IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Edward Newton, of the Office for Patents, 66,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for an Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER." A com-
munication from abroad by Harriet Goodhue Hosmer, of Rome, in the Kingdom
of Italy.
(Void by reason of the Patentee having neglected to file a Specification in
pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Edward Newton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th March 1881.
HENRY EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS FOR OBTAINING
MOTIVE POWER." [A communication from abroad by Harriet Goodhue Hosmer, of
Rome, in the Kingdon of Italy.]
The Invention relates to a novel construction of apparatus for obtaining motive
power, the motive power being derived from the oscillation of a pendulum.
The apparatus consists of a horizontal framework at the opposite ends of which is
mounted a fly wheel. The shaft of each of these fly wheels carries a crank which
is connected by a pendent rod to opposite ends of a hollow rocking beam suitably
mounted in standards connected with the framework and containing mercury.
Below this beam and in the same vertical line with the fulcrum thereof is hung
in any convenient manner a pendulum. The upper end of this pendulum is
provided with a pair of arms which rest in contact with the underside of the
beam.
The pendulum carries at its lower end a vessel for containing a small quantity
of mercury.
The bottom of this vessel is convex, and the vessel is divided
internally by a transverse partition into two compartments. In each of these
compartments is a piston which at a given moment is driven down and forces
the mercury from that compartment into the other, thus acting as a moveable
weight.

page_text: Each piston is worked by a cam actuated by the rocking of the hollow beam
which when it arrives at a given point strikes against a rod in connection with
the cam and actuates it. At the same moment the piston by the swinging of the
pendulum is brought within the action of the cam.
The working of the apparatus is as follows:-The pendulum is brought to its
extreme limit, say to the left, and the mercury in the vessel is pumped by the
action of the piston into the downward end thereof. The pendulum is then allowed
to swing the extra weight of the mercury in the downward end of the vessel,
giving it sufficient impetus to carry it up to the cam arranged to the right, which
at the proper moment comes into action and by means of the piston drives the
mercury into the other or then downward end of the vessel, thus transferring the
extra weight to that end preparatory to the commencement of the return stroke.
The swinging of the pendulum causes by means of the arms attached thereto the
vibration of the hollow beam which actuates the fly wheels, and at a certain
period of its vibration works the piston cams.
Instead of or in addition to the fly wheels weighted levers may be employed.
In this case I provide suitable magnets which will hold the levers in a vertical
position or at the dead centre until this is overcome by the action of the vibrating
beam, the weight being sufficient to carry the lever round one turn.