page_text: the lever bars attached thereto and the connections leading therefrom to the piston
rols of the said pumps. In cases where it may be more suitable I work the pumps
=not directly from the action of the tank, as above described, but indirectly through
the intervention of other apparatus, such as air pumps-and-chambers-or other well
known-appliances...
The apparatus-is-placed on the deck of the ship, or in any other convenient place,
-and-is-so-arranged that the tank lies lengthways across the ship, with its ends
towards the sides of the vessel.
The action of-the-apparatus is as follows:-When the ship through the action
of the sea rolls so as to elevate one side thereof, the end of the tank at that-side-
will be lifted up until the end of the tank will be higher than its centres, where it
swings on the trunnions. The liquid within the tank by reason of this declination,
however slight, runs to the other or lower end thereof, and by reason of its weight
depresses this end of the tank till it rests on the deck, and in this descent the
pistons of the pump or pumps which are situated at this end of the tank will be
driven down, and the pistons of the pumps at the other end of the tank will be
correspondingly raised, and will lift and eject a portion of the water which stood in
these pumps. In this position the tank and pumps will remain till the return lurch
or roll of the ship from the other side raises the now lower end of the tank, so
lifting up the pump pistons which were depressed, and ejecting their water and at
the same time driving down the pistons of the first set of pumps, and so on at each
lurch or roll of the vessel till all the water that rises in the pumps is exhausted.
In cases where the motion of the vessel is but slight, and not sufficient to raise
the ends of the tank and cause it to oscillate on its trunnions, I diminish the usual
distance between the bottom level of the tank and the deck, so that a slight rise
and fall of the deck will cause the tank to rise and fall in the same proportion,
and a short but proportionally effective action of the pumps will be thereby
maintained.
When desired the tank can be emptied of its contents by the above referred to
means, and its oscillation prevented by fastening one end to the deck, or by other
convenient means.