AN IM- PROVED REACTING TURBINE WHEEL
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Baldwin Fulford Weatherdon, of 77, Chancery
Lanc, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "AN IM-
PROVED REACTING TURBINE WHEEL."-A communication from abroad
Dant of the Citer of Vasion in the State of Marion
Scaled the 19th November 1869, and dated the 24th May 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Baldwin Fulford
Weatherdon at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 24th May 1869.
I, BALDWIN FULFORD WEATHERDON, of 77, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, do Irereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED REACTING TURBINE WHEEL," (a communication to him
from abroad by Damian Tort, of the City of Mexico, in the State of
Mexico), to be as follows (that is to say) :-
This Invention has reference to the construction and arrangement of
turbine wheels with a view of communicating double power thereto by
the same force or flow of water, and consists in employing in connection
with the Scotch system of turbines a surrounding case or wheel mounted

page_text: upon the axis of the turbine aforesaid, so as to receive the repellant
action of the water issuing from the discharging orifices thereof and to
turn in a contrary direction to the said turbine, which motion is changed
through the medium of a spring wheel in connection with slide valves
which are opened and closed by eccentrics and receive the whole of the
water and utilize the full power; vertical plates complete the inside
part of the slide valves and form an obtuse angle when receiving the
water, and a right angle otherwise, serving at the same time to prevent
the escape of the water, and thereby communicate greater rotary impulse
to the turbine aforesaid.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Baldwin Fulford Weatherdon in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 23rd November 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BALDWIN
FULFORD WEATHERDON, of 77, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Ter most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Baldwin Fulford Weatherdon,
Her special licence that I, the said Baldwin Fulford Weatherdon, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Baldwin Fulford Weatherdon, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with and no others, from time to time and af
all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and
Inwfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED REACTING TURBINE WHEEL," (it
communication to from abroad by Damian Tort, of the City of Mexico, :
in the State of Mexico), upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Baldwin Fulford Weatherdon, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
sculs, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said

page_text: Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause
the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Baldwin Fulford Weatherdon, do
hereby deolare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement, and the 'Drawings therein referred to.
(that is to say)
My Invention has reference to the construction and arrangement of
turbine wheels. with a view of communicating double power thereto by
the same force or flow of water, and consists in employing (in con-
nection with the Scotch system of turbines) an outer wheel or case
mounted upon the same axes so as to receive the repellant action of the
water issuing from the discharging orifices thereof, and cause the same
to turn in a contrary direction to the said turbine, and communicato
motion and power thereto through the medium of a tooth and pinion
and shifting slide valve gear.
And in order that my said Invention may be more fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I now proceed to describe the same by aid of
the accompanying Drawings, reference being. had to the letters and
figures thercon marked (that is to say) :-
=
Fig. 1 represents a perspective front elevation of my improved re-
acting turbine wheel; Fig. 2 a corresponding view showing the outer
case removed; Fig. 3, an enlarged detail view; Fig. 4, an underneath
view of the same. In each Figure the same letters of reference denote
similar corresponding parts.
A, A, is the turbine covered by a wheel B, B, which is caused to
revolve on the spindle of the same provided with a centre piece which
turns easily in the contrary direction to the said turbine, the motion of
which may be readily changed by means of spring wheels or otherwise;
C, C, excentric wheel fixed to the upper portion of the turbine for the
purpose of opening and closing the slide valves so as to take advantage
of all the water received into the body of the turbine, and impart greater
power thereto. D, D, slide valves formed of perpendicular iron plates
secured to the under side of the inner portion of the said wheel through
the medium of bolts or pivot bearings so as to move with their ends
fastened to the said bolts, whilst the other ends rest upon the eccentric
and are put in motion by the same, and returned to their position

page_text: through the medium of the reacting springs E, E, by which arrangement
the inside part of the slide valves form an obtuse angle when receiving
the water, and a right angle before receiving it.
The action of the turbine is as follows:-By turning the eccentric in
the direction contrary to the wheel and placing the bosses of the one on
the other the plates D, D, on arriving at the orifices of the turbine
open to receive all the water, at the same time direct the action of the
same, and communicate greater impulse thereto.
In conclusion to the foregoing description, I would here briefly note
that my Invention may be applied with notable advantage to the
turbines commonly in use, any pressure exercised on a liquid contained
in a recipient distributes itself equally on every side in the mass, and the
particles of this liquid as well as the submerged and contiguous surfaces
sustain the same pressure as if the force were immediately applied to
them, the theory of this new turbine of my Invention rests on this law
of natural philosophy, as for example when in any vessel (full of liquid
with indefinite pressure) an opening or orifice is made, the liquid will
flow out of this orifice with an impellant force in proportion to the
pressure thereby exerted, and if this aperture be made in a movable
apparatus conveniently disposed the impellant force of the liquid while
escaping therefrom will produce an equal power to the repellant force,
and thereby impart motion; the repellant force of the liquid in escaping
through the orifices of turbines produces a quantity of motive power in
proportion with the force of reaction determined in the apparatus or
receptacle in which it is contained, moreover the liquid escapes freely
and without obstacle by the orifice and all the impellant force is lost
without the least profit resulting therefrom, it is this force which I avail
myself of by opposing an obstacle to the free projection of the liquid,
and thereby make the reaction stronger and augment the repellant
force of the liquid in the primitive wheel. Morcover as I profit by the
impellant force of the liquid I make the two diametrically opposed
powers conspire to the same end, it is clear that the momentary increase
in the one (from accident or otherwise) causes a diminution of the other,
and vice versa, or in other words they regulate each other by poising
one another, and the movement resulting therefrom is more constant
and regular it its action.
Having now fully described and ascertained the nature of this my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed

page_text: and carried into effect, I would have it clearly understood that I do not
intend to confine myself to the precise details herein-before described,
as other modifications may be employed without departing from the
general principle of this my said Invention, nor do I claim as new and
of my said Invention the exclusive use of the several parts, combinations,
and arrangements herein-before referred to, except when the same are
employed in and for the purposes of my said Invention, which I hereby
declare to consist in the construction and employment of double action
turbine wheels in which the impellant and repellant forces of the water
unite in increasing the effective power of turbines through the medium
of the outer reacting wheel and expanding pressure plates, in the
manner and for the purposes herein-before set forth and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Baldwin Fulford Weatherdon have
hercunto set my hand and scal, this Ninth day of November, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
B. F. WEATHERDON. (L.s.)
Witness,
T. MORRIS CORNOCK,
Clerk to Messrs. Weatherdon & Co.,
Law Chambers,
Chancery Lane.