CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN LAKE,
of Apsley, in the County of Herts, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Royal
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Ninth day of October, in the ninth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Lake,
my exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said John Lake, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said John Lake, my exors, admiors, 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, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said John Lake,
shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar 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
John Lake, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention consists
in propelling carriages and other vehicles on railways and other roads or ways,
and boats, barges, and other vessels on rivers and canals, by means of the
direct application of steam in or through longitudinal tubes or pipes (similar

page_text: to the traction tubes now employed on railways commonly called atmospheric
railways) to pistons or other equivalent agents connected with or made to
act upon the said carriages, boats, barges, and other vehicles and vessels.
And that the manner in which I prefer that the said Invention should be
carried into effect is fully set forth and explained in the following description
thereof, reference being had to the Drawings annexed, that is to say :-
Figure 1 and Figure 2 represent my said Improvements as applied to
railway locomotion, Figure-1 is a longitudinal elevation in section of as
much of a railway and railway carriage as is necessary to explain the nature
of the said improvements, and Figure 2 a transverse section, the former being
on the line a, b, of the latter. A is the longitudinal or traction tube, which
may be composed of cast or wrought iron, or any other suitable material, made
sufficiently strong by outside ribs or other means to withstand the interior
pressure of the steam employed to move the piston. A¹ is an opening or slit
through which a vertical rod passes, which is connected with the piston and
thereby with the carriage. The tube is proposed to be supported at certain
intervals either by transverse sleepers B, B, to which the rails are attached,
or by piles driven into the ground, or by any other suitable means. As it is
requisite, in order to prevent the escape of the steam, that the slit in the tube
should be closed as fast as the piston is moved forward by the pressure of the
steam, this is proposed to be effected by a longitudinal valve (C). In Figure 2,
C shows the form of valve which I prefer for this purpose. After the vertical
rod (I) which connects the piston with the carriage has passed, the valve is
pushed forward in order to close the slit, either by means of a projecting rib
or other contrivance attached to the vertical connecting rod or to the carriage
itself, or by means of springs attached to the back edge of the valve. D, D,
is the piston, which consists of two parts connected together by a central
tube E, common to both, so that there may be always one part before and
another behind the vertical connecting rod; this piston is packed or made
steam-tight in the ordinary way. The small tube E which connects the two
parts of the piston, and to which the vertical connecting rod is attached, serves
to form a communication by incans of a cock F, between those parts of the
traction tube A before and behind the connecting rod, and also to allow the
used steam to escape into the atmosphere through the chimney or exhaust
pipe II, all which is readily effected by turning the handle or lever G, which
is connected with the cock F in manner shewn in Figure 1. The piston pipe
E is connected with the vertical connecting rod I, and thereby to the carriage
to be propelled; the carriage is represented in both Figures as being in a
state to be propelled in either direction, by admitting the steam behind er

page_text: before the piston D, D. L, Figure 1, is an ordinary brake lever to be used
for the purpose of retarding or stopping the train M, M. Figure 2 repre-
sents a jacketing or covering with which the traction tube is to be clothed,
for the purpose of preventing more or less the condensation of the steam;
this jacketing may be of felt, straw, ashes, sawdust, or any other slow con-
ductor of heat. The mode of operation is as follows:-Suppose a traction tube
fitted with its valve, pistón, connecting propeller rod, &c., and properly clothed
or covered, all as before described; to be laid down on a railway between the
rails, or on the towing path or bank of a canal or river, or even on a turnpike
or other road, it being of no consequence what the gradients are of the sur-
face travelled over; then, if at a point contiguous to the traction tube a steam
boiler be erected, and steam be admitted into the tube from the boiler, the
tube will gradually become heated, and the air from the tube be expelled, and
steam occupy its place. If, when this is the case, a communication be opened
between the interior of the tube and a common condenser, such as is ordinarily
employed in steam condensing engines, and both ends' of the tube and the
longitudinal slit be closed, the steam from the tube will rush into the con-
denser and be then converted into watér, leaving the tube empty or nearly
SO. Let the communication with the condenser be then shut, and the piston
D, with the carriage or other body attached to it, be brought to that part of
the tube where the steam boiler is situated; if steam be now admitted to act
on the piston, it will, with the body attached, be propelled forward with a force
equal to that of the steam, and with a velocity equal to that at which the
traction tube is filled; or if the communication with the condenser be not
opened, but the cock F be so adjusted as to allow the first quantity of steam
with which the tube was filled to escape freely into the atmosphere, and fresh
steam be admitted to act on the piston from the boiler, then will motion of the
piston and carriage be produced even though the use of the condenser should be
dispensed with. In the event of its being necessary to stop or retard the pro-
gress of the carriage or other body propelled, this may be effected by so adjusting
the cock F as that it shall allow the steam to rush through the tube E, which
connects the two parts of the piston, or to escape through the chimney or ex-
haust pipe H into the atmosphere. In descending steep inclined planes on
railways the same means would be available, by having the tube at such places
filled with steam before the piston, and tlic rate at which it was suffered to
escape through the cock F into the atmosphere would regulate the velocity of
the train down the plane without the use of any of the ordinary brakes, and
would be much safer, as the piston would have always, before it an elastic
cushion or buffer of steam. Instead of employing stationary boilers to supply

page_text: the steam, a locomotive boiler might be used for the purpose placed in front
of the carriage or train of carriages or other bodies to be propelled, and com-
municating with the traction tube in the manner shewn in Figure 3. In the
Drawings hereunto annexed and before described, the steam is represented
as acting directly upon a piston within a longitudinal or traction tube, and
through the medium of that piston on the carriage or other body propelled;
but a tube without any opening or slit, and without any piston inserted in it,
may be employed by making the tube through which the steam is passed to
expand in certain parts by the force of the steam, and by such expansion
to act through the medium of levers, or otherwise, against or upon the carriage
or other body to be propelled.
And having now fully described the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same may be carried out, I declare that what I claim is,
the propelling of carriages and other vehicles on railways and other roads and
ways, and of boats, barges, and other vessels on rivers and canals, by means of
the direct application of steam in or through longitudinal tubes or pipes to
pistons or other equivalent agents connected with or made to act upon the
said carriages, boats, barges, or other vehicles and vessels, as before exempli-
fied, and whether the steam is supplied for the purpose from stationary boilers
or from locomotive boilers accompanying the vehicles or vessels propelled, and
however the mode of admitting the steam to the tube may be modified, so long
as the system of direct application is observed.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Lake, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and foutu cive
Enrolled the Ninth day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and forty-six.