AN IMPROVED ROTATORY MACHINE, TO BE USED AS A WATER WHEEL, STEAM ENGINE, OR PUMP, AND FOR TRANSMITTING AT ANY DISTANCE MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to David François Louis Ruchet, Jacob Vonwiller, and
Frederich Seiler, of Paris, in the French Empire, Manufacturers, for the
Invention of "AN IMPROVED ROTATORY MACHINE, TO BE USED AS A WATER
WHEEL, STEAM ENGINE, OR PUMP, AND FOR TRANSMITTING AT ANY DISTANCE
MOTIVE POWER."
Sealed the 5th June 1860, and dated the 17th January 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said David François Louis
Ruchet, Jacob Vonwiller, and Frederich Seiler at the Office of the Com-
missioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 17th January 1860.
We, DAVID FRANÇOIS LOUIS RUCHET, JACOB VONWILLER, and FREDERICH
SEILER, of Paris, in the French Empire, Manufacturers, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED ROTATORY MACHINE TO BE USED
AS A WATER WHEEL, STEAM ENGINE, OR PUMP, AND FOR TRANSMITTING AT ANY DIS-
TANCE MOTIVE POWER," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists of a machine or engine composed of a bucket or float
wheel, or of an endless chain carrying buckets or floats, which wheel or chain
is enclosed in a case containing water, mercury, or other liquid, and caused to
revolve therein by some moving fluid, such as compressed air, water, or steam,
admitted through a pipe carried, by preference, to the lower part of the case.
A pinion is placed above the bucket or float wheel and is geared into thereby.
The pinion is mounted on a shaft working in bearings formed in the sides of
the case, and from this shaft rotatory motion is transmitted.

page_text: The machine may be employed for the production of compressed air by
reversing the motion of the bucket wheel or chain, whereby air will be drawn
into the case, a portion of which will be taken into every bucket as it rises
during the revolution of the wheel or chain, just clear of the liquid. The air
in each bucket will become compressed according to the density of the liquid
through which the buckets take it, and on the buckets reaching the lower
part of the case, the compressed air issues through apertures provided in the
sides thereof into a pipe or pipes, and thence for use or into a receiver. By
attaching a pipe to the upper part of the reservoir the machine acts as an
exhaust pump.
When the machine is employed as a rotary steam engine we use mercury as
the liquid in the case, and heat it to prevent condensation of the steam on
coming in contact therewith. We carry the steam, after having done its duty,
into a condenser, in order to collect therein any portions of mercury which
may have become vaporized. In some cases we dispense with the pinion and
transmit the power direct from the shaft on which the wheel revolves.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said David François Louis Ruchet, Jacob Vonwiller, and Frederich
Seiler in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 17th July 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, DAVID
FRANÇOIS LOUIS RUCHET, JACOB VONWILLER, and FREDERICH SEILER, of Paris,
in the French Empire, Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
David François Louis Ruchet, Jacob Vonwiller and Frederich Seiler, Her
special licence that we, the said David François Louis Ruchet, Jacob Vonwiller,
and Frederich Seiler, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as we, the said David François Louis Ruchet, Jacob Vonwiller, and Frederich
Seiler, our 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 Brittain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED ROTATORY MACHINE
TO BE USED AS A WATER WHEEL, STEAM ENGINE, OR PUMP, AND FOR. TRANSMITTING

page_text: AT ANY DISTANCE MOTIVE POWER," upon the condition (amongst others) that
we, the said David François Louis Ruchet, Jacob Vonwiller, and Frederich
Seiler, or one of us, our executors or administrators by an instrument in
writing under our, or one of our or their, or one of their bands 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 samo
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 we, the said David François Louis Ruchet, Jacob
Vonwiller, and Frederich Seiler, do hereby declare the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be parti-
cularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
Our Invention consists of a machine or engine composed of a bucket or float
wheel, or of an endless chain carrying buckets or floats, which wheel or chain
is enclosed in a case containing water, mercury, or other liquid, and caused to
revolve therein by some moving fluid, such as compressed air, water, or steam,
admitted through a pipe carried, by preference, to the lower part of the case.
A pinion is placed above the bucket or float wheel and is geared into thereby ;
the pinion is mounted on a shaft working in bearings formed in the sides of
the case, and from this shaft rotatory motion is transmitted.
The machine may be employed for the production of compressed air by
reversing the motion of the bucket wheel or chain, whereby air will be drawn
into the case, a portion of which will be taken into every bucket as it rises
during the revolution of the wheel or chain just clear of the liquid. The air
in each bucket will becomo compressed according to the density of the liquid
through which the buckets take it, and on the buckets reaching the lower part
of the case the compressed air issues through apertures provided in the sides
thereof into a pipe or pipes, and thence for use, or into a receiver. By
attaching a pipe to the upper part of the reservoir the machine acts as an
exhaust pump.
When the machine is employed as a rotary steam engine we use mercury
as the liquid in the case, and heat it to prevent condensation of the steam on
coming in contact therewith. We carry the steam, after having done its duty,
into a condenser, in order to collect therein any portions of mercury which
may have become vaporized. In some cases we dispense with the pinion,
and transmit the power direct from the shaft on which the wheel revolves.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a sectional clevation, and Figure 2
a vertical section, of a rotary machine constructed according to our Invention.

page_text: A is a reservoir or case formed of iron, wood, or any other suitable material; B
is a wheel with buckets or floats nounted on a shaft, which is free to revolve in
bearings formed in the sides of the case. Instead of this wheel we sometimes
employ an endless chain with buckets, as shewn at C, Figure 2, which is free
to revolve round polygonal rollers D, E. The wheel B or the chain C is almost
wholly immersed in water or mercury. For large machines we prefer to
employ water, but for small, mercury will be found most convenient, its density
being greater than that of water, a much smaller receiver, and consequently a
smaller wheel can be employed. F is a pipe extending down the case A to
it's lower part beneath the float wheel or bucket chain; compressed air, gas, or
other fluid is forced down the pipe F, and issues at its extremity a... The air
being subjected to the pressure of the water or mercury exerts pressure on the
floats or buckets, and causes the wheel or chain to revolve. As the wheel
revolves the air escapes at the top of the case at that part where the buckets
leave the water or mercury; the buckets descend empty, to be refilled with air
at the lower part of the case, as before, and thus the wheel is kept continually
rotating. By mounting a pinion or pulley on the shaft which carries the
wheel, rotary motion will be communicated to any desired mechanism. A.
machine of this description can be placed at any desired distance from the
place where the compressed air is produced, by making the pipe F flexible,
and of a sufficient length to convey the air; we prefer compressed air, as it
preserves its pressure for a long distance better than any other fluid. Several
rotary machines can be supplied from the same source with compressed air or
gas by leading a distinct pipe to each machine.
:
Figure 3 is a sectional elevation, and Figure 4 is a vertical section, of a
machine for the production of compressed air. G is a shaft carrying a pinion
H, which gears into a toothed wheel I mounted on the shaft, which carries the
bucket wheel B'. The shaft G is driven by a crank, steam engine, or other
prime mover, and through the pinion and toothed wheel communicates a
rotary motion to the bucket wheel. This wheel B' revolves in the direction
indicated by the arrow; it draws the air (which enters by the pipe K), and
carries it in a compressed state into the lower passages J; J, from whence it
passes off into the pipe F of the rotary machine before described with reference
to Figures 1 and 2, or into any other receptacle. .
Figure 5 is a view of a machine in which the air which enters by the orifice
K becomes compressed by the rotation of the wheel B. At the lower part of
the apparatus the air passes into a reservoir M, from whence it issues in a
compressed state by the pipe J to the pipe F, as before.
Figure 6 is a sectional elevation, and Figure 7 a vertical section of a

page_text: machine for the production of compressed air, in which the bucket or float
wheel is replaced by a coil. As the coil N, which is immersed in mercury or
water, rotates, air is drawn in through the orifice K, and driven with the
water or mercury into the interior of the coil N. The air and the water make
their exit by the central orifice o into a receiver P. The compressed air passes
off at the upper part by the orifice Q, from whence it is led into the pipe F,
and from there to the rotary machine, as before described, or otherwise, for
use. The water or mercury returns to the case by a ball valve R.
And having now described the nature of our said Invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed we declare that we claim,-
First, the construction of a machine or engine composed of a bucket or float
wheel, or of an endless bucket chain, or of a coil enclosed in a case, the said
wheel being caused to revolve in water or mercury by the introduction of
compressed air or other gas, fluid, or steam into the buckets at the lower part
of the case, as herein-before described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawings.
Second, the construction of a machine for the production of compressed
air by the employment of buckets or of coils revolving in a case containing
water or mercury, which draw in air as they revolve, and force it out com-
pressed, as herein-before described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawings.
In witness whercof, the said David François Louis Ruchet, Jacob
Vonwiller, and Frederich Seiler, havo hereunto set our hands and
seals, this Twenty-third day of June, One thousand eight hundred
and sixty
Witness,
C. ARMENGAUD, Jo, Ing* Civil,
Boulevart de Strasbourg, No. 23,
à Paris.
D. F. L. RUCHET. (L.S.)
J. VON WILLER.
F. SEILER.
(L.B.)
(L.S.)