IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROPELLING OF LOCOMOTIVE CARRIAGES AND MACHINES, AND BOATS AND OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1828

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
CARPENTER BOMPAS, of the Inner Temple, London, Serjeant-at-Law, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-ninth day of April, in the ninth year of His reign, did, for
Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Charles
Carpenter Bompas, by the description of Charles Carpenter Bompas, of the
Inner Temple, Esquire, His especial licence, that I, the said Charles Carpenter
Bompas, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Charles Carpenter Bompas, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also
within all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Inventation of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROPELLING OF LOCOMOTIVE CARRIAGES AND MACHINES, AND
BOATS AND OTHER VESSELS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said Charles Carpenter Bompas, by an Instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calender months next and immediately after the date of
the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Carpenter Bompas, do hereby declare, that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described
and ascertained as follows (that is to say) :-
The improvements in the propelling of locomotive carriages and machines,
boats and vessels, consist in the employment, as the power for the propelling
of the said locomotive carriages, machines, boats, and vessels, of air or gas
highly condensed, and contained in reservoirs or vessels fixed or placed in or
about the said carriages, machines, boats, or vessels respectively. The reser-
voirs are best made of iron, and their form cylindrical, with hemispherical
ends. They may be of any size, but the dimensions which will generally be
found to be the best are from twelve to eighteen inches in diameter, and the
length for carriages from three to twelve feet, according to the nature of the
carriage and the situation in which they are intended to be placed. These
reservoirs may be placed in one or more rows underneath and behind the
carriage; they should be made as light as is consistent with safety, and should
be carefully proved to a pressure somewhat higher than the air or gas they
are intended ever to contain in actual use. The air or gas may be condensed
either by its being disengaged chemically from substances with which it is in
combination within a confined space, in the manner used in minute quantities at
the Royal Institution, London, and at other places; but the best and cheapest
method is, to compress atmospherical air by condensing pumps, which are now
in common use for compressing oil or rosin gas, worked by steam engines or
other mechanical powers. Fixed reservoirs should be stationed at appropriate
places, into which the air or gas should be condensed, and which should be
kept filled with air or gas at such a pressure above that required for the
carriages, machines, boats, or vessels, according to their capacity, as to allow
for the expansion in filling the reservoirs placed in or about them respectively.
From such fixed reservoirs the carriage, machine, boat, or vessel may be
supplied with great rapidity, by means of connecting pipes and valves or cocks.
The locomotive reservoir should be filled with air or gas, condensed to a
pressure, according to the strength of the reservoirs and machinery, of from
thirty to one hundred and fifty atmospheres, or even upwards; in proportion
as it is condensed very highly it will occupy less space, but will be more
difficult to transfer to the reservoirs, and to use the condensation of about one
hundred atmospheres will combine most advantageous. The weight of the
reservoirs will be nearly the same in proportion to the quantity of air, what-
ever may be the pressure. The motion is communicated to the locomotive

page_text: carriages or machines by means of a working cylinder with a piston, having
valves or cocks, through which, by means of a connecting pipe, the condensed
air is introduced into the cylinder alternately above and below the piston,
while the opposite side of the piston communicates with the open air. The
piston acts upon the wheel, either by a crank or any other mode of converting
the reciprocating to the circular motion, in the way the piston of the steam
engine acts upon the wheels of the locomotive steam carriages. It is better
to have two working cylinders to each locomotive carriage. The condensed
air or gas should be worked expansively; and this may be effected nearly in
the usual way in which steam is worked expansively, either by having a
double cylinder, in the first and smaller of which the air or gas shall expand
in some degree according to the condensation of the air or gas then used,
and then be admitted to the second cylinder, to exert its remaining expan-
sive power, or in one cylinder, by cutting off the air or gas at such part
of the stroke, according to the pressure, as shall cause it to exert its
whole expansive energy. The progress and velocity of the carriage must
be regulated by a cock or valve in the connecting pipe between the reser-
voir and working cylinder, by means of which, the condensed air or gas
may be cut off, wholly or in part, as may be required, from the working
cylinder. In boats or vessels the condensed air or gas is to be contained in
reservoirs of the same kind as those before described, the length of which will
depend upon the size of the boat or vessel; and the power is to act by means
of a working cylinder or working cylinders of the same kind and acting in
the same manner as that before described for carriages, the piston or pistons
of which must communicate with paddle wheels by cranks, in the same
manner as the pistons of steam engines in steam vessels. This method will
be chiefly advantageous for boats or vessels when they are employed for ferries
or for short distances, or for boats or vessels too small for steam engines.
Though a cylinder and piston have been mentioned as the mode by which the
power of the condensed air or gas should act, it is not intended to describe
that as the only method; machines resembling the rotatory part of the rotatory
steam engines may be substituted for the working cylinder and piston. Nor
is the Patent intended to include or to be limitted by the machinery by which
the condensed air or gas is described as propelling the carriages, machines,
boats, or vessels; but the Patent is intended to secure the employment of
condensed air or gas, to be contained in reservoirs fixed or placed on or about
carriages, machines, boats, or vessels, as the power for propelling the same
respectively, of whatever form the reservoirs may be, or by whatever machinery

page_text: In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Carpenter Bompas, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight.
DAYERY, MA
CHAS CARPENTER (L.s.) BOMPAS.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fourth day of October,
in the year of our Lord 1828, the aforesaid Charles Carpenter Bompas came
before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-fifth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight.