AN IMPROVED MOTIVE POWER WHICH IS SELF-OPERATING AND SELF-SUSTAINING
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Rischmuller at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
6th August 1874.
I, GEORGE RISCHMULLER, of the City and County of San Francisco,
State of California, in the United States of America, do hereby declaro
the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MOTIVE POWER WHICH
IS SELF-OPERATING AND SELF-SUSTAINING," to be as follows:-
My improved motive power consists of a wheel which is mounted in
a suitable framework and entirely submerged under water. This wheel
is provided with air-tight expansible and contractile buckets con-
structed similar to a bellows body, so that they may be inflated with air
or the air expelled and the bucket collapsed, as required, to produce the
desired result.
Suitable mechanism is provided for opening and closing and inflating
and exhausting the buckets at the proper points of the wheel's revolution
to preserve a greater flotative power upon one side of the wheel than
upon the other, so that the tendency of the inflated buckets to rise

page_text: to the surface of the water will cause the wheel to rotate and keep it in
motion.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 is a side elevation of my
machine; Fig. 2 is an enlarged section of tho wheel; Fig. 3 is a
transverse section; Fig. 1 is a view of the operating device for the
buckets.
A represents a wheel which is similar in construction to an ordinary
paddle wheel, but which is provided with air-tight extensible and con-
tractile buckets or floats instead of the ordinary buckets of a paddle
wheel.
The wheel may be composed of two or more narrow wheels secured
upon the same shaft, or it may be made in a single wheel.
Each float is composed of a fixed board b and a moveable board o,
the two being united by any.flexible material d similar to a bellows, so
that each float or bellows will be air tight. The fixed board b is secured
permanently between the two rims of the wheel A, while the moveablo
board c has a journal e at each end which extends through a slot f in
the rim of the wheel and to a short distanco outside of the rims. A
V shaped latch is pivoted at its angle to the rim of the wheel opposite
cach protruding journal e, so that the journal passes out between the
two arms of the latch. This latch has two notches, one on the upper
arm, which is in the proper position to retain the journal of the move-
able board in its distended position, and the other, on the lower arm,
which is in the proper position to retain the movable board in its closed.
or collapsed position.
Secured to the base of the frame upon which the wheel is secured
is a pedestal or standard I which stands close to and opposite the
lowermost part of the wheel rim, and directly below the journal which
supports the wheel.
Secured to the side of this pedestal, which is next to the rim of the a
wheel, is a cam wheel ; which receives the protruding journals of the
distended bellows boards as they consecutively come in contact with it
and forces them to the opposite end of the slot, thus opening..the
bellows. The latch then passes under a spring roller, which forces its.
upper arm down so as to lock the protruding journal of the moveable. S
board in its open position,

page_text: Opposite the rim of the wheel, directly above the journal upon
which the wheel rotates, a spring roller is secured to the framework
which supports the wheel. This roller presses upon the free or upper
arm of the latches as they pass below it, so as to release the journal
from the notch in the opposite arm and allow the bellows to close at the
top. M is a drum or hollow cylinder which passes through the centre
of the wheel, and from the ends of which the supporting journals
extend. A pipe or tube O leads from this hollow journal to each of the
bellows' floats at the periphery of the wheel.
The operation of my motive power is as follows:-The wheel, as
mounted in the manner above described, being submerged in water, and
the hollow cylinder or drum which passes through its center being filled
with air, for which purpose a pipe may connect with the air outside of
the tank of water, I close by hand all of the bellows' floats upon one side
of the wheel, leaving those on the opposite side inflated. This being
done the wheel will begin to rotate by reason of the greater flotative
power of the inflated side, the energy of which is exerted towards the
surface of the water. As the floats successively pass pedestal I at the
bottom of the wheel, the movable board is unlatched, so as to open and
fill with air and closing them as they pass the top, thus causing one
side of the wheel to be continually lighter than the other, and conse-
quently preserving the rotative movement of the wheel.
By arranging two or more of these wheels upon the same shaft,
and causing their united energy to act separately upon each operating
latch at a time, a greater reserve of power will be obtained from the
wheel.