IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CONTAINING COM- LJ PRESSED AIR OR GASES, AND IN THE APPLICATION OF THE SAME TO THE OBTAIN- IMENT OF MOTIVE POWERA Communication from the Company
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Henry Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields,
in the County of Middlesex, and of Glasgow, North Britain, Gentleman,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CONTAINING COM-
LJ PRESSED AIR OR GASES, AND IN THE APPLICATION OF THE SAME TO THE OBTAIN-
IMENT OF MOTIVE POWERA Communication from the Company." John
Cockerill," of Seraing, in the Kingdom of Belgium.
Sealed the 7th March 1856, and dated the 13th December 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th December 1855.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, and of Glasgow, North Britain, Gentleman, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CON-
TAINING COMPRESSED AIR OR GASES, AND IN THE APPLICATION OF THE SAME TO THE
OBTAINMENT OF MOTIVE POWER," a communication from the Company "John
Cockerill," of Seraing, in the Kingdom of Belgium, to be as follows:→
This Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of appa-
ratus for containing compressed air or gases, and supplying the same to prime
movers (in lieu of steam) at a constant and regular pressure.. The apparatus
consists of one or more receivers of wrought or cast iron, or other suitable
materials sufficiently strong and of suitable form to stand the pressure required,

page_text: arranged between the generator of such compressed air or gases and the prime
mover. The receiver or receivers are connected at their upper sides with the
generator by a pipe leading thereto, and an extension of this pipe conducts the
compressed air or gas to the prime mover. The generater and prime mover
may be of any convenient and well-known constructions suitable for the
purpose. The lower portion of the receiver or receivers communicate by a
suitable pipe with a water reservoir placed at a considerable elevation above
the receivers, whereby a constant head pressure will be obtained. Stop-cocks
are fitted into the pipes, and so arranged that the communications may be
either opened or closed between the receivers and the generators, prime mover
and water reservoir.
The compressed air or gas, when supplied to the receivers by the generator,
is kept at a constant and regular pressure by admitting a head pressure of
water inside the receivers, so that as the compressed air or gas is used up by
the prime mover, the level of the water will rise in the receivers, and will thus
keep the air or gas constantly. compressed. In all cases, however, it will be
found advisable to so arrange the apparatus that the demand in a given time
will not exceed the supply, so that the water level will remain always the
same inside the receivers. Receivers of this arrangement will be found
applicable in all cases where motive power is required, and where steam has
hitherto been used, whether for locomotive or stationary purposes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Henry Johnson in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 13th June 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex,
and of Glasgow, North Britain, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Henry Johnson, Her special license that I, the said John
Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said John Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might

page_text: make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CONTAINING COMPRESSED AIR OR GASES, AND IN THE
APPLICATION OF THE SAME TO THE OBTAINMENT OF MOTIVE POWER," a communi-
cation from the Company "John Cockerill," of Seraing, in the Kingdom of
Belgium, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Henry
Johnson, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Henry Johnson, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the fol-
lowing statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and
to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
The said Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of
apparatus for containing compressed air or gases, and supplying such air or
gases to prime movers (in lieu of steam) at a constant and regular pressure.
The apparatus consists of one or more receivers of wrought or cast iron, or
other suitable materials sufficiently strong and of suitable form to stand the
pressure required. These receivers are arranged between the generator of the
compressed air or gases and the prime mover. The receivers are connected'
with the generator at their upper sides by a pipe leading thereto, and an
extension of this pipe conducts the compressed air or gas to the prime mover."
The generator and prime mover may be of any convenient and well-known
construction suitable for the purpose. The lower portion of the receiver com-
municates by a suitable pipe with a tank or water reservoir placed at a
considerable elevation above the receivers, whereby a constant head pressure is
obtained. Stop-cocks are fitted into the pipes, and so arranged that the
communications may be either opened or closed between the receivers and the
generator, prime mover, and water reservoir.
The compressed air or gas, when supplied to the receivers by the generator,
is kept at a constant and regular pressure by admitting a head pressure of
water inside the receivers from the tank or reservoir, so that as the compressed
air or gas is used up by the prime mover, the water will pass from the tank
into the receivers, and will thus keep the air or gas therein contained at a
constant pressure. In all cases, however, it will be found desirable so to
arrange the apparatus that the demand in a given time will not exceed the

page_text: supply, so that the water level will remain always the same inside the receivers.
Apparatus of this construction will be found applicable in all cases where
motive power
is required, and where steam has hitherto been used, whether
for locomotive or stationary engines.
And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood, I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I'shall
refer to the Figures on the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed," the same
letters of reference indicating corresponding parts throughout both Figures.
Figure 1 represents a plan of the receivers used as compressed air or gas
holders, and the tank or reservoir for the water; and Figure 2 is an elevation
of the same receivers and a vertical section of the tank or water reservoir.
a, a, are the receivers, which may be of any suitable form, dimensions, or
material;) for containing the compressed air or gas.
The pipe I, K, is in communication by means of its extremity I with the
generator, which may be of any desired construction suitable for the generation
of aeriform fluids or gases. The extremity K'communicates with any suitable
prime mover, whilst the intermediate portion of the pipe communicates with
the receivers a; a, by the branches c, c. m and n are two cocks for opening or
closing the communication with the generator and the prime mover. A, B, C, D,
is the tank or reservoir of water, the capacity of which is greater than that of
all the receivers a, a, combined; this tank is placed at a considerable elevation
above the bottom line X', Y', of the receivers. The pipe E, F, G, H, and the
branches b, b, therefrom, admit the water from the tank or reservoir A, B, C, D,
through the cock q into the receivers a, a. The height or level N, N, of the
water in the reservoir A, B, C, D, should be maintained nearly always the same.
Suppose all the cocks to be closed, and the aeriform fluid contained in the
receivers a, a, to be at the atmospheric pressure only; now, in order to set
the apparatus to work, the cock 9 must first be opened, when the water from
the tank A, B, C, D, will flow into the receivers a, a, until it has 'arrived at the
level shown by the slotted line X, Y, at which point the water and the com-
pressed air are in equilibrium. The cock m is now opened when the generator
will be brought into communication with the receivers, and will supply them
with compressed air or gas, at a pressure equal to that of the column of
water z', D, and the water will be again driven back from the receivers a, a,
into the tank A, B, C, D. If the operation be continued until 'the water be
reduced to the level X', Y', in the receivers, and if the cock n be then opened,.
the prime mover will be put in motion through the unvarying action of the
compressed air, whilst a regular supply of compressed air will pass from the
generator into the receivers by the cock m.

page_text: sat
Suppose that the prime mover expends in a given time a certain volume V
of air or gas at a pressure P (this pressure being equal to the head pressure of
the water), and that the generator.furnishes at the same time another volume
V of air or gas smaller than V, and that the receivers are full of air or gas-
the pressure P, whilst the generator and prime mover are in working order;
then it will be evident, 1st, that the difference between the volume Vexpended
by the prime mover, and that V supplied by the generator, will be furnished
by the receivers a, a; the water of the tank or reservoir A, B, C, D, which
maintains the pressure P will gradually rise in the receivers from the lower
level X, Y, to the higher one X, Y. When it has arrived at this latter
point, the pressure will be equal to the height of the column, less.the.height of
the receivers, so that this pressure may be said to be constant, since the height
of the receivers, represented by the line 2, ', is so: small in comparison with
the. height of the column ; D, that the variation of pressure will be
imperceptable.
2nd, that the receivers a, a, being full of water, they can be refilled with
compressed air or gas at the pressure P, if the generator continues to act, by
closing the cock n.
3rd, that the action of the prime mover can be so regulated that the difference
between the volume of air or gas supplied by the receivers and the volume
expended shall be very small.
4th, that the smaller the difference between the air supplied by the generator
and that used by the prime movers, the less frequent will be the stoppages in
the action of the prime mover.
5th, that the receivers may be made of such dimensions that in ordinary
cases the number of stoppages of the prime mover within a given time can be
limited.
From the above remarks it will be obvious that the receivers a, a, and the
reservoir or tank A, B, C, D, act the part of a magazine of motive power.
This apparatus can be regulated so as feed any prime mover, either in a
continuous or intermittant manner; and it may be charged in the night or
when the engine is not working with the air or gas required for use during
the ensuing day, or when the engine is to be again started. Since the motive
power required on railways is necessarily intermittent, this apparatus is espe-
cially applicable to railway locomotion; and this application may be made by
means of a propulsion tube beneath the line, so constructed as to receive the
compressed air or gas.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the saune is or may be used or carried

page_text: into effect, I would observe in conclusion that I do not confine or restrict
myself to the precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion to
describe or refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without
deviating from the principles or main features of the said Invention; but what
I consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
The general construction and arrangement of apparatus for containing com-
pressed air or gas, and the mode of supplying such compressed air or gas as a
substitute for steam to any suitable prime mover at a regular or nearly regular
pressure, as herein before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Thirteenth day of June, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-six.
J. HENRY JOHNSON. (L.S.)