A NEW OR IMPROVED MODE OF CONSTRUCTING A MOTIVE-POWER WHEEL WHEREBY TO OBTAIN PERMANENT MOTION BY THE APPLICATION OF COMPRESSED AIR OR ANY OTHER ELASTIC FLUID
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Anthony Bernhard Baron Von
Rathen and George Henry Ellis, at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 21st July 1866.
We, ANTHONY BERNHARD Baron VON RATHEN, of Fitzroy Square, and
GEORGE HENRY ELLIS, Engineer, of Southampton Buildings, both in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"A NEW OR IMPROVED MODE OF CONSTRUCTING A MOTIVE-POWER WHEEL WHEREBY
TO OBTAIN PERMANENT MOTION BY THE APPLICATION OF COMPRESSED AIR OR ANY
OTHER ELASTIC FLUID," to be as follows:-
This Invention may be considered supplementary to an Invention of the
Baron Von Rathen of an elementary motive-power engine, for which a Patent
has been granted to him; Number 818, and dated March 23rd, 1865, and
consisting in a newly discovered plan for the construction of a motive-power
wheel or engine, on the principle that the motor, consisting of compressed air
or other elastic fluid, is maintained in permanent activity and without removal
or renewal, and the useful resistance of the air in the chambers is on the
surface of a fixed cylinder, the motion is regular and direct, the wheel rotating
on its fixed central axis.
The nature of our present Invention consists principally in our providing
instead of that a motive-power wheel having its axis upon fixed bearings in
an eccentric position and turning in an oscillating cylinder. The motor
being brought through a hollow shaft or any convenient channel is introduced
into one or more closed chambers formed upon the longest arm of the power

page_text: wheel for the purpose of driving it round; by this means, according to the
uniform pressure of the elastic fluid upon all surfaces, we obtain not only a
continuous but an additional degree of driving power from the leverage given
by the position of the wheel. There is, as shown in Figure 1 of the accom-
panying Drawing, a fixed arm or driving rod fixed upon the cylinder by which
to impart motion to a crank, piston, or other apparatus. We propose to
obtain the motor by pumps worked by or in connection with the power wheel,
and having other suitable. and necessary appliances for regulating, storing,
transmitting, and manipulating the force supplied to or communicated by the
power wheel, as have been described, to be applied with the plan for working
the elementary motive-power engine herein-before referred to.
Figure 1 is a vertical section of the power wheel revolving inside and
moving the oscillating cylinder.
A¹ and A2 are air-tight chambers, the former being the driving chamber
a the latter intended to check or counterbalance its wedging or binding
effect upon the cylinder, owing to the extra leverage obtained and the pressure
upon the surface of the rod B the wheel will revolve in that direction by the
action of the elastic force which finds its useful resistance on the internal
surface of the cylinder C. D1, D2, D3, D*, are packings to render the two
chambers air-tight and to afford bearings for the four arms of the wheel upon
the cylinder; E, E, are two tubes for conducting the motor into the chambers,
and F is the axle, upon which the wheel is firmly fixed and driven round
with it.
Figure 2 is a side elevation of the power wheel. F is the hollow shaft or
axle, through which the moter passes from the pumps or reservoir in connec-
tion therewith, and upon which the wheel rotates; G is the rod or arm fixed
at one end to the cylinder C, and attached at the other end by a joint or
coupling H to the rod I, acting within a cylinder to give motion to the
piston K; L is one of the side covers of the power wheel, and N the support
or framework for the wheel..