IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER IN A FLOATING VESSEL FROM THE ACTION OF WAVES
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Wykcham Travel Deverell, of No. 17, Queen
Street, in the City of London, and Beauchamp Tower, of Moreton,
in the County of Essex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER IN A FLOATING VESSEL
FROM THE ACTION OF WAVES."-Partly a communication from abroad
by Spencer Ruding Deverell, residing at Portland, in the Colony
of Victoria.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Wykeham Travel
Deverell and Beauchamp Tower at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with their Petition, on the 17th August 1875.
We, WYKEHAM TRAVEL DEVERELL, of No. 17, Queen Street, in the
City of London, and BEAUCHAMP TOWER, of Moreton, in the County of
Essex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER IN A
FLOATING VESSEL FROM THE ACTION OF WAVES," to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to a method of applying for the production of

page_text: motive power the movements of a floating vessel resulting from the
action of waves, and to apparatus for that purpose.
We mount a heavy weight on board the vessel so that it can slide
vertically between guides, preferably with rollers, to diminish friction.
This weight we make hollow, so that its internal cavity constitutes a vessel
containing water and compressed air. To the weight we connect several
tubular rams working in fixed barrels, or several barrels working along
fixed rams, these barrels being provided with suitable inlet and outlet
valves, so that water is drawn into them when the weight moves in the
one direction, and is discharged from them when it moves in the other
direction, and the barrels or the tubular rams are connected to the
internal cavity of the weight, the compressed air in which acts as a
spring.
Instead of a single weight mounted as above described there may be
several arranged in different parts of the vessel.
When the vessel is caused to rise and descend by the wave motion of
the water on which it floats, the weight receives a movement downwards
and upwards, which has the effect of drawing in and forcing out the
water supplied to the barrel under considerable pressure. The water so
discharged we employ to work a hydraulic engine for the production of
motive power on board the vessel, which power may be applied to
work a propeller or for any other purpose. When the power thus fur-
nished is to be applied for propelling the vessel, it may be applied
directly in the manner of hydro-propulsion by causing the water under
pressure to flow from an orifice and to create a slower current or set of
currents of larger volume, which are ejected from the vessel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Wykeham Travel Deverell and Beauchamp Tower
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 8th February 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WYKEHAM
TRAVEL DEVERELL, of No, 17, Queen Street, in the City of London, and
BEAUCHAMP TOWER, of Moreton, in the County of Essex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her

page_text: of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Hor heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said Wykcham Travel Deverell
and Beauchamp Tower, Her special license that we, the said Wykeham
Travel Deverell and Beauchamp Tower, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Wykeham Travel Deverell
and Beauchamp Tower, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, usc, exercise, and vend, within the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Islc
of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS
FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER IN A FLOATING VESSEL FROM THE ACTION OF
WAVES," the result partly of a communication made to the said
Wykcham Travel Deverell from abroad by Spencer Ruding Deverell,
residing at Portland, in the Colony of Victoria, and partly of an In-
vention and Discovery made by the said Beauchamp Tower, upon tho
condition (amongst others) that we, the said Wykcham Travel Deverell
and Beauchamp Tower, our exccutors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the
hand and seal of one of us or them, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Wykeham Travel Deverell, on
behalf of myself and the said Beauchamp Tower, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, reference being had to the accompanying
Sheets of Drawings and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that
is to say:-
Our Invention relates to a method of applying for the production of
motive power the movements of a floating vessel resulting from tho
action of waves, and to apparatus for that purpose.
We mount a heavy weight on board the vessel, so that it can slide
vertically between guides, preferably with rollers to diminish friction.

page_text: "This weight we make hollow, so that its internal cavity constitutes a
vessel containing water and compressed air. To the weight we connect
several tubular rams working in fixed barrels, or several barrels working
along fixed rams, these barrels being provided with suitable inlet and
outlet valves, so that water is drawn into them when the weight moves
in the one direction, and is discharged from them when it moves in
the other direction, and the barrels or the tubular rams are connected
to the internal cavity of the weight, the compressed air in which acts as
a spring.
Instead of a single weight mounted as above described there may be
several arranged in different parts of the vessel.
When the vessel is caused to rise and descend by the wave motion of
the water on which it floats the weight receives a movement downwards
and upwards, which has the effect of drawing in and forcing out the
water supplied to the barrels under considerable pressure. The water so
discharged we employ to work a hydraulic engine for the production of
motive power on board the vessel, which power may be applied to work
a propeller, or for any other purpose. When the power thus furnished
is to be applied for propelling the vessel it may be applied directly in
the manner of hydro-propulsion by causing the water under pressure to
flow from an orifice and to create a slower current or sct of currents of
larger volume which are ciected from the vessel

page_text: from C through packing into pump barrels H, which communicate by
pipes with the discharge of the water engine, or with openings into
the outer water in which the vessel floats. The barrels H are provided
with suction valves, and the plungers G are provided with discharge
valves I, both sets of valves opening upwards.
On first starting the apparatus air is forced in by any known force
pump through the pipe f so as to occupy a great part of the interior of
C, and water is also pumped in, the air being compressed until its
pressure acting on the area of the ram E is sufficient to balance tho
weight of C and its attachments at about the middle of the height of
the framing B. As the vessel is caused by the waves of the water in
which it floats to descend and ascend the weight C is caused by its
inertia and momentum to rise and descend relatively to the vessel. By
this movement water is drawn in by the pipes and suction valves h¹
into the barrels H and forced therefrom past the valves g into the
interior of C, whence it passes by the pipe f under pressure equivalent
to that within C to work the water engine. By varying the proportion
of the air and water within the weight C the period of its oscillation can
be varied so as to suit the period of the waves which give motion to the
vessel.
Fig. 3 represents a vertical section (without the guide frame) of a
modified form of the apparatus, having the hydraulic cylinder F and the
barrels H inverted and attached to the weight C and the ram E and
plungers G inverted and attached respectively to the communicating
pipes and h. The action in this case is similar to that already
described.
According to a modification of the construction, as shewn in Fig. 4,
the pump barrels H are bored throughout their length and the plungers G
made to fit them, and a channel or groove K is formed on the side of
the barrel communicating by the delivery valves g with the interior of C.
Also the tubular plungers G are closed at the top above the suction
valves and have side passages / opening towards the channels K. The
purpose of this modification is to provide means of limiting the up-and-
down movements of the weight C, so that it cannot by overrunning its
desired stroke in either direction do damage to the framing in which it
works. Thus at the up stroke of the weight when the passage / comes
relatively below the lower extremity of the side channel K it is closed,

page_text: and no more water can be drawn into the barrels, so that the weight in
continuing to move upwards creates a vacuum in the barrels, and the
atmospheric pressure being thus made to act as a resistance upon the
area of the plungers retards and arrests the upward movement of
the weight. And again, when by the descent of the weight the side
passage comes relatively above the upper extremity of the channel K,
then the passage being closed no more water can be forced out of the
barrels and the farther descent of the weight is arrested by the water
cushion retained above the plungers, along with such air as may
collect at the upper ends of the barrels H.
Fig. 5 represents a side elevation, and Fig. 6 a vertical section of
another modification of the apparatus, Fig. 7 representing a vertical
section of the same, shewing the moving weight at the upper part of its
stroke, and a section of the vessel in which the apparatus is fixed. In
this case the hollow weight C communicates by a truly bored tube L
and lateral branch pipes m with barrels M working on tubular
plungers N which communicate by pipes n with an air vessel O, whence
a pipe o leads to a water engine. Suction valves s open downwards
from reservoirs S supplied with water by telescopically-jointed pipes,
one of which is shewn at Q, Fig. 6, and a discharge valve d opens from
the pipe n upwards to the air vessel O. A loose piston P is fitted to
work within the tube L, so that it can overpass lateral openings c near
the bottom, and thereby cut off the communication from the pipe L to
the interior of C, or that it can overpass lateral openings near the top
of L, and thereby cut off the communication from L to M. At the
bottom of the weight C and at the top of one of the branches m are
passages, q, fitted with valves opening towards the interior of the
vertical pipe L so as to permit water to flow respectively under and over
the piston P. The weight C with its attachments is balanced, as already
explained, by the pressure of the compressed air in the cavity. When
by the movement of the vessel the weight C is caused to move upwards,
the compressed air in the cavity expands, forcing water by the passage q
under the piston P, and thereby causing it to begin a movement up the
tube L, which movement is continued by water issuing by the passages c
when the piston has ascended sufficiently to uncover them. The piston P
being thus forced upwards, as it approaches the top of the tube L,
covers the passages 7 and prevents any more water from flowing from
the interior of C, but the weight still continuing to rise, water from the

page_text: cisterns S enters the barrels M until the weight has completed its up
stroke. When the weight now descends, water from m flows by the
passage q¹ to the tube L above the piston P and starts its movement
downwards, causing it to uncover the passages 7, whereupon water from
the barrels M continues to flow down the pipe L, propelling the piston P
downwards till it covers the passages c and so stops the farther flow of
water along the pipe L; but the weight continuing to descend forces
water from the barrels M through the plungers N and pipes n, past
the discharge valve d into the air vessel O, whence it passes by the
pipe o to work a water pressure engine.
The piston P is preferably made hollow to contain a portion of air
which acts a cushion to diminish shock when the piston is arrested at
the end of its downward stroke, and in like manner a portion of air at
the top of the tube L acts as a cushion when the piston is stopped at
the end of its upward stroke.
According to this arrangement the pumping action of the weight C
is made to take place only in the latter part of each stroke, the air
vessel O serving to equalize to a considerable extent the pressure of the
water sent out by the pipe o to work the water engine.
As the weight C might do damage if in its upward or downward
stroke it exceeded certain limits of motion we prefer to provide
hydraulic buffers T, which are simply force pumps of ordinary con-
struction, having their plungers protruded either by springs or by the
pressure of water supplying them sufficient to overcome the friction of
the plungers in their packings. When the weight C is approaching
either end of its stroke, ribs R projecting from its side meet the ends of
these plungers and force them inwards against any desired pressure
obtained by loading the delivery valves of the pumps T. When the
weight C begins its reverse stroke the plungers T being pressed outwards
follow it as far as they can go and remain protruded ready to act as
buffers to the weight at its succeeding stroke.
The water forced from the pumps T may be led to the air vessel O
to join the water forced into it as already described by the action of the
weight.
Hydraulic buffers such as we have described may be employed alone
fon ahtaining tha nummins nation fun
41

page_text: cavity serves as an air and water vessel, substantially as and for the
purposes herein set forth.
In witness whercof, I, the said Wykeham Travel Deverell, have
hereunto set my hand and scal, this Twenty-eighth day of
January, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-six.