IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER FROM THE RISE AND FALL OF THE TIDE
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Tomlinson Bousfield, of Sutton, in the
County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER FROM THE RISE AND FALL OF THE TIDE."—A
communication from abroad by Enrico Guglielmini, of Venice, in
the Kingdom of Italy.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Tomlinson
Bousfield at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 16th September 1873.
לי
I, GEORGE TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Sutton, in the County of Surrey,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER FROM THE RISE AND FALL OF THE
TIDE," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for
obtaining motive power from the rise and fall of the tide. For this.
purpose I form a reservoir near to and communicating with the sea, its

page_text: depth being such as will allow it to admit the highest and lowest tides.
In this reservoir I place a float of suitable dimensions, which is capable
of sliding up and down between vertical guides. The float carries at
its centre a vertical rod, whose upper extremity is connected to a ratchet
arm, which as the float rises gives a partial revolution to a horizontal
shaft, or a revolving motion may otherwise be given to the shaft on the
rising of the float. This movement, which takes place during the six
bours that the tide is rising stops during the next six hours, in which
the tide falls and again commences when the next tide rises. The shaft,
which is thus caused to revolve, actuates a train of cog wheels, which
multiply to any convenient extent the movement of the float, and serves
to perpetually wind up a system of weights to store up the motive
power; this it does by acting on a series of barrels, on each of which is
wound a chain suspending a weight. These barrels are mounted in a
similar way to the barrel of a clock on a common axis, and as the
weights descend, this axis by multiplying gear drives the shaft, by which
the motive power is to be transmitted.
The weights tend to cause the barrels to turn in the opposite direction
to that in which they are wound up, and each barrel carries a ratchet,
which gears them to the shaft in the working direction, and frees them
in the direction of winding.
The barrels are wound up successively and are independent of each
other, so that during the winding up of one barrel the others continue
to work.
The weight of the float may in a similar manner be employed to 2
obtain the motive power, so that the power is stored up during the fall
instead of during the rise of the tide, or the power may be obtained both
during the rise and during the fall of the tide.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of September; in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield,
Her special license that I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
George Tomlinson Bousfield, 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 APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING
MOTIVE POWER FROM THE RISE AND FALL OF THE TIDE," a communication
to me from abroad by Enrico Guglielmini, of Venice, in the Kingdom
of Italy, upon the condition (amongst others), that I, the said George
Tomlinson Bousfield, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 George Tomlinson Bousfield, 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 apparatus for
obtaining motive power from the rise and fall of the tide. For this
purpose I form a reservoir near to and communicating with the sea, its
depth being such as will allow it to admit the highest and lowest tides.
In this reservoir I place a float of suitable dimensions, which is capable
of sliding up and down between vertical guides. The float carries at its
centre a vertical rod, whose upper extremity is connected to a ratchet
arm, which as the float rises gives a partial revolution to a horizontal
shaft, or a revolving motion may otherwise be given to the shaft on the
rising of the float. This movement, which takes place during the six
hours that the tide is rising stops during the next six hours, in which
the tide falls and again commences when the next tide rises. The shaft,

page_text: which is thus caused to revolve, actuates a train of cog wheels, which
multiply to any convenient extent the movement of the float; and serves
to perpetually wind up a system of weights to store up the motive
power; this it does by acting on a series of barrels, on each of which is
wound a chain suspending a weight. These barrels are mounted in a
similar way to the barrel of a clock on a common axis, and as the
weights descend this axis by multiplying gear drives the shaft, by which
the motive power is to be transmitted.
The weights tend to cause the barrels to turn in the opposite direction
to that in which they are wound up, and each barrel carries a ratchet, 1
which gears them to the shaft in the working direction and frees them
in the direction of winding.
The barrels are wound up successively and are independent of each
other, so that during the winding up of one barrel the others continue
to work.
The weight of the float may in a similar manner be employed to
obtain the motive power, so that the power is stored up during the fall
instead of during the rise of the tide, or the power may be obtained both
during the rise and during the fall of the tide.
Figure 1 is a front view of the apparatus; Figure 2, a section on the
line x, y, Figure 1; and Figures 3 and 4 shew some details of the
machine to a larger scale.
In these Figures A is a float capable of sliding up and down between
the vertical guides a; B is a vertical rod fixed to the float A carrying
at its upper end a pin, which works in the slot C of the ratchet arm Z,
which turns freely on the axis S. This ratchet arm Z carries a ratchet
(not shewn in the Drawings), which by taking into teeth (also not
shewn) on the wheel D causes it to make a partial revolution with the
arm Z as the float A and rod B rise, but leaving the arm Z free to return
without drawing with it the wheel D as the float descends. T, T, is the
framework, which carries the trains of gear wheels.

page_text: The number of teeth of the wheels, as shewn in the Drawings, is as
follows:-D, has 300 teeth, and drives the wheel E, which has 30 teeth;
F, has 120 teeth, and is mounted on the same axis U as E; F, drives G
(with 18 teeth), G being on the same axis V as H, which has 120 teeth.
A wheel with 12 teeth is fixed to H, this wheel being mounted on the
shaft I, which carries the barrels. Thus it will be seen that if the rise
of the tide causes the arm Z to rise through % of a revolution then the
shaft I will be caused to revolve 133 times.
The shaft I carries a number of discs, as is shewn at Figure 3, each
of these discs has one pin i upon it, the pins being placed in succession
at equal distances one in front of the other, as is shewn at Figure 3.
K is another shaft parallel to I, which carries a series of cog wheels and
barrels (like the barrel of a clock), as shewn at Figure 4. These barrels
are independent of each other, and they have each a chain wound round
them supporting a weight, as shewn, and there is one barrel to each of
the discs (Figure 3). The weights upon the barrels descend, thereby
causing the axis K to revolve, and the weights are wound up one by one
in succession (the barrels turning freely in this direction on the axis K)
by the pins i taking into the teeth of the cog wheels, as is shewn at
Figure 4, thus whilst the tide is rising one weight is always being wound
up whilst all the others are turning the axis K. The axis K by means
of the gearing M, N, O, P, O¹, P¹, O¹, P¹¹, as shown, causes the shaft X,
by which the power is transmitted to the factory, to revolve.
In order to prevent the teeth of the discs on the shaft I from catching
against the teeth of the barrels when the tide is not rising and the
shaft I therefore not turning I use a wheel J having 60 teeth, which
take into the teeth of E. The wheel J. has upon its circumference a
boss, which is so placed that just as the float has reached its highest
position the boss strikes against the shaft I, thereby forcing it on one
side and thus disengaging the teeth of the disc. When the tide again
begins to rise the wheel J again revolves, thus freeing the shaft I, and
the teeth of the discs again take into those of the barrels.
I have described the action of the apparatus as obtaining power only
from the rise of the tide, but it will readily be seen that by reversing the
action of the ratchet the power may be obtained by the weight of the
float A, which has been raised by the tide.

page_text: In a similar manner, by using two ratchets, the power may be
obtained both during the rise and during the fall of the tide.
Having thus described the said Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I would have it understood that I do not limit myself
to the exact apparatus shewn in the Drawings, but that what I claim as
the Invention is, the method of obtaining motive power from the rise
and fall of the tide, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of March,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-four.