IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edmund Hepple, of No. 28, Notting Hill Square,
in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER."
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•
Sealed the 17th December 1872, and dated the 15th July 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edmund Hepple at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th July 1872.
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I
☐
I, EDMUND HEPPLE, of No. 28, Notting Hill Square, in the County
of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER," to be as follows
66
:
⚫ This Invention has for its object improvements in obtaining motive
power.
.
For this purpose I employ a wheel having on its rim on one side a
number of axes, on each of which an arm is mounted, and the arm
carries a weight. As the wheel revolves these weighted arms hang down
freely on the ascending side of the wheel, but on arriving at the top of

page_text: the wheel each weight is raised so as to stand vertically over its axis ;
this is effected by means of teeth in connection with the arm coming
against fixed teeth or stops carried by the frame of the engine. On the
descending side of the wheel the arms and weights retain the positions
in respect to the wheel to which they are thus brought, and con-
sequently preponderate over the weights on the ascending side of the
wheel, so the revolution of the wheel is continually maintained.
"
In order to obtain additional power I also fix spring arms upon the
periphery of the wheel, which when free stand out radially from it, and
within or upon each spring arm there is a sliding weight.
The action is as follows:-On the ascending side of the wheel from
the lowest part up to the level of the axis the spring.a
arms hang down
with the weights at their lower ends, and at the level of the axis they
have thus become tangential to the wheel; they now commence to rest
upon its periphery, and they continue to do so until the top of the wheel
is reached, and then as each arm comes to the top the weight slides
down it from its outer to its inner end. The spring arm is then by its
elasticity able to assume its radial position, which position it retains
throughout its descent, so that the weight of the arms proponderates on
the descending side of the wheel, as they are then furthest removed
from the axis.
In lieu of spring arms arms provided with separate springs may be
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edmund Hepple in the Great Seal Patent Office 2
on the 15th January 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDMUND
HEPPLE, of No. 28, Notting Hill Square, in the County of Middlesex,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her 3
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-.
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Edmund Hepple, Her special license that

page_text: I, the said Edmund Hepple, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Edmund Hepple, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING
MOTIVE POWER," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Edmund Hepple, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edmund Hepple, 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
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in obtaining motive
power.
For this purpose I employ a wheel having on its rim on one or both
sides a number of axes, on each of which an arm is mounted and the
arm carries a weight. As the wheel revolves these weighted arms hang
down freely on the ascending side of the wheel, but on arriving at the
top of the wheel each weight is raised so as to stand vertically over the
axis. This is effected by means of teeth in connection with the arm
coming against fixed teeth or stops carried by the frame of the engine.
On the descending side of the wheel the arms and weights retain the
positions in respect to the wheel to which they are thus brought, and
consequently preponderate over the weights on the ascending side of
the wheel, so the revolution of the wheel is continually maintained.
In order to obtain additional power I also fix spring arms upon the
periphery of the wheel, which when free stand out radially from it, and
within or upon each spring arm there is a sliding weight.
The action is as follows:-On the ascending side of the wheel from
the lowest part up to the level of the axis the spring arms hang down
with the weights at their lower ends, and at the level of the axis they

page_text: The Figure is a front view of the apparatus. a, a, are standards from
the base plate; b is the axle of the wheel c.
A, B, and C are the three kinds of weighted attachments on the wheel c
which I employ; two only of each kind are shewn in the Drawing,
but any number of either kind may be employed, the power obtained
increasing with the number used.
.
The attachment A consists of a boss, which is free to turn on an
.axis fixed to the wheel c; this boss carries two radial pins or teeth d, d,
and a radial arm e weighted at its other extremity; near the top of one
of the standards a are two pins f,f. As the wheel c turns from left to
right and brings the attachment A to the top, the pins f,f, strike the
pins d, d, in succession, and thus throw the weighted arm e upwards
until it is stopped by the pin g which is fixed on the wheel 'c, then for
the next half revolution of the wheel the weighted arme projects
radially from the wheel resting on the pin g, but during the second
half revolution when the atttachment A is ascending the arm e frees
itself from the pin g and hangs vertically until again thrown over by
the pins ff, at the top. Thus it will be seen that if there are a number
of these attachments A their weighted arms will always project radially
on the right hand side of the wheel c, and will always hang vertically
downwards on the left hand side; thus the weights will always have a
greater leverage on the right hand side of the wheel than on the left,
and the wheel will therefore turn from the left to right.

page_text: The attachment B consists of a boss, which is free to turn on an axis
fixed to the wheel c; this boss carries a tube h closed at its ends;
inside the tube is a weight, which is free to move from end to end
of the tube; k is an elastic cord, one of its ends is fixed to the boss
and its other end to the wheel c near the centre. When the attach-
ment B is on the right hand side of the wheel c the elastic cord is loose,
the tube being supported radially by the pin / fixed on the wheel, when
the tube reaches the bottom it frees itself from the pin and continues
to chang vertically, gradually winding up the cord k on the boss; the
cord is of just sufficient strength to throw the tube over on to the
pin 1, when the attachment B has reached the top, but not of sufficient
strength to draw it up against the pin before that time; thus the
weighted tube projects radially on the right hand side of the wheel,
but hangs vertically downwards on the left hand side, so that the
attachments B work in a similar manner to the attachments A.
The attachment C is a variation of B. The tube is here carried by a
metal spring m which acts as a hinge. When on the right hand
side of the wheel c. the tube projects radially, its base resting against
the wheel; when on the left hand side the tube hangs vertically, as
shewn the spring is just sufficiently strong to throw the tube over
when it reaches the top.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, I would have it understood that what I claim
is, obtaining motive power substantially in the manner described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edmund Hepple, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.