AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PNEUMATIC CONDENSING APPARATUS, FOR THE PURPOSE OF COMPRESSING AIR, AERIFORM OR GASEOUS BODIES, PREPARATORY TO THEIR USE AS PRIME MOTORS, OR FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Talbot Pitman, of the American and European
Patent Offices, No. 67, Gracechurch Street, London, for the Invention of
"AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PNEUMATIC
CONDENSING APPARATUS, FOR THE PURPOSE OF COMPRESSING AIR, AERIFORM OR
GASEOUS BODIES, PREPARATORY TO THEIR USE AS PRIME MOTORS, OR FOR OTHER
PURPOSES." A communication from William Atwood Royce, of Newburgh,
County of Orange, in the State of New York, one of the United States
of America.
Sealed the 22nd February 1859, and dated the 2nd September 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Talbot Pitman, at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
2nd September 1858.
I, JOHN TALBOT PITMAN, of the American and European Patent Offices,
No. 67, Gracechurch Street, London, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION
OF PNEUMATIC CONDENSING APPARATUS, FOR THE PURPOSE OF COMPRESSING AIR,
AERIFORM OR GASEOUS BODIES, PREPARATORY TO THEIR USE AS PRIME MOTORS, OR
FOR OTHER PURPOSES," a communication from William Atwood Royce, of
Newburgh, County of Orange, in the State of New York, one of the United
States of America, to be as follows:-
It consists in the use of a condensing cylinder with a double convex hollow
piston sustained by a hollow piston rod. The piston is bolted together by
rods passing through a core which is held by them in the hollow of the piston,

page_text: so as to leave a sufficient space between it and the walls of the piston for
fluids to pass from the lower half of the piston rod up through the piston into
the upper half; the lower end of the lower piston rod, which moves in a pump
barrel, is provided with a valve, and operates as a pump, while the upper
extremity of the upper rod is perforated with small holes, for the passage of
the fluid out on to and over the cylinder and refrigerating tube that surrounds
it, and being retained by the receptacle in which the cylinder is placed, the
water or other fluid submerges the latter, the object being to cool the piston
rod, cylinder, and refrigerating pipe, which have become heated by the com-
pression of the elastic fluids.
The cylinder heads are made concave internally, to fit the convexity of the
piston, so as to displace almost all the contents of that part of the cylinder.
Valves in the sides of the cylinder communicate with the refrigerating pipe,
which is placed spirally round the outside of the cylinder. Through this pipe
the compressed aeriform body from either end of the cylinder is forced by the
piston. Spray injections for the purpose of cooling may be substituted for
the other mode, and is effected through internal perforations in the cylinder
heads to distribute the stream brought up by the force pump. A series of
cylinders like the above may also be worked in conjuction, provided they
gradually diminish in size, the larger discharging into the less. The com-
pressed matter is finally received into a reservoir provided with safety valve,
stop-cock, etc. This, as well as the refrigerating pipes, is coated on the
inside with close-grained metals, vegetable gums, resins, oils, or extracts, to
prevent the escape of the gaseous bodies through the pores of the investing
metal. The object of the apparatus is to charge or fill reservoirs or conduits
with compressed aeriform bodies by mechanical means. The compressed
gaseous media may be transferred into smaller portable reservoirs, and used
elsewhere as a motor power.
I claim the apparatus for compressing or packing gaseous media, especially
the heat subtracting apparatus by means of pipes or tubes, hollow pistons, or
spray injections and immersion.
Also the serial compression, whereby great economy of force is attained
in packing high pressure, especially in large reservoirs, and facility afforded
to subtract the heat evolved before accumulating to an injurious degree.
Also the distribution of compressed air or other gaseous bodies through
tubes or conduits, or attached or detached reservoirs for the various uses of
motor or moving power, aeration, ventilation, disinfection, dessication, refrige-
ration, and melioration of temperature, also for expansion and buoyancy.
Also the use of thin coats of close-grained metal, and of vegetable gums,

page_text: resins, or extracts to the inner surface of the metallic reservoir and tubes or
conduits, to prevent the escape of air or gaseous bodies through the pores of
the metal.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Talbot Pitman in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
1st March 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
TALBOT PITMAN, of the American and European Patent Offices, No. 67,
Gracechurch Street, London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the
year of
Her reign, did for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Talbot Pitman, Her special licence that I, the said John
Talbot Pitman, or my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said John Talbot Pitman, or my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PNEUMATIC CON-
DENSING APPARATUS, FOR THE PURPOSE OF COMPRESSING AIR, AERIFORM OR GASEOUS
BODIES, PREPARATORY TO THEIR USE AS PRIME MOTORS, OR FOR OTHER PURPOSES,"
a communication from William Atwood Royce, of Newburgh, County of
Orange, in the State of New York, one of the United States of America,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Talbot Pitman, or
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Talbot Pitman, 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, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings.

page_text: Fig. 1 represents a vertical section of my pneumatic condensers or
cylinder (A).
Letter (a) is a hollow piston rod which connects with the upper head of the
double convex piston (b, b,) which piston is also hollow, having a core (c) in
its centre, with sufficient space between the upper and lower head or plate of
the piston, and the said core, to allow the fluid which passes up through the
lower piston rod (a) into the lower section of the hollow piston, to pass around
the core (c), up into the piston rod (a), from whence the fluid discharges
through the small holes (d, d,) in the upper end of the piston rod, after having
performed the office of cooling both piston and rod. The piston consists of a
core encased in a pair of plates, which are bolted or riveted together through
the core, as shown at Figures (1, 2, 3).
Letters (e, e, e, e,) are ingress and egress valves that communicate with the
refrigerating pipe (fff", f, f) through which pipe the compressed
aeriform body from either end of the piston and cylinder is driven by the
piston in motion (d, d¹). The great amount of heat evolved by compression of
elastic fluids is more or less dissipated by my refrigerating pipe (or tube).
A great amount of the heat may also be absorbed by the application of cold
liquid around the metallic cylinder (or condenser) (A) and the metallic tube
(fffff) all being submerged in water. In the lower end of the
piston rod (a, a',) there is a valve opening upwards that admits the water (or
cooling liquid) to pass up into the valve and piston rod, to traverse the piston
chambers each side of the core, when the rod is forced down as at (p) it is
represented. The necessary stuffing boxes at the upper and lower end of the
cylinder is shown at (i, i). At the lower end of the metallic cylinder there is
a pump barrel connected with the stuffing box (i, i,) through which the piston
rod (a, a',) traverses, thus forming a force pump, by means of which a current
of fluid is circulated through the hollow double convex piston and hollow
piston rod, to avert the consequences of the heat evolved, and absorb the heat
before accumulating with sufficient intensity to damage the working of the
parts exposed thereto. The metallic cylinder heads are concavo-convex, and
fitted, in order to work, so close-in extreme stroke of the piston as to displace
almost totally the contents of the cylinder, whether liquid or aeriform. Spray
injections may be used to counteract the heat evolved by compression, instead
of the refrigerating pipe, or as adjunctive to the pipe the hollow piston and
piston rod, as above described and shewn in the Drawings. To effect a spray
injection, a number of internal perforations throughout the internal area of
cylinder heads to distribute the stream from a force pump or fountain is all
that need be added to the cylinder. Any ordinary power may be applied to

page_text: operate the condenser, either by means of the crank, as shewn at J¹, J", J
or otherwise.
Figures 2 & 3 represent a pair of cylinders similar in construction to
Figure 1, and arranged upon a bed of plate for operating; the cylinders
(A & A¹) are of different capacity, and work simultaneously, the larger (A¹)
discharging into the lesser (A") cylinder. Any number of these cylinders
may be arranged and operated, so as to discharge the larger into the next
lesser cylinder after the above plan, preserving the same principles of economy
in force used to obtain an elastic density or force either in conduits or reservoir
and at the same time bearing in mind to suitably expose the compressed
matter to the refrigerating process as condensation progresses.
Figure 4 is a reservoir for holding compressed air or other gaseous bodies,
and is provided with a safety valve, stop cocks, check valves, &c., by which its
contents can be controlled and used.
The reservoir and tubes when made of such metals as are too porous to
retain the required charge, are to be coated with close grain metal alloys, or
vegetable extracts, as gum, resin, or oil, simple or combined with adjuncts
from the organic and inorganic kingdom of nature, so as to prevent the escape
of the gases through such pores as occur in the tenacious investing metal.
The object of my pneumatic apparatus is to charge or fill with any required
density reservoirs or conduits with compressed aeriform bodies by means of
some known mechanical power for use as herein indicated, and any other which
experience may approve and this apparatus be especially appropriate to effect.
The force pumps (A', A",) refrigerating pipes (f, f, ƒ ƒ ƒ,) and main
reservoir are stationary, as shown in the Drawings, and the compressed
gaseous media are transfered from this fixed reservoir or condenser by means
of main conduits, pipes, &c., or by the use of portable reservoirs, which may
be attached, charged, detached, and discharged at any desirable place and
time, the same being controlled by due provision of cocks, couplings, connec
tions, &c., the charge being attainable either at the place of condensation, or
any points on conduits provided with conveniences, and discharge effected at
any desirable place, either as motive power, or for any other purpose available.
Stationary pipes or mains may be used to connect the condenser or main
reservoir with any engine for operating factories, mills, shops, &c. (the com-
pressed matter serving similar purposes, and in similar apparatus as steam)
which are in reasonable distance, in which case detached reservoirs are needless.
This project also includes the use of meters, to show the density and con-
sumption of the compressed matter taken from the mains, answering to the
same or similar purpose as the gas meter now so extensively used.

page_text: The advantages attainable by this Invention are innumerable, and too
tedious to enumerate in detail, but some of the principal are, safety to human
life and property by using air or gas engines where steam and other motors
are now used (except where the transfer cannot be made, as in lake and ocean
navigation) as on railroads, and in dense towns & cities; for mechanical and
other purposes, for instance, a condenser safely & properly located on the
borders of a town by means of conduits or detached reservoirs, may supply
the wants of the whole community with clean economical physical force, and
also ventilation and disinfection, (the compressed air or gas being mixed
with disinfecting or antiseptic agents when and where needed); it is also
applicable to the navigation of rivers, and especially appropriate to propel
ferry boats, their hulls serving the double purpose of boats and reservoirs,
therefore what I claim under the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent
as the Invention communicated to me, as before mentioned,―
First, the above described, for compressing or packing gaseous media,
especially the heat subtracting apparatus, by means of pipes (or tubes), hollow
pistons, spray injections, and immersion.
Second, I claim serial compression, whereby great economy of force is
obtained in packing high pressure, and also the facility afforded by trans-
mission from one pump (or cylinder) to another, to subtract the heat evolved
before accumulating to an injurious extent.
Third, I claim the distribution of compressed air or other gases through
tubes or conduits, or attached or detached reservoirs, for the various uses of
motor power, aeration, ventilation, disinfection, dessication, refrigeration, and
melioration of temperature, also expansion and buoyancy.
Fourth, the use of thin coats of close-grained metals, alloys, and of animal
and vegetable oils, extracts, mixed or simple, to coat the inside or inner
surface of reservoirs, conduits, or tubes, to prevent the escape of air or gaseous
bodies through the investing metal.
In testimony whereof, I, the said John Talbot Pitman, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, on this Fifth day of February, A.D., One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
JOHN TALBOT PITMAN. (L.S.)