IMPROVEMENTS IN MOTIVE POWER BY MEANS OF WATER AND AIR
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Wigzell Knocker, of Bushy Ruff, Dover, in
the County of Kent, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MOTIVE POWER BY MEANS OF WATER AND AIR."
Sealed the 19th October 1855, and dated the 1st May 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Wigzell Knocker
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st May 1855.
I, GEORGE WIGZELL KNOCKER, of Bushy Ruff, Dover, in the County of
Kent, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MOTIVE POWER BY MEANS OF WATER AND AIR" to be as
follows:
It consists of a method for obtaining by means of water a vacuum or
partial vacuum, with abstraction of friction wholly or in part independent of
mechanical agency.
The principle of the Invention is in this, that water unsupported by a base
will fall and leave a vacuum above it. In ordinary cases the phenomenon
presents, itself of the air rising up to restore the equilibrium as fast as the
water falls from an inverted vessel or tube. It is proposed to offer such an
impediment to the restoration of the équilibrium that it will not take place for
a lapse of one or two seconds during the descent of a piston in a vertical

page_text: cylinder with an air-tight cover. By this means the piston will pass down
the cylinder with a vacuum above and below it, and consequently the vacuum
above it will be formed without the application of mechanical power. The
vacuum being subsequently brought into connection with a column of water,
the hydrostatic pressure is unsustained on the part of the vacuum.
There is a greater pressure in that direction, and motion or a tendency to
motion in that direction; and this alternating with two cylinders and two
columns of water; uniform continuous motion is produced by an adaptation of
the resistance to be overcome.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Wigzell Knocker in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 1st November 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
WIGZELL KNOCKER, of Bushy Ruff, Dover, in the County of Kent, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
George Wigzell Knocker, Her special licence that I, the said George Wigzell
Knocker, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said George Wigzell Knocker, my executors, administrators, and 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
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 MOTIVE POWER BY MEANS OF WATER AND AIR," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said George Wigzell Knocker, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly 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.;
t
NOW KNOW YE, that I,,the said George Wigzell Knocker, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be

page_text: performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement and accompanying Drawings (that is to say):-
The principle of the Invention is the procuring by means of falling or
descending water, with abstraction of friction wholly or in part independent of
mechanical agency, a vacuum or a partial vacuum. Water unsupported by a
base falling from the force of gravity is not prevented by a vacuum above it.
This, which is seen in the common occurrence of a vessel full of water inverted,
is accompanied with the phenomenon of the air rising up to restore the
equilibrium as fast as the water falls. With regard, then, to an inverted
cylinder, from below which the water is withdrawn, the merits of the principle
consist in producing a momentary suspension to the re-establishment of the
equilibrium, and isolating from the vacuum those parts necessarily connected
in the working of the mechanism. The improvements, embodying a profitable
and useful application of this new principle to motive power, are contained in
the following description :-
Figure 1 is a ground plan, Figure 2 is a front elevation, Figure 3 is a left
side elevation, Figure 4 is a right side elevation. The same letters in all the
Figures refer to the same parts. A, lower tank, with a water-tight partition,
forming two compartments; B, upper tank, similar to the lower tank; C, C,
two cylinders of the lower tank, of the same diameter, fitted with pistons c, c,
suitable for water. The pistons c, c, by means of slings and connecting rods,
work the cranks a, a, set at an angle of 180° to each other. D, D, two cylinders
of the upper tank, exactly like those of the lower tank, with pistons in connection
with slings and cranks b, b, set also at an angle of 180°. The cranks b, b, are
likewise at an angle of 180° with regard to those under them, so that the two
immediately over and under one another act reciprocally. E, lower horizontal
shaft; F, upper horizontal shaft; G, vertical shaft, connecting upper and
lower shafts with bevel wheels d, d, d, d; H, reservoir; I, I, pipes of com-
munication between lower and upper tanks and reservoir; e, e, e, e, four slide
valves, one over each cylinder; K, K, two tanks, one on each side of the
lower tank A, rectangular or cylindrical, of cast iron; L, L, two horizontal
cylinders, of the same diameter and in the same horizontal plane, open at the
ends, and bolted on to the tanks K, K, with flanges; they are turned true,
and fitted with pistons 1, 1, working air-tight. The pistons, by the intervention
of slings or cross heads, and guides and connecting rods, drive the cranks f, f,
set the same respectively as the cranks a, a, immediately contiguous, and con-
sequently at angle of 180° to each other. M, M, two vertical cylinders of the
same diameter, but somewhat less than that of the horizontal cylinders L; L,
fixed with flanges on the top of the tanks K, K; they have air-tight covers,

page_text: The cylinders are
The piston rods pass
with spindle valves opening outwards, as at 9 and h.
turned true to work air-tight with the pistons m, m.
through the covers, provided with stuffing boxes to make them work air-tight,
and by means of the cross heads i, i, guides k, k, and connecting rods.n, n, &c.
turn the cranks o, o, fixed on the short shafts N, N. These latter are brought
into connection with the lower horizontal shaft E by the shafts O, O, and
bevel wheels j,j, j, j. P, P, pipes with taps p, p, connecting the tanks K, K,
with the reservoir H; Q, Q, two slide valves, driven by the eccentrics R, R,
connecting rods q, q, and levers, of which r, r, are the fulcrums; s, s, &c., guides
for rods. The radius of eccentricity is at right angles to the cranks. The
valves are the entire length of the throw, or twice the length of the radius of
eccentricity, and the diameter of the aperture to be closed is about one-third
the length of the throw. The valves are so arranged that the apertures are
closed during the whole of the back stroke and opened in the forward stroke.
The rods t, t, work in stuffing boxes. S, S, air tubes, with covers v, v, moveable
on hinges screwed into the tanks. The covers are pressed with weighted
levers w, w, to act as safety valves, weighted to about twenty-five pounds on
the square inch. In the covers are fixed spindle valves y, y, opening inwards,
the spindles moving free of the leverage. At the bottom of the air tubes S, S,
there are small tubes a, a, about two times and a half the length of their
diameters. The intervening space between the two tubes is filled up, so that
all the water passing from the air tubes S, S, into the tanks K, K, must go
through the small tubes a, a, and vice versâ. The diameter of the tubes x, x,
is, relatively to the difference of size in the horizontal and vertical cylinders L
and M, the length of the stroke and speed of the engine. The tanks K, K, and
connected parts are air-tight and water-tight. T, a powerful fly wheel. The
bydrostatic column is about thirty-six feet, and the upper tank about midway.
A force pump V is set up at any convenient situation; it is in communica-
tion with a well, and by a force pipe with the reservoir II. It can be worked
by the drums a², a³, and band b³, when the engine is going to supply waste.
Being thrown out of gear by the clutch c, a hand lever is fixed on to the end
of the shaft, and by manual force the reservoir H is filled with water, care
being taken to remove all impurities by filtration. The upper slide valve e
over the cylinder, whose piston is not in position for producing initial motion,
is left open, and also the taps p, p, of the pipes P, P; then the upper and
lower valves e, e, whose pistons are in position, are opened simultaneously, and
when the pistons reach the end of the stroke, the remaining lower valve is
immediately opened. By this initial motion the mode of operation with
respect to the tanks K, K, will be thus, taking the side in the position as

page_text: represented in Figure 2-The piston of the horizontal cylinder L taking the
lead as it, recedes from the tank, the water in the vertical cylinder M, being
unsupported by a base, falls, from the force of gravity; and since the horizontal
cylinder L is somewhat larger than the vertical cylinder M, there becomes-a
small intervening space between the surface of the water and the under part
of the piston m.
This space being a vacuum, the water in the air tube S
rushes down to restore the equilibrium; but before all the water has run out of
the air tube S, the piston m reaches the bottom of the cylinder, or end of the
stroke, the engine moving at the ordinary speed of a steam engine, and the
water issuing from the small tube x with a velocity due to the height of a.
column of water of the air's pressure. The enlarged capacity of the horizontal
cylinder L takes up this extra quantity, so that the water does not come in
contact with the lower part of the piston m of the vertical cylinder; the piston
m, therefore, passes down the cylinder with a vacuum above and below it, and
consequently within friction would have fallen down of its own weight; and
since the piston 1 of the horizontal cylinder is isolated or separated from the
vacuum by the air tube S, the vacuum above the piston m of the vertical
cylinder is obtained apart from friction without the aid of mechanical force.
The pistons and m having reached the ends of their respective cylinders and
begun to return, the valve Q opens, the tank is instantly filled, and the equi-
librium is restored inside the tank bordered by the pistons, the pistons being
pressed with equal forces as it respects equal areas in contrary directions.
But there is a disturbance in the equilibrium resulting from the condition of
the vertical cylinder outside the piston m. The pressure of the air on the
head of the column of water P is unsustained with respect to the vertical
cylinder M, in which there is an absence or a partial absence of air. There is
therefore a greater pressure in that direction, and this pressure towards the
vertical cylinder tends to overcome any opposing force to the return of the
piston c of the initial part against the hydrostatic pressure; and it may always
be made equal to this opposing force, and even to exceed it to any extent
within due proportions, by enlarging the diameters of the cylinders L and M,
leaving the hydrostatic pressure in the direction of motion on the adjoining
piston c available for motive power. The cranks f,f, being at an angle of;
180° to each other, there is a reciprocity of action, so that while the vacuum is
in the course of formation on one side, the power derived from the vacuum
that has been obtained is being exerted on the other side, and thus uniformly
continuous power and motion is produced, the fly wheel T carrying the engine
over the dead points. In the plan, the air tube S is three inches in diameter
and eighteen. inches long; the small tubee is half an inch in diameter, and the

page_text: greater capacity of the horizontal of the horizontal cylinder is about ninety cubic
inches. This is estimated with correction for the contracted fluid vein for a
stroke of two feet and a speed of one hundred and eighty feet a minute, leaving
sixty feet for range as to retardation. If the speed were reduced beyond that
range the water would come in contact with the under part of the piston m in
the back stroke, and then the engine would be inefficient; on the other hand, if
the speed were greatly accelerated, on the opening of the valve each time there
would enter the tank a quantity of water that must of necessity be thrown
back into the reservoir during the stroke, and in proportion to that quantity
there would be a diminution of the useful effect. The diameter, therefore, of
the tube x is regulated by the ordinary speed of the engine, the length of the
stroke, and the difference in size between the horizontal and vertical cylinders
Land M. Any alteration with respect to the tube a may be easily effected by
unscrewing the air tube S, and substituting one of either larger or smaller
diameter, as circumstances may require. It is obvious that generally in the
forward stroke a small quantity of water is forced back into the reservoir.
When this is accomplished, by an expenditure of the power of the engine on
the difference of area of the horizontal piston 7 (by which means also the air
tube-S is replenished every forward stroke), the resistance of the bydrostatic
column P being overcome, the power derived from the vacuum proceeds from
the air's pressure, on the outside of the horizontal piston l. The operation;
therefore, with regard to, the tanks K, K, may be entirely independent of the
initial part of the engine; and when circumstances admit of the engine being
set in motion by manual force, tlie initial part, comprising the lower and upper
tanks A and B, with their connected parts, may be dispensed with. When
the engine is once put into motion, all things being the same, there is no
reason why it should not continue to go for an indefinite time, the engine pro-
ducing its own power, and the amount of power only limited by the unwieldy
dimensions of the cylinders.:
W is a pendulum governor, acting on two valves d, d, by means of
lever rods e, e², and fulcrum ff. The valves are slides on account of the
external pressure; they do not interrupt the formations of the vacua or
vacuums, for there are two under valves 9, 9, worked in the same manner
and upon the same principle as the valves Q, Q, and by the same connecting
rods q, q, to the junctions h², h². The ascending rods &,, move upon the
fulcrums k, k, and the accuracy of the motion of the valves is secured by
guides on the top of the cylinders; consequently they are closed during the
back stroke and open in the forward stroke when the power obtained from a
vacuum is called into action. The governor W is driven from the lower

page_text: horizontal shaft E by the drums 13, 1, band m³, and shaft and bevel wheels
n3, n. The power is taken from the lower horizontal shaft close to the fly
wheel, as at E. The engine is stopped by shutting the two upper slide valves
e, e, opening the four taps 2, 2, 2, z, and lastly, by shutting the taps p, p, of the
pipes P, P.
The claim is, firstly, for the improvements in application to motive power
of the novel principle of procuring by means of falling or descending water,
with abstraction of friction wholly or in part independent of mechanical
agency, a vacuum or a partial vacuum. These improvements, consisting of the
hydrostatic columns P, P, the valves Q, Q, the employment of two tanks K, K,
and connecting them with a common shaft with cranks at an angle of 180°,
have been described; and the mode of operation with the intervention of
water and air has been shewn, by which, in connection with the principle, the
advantageous result of uniformly continuous motion and power is produced.
And the claim is, secondly, for all other improvements, inventions, and
methods involving the application of this new principle to motive power, the new
principle itself being independent of modifications and alterations of machinery,"
namely, "the principle of procuring by means of falling or descending water,
with abstraction of friction, wholly or in part independent of mechanical
agency, a vacuum or a partial vacuum."
In witness whereof, I, the said George Wigzell Knocker, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this First day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
GEORGE WIGZELL KNOCKER. (L.S.)