IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF RAISING WATER FOR GIVING MOTION TO MACHINERY, AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1819

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
PONTIFEX, of Shoe Lane, in the City of London, Coppersmith, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventh day of
January, in the fifty-ninth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
John Pontifex, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Pontifex, my exors, adiñors,
and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF RAISING WATER FOR
GIVING MOTION TO MACHINERY, AND OTHER PURPOSES;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the said John Pontifex, shall not
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all
liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, deter-

page_text: mine, and become void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said John
Pontifex, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in the following description thereof and annexed Drawing (that is
to say) :-
Explanations of the Drawings of my Hydraulic Apparatus, or Improvements
in the Means of Raising-Water. for giving Motion to Machinery, and other
Purposes. A, A, represent two-cylinders, in-each of which a vacuum is to be
created by the condensation of steam. B, B, two cocks, commonly called three-
way cocks, one connected with each cylinder; these cocks have each two
branches, one for the admission of steam and, the other for the admission of
water; they are so attached to the cylinders and connected together, that by
the action of the levers and bar O, O, one cock shuts off or excludes the steam,
and opens for the water to pass through one of the tubes E, E, into the onc
cylinder, while the other shuts off or excludes the water and opens for the
steam to pass through the other, tube E-into the other. cylinder. C, the pipe
through which steam from a boiler is conveyed and conducted through the
branches (c, c,) into the tubes E, E. This pipe is connected with one branch
of each cock. D, D, D, the pipe through which water from the cistern H
placed below the nozzles K, K, is conveyed and conducted through the branches
(a, a,) into the tubes E, E. E, E, the tubes through which the steam and
water alternately pass, fixed as nearly as possible in the centre of each cylinder,
extending respectively downwards from the cock. at the top of each cylinder to
about one third or fourth of the depth of the cylinder. The tubes are made
taper and perforated with small holes, each tube having a small orifice at the
bottom, with a' plate (e) fixed horizontally a short distance below, connected by
two straps. The water, commonly called condensing water, admitted into each of
the tubes E, E, is distributed or sprinkled over the interior of each of the
cylinders, principally through the small holes, and the remainder through the
orifice at the bottom, and is scattered by: falling on the plate (e). The water
thus distributed produces a condensation of the steam, the consequence of
which is that the water or fluid intended to be raised immediately rises in the
suction pipe and passes into or charges the. cylinders alternately, and is dis-
charged from the nozzles K, K. F, F, two valves fixed at the top of the
suction pipe M, just below each of the cylinders. These valves are alternately
opened by the force of the water rushing into the cylinder, and shut or closed
whilst the contents. are being discharged from the respective cylinders. G, G,

page_text: two valves fixed just below the nozzles of the cylinders; these valves also are
alternately opened by the force of the water rushing out of or being discharged
from their respective cylinders, and shut or closed whilst the respective cylin-
ders are being filled. H, a cistern placed under the nozzles of the cylinders
(but which may be elsewhere placed), into which the contents of the cylinders
are first discharged, and from this cistern the pipe D is supplied with water or
other fluid; within side the cistern a strainer is affixed in order to keep the
water clear and free from dirt. I, a valve fixed in the pipe D for the purpose
retaining or holding water in the pipe D, when the hydraulic apparatus is not
in action: K, K, the nozzles of the cylinders, which are affixed to air vessels
above the valves G, G, out of which the water, or rather fluid, is discharged.
L, the nozzle out of which water or other fluid is discharged from the cistern H.
M, the suction pipe through which the water or fluid is raised; the foot of this
suction pipe is placed in or below the surface of the water intended to be
raised: N, N, two cups which should be filled with grease or other anti-
attritious matter; they are placed one on each of the cocks B, B. O, O, the
levers and bar used for the purpose of turning the cocks.
I lay my claim to originality in this improved hydraulic apparatus,—
First, in the tubes E, E, for sprinkling or distributing the steam and water
over the interior of the cylinders.
Secondly, in the water being conveyed and conducted through the pipe D,
the same not being forced into the cylinders by a pump or falling down by its
own weight from any pipe, cistern, or reservoir above or on a level with tho
cylinders.
Thirdly, in two or more cylinders being worked together upon the foregoing
principle.
In the application of this process it is necessary, first, to supply the
cistern H with water or other fluid, then the levers and bar 0, 0, must
be put in action to turn the cocks, so that one of them may admit steain
(the quantity necessary will be regulated by the dimensions of the cylinder), to
be supplied from a boiler through the pipe C into one of the tubes E, E, by
which it is distributed over the interior of the cylinder. By this operation the
air collected in the cylinder is driven or blown out, the steam occupying or
taking its place; the cocks then being turned the contrary way, water is ad-
mitted from the cistern H through the pipe D for the purpose of producing a
condensation of the steam, at the same time steam is admitted into the other
cylinder, and thus, by the levers and bar being turned first one way and then
the other, a condensation of steam is alternately produced in each cylinder, and
a quantity of water or other fluid raised proportionate to the dimensions of the