AN ENGINE FOR MOVING AND PROPELLING SHIPS, BOATS, CARRIAGES, MILLS, AND MACHINERY OP EVERY KIND
Year: 1827

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
WILMOT HALL, of the City of Baltimore, in the United States of America, at
present residing in the City of Westminster, in the County of Middlesex,
Attorney at Law, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Fourth, by His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fifteenth day of January now last past, did give and
grant unto me, the said William Wilmot Hall, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said William Wilmot Hall, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
and such others as I, the said William Wilmot Hall, my executors, administra-
tors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times hereafter during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, the
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all
His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, the Invention of "AN ENGINE
FOR MOVING AND PROPELLING SHIPS, BOATS, CARRIAGES, MILLS, AND MACHINERY OP
EVERY KIND," communicated to me by a foreigner residing abroad; in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William
Wilmot Hall, to cause a particular description of the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, to be inrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next

page_text: and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Wilmot Hall, do hereby declare that the said Invention of an
engine for moving and propelling ships, boats, carriages, mills, and machinery
of every kind, is fully described and ascertained, as follows; that is to say:
(I must, however, premise, that in my description I shall confine myself mainly
to the peculiarities, of this Invention; for the rest of the machinery adopting,
and once for all referring to, the ordinary machinery of the steam-engine, so
far as the same may be convenient to effectuate the object of the present
Invention.)
In a boiler of any convenient form I immerse a pneumatic pump I (sec
Figure 1, Drawings in the margin of these Presents), which I call the gas
pump. If the boiler be of the same form as that of the common steam
engine, and the furnace be constructed and arranged like that of the same
engine (as in Figure 1), the flue or chimney G should pass up through the
water and steam in the boiler, and be furnished with a register or damper H,
by which it may be partially or wholly closed. The superior chamber of the
gas pump communicates with the chimney below the register by the inlet
tube N entering the top of the pump, and the inlet valve O' opening into the
pump. The inferior chamber of the gas pump also communicates with the
chimney by the inlet pipe L, which issues from the chimney within the boiler,
and passing down enters the bottom of the gas pump by the inlet valve M
opening into the pump. From the top of the gas pump issues the outlet
pipe P, which enters the top of the boiler. This pipe is furnished, where it
issues from the gas pump, with an outlet valve Q, opening from the pump.
From the bottom of the gas pump there issues another outlet pipe R, which rises
above the level of the water in the boiler. This pipe also is furnished, where
it issues from the gas pump, with an outlet valve S opening from the pump.
The inlet valves of the gas pump and their seats ought to be faced with
platina. The piston K of the gas pump is driven by the engine. The
operation is produced in the following manner :-The engine is first set iu
motion by steam, the register is then closed; now, on the ascent of the
piston K the inlet valve M will be opened, and the inferior chamber of the gas
pump will be filled by the elastic fluids issuing from the chimney, whilst the
outlet valve S will be kept shut by the pressure of the steam in the boiler. In
the same manner, on the descent of the piston, the inlet valve O will be opened,
and the superior chamber of the gas pump will be filled by the elastic fluids
issuing from the chimney, whilst the outlet valve Q is closed by the steam in

page_text: the boiler. Thus the superior and inferior chambers of the gas pump alternately
receive a supply of heated elastic fluids from the chimney through the tubes N
and L respectively. It must be borne in mind that these fluids do not here
communicate any motion to the piston of the gas pump; that they are merely
passive, rushing into the pump to fill the vacuum which would otherwise be
occasioned by the ascending or descending motion of the piston, received from
the engine alone. On the descent of the piston of the gas pump the inlet
valve M closes, and the compression of the fluids contained in the inferior
chamber augments their elasticity till it overcomes that of the steam in the
boiler. The outlet valve S then yields to the pressure, and the contents of the
chamber are driven at a high temperature into the boiler, where they mingle
with the steam; on the ascent of the piston of the gas pump the same effect is
produced in the same manner (mutatis mutandis). Thus the superior and
inferior chambers of the gas pump alternately discharge their contents into the
boiler, through the tubes R and P respectively. The piston must be metallic.
Its packing may be of fine card wire. The discharge of the mixture of
steam and other elastic fluids, thus collected in the upper part of the boiler,
takes place through the tube V, furnished with a valve, which tube communi-
cates with the steam cylinder commonly called the working cylinder of the
engine, where they act conjointly on the piston of that cylinder, and afterwards
are either suffered to escape into the atmosphere or are condensed, as in
common condensing engines. The water produced thereby, the gases, &c., are
pumped out together. A different arrangement of the furnace may, in some
cases, be preferable. Thus a, a, (Figure 2) is an iron cylinder or furnace
placed vertically in the boiler b, b, open at bottom and furnished with the
grate c, c. The flue or chimney r may issue from the furnace near the top, or
at any convenient point lower down, as experience may warrant.
In this case
the furnace is to be supplied with coal by means of a hopper d, placed on its
top. The inferior part of the hopper is cylindrical, open at bottom, and
pierced with three or four lateral apertures h, h, of about six inches in
diameter. In the hopper is placed a piston f, the rod of which moves through
the supporting bars 9, 9, and is furnished with a shoulder k, and with a spur i,
whereby it receives a jerk which elevates it two or three inches at every revo-
lution of the balance wheel. On the removal of the elevating force the piston
descends by the weight of the coal, or, if necessary, the rod may be loaded
with the weight 1. Now, when the piston is raised by a sudden jerk to the
lower margin of the lateral holes it will shake out a quantity of coal upon the
fire. A net of iron ought to be placed upon the hopper to exclude those masses
of coal which would be too large to pass through the lateral holes. Instead of

page_text: the double operation, where is here given to the gas pump, it may have only a
single operation; (that is to say,) it may be furnished with only one inlet tube,
and corresponding inlet valve, and only one outlet valve, which valves may be
either in the top or bottom of the gas pump. In this case the pipe P or R (as
the case may be) which shall be at the end of the pump opposite to the valves
ought to be without a valve. The packing of the piston of the gas pumps may
then be of hemp, or instead of immersing the gas pump in the boiler it may
be applied to it externally. These arrangements, however, are much less
advantageous than that which has been first described. That part of the
machinery by which the motion is to be communicated to the thing to be
moved may advantageously be put out of gear previously to starting the
engine, and knocked into gear after closing the damper. When the engine is
situated in foundries or manufactories, in which large fires are kept up for other
purposes, the gas pump may derive its supplies of elastic fluids wholly or in
part from the chimnies of those fires by means of tubes; the chimnies being
closed by means of registers above the tubes. As to the proportion which the
dimensions of the gas pump ought to bear to those of the working cylinder, I
recommend that the entire measure of the former be to that of the latter as
169 to 256 or thereabouts. The dimensions of the working cylinder are to
be so calculated that its excess above the dimensions of the gas pump will
give the required power to the engine.
This Invention may also be very advantageously employed for warming large
manufactories, and for heating great quantities of liquids in wooden vessels.
In witness whereof, I, William Wilmot Hall, bave hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Thirteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
J. S. HARVEY.
W W. HALL. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Thirteenth day of July,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid William Wilmot Hall came before
our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore- 3
said, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And
also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.