IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF HAND GARDEN ENGINES AND HYDROPULTS
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert William Page at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 3rd June
1867.
1, ROBERT WILLIAM PAGE, of Park Walk, Chelsea, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF HAND GARDEN ENGINES AND HYDROPULTS," to be
as follows:-
This Invention relates to a novel construction of garden engine for pumping
and forcing water for use by band, the engine being also useful as a hydropult
for extinguishing fire and for other purposes. It consists of a cylinder of
brass or other suitable metal provided at one enl with a stuffing box through
which a piston rod or plunger is made to work actuated by the right hand of the
operator; the other end of the cylinder is fitted to an air-tight globe or vessel,
to the opposite side of which an outlet pipe is fixed by a screw or otherwise in
order to cause the water to flow as a jet or stream. The piston rod has an
inverted cone of metal fixed thereon near the globe and the extremity of the
rod is provided with a fixed metallic perforated disc or plate fitting the bore
of the cylinder. Between the cone and disc the cap leather is placed on the
rod loosely; it fits the cylinder, but its base is perforated with an orifice larger
than the diameter of the piston rod, to which a suitable handle is attached.
At the side of the cylinder, and close to the handle, a short metal branch or
nozzle is fixed, containing a conical inlet valve set in a corresponding seat;
the base of this conical inlet valve is provided with a dome or semicircular

page_text: plate of metal placed at right angles or, vertically on or across the centre of
the base of the conical valve which fits or partly fits into a hemispherical
recess in the branch when the valve rises from its seat. The narrow end of
the valve is furnished with a triangular guide or sliding rod working in the
circular bore of the branch for the sake of steadiness, and an india-rubber or
other tube of suitable length is joined to the branch, and the other end is
furnished with an inverted cup covered with wire gauze, which cup is to be
inserted in a cistern or other vessel if the engine is to be used in a green-
house or hot-house, or in a vessel of water if to be used in a garden or other
situation, the gauze preventing the entrance of any foreign substances which
might interfere with the action of the valves or piston. The air globe or
vessel is provided interiorily with a short flexible tube communicating with
the outlet pipe or rose; this tube is weighted at the end so as always to fall
to the bottom of the reservoir or globe, in order that it shall always be beneath
the level of the water.
Now the action of the engine is as follows:-The inlet tube being immersed
.in water the cylinder is to be held in the left hand of the operator and the
piston rod is to be drawn backwards and forwards by the back action, the
perforated plate is brought to bear upon the cup leather causing the leather
to leave or rise from the inverted conical metal piece on the piston rod, the
cup being thus brought down to the bottom of the cylinder. When the
forward motion of the piston rod is given the conical piece rises into the
orifice of the cup and closes it in an air-tight and water-tight manner, so that
in its ascent it forms a vacuum, and thereby causes a rush of water from the
inlet tube which causes the conical valve to move from its seat.
The cylinder
thus at the first upward stroke becomes partly filled with water; the next
down stroke opens the cup leather and closes the conical valve, the next up
stroke draws a further supply of water, and so on until the air chamber
becomes sufficiently full to cause the air to be so compressed as to force the
water in a continuous and uniform jet through the outlet jet pipe or rose.
By these means and with a small and light engine which can be easily held in
and worked by the hands of the operator a continuous flow or jet of water can
be thrown to a distance of thirty feet or more and in every required direction.
On the cylinder a cap is fixed containing a male screw on to which a rose is
screwed, and thus the rose may be substituted for the jet pipe or vice versa,
both rose and jet pipe being always on the same engine. I also propose to
apply to the jet pipe a spreader for the purpose of throwing a sheet of water
instead of a jet. Spreaders have before been used for this purpose, but they
have been regulated by pressure of the finger on a lever against the action of

page_text: a spring resting on the jet pipe, but the novelty of my spreader consists in the
application of a thumbscrew to an arm under the spreader, such screw acting
against the under surface of the jet pipe so that the angle of the spreader may
be adjusted and maintained by a few turns either way of the screw. Pumps
in connection with air vessels have before been used for garden engines and
hydropults; but the novelty of my Invention consists in the arrangement and
combination of parts and of the improvement in the piston rod in connection
with the cup leather.