CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING AND APPLYING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, RICHARD
FELL, of Winchester Street, in the City of London, Engineer, and JAMES FELL,
of Ostend, in the Kingdom of Belgium, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Queen Victoria, by Her Royal
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventh day of October,
One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, in the eleventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs, and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Richard Fell and James Fell, our exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said
Richard Fell and James Fell, our exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others
as we, the said Richard Fell and James Fell, our exors, adñiors, 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, and in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark,
and Man, and also in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad,
our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING AND APPLYING MOTIVE
POWER;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that we, the said
Richard Fell and James Fell; should cause a particular description of the
nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand
and seal of one of us, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in

page_text: 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, we, the said
Richard Fell and James Fell, hereby declare that the nature of the said
Invention consists in certain peculiar arrangements, combinations, and adapta-
tions of apparatus or machinery, whereby the elastic force of steam, or the
pressure of the atmosphere, on a vacuum produced by the condensation of
steam or the pressure of water, is employed, in combination with the force
obtainable from the compression or rarefaction of air to propel carriages on
railways. And we declare, that the manner in which the said Invention is
carried into effect is fully set forth in the following description thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:-
Figure 1 is an elevation, and Figure -2-a plan (both these Figures being
partly in section), and Figure 3 a cross section of a portion of a line of rail-
way fitted with the apparatus or machinery suitable for carrying out our
Invention on the air compressing principle: A, A, are the rails; B is an air
main or pipe, which occupies a central position, between the rails.A, A, and is
securely fixed to the permanent way, upon which the rails are laid by means of
upright standards a, a. C, C,.are two of a series of compressed air reservoirs
which are placed alongside; the line' of, rails at equal distances from one
another, and communicate with the central pipe B by smaller pipes .D, D.
E is an air-compressing cylinder, worked by a stationary. steam engine not
shewn in the Drawings, for which, water, power. may be substituted where con-
venient, by which atmospheric air is forced through the pipe B, and smaller
pipes D, D, into the vessels C, C.. Any reflux of the air. from the reser
voirs C, C, is prevented by the valves F, F.. ..G, G, are a second set of pipes
which pass from the vessels C, C, up through but without communicating with
the pipe B, and. terminate, flush with. the outside of that pipe; these pipes
being open at bottom to the compressed air vessels C, and open at top to
the external atmosphere. H, H, are stopcocks on the pipes G, G, the levers
for opening which are weighted: so as to keep the cocks closed, and prevent
any escape of air from the vessels C..C, till they (the levers) are acted on in
the manner to be presently explained. I, I, is an engine which is worked by
the compressed air supplied from the reservoirs C, C, and propels the carriages
along the rails. K, K, are the driving cylinders. L is an ante-chamber from
which the cylinders K, K, are immediately supplied, and L' a pipe for con-
veying the compressed air from the vessels C, C, to the ante-chamber L. The
engine is nearly similar in every respect to a locomotive engine, except only
that compressed air is employed instead of steam to move the pistons within the

page_text: cylinders. The requisite communication between the pipe L' and the compressed
air vessels C, C, is thus effected:-A long slide valve or slipper, bar: M is hori-
zontally attached to the carriage of the engine.. Into one chamber N of this
valve the pipe L' is inserted at top, while the lower side of the same chamber
is perforated at bottom with a continuous line of holes, over.. which there
are fixed valves b, b, by which air may enter from beneath but is prevented
from again escaping in any other direction than the pipe L. O, O, is a portion
of the slipper bar or valve which embraces the pipe B for about three fourths
of its whole circumference, leaving a continuous slot on the lower side from
the one end to the other, so that the upright standards a, a,-may present no
impediment to the valve or slipper bar travelling along the pipe B. The
lower portion O, 0, of the slipper bar is of such a size as, just to allow it to pass
freely over certain enlargements on the pipe B, which enlargements take
place at those parts where the pipes G, G; pass up through it, so that at those
parts the slipper bar or valve fits nearly air-tight upon the upper surface of the
pipe B, and thereby-admits of compressed air passing from the pipes G, G,
into the hollow chamber N of the slipper bar through the valves b, b, with but
little waste from leakage (if any). From the chamber N. the compressed air
is then at once conveyed to the ante-chamber L by the pipe L. T is a stop-
cock, by which the driver has the power thus transmitted completely under his
command. The length of the slipper bar should always be greater than the
distance between the pipes GG, so that at whatever part of the line. the
engine is stopped it may be within the range of one or other of the compressed
air vessels C, C. The weighted levers which have been before .described as
governing the stopcocks H; H; terminate at their upper end in rings. or
projections P; P, and Q is a bar affixed to the slipper bar, which comes into
contact with these projecting rings P, P; and opens the cocks H, H, suc-
cessively, as the slipper bar comes over: the pipes G, G, thus allowing the
compressed air to flow through the pipes G, G, from the compressed air
vessels during the time the engine is passing over that portion of the line,
while at all other times the weighted levers keep the cocks shut,. as has before
been explained. A cross section of the slipper bar M is given separately
in Figure 4, and a perspective view of the bottom of the chamber N .in
Figure 5. It may be made; if preferred, with a double. set of. valves, and of a
soniewhat different form, as represented in Figure 6. In this arrangement
there is a continuous chamber A' from one end of the 'slipper bar to the other;
and the lower compartment B is divided by cross partitions into a number of
chambers separated from A' by valves a; which open upwards;: 6 is one of the
lower set of valves:: This double valve arrangement presents greater security

page_text: against leakage than the plan first before described.
Instead of employing the
pipe B to convey the compressed air to the different vessels C, C, wherein it is
stored, it may be conveyed by means of a separate pipe laid in any convenient
position alongside the rails, and in that case the place of the pipe B would be
occupied by a solid rod of wood or metal. It will also be obvious that instead
of having a separate condensed air reservoir for each of the pipes G, G, one
reservoir may serve for a number of pipes, with this difference only, that in
the latter case the distances between the reservoirs would have to be increased.
In Figure 7 we have shewn certain additions which may be made to the
preceding arrangements in order the better to secure the due action of the
pipes G, G, in conveying the compressed air from the vessels C, C. B is
the central air main, upon which the slipper bar slides. G, G, the compressed
air pipes as before, and H, H, the balance lever stopcocks. H2, H2, are other
stopcocks upon the pipes G, G, which are placed inside of the vessels C, C,
and opened and closed by levers which are connected at their outer ends
to the piston rods 12, 12, which move in the cylinders K, K. L² is a pipe
connected with the cylinders K2, K2, of the whole line. When the air in the
pipe L is compressed to a greater extent than that of the air inside the
vessels C, C, (which may be effected by means of a condensing air-pump, not
shewn in the Drawing,) then the pistons of the cylinders K², K, are forced up
and open the cocks H, H. When, however, it is desirable that the
cocks He, He, should be closed the compressed air in the pipe L² is allowed to
escape, upon which the compressed air in the vessels C, C, will force down the
pistons of the cylinders K, K, and thereby open the stopcocks.
The modifications requisite for adapting the machinery before described to
be worked by the rarefaction instead of compressed air are represented in
Figure 8.
The only material difference consists in the disposition of the
valves, which are all arranged to act in the reverse direction to those employed
for compressed air. A is the tube central to the line of rail. B the slipper
bar. C an intermediate chamber, in which the valves D, D, D, forming the
communication between the engine and the exhausted receivers E, E, are
placed. The last of these valves to the extreme right is represented as being
immediately over the pipe F, which opens into the exhausted receiver, and
therefore being at that instant of time in action the valves are held upon their
seats by the springs a, a, a. G, G, are the pipes through which the air is
exhausted from the receivers E, E.
And having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we declare that the improvements which
we claim as constituting our said Invention are as follows:-.

page_text: First, we claim the apparatus or machinery for employing steam or water
power, in combination with compressed air, to propel carriages on railways, as
before described, in the peculiar arrangement, combination, and adaptation of
the parts of which the same consists.
Second, we claim the application of the said apparatus or machinery,
with the modifications herein-before described, to the propelling of carriages
on railways by means of steam or water power, in combination with rarified
air.
In witness whereof, we, the said Richard Fell and James Fell, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Seventh day of April, in the
vear of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.