A REACTION MACHINE SET IN MOTION BY FIRE, AIR, WATER, OR ANY FLUID, AND APPLICABLE TO ANY OTHER MACHINE OR ENGINE REQUIRING A MOVING POWER IN ANY DIRECTION WHATSOEVER
Year: 1784

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WOLFGANG
DE KEMPELEN, of the Parish of Saint James, in the County of Middlesex,
Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS, in and by certain Letters Patent under the Great Seal of
Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster, the Tenth day of April now last
past, after reciting that I, the said Wolfgang de Kempelen, had by my peti-
tion humbly represented to His said Majesty the present King of Great
Britain, &c., that I had invented and made "A REACTION MACHINE SET IN
MOTION BY FIRE, AIR, WATER, OR ANY FLUID, AND APPLICABLE TO ANY OTHER
MACHINE OR ENGINE REQUIRING A MOVING POWER IN ANY DIRECTION WHATSOEVER,"
that the said reaction machine was more simple in its construction than any
one yet known, and would produce effects equal to any at a much less expence,
that the said Invention was entirely new, and had never thentofore been
invented, made, used, or exercised by any other person or persons whomsoever,
to the best of the petitioner's knowledge and belief, His Majesty was graciously
pleased to give and grant to me, the said Wolfgang de Kempelen, my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, to make, use, exercise, and vend my said Invention within that
part of His Majestie's Kingdom of Great Britain called England, His Dominion
of Wales, and Town of Berwick upon Tweed, in such manner as to me, my
exors, admors, and assigns, should seem meet, and to have and enjoy the profit,
benefit, commodity, and advantage arising by reason of the said Invention for
and during the term of fourteen years from the date thereof, according to the

page_text: Statute in such case made and provided; in which said Letters Patent is con-
tained, among other things, a proviso, that if I, the said Wolfgang de Kempelen,
should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in the High Court
Chancery within four calendar months next and immediately after the date of
tho said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties
and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterl cease, determine,
and become void, as by the said Letters Patent above recited, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in due performance of the condition in the said
recited Letters Patent above mentioned, I, the said Wolfgang de Kempelen,
do by these presents certify, declare, and make known that the form and con-
struction of the said reaction machine by me invented is particularly delineated
and described underneath these presents in the several Drawings marked
Figure 1, Figure 2, and Figure 3, and the application and operation thereof
may be performed principally in the three several manners following, that is
to say:-
First, when the machine acts by boiling water, or rather the vapour pro-
ceeding therefrom, a boiler is to be constructed (A, Figure 1,) furnished with
a valve of security (B), the weight of which is to be proportioned to the
strength of the machine. At the upper extremity of the boiler is to be fixed
a turn-cock (C), upon which the cylinder (D, D,) is to be screwed, the form
of which cylinder appears in Figure 2, where D, D, is a hollow cylinder or
tube, in the center of which (E) is an aperture to contain the worn of the
screw. F, F, is a tube of cast iron, having at the lower extremity a circular
projection or plate, which, when this tube is pushed into the other tube, G, G,
fills up the cavity therein marked (a, a), so that the screw (b, b.) extends
beyond the utmost length of the tube G, G. Upon this screw the cylinder
D, D, with its nut, is to be fixed, and upon the plate of the tube G, G, of brass,
is to be screwed another plate (H, H,) of equal dimensions, so that the little
plate, when it is in the cavity (a, a), may be inclosed between two plates, and
the tube F, F, left at liberty to turn round. The plate H, H, has also a short
tube (I, I,) of an equal aperture with the tube G, G, and at the end of it a
screw is fixed, which surrounds the cock (C), and is fastened within. Near
each extremity of the cylinder D, D, but on the contrary sides, is a small
aperture, the size of which must be commensurate to the extent of the super-
fices of the boiling water, as, for instance, when the boiler measures within
six feet in diameter, requiring a valve of security weighing five pounds, the

page_text: aperture near each end of the moving cylinder must be one inch in diameter.
To put the machine in motion when the vapour of the boiling water is found
strong enough to lift up the valve, the cock (C) is to be opened, the vapour
instantly rushes through and fills the cylinder D, D, and finding a vent through
the small apertures near its extremities on different sides, drives the cylinder
round by reaction with exceeding great velocity. Having accomplished this
first moving power which constitutes the principle of the machine, any kind of
machine or engine may very easily be put into motion by it by means of a
handle crown wheel pinion, or other connection adapted to it, as is donc with
respect to a double pump by the excentric trunion k, Figure 1.
Secondly, when the machine is worked by cold water only (as in Figure 3),
the water must be conveyed from some height, that it may have the requisite
velocity; and instead of the boiler above described, pipes or tubes are to be
provided, by which the water may be conveyed into the horizontal cylinder,
which will be moved round by the water issuing out at the two small apertures,
no alteration being made in any part of the machine.
Thirdly, to put the machine in motion by vapour and water at the same
time, two iron or copper receivers are to be applied between the boiler above
mentioned and the turning cylinder, in such a manner as that the vapour may
be conveyed by pipes into both receivers alternately. The vapour pressing upon
the superficies of the water contained in the receiver will force it through
another pipe into the turning cylinder, and produce the like reaction by the
water issuing out of the small apertures near the extremities of the cylinder,
while the other receiver is closed by a valve fixed at the bottom. It is neces-
sary that the two receivers should be placed in a reservoir of water, into
which the water issuing out of the cylinder may be received back again, and
by this means also a greater quantity of vapour may be obtained.
In witness whereof, I, the said Wolfgang de Kempelen, have to these
presents set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of July, in the
twenty-fourth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the
Third, by the grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland
King, Defender of the Faith, and so forth, and in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and eighty-four.
WOLFGANG (L.S.) DE KEMPELEN.
aled and delivered, being first duly stampt,
in the presence of
Jos. ANTHON.
GEORGE AUST.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-first day of July, in
the year of our Lord 1784, the aforesaid Wolfgang de Kempelen came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the tenor
of the Statutes made for that purpose.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-first day of July, in
the year of our Lord 1784, the aforesaid Wolfgang de Kempelen came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the tenor
of the Statutes made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and eighty-four.
Inrolled the Twenty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and eighty-four.