IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1846

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
CORMACK, of Thames Street, Greenwick, in the County of Kent, Chemist,
send greeting
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Ier
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventeenth day of
June, in the ninth year of Her 1cign, did, for Herself, Her hens and suc-
cessors, give and giant unto me, the said William Cormack, my exors, adfiiois,
and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authonty,
that I, the said William Cormack, my exois, adñiors, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said William Cormack, my exois, adiñois, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during
the term of years therem expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER," in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said William
Cormack, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the said
William Cormack, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say) :-
The first part of my Invention for obtaining motive power is by traction
and rarefaction,-traction on one side of the piston and rarefaction on the other
side of the piston alternately; and in order to obtain a rotary or a propulsive
motion by such traction and rarefaction, I cause a double impulse to take
place by shutting off the traction at a given motion, which motion will be
according to the length of the piston or motion space, this power produced
alternately at such distances, the top slide or valve of the traction and raiefac-
tion tubes to be alternately closed and opened. To perfectly understand the
true and correct nature of my said Invention of the first part, it will be this,
videlicit, I obtain motive power by traction and rarefaction without the agency
of the outward pressure of atmospheric aii, I proceed as follows, I apply two
or boilers, the one I exhaust of air so as to form a vacuum, and
the other containing air of the ordinary pressure; I then connect the air boiler
to the working motion, which is also connected to the vacuum boiler, and the
outward pressure of the atmosphere is then immediately shut off; I then place
two simlar boilers as before described, the one the vacuum boiler, the other
the rarefaction boiler, which I also attach to the working motion, and cach
vacuum and rarefaction slide is alternately opened and closed, by which means
I obtain a commanding power; the traction or vacuum boiler I prefer to be
larger than the 1a1efaction boiler, and that it should be regulated according to
the lubical area of the working cylinders or motion space, that is, if a piston of
a cylinder moves in a cubic feet of space it will requue the rarefaction to be
thice cubic feet and the vacuum boiler four cubic feet, and so on, in those
proportions any amount of power can be obtained And although I prefer
atmospheric air to be used in the rarefaction vessel or boiler, it is evident that
other elementary gases or compound gases may or can be substituted for the
same, for all the various gases in the singular or in the plural state of combi-
nation have their limits of rarefaction when placed over a vacuum, or in other
words, when the pressure of the atmosphere is withdrawn from or off their
surface. In obtaining motive power by vacuum or traction and gravitation, I
proceed as follows-I cause weights of metal, fluid of mercury, oil, or water,
or any other fluid; to be drawn up by the traction of a vacuum at given
distances, and at such distances I cause the traction tube to be shut off and
another traction tube at the same time to be opened, having several of those

page_text: traction tubes attached to one vacuum Doner, and alternately by traction and
gravitation I get a commanding power In obtaining motive power by the
decomposition of water into their clementary gases oxygen and hydrogen, by
conducting heat through platina wire or coils of platina metal, the one end of
which to be heated to redness while the other end is connected with water or
steam of water, when a thorough separation of the elements of water tako
place without destroying either of these gases, and by such means an available
motive power is obtained
I will now describe the second part of my Invention. In generating steam
for motive power under high pressure gives rise to curients of water passing off
with the steam into the cylinders, therefore cold water is continually entering
the generator from which the steam is evolved, causing a condensation of the
power of steam in the generator, as also in the working cylinders, as well as
the increase of fuel required in keeping up the supply of power, and, to prevent
the water from passing off with the steam into the working cylinders, I cause
a non-conductor of the fluid steam and a conductor of steam rarity to take
place in the generator. I will now describe the way in which I perform the
same, as a'so the various methods and various materials for providing the
samo I place a metal plate of 11on, copper, or brass, or any other conducting
metalic plate, which I cover over the surface of the water in the boiler,
perforated with holes of suitable dimensions; on this perforated plato
I put vegetable charcoal to the depth of four to twelve inches or more
according to the steam space; this I find conducts the water downwards,
while the steam, freed from the water, passes upwards This charcoal can
be placed at various distances in the steam space, either close to the
water, within two or three inches, or near to the top of the boiler, within
the same distance, but the former is preferred; and to prevent the charcoal
from being displaced, I pass over it a wire gauze, or such other suitable
material that may answer for the same.
I will now describe the thund part of my Invention. I apply as a conductor
of steam rarity, and a non-conductor of steam fluidity, a metalic plate of five
eighths of an inch in thickness, the one edge of which to be rivited to the
centre of the internal part of a steam boiler at the bottom, and to extend along
the whole length of the boiler, passing up through the water at about half the
distance into the steam space, as in to the upper edge of this plate I have two
bars of metal of three inches wide by quarter thick, to be screwed through the
upright plate, the one bar at one side and the other bar at the other. To each
of those bars I attach metallic wire of sufficient strength to enable it to keep

page_text: the form in the top of these wires, being brought up through the steam space
near to the top of the boiler, suspended by some non-conducting substances,
such as strips of blanketing, woollen or other non-conducting substance.
These wires I have in rows eight or ten deep, or more, according to the extent
of steam space, the advantage of the metallic wire being a great conductor of
heat to the fluid, steam producing steam rarity, while the wire being suspended
with blanketing or other porous substances becomes the non-conductor of the
heat of the we to the metal of the boiler. I do not confine myself to
chai coal, either vegetable or animal, for it is evident that other porous sub-
stances may or can be substituted, therefore neither do I confine myself to
metallic wire, for it will be evident that other methods of construction may or
can answer the same.
Thndly, I claim the conducting and non-conducting sulistances so applied
in the steam space in obtaining motive power
The fourth part of my Invention consists in obtaining motive power by the
sesqui-carbonate and bi-carbonate of ammonia
I take the solid sesqui-car-
bonate ammonia and dissolvo it with about one third its weight of water, and
then place it in the boiler in the similar way of placing water into the ordinary
steam boileı- for generating steam, this solution, when so formed, requiring only
one hundred and twenty degrees of heat in producing a pressure of one
hundred pounds on the inch, and when brought into a chamber of the degrees
of a hundred it is immediately reduced to a fluid form, which can be returned
into the generator as in the usual way of feeding the steam boiler with water.
In this way I obtain a lughly elastic power at a moderate degree of heat
without any danger of decomposition or explosion which water is liable to from
the earthy and vegetable matter in which it is always more or less impregnated.
With the solution, when formed from the bi-carbonate, I add water in equal
proportion by weight, when its elastic force is equal to the sesqui-carbonate,
but requiring one hundred and eighty degrees of heat, which will give a
pressure of one hundred pounds on the inch.
The fifth part of the Invention consists in obtaining motive power by hydro-
mitrogen gases. I apply the caustic of ammonia of the specific gravity of
eight hundred and eighty
To every gallon of this strength I apply
two pounds of unslacked lime, previously pounded to powder, and I place this
mixture in a strong on boiler of small dimension, sufficient to hold ten
gallons, leaving a space of four inches from the mixture to the top of the
boiler for gaseous space. To this boiler I have connected another one of
larger dimensions, equally strong, and containing a space of twenty cubic feet,
which I term the generator. I apply fire to the first boiler which contains the

page_text: mixture to about four hundred degrees, when the hydro-nitrogen gases will be
forced into the larger boiler, which will take about one hour after the degree of
heat is got up to 100 degrees I then continue another charge in the same
proportions until thu ty gallons is duiven over into the generator, which will
indicate a pressure of five hundied and ninety from that to six hundied and
fifty pounds on the uch, temperature forty-five. I have the boiler enclosed
in the furnace, so that the heat can bo directed all over its outer surface.
The same degree of heat is required at the top as at the bottom. The heat
must be furnished with an oil or spirit lamp, and the vanation of temperature
must be regulated according to the decrease of power from fifty to one hundred
and fifty degrees, but no higher temperature is required. These gases forcing
up the piston in the cylinder from an inlet placed at the bottom, and the top
part being open, and is forced down again by the atmospheric an, a vacuum
being formed in the condensing chamber from an outlet valve which is also
placed at the bottom of the same cylinder. This chamber is required to be as
large at the generator, and to contain water from thirty to thirty-five gallons
to thirty gallons of the charged mixture so applied, and place this saturated
solution into the smaller boiler again, but add no lime, and instead of applying
four hundred degrees of heat, as before, I supply only about one hundred and
eighty to one hundred and ninety, causing the volatile gases to pass off into a
separate generator of about the same cubic capacity as the former one, and as
these generators are exhausted alternately, so by this means I change thei
alternately, but in case there should be an escape of gas by leakage or other
ways, the first principle must be resorted to for its supply in obtaining atmo-
spheric au by means of exhaustion, or, in other words, producing a vacuum by
means of exhaustion as follows -I place water into a boiler or tank of any
dimensions, and when such boilers, tanks, or vessels are filled perfectly with
that fluid, I make all joints tight and connect it to such tubes as required to
be exhausted of atmospheric air. For obtaining tractive power, I now connect
the lift and force pump to the bottom of this boiler or vessel, which must be
worked by mechanical or steam power, as the water is exhausted the air of the
tubes is also exhausted, and traction is produced, and the water so exhausted
from the one boiler or vessel is forced into another boiler, and alternately the
air is forced out and vacuum produced The advantage arising from this
mode of producing a vacuum by pumping out water instead of air is very
great, for it is assisted by gravitation of the water, and the measurement of
air is effectual at every stroke of the pump, the water acting the seal, which
air cannot lay claim to. By this means a saving of two thirds the steani
power is effected.