IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPERTAINING TO AIR WATER WHEELS
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Pocock at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 11th December 1879.
GEORGE POCOCK, Farmer, of Devizes, in the County of Wilts, and 323, High
Holborn, in the County of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPERTAINING TO
AIR WATER WHEELS."
The object of this Invention is to utilize the rising power of air when confined
below the surface of water.
My Invention consists mainly of a framework of any convenient materials and
construction, within which and working upon suitable bearings revolves a wheel of
ordinary or special construction and provided with my apparatus as I will now
describe.
The apparatus consists essentially of a number of collapsible bags or cylinders or
equivalent, those bags opposite each other on the periphery of the wheel being
connected together in pairs by suitable tubes or pipes. Upon that part of the bag
farthest from the centre of the wheel is placed an iron or other weight, and suitable
springs, levers, or other apparatus are provided upon the wheel for retaining these
weights in position or releasing them when required. The framework is carried up
so as to pass over the upper part of the wheel; the inner sides of the bags are all
equidistant from the centre of the wheel. The mode of action is as follows:-
I place the whole wheel and apparatus in water or other suitable liquid, and
generally immerse it so deep that the top bag is just clear of the surface, the machinė
will then start itself at once. It will be seen that the weight on the lowest bag or
cylinder will draw that out to its full extent, while that upon the top bag will
compress it, and the two being connected by the tubes already mentioned the air
contained (a proper quantity only is allowed in) by the two bags and tubes will all
be forced and drawn into the lower bag (the tube being always full), which will then
at once begin to rise and turn the wheel, the springs keeping the top bag closed
and the bottom one open. When the bottom bag has raised itself to the surface of
the water another or more bag or bags, according to the number upon the wheel,
will be down and continue the turning, and as each pair of bags arrive at the top
and bottom respectively the springs catch projections placed for the purpose on the
framework, and the two weights fall, closing the top and opening the bottom bag
as already described. The wheel will continue working so long as the proper level
of the water is maintained, and to stop it an arrangement is provided by which all

page_text: the springs are released, so that the air contained by all the pairs of bags or cylinders
is set free therein, and by balancing the pressure stops the wheel at once. By
moving again the stopping apparatus the weights upon the bags at top and bottom
are released, they accordingly drop and the wheel again starts. The framework
can sometimes be dispensed with, as when the wheel is placed in a tank suitable
bearings would be provided, and the catches necessary for working the springs
placed where and as found convenient. For transınitting power I sometimes prefer
to form the wheel with cogs or teeth upon its periphery and so drive direct. The
exact form of bag or cylinder to be used is not very important, but it is sometimes
advantageous to shape that part of it which has to cut through the water upon an
angle like the bows of a ship, so as to pass through more easily, though the motion
of the wheel must necessarily be somewhat slow.
To increase the power I sometimes prefer to use hydrogen or other gas within the
bags and tubes instead of ordinary atmospheric air.
The number of bags or cylinders may be greatly varied according to the diameter
of the wheel and to other circumstances, but I prefer to have not fewer than four,
and may have a large number upon a large wheel.