Improvements in Hydraulic Apparatus or Machines chiefly Designed for Raising Water, but Applicable to other Purposes also.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Jan., 1889-
Complete Specification Left, 21st Oct., 1889-Accepted, 7th Dec., 1889
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Hydraulic Apparatus or Machines chiefly Designed
for Raising Water, but Applicable to other Purposes also.
I, WITOLD DE SKORZEWSKI of Hotel Múnsch, Vienna, Proprietor of landed Estate in
Germany, do hereby declare the nature of my said invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
HYDRAULIC APPARATUS OR MACHINES CHIEFLY DESIGNED FOR RAISING WATER BUT
APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES ALSO to bo as follows
"
This invention relates to apparatus or machinery to be used instead of water-wheels
or the like for raising water or other purposes.
The apparatus is constructed as follows:
At a suitable level with reference to any convenient source of water (a brook, river,
lake or reservoir of any kind) I provide a cylindrical vessel open at the top. Within
this I fit, so as to move freely up and down therein, a hollow float-closed on all sides,
said float serving as a piston. When water is admitted into the vessel and fills.the
same the hollow piston will rise, when the water is allowed to escape the piston
descends. In order to cause those alternate motions, valves are provided on the vessel.
and I prefer that the inlet valve should be a vertically sliding valve and the outlot
valve a circular slide placed in the bottom of the vessel. The gearing for the valves
may be of any suitable kind but I prefer to attach to the piston rods which actuate
levers, in turn operating chains connected with the valves and balanced by suitable
weights. Springs may serve to facilitate the return motion of the valve-levers.
From the cylinder or open vessel the water escapes into a second receiver from
which a hydraulic ram is fed; the hydraulic ram may however be supplied directly
from the cylinder. The ram is of the usual construction and raises a portion of the
water by which the piston was actuated. Another portion of the water is raised by a
pump actuated by gearing connecting it with the hollow piston above referred to.
The power obtained by the apparatus inay however be utilised for any other purpose.
besides that of raising water.
In order to increase the power with which the piston descends when the water is
escaping from beneath it, rings or grooves may be provided on its poriphery which
receive some of the water so that the weight of the latter aids the descent.
In some cases two cylinders and pistons and the requisite gearing may be connected,
say by an oscillating beam so as to from a double acting machine.
Dated this 19th day of January 1889.
BERNHARD DUKES,
226, High Holborn, London, W.C., Agent for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Hydraulic Apparatus or Machines chiefly Designed
for Raising Water, but Applicable to other Purposes also.
I WITOLD DE SKORZEWSKI of Czerniejew Province of Posen, Prussia Proprietor
of landed Estate in Germany do hereby declare the nature of this invention and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
My invention relates to a new hydraulic machine which may be used instead of
water wheels for actuating pumps for raising water or for other purposes.
The construction of this machine is as follows :
A body of low specific weight is arranged in an empty vessel, when water is
admitted into the latter the said body will he moved upwards by buoyancy and it will
descend owing to its proper weight when the water is allowed to escape from the
vessel. By admitting the water into and evacuating it from the vessel continuously

page_text: and alternately the specifically light body contained in the vessel will be moved up
and down.
This up and down motion is transmitted by means of a suitable lever arrangement
to a crank-shaft provided with a fly wheel and thus transformed into a rotary motion.
By this means the buoyancy is utilised and employed to perform work.
In the accompanying drawing the above mentioned specifically light body is shown
as a hollow cylinder closed on all sides (briefly called a float piston) and the vessel
as a cylinder open at the top. This cylinder and the other parts of the machine
are mounted in a pit made of masonry and arranged in a large reservoir filled with
A regular water supply into this reservoir is provided..
water.
I shall now proceed to describe more particularly my invention and for that
purpose I refer to the several figures on the accompanying sheet of drawing, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in all the corresponding
figures.
Figs. 1 and 2 are vertical sections of the motor.
Fig. 3 is a modified construction of the float piston .
Fig. 4 shows at a larger scale the inlet device for the liquid constructed as
vertical slide valve d.
a
Fig. 5 is a vertical section of the outlet valve seen from below.
a
Fig. 6 is a diagram illustrating the combination of two cylinders so as to form a
double acting machine.
Fig. 7 shows details of the lever S.
As represented in the drawing the motor consists essentially of a cylindrical
vessel a open at the top in which a hollow cylinder 6 closed-on-all-sides-(the so called
-"float piston") is arranged, the said cylinder having such a circumference, that
there is left a small play between the float piston band the cylinder u. The cylinder a
and the other parts of the machine are mounted in a pit made of masonry and
arranged in a large reservoir communicating through a pipe c with the cylinder
and supplied with water from a brook, river, lake or other convenient source of
water.
a
The supply pipe e may be opened and closed by a slide valve hereinafter more
fully described. The bottom of the vessel a is furnished with an eduction valve e,
through which the water escaping from the cylinder a passes into the receiver f
arranged immediately underneath the cylinder a and communicating through a
pipe g with a hydraulic ram w.
The following contrivance serves to utilise the up-and-down motion of the piston b
for rotating the crank-shaft . The float piston has on its inferior bottom two
rods o and o¹ extending through the bottom of the vessel a, each of which rods is
connected with a double armed lever r and are connected with each other by a cross
bars communicating through the drawing rod t with the rod u which is guided
at u; the rod u is connected at v with the connecting rod of the crank shaft 1.
In order to avoid the stuffing of the piston rods o and of the latter may of course
be applied also to the upper bottom of the piston & instead of to the lower bottom; in
this case the levers 7 and r¹ are to be arranged above the piston (see fig. 3).
I shall now proceed to describe the device which has for its purpose to allow the
water to enter temporarily the cylinder a and to escape therefrom i.e. to regulate the
action of the slide d and of the eduction valve e. The slide d of the supply pipe c is
fastened to a chain K passing over three guide rollers L, LL³ and carrying on its
ends the counter weights G G' guided in sockets H H. The lower eduction valve e
or its stem which is provided with a toothed segment ez is in communication
at K° with the chain K by means of a chain K₁ provided with a rack Z (see
fig. 5).
The weights G and G' are arranged in such a manner that in their lowest position
(fig. 1) they balance the float piston and that, in this condition, the slide d is opened
and the valve e closed. The guide rollers are carried by the supports T secured to
the cylinder a. On the upper part T₁ of the supports T are provided two double
armed levers S' S', the shorter arms of which communicate with the spring F' and F,

page_text: whilst the longer arms terminate in rings Z' Z (see fig. 7)-through passes the
chain K.
Underneath the rings Z and Z plates p' and p² are secured to a link of the chain
in such a manner that, when the float piston rises the said plates are immediately
underneath the ring. The end of the lever S² which is acted upon by the spring
corresponds with the arm A of the piston b, so that the lever S' is held in an inclined
position by the arm B at the beginning of the stroke, when the piston bis in its
lowest position (see fig. 1).
At the end of the stroke, the arms A and B are in the position shown in fig. 1 in
dotted lines, the arm A strikes against the shorter arm of lever S2 whilst the hook-
shaped end of rod B is at some distance from the lever S. Through the intervention
of the levers S' and S² the inlet and outlet ports are opened and closed in the manner
hereinafter more fully described.
This hydraulic machine works as follows.
After the cylindrical vessel a has been filled to a certain height with water
arriving from a river, brook, lake, or other convenient source, the motor is put in
working condition by rotating the fly wheel, or a vertical slide valve arranged in the
supply pipe c is raised for this purpose so that the several parts of the machine are
placed in position shown in figs. 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawing, in which the
outlet valve (escape valve e) closed. As in this case the large reservoir is in com-
munication with the vessel a the water will violently precipitate into the cylinder a
and the float piston b will be moved upwards by the buoyancy of the water, until its
arm A strikes against the lever S2, whereby the inlet-valve will be closed and the
escape-valve oponed.
This reversal is effectuated in the following manner :
The ring of lever S moving downwards draws by its plate p' the chain K
also downwards whereby the weight G₁ becomes over-weight. The said weight G¹
descends and the slide d moves downwards thus closing the inlet port, while the
chain K is pulled, whereby the escape-valve e is opened as the rack Z secured to the
chain K (see fig. 5) turns by means of the toothed segment e* the cone e until
the opening of the latter register with the opening of the valve seat u, so that
the water underneath the float is allowed to escape.
The outlet-port is of such dimension that the cylinder becomes very rapidly
empty. Owing to its proper weight the piston b will now descend, until it has
arrived in its first position, or until the hook-shaped end of the arm B has pulled
downwards again the lever S' whereby the original position is re-entablished i.e. the
slide valve opened and the escape valve e closed, as the plate p' which had been
raised before, is pulled downwards by the ring Z¹ of the lever S' and by this the
chain K is drawn also in the direction indicated by the arrow shown in dotted
lines.
The weights G and G₁ return also to their first position so that the machine is
placed again in its original position and the play may now begin anew.
The up-and-down motion of the piston 6 is transmitted, as above mentioned, by the
piston rods o and o' levers rand, drawing bar t, guide bar u and connecting rod z
to the crank-shaft 7.
The work performed by the buoyancy may he employed for different purposes,
among others, for raising water specially for irrigating purposes. In this latter case
the water escaping after each stroke from the vessel a is led into a receiver f and
thence through the pipe y to the hydraulic ram W' by which the water is raised to
the desired height.
As will be understood one part of the water is raised to the double height, whilst
the remainder of water is raised by the motor.
By these means the water taken froin the brook or lake is brought back again to
the level of the latter and a continuous circulation is thus attained. By taking
apparatus of suitable proportions it is possible to raise the water to a level which is
somewhat, although not considerably higher, and this can be utilized for irrigating
purposes.

page_text: It is generally known, that the buoyancy of a boʻly is equal to the weight of the
displaced volume of water, the buoyancy may therefore be increased at will by
increasing the volume of the float piston whereby very considerable mechanical
effects may be attained.
In order to increase the power with which the piston descends Fincrease the weight
of the latter. This increase of weight of the piston must however correspond to the
buoyant power of the piston i.e. it must be inferior to the weight of the displayed
volume of water.
To increase the weight of the piston in such a manner that it does not offer any
resistance to the buoyancy of the water but is acting, when all water escapes, F con-
struct the piston as illustrated in fig. 3 of the accompanying drawing.
The piston is provided on its poriphery with circular grooves V. When water
enters the vessel a the piston b will move upwards in the like manner as before, as the
circular groove V is communicating with the vessel a and does not therefore offer
any resistance to the buoyancy of the water. But at the downward motion of the
piston i.e. when the water contained in the circular grooves V will be kept back and
it presses by its proper weight the piston downwards.
To increase the work done by the machine two float pistons with the appertaining
cylinders may be combined with each other to a double acting machine (see fig. 6) so
that the piston 61 of one of the cylinders a presses at its upward motion the
second piston of the cylinder a downwards and inversely, when 2 moves upwards
the piston will be pressed downwards.
Having now particularly-described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is
1. A hydraulic motor characterised by the arrangement in a larger reservoir of a
cylindrical vessel a provided with inlet-and-outlet devices, water being supplied from
any convenient source (a brook, river, lake or reservoir of any kind) into the said large
reservoir which communicates with the vessel a through a pipe c, and by the
arrangement in the vessel a of the float piston raised by the buoyancy when the
inlet port is opened and the outlet port closed and effectuating automatically a reversal
when arrived in its highest position, i.e. closing the inlet port and opening the outlet-
port, the said piston descending again to its lowest position when the water is allowed
to escape from the vessel a and effectuating then again a reversal the work performed
by these alternative motions may be transmitted by any suitable means, say by a lever
arrangement, to a crank shaft and then be applied for any purpose, substantially as
and for the purpose set forth and shown in the accompanying drawing.
2. On the hydraulic motor referred to in the above claim the particular construction
of the reversing mechanism consisting of the vertical slide valve d serving as an inlet
device, the escape valve e, the arms A. and B secured to the float piston and serving
to put the apparatus in action, and the levers S3 and S¹ transmitting their motions by
means of a chain K to the inlet vertical slide valve d balanced by weights G and G₁,
or to the escape valve e by means of the chain K' rack Z, and toothed segment e
acting in such a manner, that when the float is in its highest position the arm A
striking against the lever S³ moves the latter, so that the ring-shaped end of the
lever S strikes against a plate 23 secured to the chain K and pulls the latter down-
wards, whereby the weights G and G₁ lose balance, the slide valve d is moved
downwards and pipe c is closed while at the same time the rack Z is operated by
chain K' and opens through the intervention of the toothed segment, the outlet port
whilst when the float is in its lowest position, the hook-shaped end of arm B actuates
the lever S and moves in an analogous manner the chain K or K¹ in the inverse
direction, substantially as and for the purpose set forth and shown in the drawing.
Dated this 4th October 1889.
BERNHARD DUKES,
226, High Holborn, London, W.C., Agent for the Applicant.