AN ATMOSPHERICAL MACHINE, OR THE PERPETUAL MOTION BY ATMOSPHERICAL PRESSURE
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Eugène Constant Marie Bonnier
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
19th December 1864.
I, EUGÈNE CONSTANT MARIE BONNIER, Merchant, No. 9, Rue de la
Pepinière, Paris, France, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN ATMOSPHERICAL MACHINE, OR THE PERPETUAL MOTION BY ATMOSPHERICAL
PRESSURE," to be as follows:-
A and A¹ are bodies of pumps in which the pistons P and P¹ move, which
are suppose to be subjected to a certain force, and exercising their efforts on
the head of the trunks T and T', which are free and not adherent to the
pistons, terminated by the small rollers G and G', and maintained in their
oblique position by cushions at a short distance from the small rollers. These
pistons make a pressure by these trunks on the large arms or handles inclined
according to a desired angle, bent-up levers L and L' turning upon the same
fixed axle X, and moving by their little arms or branches, and the inter-
mediary aid of the iron bars N and N', the balancing pole B, B', to which
the machine to be set in motion is bound by the iron bars R and S,
which is represented here by the flier V, and working by the motion alter-
natively communicated to the levers L and L'. In its motion the balancing
pole B, B', to both ends of which straps are fixed, both directed in the hori-
zontal and vertical direction by the drums C and C, and rolling round another
drum E, sets in motion also alternatively right and left this drum E, and the

page_text: indented wheel F fixed on the same tree. The wheel F catches in a rack H
fixed on the chariot M, which supports the bodies of the pumps A and A', and
thus gives a horizontal motion to and fro to the chariot rolling upon four
wheels I, and to the bodies of the pumps A and A', so that the trunks T and
Treceiving the pressure from the pistons P and P¹, go over the large arms
of the levers in all their length at a distance equal to the space covered, and
communicated to the chariot by the wheel F, thus lowering successively each
point of the large arms of these levers to the level of their contact point with
the small rollers G and G' at the starting moment; so that by communicating
to the chariot such a velocity that by degrees as one point of the large arms
is lowered the trunks T and T¹ meet the next coming point, taking the level
of the one which has just lowered. The pistons exercise their pressure always
on the same level, and without getting out of place, instead of having a to-
and-fro motion. This is what happens by the proportions given to the drum
E and wheel F, which identically follow the more or less accelerated motion
given to the balancing pole by the levers Land L'. It must, therefore, be
operated so that the pressure is alternately exercised by the pistons P and P¹
on the levers Land L. While the piston P. operates its pressure, the piston P¹
remains motionless, the lever L will raise the arm B of the balancing pole
B, B'. In this movement the balancing pole B, B¹, will cause to decline as
much the arm B as the small arm of the lever L', and rise up the large arm
of this same lever. When the lever L is near finishing the distance to be run
over perpendicularly, and which might be wished to be obtained, the large
arm of a small lever will be made to meet at a fixed point of resistance O
during the horizontal course of the piston P, and the small arm of this lever
which is fixed to the chariot will be thus brought by an adherent ridge or line
adhering to the trunk T. This small arm will be of such a form as to be able
by passing under this bar to raise the piston P by two or three millimetres, or
200 or 18 parts of an English yard, only to avoid the pressure on the arms
of the lever L. At the same moment the large arm of the small lever 1,
which supported the piston P¹, will meet, in the inverse sense, a point of
resistance 0¹, and will thus disengage the small arm from under the ridge or
line of the trunk T', which will then come and exercise the pressure of the
piston P¹ on the lever L', and raise up the arm B' to the balancing pole B, B¹,
until the large arm of the small lever comes to meet a resisting point Q¹,
which makes its small arm again introduce itself under the ridge of the
trunk T', and raise up the piston P¹. At the same moment the large arm of
the small lever will have met a resisting point Q, and will have been dis-
engaged from under the piston P¹, which will re-commence its pressure on

page_text: the lever L, and so on. In its motion the balancing pole B, B', will turn by
means of the iron bars R and S, the flier V, that is to say, the machine to be
made function. From which it must be concluded that the effect or useful
work produced on the flier V, depends on the power of the pressure constantly
exercised which each of the pistons P and P¹ may alternately exercise on the
levers L and L'.
can move.
Therefore let A and A¹ be bodies of pumps, in which the pistons P and Pt
Let these pistons be maintained by the levers 7 and l¹, as here
above mentioned, and so as to leave between the lower part and bottom of the
cylinder but a small space, say, three or four centimetres, or about 30 or
parts of an English yard. At this spot the two bodies of the pumps will com-
municate mutually, and with a pneumatic machine by tubes D. A cock with
a vertical tube will admit or intercept at will this communication with the
pneumatical machine, and a cock close to each body of a pump and commu-
nicating with the outer air will allow the outer air under each piston to
remain or come in. A pneumatical machine, which, because of the small capa-
city of the space comprised between the bottom of the bodies of the pumps
and the top of the pistons, will require but little force, and herein represented
by the indented wheel Y, will, by the tubes D, produce the vacuum under
the pistons P and P¹, the pressure of which the levers and ¹ will support
during all this while. When the vacuum is established, the pressure exercised
by these pistons will be equal to that of the atmospherical air on the surface
of these pistons; and if then one of the levers be withdrawn from under the
piston P which it supports, this piston will exercise on the lever La force
equal to the atmospherical pressure on the surface of the piston, and the
machine will be set in motion. The trunks of the pistons being supported
by tow press little air only can get into the pistons during the work, and
if the motion of the pneumatical machine be kept up in acting so, for
instance, that an indented wheel, suitably disposed, should meet with a fixed
iron rack during the motion of the chariot, the vacuum will be constantly
and nearly perfect under the pistons, and the machine will go on working till
stopped, whether by the introduction of air under the pistons or by the means
supplied by mechanism. It is, moreover, evident that the useful effect of the
force employed cannot be absorbed here, either by the motion to be given to
the chariot or the pneumatical machine, or by the resistance to be overcome,
because of the inclined plane of the large arms of the levers L and L'. The
bottom of the bodies of the pumps is garnished with small supports, slightly
elevated, to prevent in any case whatever the pistons from sinking to the
bottom, and thus create a vacuum by themselves, by stopping up at the same

page_text: time the orifices of the tubes D, which would demand the requirement of con-
siderable force in order to raise them up again.
The present machine, drawn upon a scale of four centimetres per metre, or
about parts of an English yard, is moved by the pistons P and P', having
each a diameter of one metre, or about one 1 English yard, consequently
exercising at the points G and G¹ a pressure equal to the atmospherical
pressure on the surface of these pistons, or 1 kilog. 033 grammes, or about
2 lbs. 5 oz. English (avoirdupois) per square centimetre, about 17 English
minims square, or 8.116 kilogrammes, or near 18 lbs. 3½ oz. English (avoir-
dupois), when the vacuum is perfect under them. The atmospherical pressure
being proportional to the surface of the pistons upon which it acts, it is easy
to comprehend what an immense pressure can be exercised at the points G
and G¹.
The pressure sufficient to communicate motion at the starting point can but
increase in proportion as the acting piston approaches the extremity of the
arm of the lever. If this surplus of force be unfavorable to the regularity of
the working of the machine, the effect may be paralised by springs suitably
disposed and placed under the large arms of the levers L and L', to which
they would offer a resistance, which would increase in proportion as these
lever arms would lower. The trunks T'and T of the pistons should be placed
according to an oblique line, bearing as close as possible on the perpendicular
line of the large arms of the levers L and L' at the very moment when they
have the greatest incline, bending somewhat rather their top towards their
point of contact with the pistons P and P¹. The vertical position of the
trunks T and T would present to the horizontal motion of the chariot an
enormous resistance, if not invincible in fact, and their oblique position has,
as a result, the power of making of these trunks the large arms of the levers,
the little arms of which are the radii of the small rollers G and G¹ resting
upon levers L and L, and thus giving to those small rollers a tendency to
mount upon the large arms of the levers L and L', which facilitates the
motion of the chariot..
It is easy to understand that the levers and may be replaced by other
mechanical means, in order to prevent the pressure of the pistons on the
levers L and L'. In the same manner one might employ any other force
than the pressure of the atmospherical air to act upon the pistons, and this
force being given instead of the levers L and L', above described, one may
equally well employ any other system which would allow of pressure being
utilized, that is, the pressure of the pistons P and P¹, without the latter being
submitted to a to-and-fro motion equal to that of the point upon which they lean

page_text: by their trunks, whether in displacing the ensemble or unity of the apparatus
on which the motive agent is fixed, as in the present case, whether in
bringing under the pressure of the pistons P and P¹ the successive points of
a piece destined to receive its motion, in order to communicate it to the
machine to be worked, for instance, or such as an eccentric one, an inclined
plane, or any other means.
Such is the object of my discovery, and which may be understood by the
employment of a given force, so that it may constantly act upon the machine
to be worked, and that it may at the same time, and without absorbing its
useful effect, maintain itself or be reproduced by itself; this, in reality, is the
perpetual motion.
The machine herein described, and which I will call "atmospherical
machine," is a specimen of one of the means which may be employed for the
execution of my idea, and the solution of the problem which I had proposed
to myself; and it appears to me at the same time to be the most simple, the
most powerful, the least expensive.