IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING AND APPLYING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Deane Stanley, of Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND
APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING AND APPLYING MOTIVE POWER."
Sealed the 3rd January 1873, and dated the 15th November 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Deane Stanley at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th November 1872.
I, DEANE STANLEY, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING AND APPLYING MOTIVE POWER," to be
as follows:
The object of this Invention is to obtain motive power by the
employment of a water wheel or turbine to actuate air pumps for
compressing air into a vessel or accumulator so as to store up or

page_text: accumulate the power thereby obtained, whence it can be conveyed by
main and branch pipes to any distance where it may be required to
apply the power, and then utilized for giving motion to compressed air
engines for driving any kinds of machinery.
By these means the power of a stream of water is made available for
driving machinery in mills or manufactories at any reasonable distance
from the stream, and the use of fuel for generating steam for that
purpose is entirely dispensed with, and the compressed air for that
purpose can be conveyed for any distance along pipes placed under
ground in the same way as gas and water are at present supplied.
Either an overshot, undershot, or breast water wheel may be employed
(or a turbine or other similar water engine) for actuating the pumps for
compressing the air, which pumps may be of the ordinary or any other
suitable construction.
The tanks or accumulators for receiving and storing the compressed 1
air I prefer to make of a form and construction somewhat similar to an
ordinary gasometer, but instead of the upper part being balanced it must
be weighted so as to give the pressure required (say about sixty pounds
to the square inch).
The tanks or accumulators. should be provided with safety valves so 2
constructed as to open and allow of the escape of the compressed air as
soon as they are filled and raised to a certain limit, so as to prevent the
possibility of explosion through too great pressure.
Each tank or accumulator should be provided with a stop-cock or
valve to shut off its communication with the main pipe, and each 2
branch pipe for conveying the compressed air to the air engine where
it is to be utilized should also be provided with a stop-cock or valve.
In some cases the tanks or accumulators instead of being made in the
expanding or gasometer form may be rigid or non-expanding vessels,
capable of bearing a much greater pressure than that required to be 3
used, and the compressed air may be admitted into the main and branch
pipes therefrom by means of diminishing valves weighted to the required
pressure.

page_text: engine may be employed to utilize the compressed air thus accumulated,
and conveyed so as to transmit the power derived therefrom' to the
machinery required to be driven.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Deane Stanley in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 15th May 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DEANE
STANLEY, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of November, 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 Deane Stanley, Her special license that I, the
said Deane Stanley, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Deane Stanley, 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 “IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS
FOR OBTAINING AND APPLYING' MOTIVE POWER," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Deane Stanley, 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 Scal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Deane Stanley, 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 and accompanying Drawings (that is to say) :-
The object of this Invention is to obtain motive power by the-
employment of a water wheel or turbine to actuate air pumps for

page_text: compressing air into a vessel or accumular so as to store up or
accumulate the power thereby obtained, whence it can be conveyed by
main and branch pipes to any distance where it may be required to
apply the power, and then utilized for giving motion to compressed air
engines for driving any kinds of machinery.
By these means the power of a stream of water is made available for
driving machinery in mills or manufactories at any reasonable distance
from the stream, and the use of fuel for generating steam for that
purpose is entirely dispensed with, and the compressed air for that
purpose can be conveyed for any distance along pipes placed under
ground in the same way as gas and water are at present supplied.
Either an overshot, undershot, or breast water wheel may be employed
(or a turbine or other similar water engine) for actuating the pumps for
compressing the air, which pumps may be of the ordinary or any other
suitable construction.
The tanks or accumulators for receiving and storing the compressed
air I prefer to make of a form and construction somewhat similar to an
ordinary gasometer, but instead of the upper part being balanced it must
be weighted so as give the pressure required (say about 60 pounds to the
square inch).
The tanks or accumulators should be provided with escape openings
or safety valves so constructed as to open and allow of the escape of
the compressed air as soon as they are filled and raised to a certain
limit, so as to prevent the possibility of explosion through too great
pressure.
Each tank or accumulator should be provided with a stop-cock or
valve to shut off its communication with the main pipe, and each
branch pipe for conveying the compressed air to the air engine where
it is to be utilized; should also be provided with a stop-cock or valve.
In some cases the tanks or accumulators instead of being made in the
expanding or "gasometer" form may be rigid or non-expanding vessels
capable of bearing a much greater pressure than that required to be
used, and the compressed air may be admitted into the main and branch
pipes therefrom by means of diminishing valves weighted to the required
pressure.

page_text: as a motive power for giving motion to air engines of any ordinary con-
struction for driving all kinds of machinery.
Fig. 4 is a plan view, and Fig. 5 an elevation of a modification of
the above, wherein the accumulators h, h, are rigid or non-expanding
vessels similar to ordinary steam boilers, and capable of bearing a much
greater pressure than that required to be used, the said accumulators
being provided with safety valves to prevent explosion. In this case
the air is compressed direct into the accumulators by the pipes g, g, and
is admitted therefrom to the main pipe 9*, g*, (which conveys it to the
air engines), by means of diminishing valves of ordinary construction
weighted to the pressure required.
Fig. 6 is an end view of a further modification of my Invention,
wherein the air in the accumulators h, h, is kept at the requisite
pressure by means of a "head" of water in the pipe o, o, which is
conveyed from a source a sufficient height above the accumulators to
give pressure desired.
"
Fig. 7 is a section on a larger scale of one of the accumulators h, h.
9, 9, is the main pipe for the compressed air; o, o, the pipe for the
head" of water from the reservoir or source above, and p, p, are stop
cocks; q, q, is a float attached to a stop valves r, r, which float (if at any
time the compressed air should be all exhausted and the water rise
towards the top of the accumulator) will rise and close the valve r, r,
so as to prevent the water from escaping into the main pipe. This
arrangement will not require any safety valve, as the pressure can never
exceed that due to the height of the reservoir or source from whence the
"head
" of water is derived.
Having now described the nature and object of my said Invention,
together with the manner in which the same is to be or may be per-
formed or carried into practical effect, I wish it to be understood that I
claim as my Invention, the combination of water wheels, turbines, or
other water engines with air pumps for compressing air, and vessels or
accumulators for storing up or accumulating the air so compressed, and
the utilizing of the power so obtained by conveying it through main and
branch pipes to work compressed air engines situated at a distance from
the river or other source of water power employed,

page_text: 01'
And secondly. I claim the construction of the air vessels
accumulators, as above described and illustrated in the annexed
Drawings, or any mere modification or imitation thereof, constructed
and operating in substantially the same or a similar manner.
In witness whereof, I, the said Deane Stanley, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
Witnessed by
GEORGE DAVIES, C.E.,
Patent Agent,
Manchester.
DEANE STANLEY. (L.S.)