IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
LESNARD, of Chester Street, Kennington Lane, in the County of Surrey,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Sixteenth day of
January, (One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven,) in the tenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Frederick Lesnard, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Frederick Lesnard, my
exors, admors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said Frederick Lesnard,
my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of
Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and in all Her said Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a pro-
viso that I, the said Frederick Lesnard, shall cause a particular description
of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be
inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar

page_text: months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Frederick Lesnard, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner of performing the same, are fully described and ascertained
in and by the following description thereof, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed. And in order that the Invention may be fully
understood, I will proceed to describe the Drawings, in which the same parts
are marked with the same letters wherever they occur.
In Drawing No. 1 is shewn the apparatus to be applied as a stationary
engine. Figure 1 is a section of the four sides of it passing through the
centre of the tubes which serve as spokes to the rotating machine; A, Figure 2,
is a plan of the apparatus; Figure 3 is a front elevation, and Figure 4 is a
section, of the mechanism for the introduction of the air from the pump to the
reservoir; Figure 5 is an excentric for the opening of the slides; Figure 6 is
a box, seen open, similar to those fixed upon the sides of the case B of the
rotative machine A.
In the Drawing No. 2 the apparatus is shewn applied to a locomotive
engine. Figure 1 is an elevation of the side of the apparatus; Figure 2 is a
plan; Figure 3, an elevation of the front of the apparatus; Figure 4, a section
through the air pump; Figure 5,. a side view of the mechanism by which a
separation is effected, when required, between the wheels of the locomotive
and their axes.
In the Drawing No. 1, A is a rotative machine formed of a wheel mounted
upon an axis; t, t, t, are eight tubes which form the spokes of the wheel.
Near the end of the axis is a hole into which the tubes are placed; upon the
outer ring of the wheel arc screwed eight small tubes. 0, 0, 0, 0, are openings
through which the air goes out in passing from the reservoir through the
tubes p, p, and thence through the axis and the spokes t. Four of these tubes
are intended to turn the wheel in one direction, and four in another. B is the
metal casing of the machine, having two boxes with friction rollers placed at
the centre, and through which the axis of the machine A passes.. Upon these
boxes, and upon the same axis, are fixed drums or pulleys m, m, which have
bands or straps thereon when it is required to transmit the motion to the
wheels
At the ends of the axis are two stuffing boxes d, d, in con-
nection with the tubes p, which are fixed to the reservoirs R, and allow of a
communication of the air with the machine A by means of the cocks f. f.
The casing B is to be constructed sufficiently strong to resist the pressure.

page_text: The tubes which are placed upon the outer circumference of the wheel may
have any other form, and may also be provided with valves, with springs to
close the opening 0, 0, 0, o. These; opening of these tubes will be in inverse
ratio of the pressure of the air. C is the cylinder of the air pump, supplied
with four slides s, s, s, s, arranged in such manner that the pressure of the air
so acts upon them as to keep them closed. Two of the slides of the machine
allow the air from the atmosphere to enter when desired; at other times it
allows the compressed air to come up from the vessel B. The other two
slides leave a free passage to the compressed air, either by the ascent or
descent of the piston, by means of the guide H fixed upon the cover of the
cylinder, to the reservoir R. The compressed air enters through the opening e,
Figure 4, and raises the conical valve i. The pressure of the air in the
cylinder is greater than that in the reservoir in following the course shewn by
the arrows.
The cock c, shewn open, should be closed when the machine
works. The use of it is principally to allow of a quantity of the compressed
air to be introduced therein from the reservoir R on to the piston, so as to aid
in putting the machine to work. P is the piston, formed of two metal plates;
the rod is formed of two parts sliding one into the other. The lower plate of
the piston is fixed to the inner rod, and the upper plate is fixed to the outer
rod. This outer rod is fixed to the cross pieces of the piston by a key which
allows the inner rod to move. This inner rod has two washers placed in a
part of the cross piece. The two plates forming the piston are cut conically
near to the sides of the cylinder. The packing is formed of three portions of
segments of a circle, two placed one upon the other, pressing against the
cylinder, and the third placed on the inner part of the others. On turning
the lower nut of the piston the plates of the piston are brought together, and
by this means the packing is caused to press against the sides of the cylinder.
E, E, are two excentrics carried by the shaft of the wheel, the object of them
being to open and shut the valves of the pump by means of the levers 7, 1, and
, . This excentric is formed of two portions of a circle, of the same radius,
and placed together. These two parts of a circle are fixed together by bolts
which allow the parts to be brought nearer, to or further from one another
as required. At the upper part of these bolts are fixed two flat rods, which
slide in grooves. This form of excentric will be found particularly advan-
tageous in all movements where celerity is required. L, L, are lever beams
which work the pump, and the beams are put in motion by the wheels r, r,
and r', r'. The axis of the wheels r and r'.pass into two boxes with friction
rollers, the bearing of which is upon the toothed wheel 1. n, n, are two rods
fixed to these boxes, serving as guides; V is a screw in connection with these

page_text: boxes and rods, by means of which the bands may be stretched or loosened ;
W, W, are the counter weights of the piston of the pump.
The Drawing No. 2 shews the application to a locomotive engine. The
machine A, B, in this Drawing is of a larger diameter than that in
Drawing No. 1. C is the cylinder of another air pump, having a similar
kind of piston as that described above. This pump is supplied with
valves i, i, i, in the bottom and top of the cylinder; three of these valves have
springs to adjust their opening and closing. H, H, are the passages for the
compressed air from the cylinder to the reservoir, and h, h, are the passages
for the atmospheric air to the cylinder; o is the framing of the locomotive.
The two sides of this framing is formed of two pieces of flat iron, between
which are placed two pieces of wood. The spring suspending rods pass into
metal collars, and carry the rollers a, a, a, which move in grooves made in the
flat iron framing g. These pieces of wood are tied to the cross piece D. The
lever, which is affixed to the foundation plate, is attached to this cross
piece D. The screw V puts this lever into motion, which acts upon the
cross piece D, the wooden sliding pieces, and the wheels 7, r, 7, of the loco-
motive. In pushing the wheels forward by the aid of this mechanism the
bands on the wheels of the front train are stretched, and those of the hind
train are loosened, and vice versa. L, L, are levers placed outside the
frame G, and which are put in action by means of the connecting rod T,
from the crank a of the axis of the wheels; T, T", are two connecting rods,
and a, a, the cranks which connect these two pair of wheels; L', L', are
levers which are in connection with the side rods which give motion to the
cross head of the air pump; R, R, R, are the reservoirs for the compressed
air, connected together by tubes, and fixed to the foundation plates; g, g, is
the mechanism for putting the wheels out of gear from their axes; m, m³, m',
are the clutch boxes placed upon the axis; 2, , are wedges fixed to the move-
able and sliding picces g. 9; t is the cross piece which connects these pieces
together, and,, the levers fixed to the cross pieces, by which movement is
communicated to the mechanism. Each clutch box carries two buttons, upon
which the wedge picces, 2, act. A plan of this mechanism is shewn at
Figure 2. The stationary machines should have a pump suitably arranged to
fill the reservoir with compressed air, but which I have not thought it neces-
sary to shew in the Drawings, as it forms no part of my Invention. The
locomotives can have the reservoir supplied with air by a pump suitably
arranged at the different stations. When the reservoirs are filled to the
pressure required for working, one of the cocks f is to be opened, and the air
will pass through the tube p, through the axis and the spokes t, t, and pass

page_text: out through small tubes at the outer part of the wheel, in pressing with all
its force against the right angles which these, tubes. form to the spokes, and
which will give motion to the machine A with great speed: This speed, by
reason of the contractions which the air meets with through bent 'tubes which
it crosses, may be given off from six to seven hundred feet per second. "To
move forwards, the bands of the hind wheels of tlio carriage are stretched by
means of the screw v; and when it is required to move backwards, those of
the front one will be stretched. It is easy to be seen, that in stretching the
bands of either wheels that the others are loosened..
When the machine is required to be stopped two methods may be em-
ployed-First, to loosen the bands into the position shewn in the Drawing
Figure 1; Drawing No. 2. Then the wheel A will go round by itself, but the
air pump will cease to work as soon as the engine stops, which will stop the
machine by reason of the supply of air not being kept up. The second method
for stopping the locomotive is to separate the wheels of the locomote from the
axis by the mechanism g, g. Then the wheels will cease to have motion when
the machine and air pump continue to work. The amount of force necessary
to work the air pump will be obtained is very small, for, in commencing the
course of the piston, the pressure is nothing, and increasing until the air
becomes of the same pressure as that in the reservoir. Then the valve i opens,
and allows the air to enter freely into the reservoir. By this arrangement
only half the amount of force is necessary for working the pump. This
machine may be moved by the agency of steam, and in that case there will be
a great economy in steam, for the reasons above given.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not confine myself
to the precise details herein given, so long as the character of the Invention
be retained; but what I claim is, the arrangement of machinery whereby I
am enabled to employ compressed air or gas or steam.
And I also claim the mode of constructing the piston of the air pump, with
the mode of packing.
And I also claim the mole of constructing the excentric E.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Lesnard, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of July, One thousand eight hundred
and forty-seven.
F. LESNARD. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED; that on the Fifteenth day of July, in the
year of our Lord 1847, the aforesaid Frederick Lesnard came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Sixteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and forty-seven.