IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING AND APPLYING MOTIVE POWER.
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Duncan Lang, of Greenock, in the County of
Renfrew, North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN OBTAINING AND APPLYING MOTIVE POWER.
Scaled the 18th November 1856, and dated the 6th June 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Duncan Lang at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 6th
June 1856.
I, DUNCAN LANG, of Greenock, in the County of Renfrew, North Britain,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN OBTAINING AND APPLYING MOTIVE POWER," to be as follows, that is
to say:-
Air, when accumulated in any vessel or apparatus and compressed or urged
into motion, acts as a very powerful motive agent. The modes and purposes
in and to which it may be applied for yielding mechanical power are numerous,
especially in all cases where steam or the vapour of water is used, air so acted
on may be used with increased effect.

page_text: This Invention relates to the acting upon the common atmosphere, accumu-
lated or collected in vessels of any regular internal form, and of any dimensions
requisite for the purpose to which it may be sought to apply it as a motive
power, in such a manner as to produce a constant pressure, and cause it to act
similar to steam in propelling machinery, or generally as a propelling power.
The arrangement, giving a general view of the parts as in operation, is the air-
holder; in this case, a cylindrical vessel with hemispherical ends, being among
the best forms for giving strength where a powerful machine is desiderated;
a revolving screw shaft passing longitudinally through its centre, and sup-
ported in bearings at each end; on it the air presser travels, having valves
opening to either side, according to the direction of its movement, for regulating
the pressure, by a release of the surplus power into the space it leaves by its
travel on whatever side it may be working from.
The shaft is turned by a ratchet lever or ratchet levers, at each sido of its
ends, for alternating the action of the presser, as either side of the vessel
becomes in turn emptied of the air for the time acted on. With the two they
are so arranged, that while one is turning the shaft, causing the pressure,
the other vibrates loose till the presser requires to be traversed in the
opposite direction, when the latter is brought into action and the former
released. They are wrought either directly from the ordinary shaft of the
engine by an eccentric connection, or from any of the other moving parts
in the same relation, according to the construction of engine, with an
arrangement for reversing the levers and alternating the travel of the air
presser. The cylinder, and its arrangements, or any other reciprocating or
rotatory machinery, with its necessary connections for completing the engine,
communicates with the air-holder by pipes or passages, in which valves are
placed, so that while one maintains an open communication from the pressure
to the machinery, the other is kept closed by the same means, till the alternate
action of the presser reverses their positions. Valves also are mounted on the
ends of the air-holder for supplying it from the external atmosphere, and
others for the escapement of any extra pressure.
It will be obvious that the machinery employed may be modified in a variety
of ways, as motive-power engines usually are, to suit all modes of application
for manufacture, or transit by sea or land for the furtherance and extension of
commercial interests and dealings, superseding, as an Invention for these
purposes, in efficiency and power all other engines in actual use.
The motion is perpetual in its action in as far as matter or material is sus-
ceptible of the time being applied to in mechanical invention, and capable of
being modified and adjusted, stopped and resumed, with the above-described

page_text: engine or invention, in all its modifications and appliances, with the utmost
case of arrangement. Its advantages are, its enormous power and economical
use; the pressure from the compressed air of the common atmosphere dis-
pensing with coal, coke, fire, and water, and the tear and wear of their action
and expense, as attendant on the engines of the present day, in their practical
working.