IMPROVEMENTS IN WATER WHEELS AND PADDLE WHEELS
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Augustus Figge of No 14 Baker Street in the County of
Middlesex Civil Engineer for an invention of “IMPROVEMENTS IN WATER
WHEELS AND PADDLE WHEELS"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Augustus Figge at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 17th May 1882.
AUGUSTUS FIGGE of No 14 Baker Street in the County of Middlesex Civil
Engineer "IMPROVEMENTS IN WATER WHEELS AND PADDLE WHEELS
"
This Invention has for its object improvements in water wheels and paddle
wheels.
The purpose which I have in view more especially is to obtain motive power
from the flow of water in rivers by means of water wheels of peculiar construction
carried upon floats floating structures or otherwise The motive power can be
advantageously applied in pumping water for irrigation and in generating electricity
to be applied to operate ploughs or for other purposes. My improved wheel can
also be used as a propellor.
The wheel is provided with floats analogous to those of an ordinary paddle
wheel but they are free to turn upon axes or pivots. They are weighted so as to
preponderate slightly one side over the other and tend consequently to assume a
vertical position.
I make the floats of large area and in order to secure lightness I form them of
rectangular frames of iron tube covered with canvas or they inay be of other suitable
shape and material.
Each pivot or axis is provided with a short cross head armed at its extremities
with small wheels or pulleys to lessen friction against the guides by which the
floats are controlled. There are two guides one on either side of the wheel each
consists of a fixed plate formed to the curvature of the wheel and extending around
the lower half of it. The plate is provided along its edges with inwardly directed
flanges. The cross heads upon the pivots or axes of the floats enter between the
flanges of the guides at about the level of the main axis and before the floats enter
[Dain RI

page_text: the water. The flanges are here at a distance apart exceeding the length of the
crossheads so that the friction wheels or pulleys do not at once come into contact
with the guide flanges. In descending however the flanges approach each other
and when the float is directly under the axis of the wheel in the most efficient
position to be acted upon by the stream it is controlled by parts of the flanges
which are so close together that there is but just room for the friction wheels or
pulleys of the cross-head to pass between them and consequently the float is com-
pelled to retain its vertical position But nearly to this point the distance between
the guide flanges is such that a certain freedom is left to the float to admit of its
accomodating itself to the stream in entering and leaving the water so that it may
do so with as little disturbance and expenditure of power as is possible.
The guides may consist of rails fixed against the sides of the pontoon or floating
structure.
In some cases in place of providing the axes or pivots of the floats with cross-
heads I provide simple arms carrying but one friction wheel or pulley which works
in a guide course set excentrically to the axis of the wheel. This is the form which
is most suitable when the wheel is used as a propellor.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Augustus Figge in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
16th November 1882.
AUGUSTUS FIGGE of No 14 Baker Street in the County of Middlesex Civil
Engineer "IMPROVEMENTS IN WATER WHEELS AND PADDLE WHEELS."
"
This invention has for its object improvements in water wheels and paddle
wheels including the method of working and applying them in the manner herein-
after described.
The purpose which I have in view is more especially to obtain motive power
from the flow of water in rivers by means of water wheels of the improved con-
struction and arrangement hereinafter described when fixed or carried upon floats
floating structures or otherwise. The motive power can be advantageously applied
in pumping water for irrigation and in generating electricity to be applied to
operate ploughs or for other purposes. My improved wheel when constructed and
arranged as herein described can also be used as a propeller.
The wheel is provided with floats analogous to those of an ordinary paddle
wheel but they are free to turn upon axes or pivots. They are weighted so as to
preponderate slightly one side over the other and tend consequently to assume a
vertical position and by means of cross heads or their equivalents working in
suitable guides or guide courses arranged as hereinafter described they are retained
while in action in the required position.
I make the floats of large area and in order to secure lightness I form them of

page_text: Figure is a sectional side elevation and Figure 2 is a front elevation of a stream
wheel constructed according to my invention and arranged to work in connection
with suitable guide channels or guide courses which control the position of the
floats while in action similar wheels may be used as propellors.
A is the main shaft upon which the wheel is mounted and through which the
power is conveyed to the machinery which it is intended to drive. BB are the
bearings of the main shaft upon the pontoon or barge or other structure CC
are the arms and rings which compose the frame work of the wheel. D D are the
floats held by their pivots D' D' to the outer rings or periphery of the wheel. The
floats are so weighted or hung that they tend to assume a vertical position. EE
are cross heads upon the pivots and E' E¹ wheels or pulleys with which the cross
heads may be provided to reduce friction. F F are the fixed guide plates on either
side of the wheel forming guide channels or guide courses and F' F' their flanges
by which they act upon the wheels or pulleys E' E' and control the floats. The
guides do not interfere with the floats so long as they maintain the vertical position
which the preponderance of their lower ends tends to bring about, but the guides
prevent any deviation from this position at the time when the floats pass beneath
the shaft and are in efficient action. In this arrangement there is very little
friction in the guides. Figures 3 and 4 show the arrangement in which in place
of the cross heads E E there are arms E* E* each carrying a single friction wheel
or pulley.
A corresponding alteration is made in the form of the guide course.

page_text: I prefer to make the middle of the wheel a watertight hollow drum as shewn at
G Figures 1. 2 and 5. By forming the drum in this manner it tends to float and
thus the axis A is relieved from part or the whole of its weight.
When I mount the wheels upon floating pontoons the arrangement which I adopt
is that indicated by the figures 5 and 6. Figure 5 shows to a small scale a
transverse section of the pontoon and Figure 6 shows an horizontal section. As
will be seen the wheel works in a water course which is provided through the body
of the pontoon and this water course is bounded at the bottom and sides by
compartments which give buoyancy to the structure.
The entrance to this water course and the exit from it are widened out so as on
the entrance side to lead the water in and on the exit side to deliver the water
with as little disturbance as possible. With the same objects I also provide at each
end of the pontoon a hinged platform which when raised closes the mouth but
when lowered forms a continuation of the bottom. This platform also is provided
with side forming continuations of the fixed sides of the mouth and increasing the
width of the opening.
Where great regularity of motion is required, as when using dynamo electric
machines for electric light, I arrange the wheels to work pumps raising water into
elevated tanks upon the pontoon and from these tanks I draw water to actuate
turbines which drive the dynamo electric machines.
.
I arrange the dynamo electric machines vertically so that they may more readily
be driven from the vertical shaft of the turbine.
Having thus described the nature of my said invention and the manner of
performing the same I would have it understood that I claim :-
First. My improved water wheel or propeller arranged to work in combination
with guide course or courses and provided with floats which preponderate on one
side of the pivots and tend to set themselves vertically and are so held and
controlled by guides so long as they are in position for efficient action substantially
as described.
Second. The employment of water wheels working in combination with a guide
course or guide courses in a water course which is closed at the sides and at the
bottom substantially as described and represented in the annexed drawings.
In witness whereof I, the said Augustus Figge have hereunto set my hand
and seal this Fifteenth day of November in the year of our Lord Onc
thousand eight hundred and eighty two.