AN IMPROVEMENT IN HYDRAULIC MACHINERY
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Ashcroft, Engineer, and Henry Walker
Wood, Gentleman, both of Blackweir, Cardiff, in the County of
Glamorgan, South Wales, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN
HYDRAULIC MACHINERY."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Ashcroft and
Henry Walker Wood at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 31st July 1858.
We, GEORGE ASHCROFT, Engineer, and HENRY WALKER WOOD, Gentleman,
both of Blackweir, Cardiff, in the County of Glamorgan, South Wales, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN
HYDRAULIC MACHINERY," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in certain improved mechanical arrangements in
combination with steam, air, or gas, to be adapted to the cylinders of hydraulic
machinery for the purpose of obtaining and exerting constant and uniform
pressure therein. The means by which this improvement may be effected (as
regards the mechanical arrangement) will vary according to local circum-
stances, but the main object sought to be attained is to supersede the
cumbersome and expensive superincumbent gravitating weight at present
employed in hydraulic machinery for the above-mentioned purpose, and to
render such machinery more simple in its construction and cheaper than here-
tofore, by substituting in lieu of such said weight the employment of steam,
air, or gas as above mentioned.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Ashcroft and Henry Walker Wood in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 31st January 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, GEORGE
ASHCROFT, Engineer, and HENRY WALKER WOOD; Gentleman, both of Black-
weir, Cardiff, in the County of Glamorgan, South Wales, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said George Ashcroft and Henry Walker Wood, Her special licence
that we, the said George Ashcroft and Henry Walker Wood, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said George Ashcroft
and Henry Walker Wood, 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, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN
IMPROVEMENT IN HYDRAULIC MACHINERY," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said George Ashcroft and Henry Walker Wood, our executors
or administrators, by an instrument 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
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 Henry Walker Wood, one of the
parties hereto, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is 'to say:-
Our Invention consists in certain 'new mechanical arrangements in com-
bination with steam, 'air, or gas to be adapted to 'hydraulic 'machinery for the
purpose of obtaining and exerting constant and uniform pressure therein.
The 'means by which this improvement may be effected (as regards the
mechanical arrangement) will vary according to local circumstances, but 'the
main object sought to be attained is to supersede the cumbersome and
expensive superincumbent gravitating weight sometimes employed in hydraulic
machinery for the above-mentioned purpose, and to render such machinery

page_text: more simple in its construction and cheaper than heretofore, by substituting in
lieu of such said weight the employment of steam, air, or gas, as above
mentioned, that is to say, between an ordinary hydraulic pump or other source
of power and the presses, lifts, or place where the power is to be applied we
introduce a chamber or vessel fitted with a piston working air-tight therein;
to one side of this said piston, steam, air, or gas is admitted of the desired
pressure, such pressure being exerted upon the water contained in that part
of the aforesaid chamber or vessel situated beneath the piston, and said
chamber or vessel is connected by means of a pipe to an ordinary hydraulic
press. By these means, as the hydraulic pump or pumps are forcing water
into the aforesaid chamber or vessel in which the piston is placed, a constant
and uniform pressure of the water therein may thus be maintained and exerted
upon the ram or plunger of the press with but little risk of damage to the
machinery, moreover the pressure may at any instant be readily either
increased, diminished, or, if necessary, entirely removed.
Having now fully described and set forth the nature and object of our said
Invention of "An Improvement in Hydraulic Machinery," together with the
best means we are acquainted with for carrying the same into practical effect,
we would remark, in conclusion, that we hereby declare our Invention to consist
in, and we claim the aforesaid intermediate chamber or vessel fitted with a
piston and the exerting of pressure thereon by means of steam, air, or gas, as
above stated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Walker Wood, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
HENRY WALKER WOOD. (L.S.)
BENJ BROWNE, Patent Agent,
52, King William Street,
London Bridge.