CARRYING PASSENGERS THROUGH THE AIR BY A STEAM BIRD OR FLYING STEAM ENGINE FITTED WITH WINGS FLAPPED BY THE ACTION OF STEAM
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Kinnersley Smythies, of 23, St. Luke's Road,
in the Parish of Paddington, in the County of Middle sex, Barrister-at-
Law, for the Invention of "CARRYING PASSENGERS THROUGH THE AIR BY A
STEAM BIRD OR FLYING STEAM ENGINE FITTED WITH WINGS FLAPPED BY THE
ACTION OF STEAM,"
Sealed the 21st February 1868, and dated the 4th September 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Kinnersley Smythies
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th September 1867.
I, JOHN KINNERSLEY SMYTHIES, of 23, St. Luke's Road, in the Parish of
Paddington, in the County of Middlesex, Barrister-at-Law,do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "CARRYING PASSENGERS THROUGH THE AIR
BY A STEAM BIRD OR FLYING STEAM ENGINE FITTED WITH WINGS FLAPPED BY THE
ACTION OF STEAM," to be as follows:-
I reduce the ratio of the weight of a steam engine to its power, firstly, by
using a tubular boiler with very small and thin tubes, or by otherwise sub-
dividing as much as possible the current of hot air passing through it;
secondly, by using liquid fuel, such as mineral oil, alcohol, or ether, which
admits of smaller tubes or other passages for the hot air, and generates more
steam with a given weight than solid fuel; thirdly, by carrying very little
[Price

page_text: water; and, lastly, by condensing the steam by a very light condenser made
like the tail of a bird to sustain the steam bird and steady its flight; and I
then fit the light and powerful steam engine so obtained with wings made to
resemble those of a bird, bat; or insect, and cause them to flap by connecting
the arms of the wings with the piston rod of the engine, so that the steam
bird shall raise itself by the stroke of its wings alone, without any light gas,.
heated air, or other contrivance to give it buoyancy, and to this engine I
attach seats to convey one or more passengers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Kinnersley Smythies in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 3rd March 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JonN
KINNERSLEY SMYTHIES, of 23, St. Luke's Road, in the Parish of Paddington,
in the County of Middlesex, Barrister-at-Law, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Kinnersley Smythies, Her special licence that I, the said John
Kinnersley Smythies, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said John Kinnersley Smythies, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thercafter 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 Isle of Man, an Invention for
"CARRYING PASSENGERS THROUGH THE AIR BY A STEAM BIRD OR FLYING STEAM
ENGINE FITTED WITH WING3 FLAPPED BY THE ACTION OF STEAM," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Kinnersley Smythies, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,or
one of their hands and seals, 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 John Kinnersley Smythies, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to

page_text: be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, that is to say:―
My Invention consists in greatly reducing the ratio of the weight to the
power of a steam engine and its boiler and of the necessary fuel and water
required to work it at its full power by the means herein-after described, and
fitting it with one or more pairs of wings or structures resembling and per-
forming the function of wings, and causing these to flap by the action of steam
so as to raise and drive the whole engine and load through the air by the action
of the wings alone. The weight of the boiler for a given heating surface is
reduced by using a tubular boiler with very small tubes (those I adopt being
a.quarter of an inch in diameter, 8 inches long, weighing one-third of an
ounce), or by using any boiler with very small passages for the hot air and .
thin partitions between the hot air and water. The weight of the water is
reduced by placing the tubes or other air passages vertically and covered by
water to a small depth (about ten times the diameter of the tubes, and in like
proportion for other air passages), and by using as a condenser a light bag of
varnished silk or vulcanized sheet india-rubber spread out flat and horizontal
behind the wings like the tail of a bird, and by pumping the condensed water
into the boiler. The weight of the fuel is reduced by using benzole or other
liquid hydrocarbons, including such as are liquid only when compressed
(though alcohol, ether, and other liquids may be used with rather less
advantage), because these produce more heat for their weight, and admit of
smaller passages for the hot air through the boiler and lighter tubes or par-
titions than solid fuel, which clogs the air ways and wears the tubes by the
friction of hard particles driven through them. The evaporating power of the
boiler is further increased without adding to its weight by using an artificial
blast of heated air mixed with the vapour of the liquid hydrocarbon by. a
method which admits of intensely hot air being driven through the boiler at
any required velocity with a far less consumption of force than results in the
locomotive from the back pressure caused by passing the exhaust steam
through the blast pipe. The weight of the engine is also reduced by substi-
tuting for the fly wheel, crank, and connecting rod a much lighter auxiliary
or donkey engine (a rotary one by preference) to work the valve or slide
admitting the steam to and exhausting it from the cylinder, the piston being
stopped at each end by the steam, as in the steam hammer. The mode of
burning the liquid fuel is by boiling it and injecting the vapour into the
chamber containing the blast fan h, Fig. 1, where it mixes with the air and is
driven with it by the fan through a thin sheet of copper perforated with round
holes not more than oth of an inch in diameter, and not less nor much

page_text: more than one diameter from each other into the furnace e,Fig. 1,a. chamber,
of which the top is the bottom of the boiler; the bottom is the perforated.
copper, and the sides a short cylinder of sheet copper where it is burnt., The
air before it enters the fan is heated by passing over the chimney and furnace
between them and a light envelope or casing to a degree not less than the.
boiling point of the liquid fuel, so that its vapour may mix with the air as an
invisible gas, for the smallest drops forming visible mist will not burn. This
mixture will burnabove the perforated copper, and will not pass down through
it, but the flame is so intense that it will pass down through. wire gauze.
The amount of vapour is regulated by a throttle valve in the pipe conveying.
it, or by a damper to the lamp or fire raising it, according to the color of the.
flame, which as the vapour increases passes successively from blue to white,
yellow, orange red, and a dull smoky red; or according to an air thermometer
formed by a copper tube inserted in the chimney closed at that end and carried
to some convenient place near the driver's eye, and there communicating with
a column of liquid in a glass tube fitted with a scale. As the vapour is
increased the column of liquid will rise, and when it ceases to rise any
additional vapour will be wasted and cause smoke. The wings are attached
to the engine, as shewn in Figs. 1 and 2, each pin-jointed to the cross head
of the piston and to a rocking link, the other end of which is pin-jointed to
the steam chest, as shewn in the Figs. 1 and 2. The arm of the wing that is
the distance between the joint in the cross head and that in the top of the
rocking link, should be about ths of the length of the piston's stroke
to admit of a motion through an angle of 120 degrees; and the joint at the
top of the rocking shaft round which the wing turns must be above and
before the centre of gravity of the whole engine with and without its load, and
at a height from the ground not less nor much more than ths of the
length of the wing from that joint. Observation shews that wings of a vast
variety of form, size, structure, and position are capable of flight, but the
necessary conditions are that the wing must be rigid in its front and flexible
in its hinder margin, and free during the ascent of the wing to any
pressure on either surface, so that at every distance from the joint or centre.
of motion the resultant of the horizontal and upward velocity of the wing at
that point must make the same angle with the horizontal plane as the surface
of the wing, that resultant produced backwards lying in the web of the wing,
which then cuts the air without resistance, and free to yield in its descent to
a less extent,and so that the resultant of its horizontal and downward velocity
at every distance from its centre of motion shall make a greater angle, with
the horizontal plane than the surface of the wing. When the wing is

page_text: composed of several overlapping parts, which may be called feathers, each
feather is subject to these conditions. The joint round which the wing turns
must also be above and before the centre of gravity.
A bird weighing one pound, with wings a foot long, flies well with three
and fast with four flaps in a second, and large birds flap their wings less fast
than small ones. Comparing two birds of similar form but different sizes
their weights are as the cubes, and the surfaces of their wings as the squares
of their linear dimensions, and if the angular velocities of their wings are.
inversely as the square roots of their linear dimensions they will be equally
well sustained. By this rule the size and velocity of wing necessary to sustain
any required weight,as well as any bird taken as a pattern sustains itself,may
be found by weighing the bird, measuring its wings, and counting the
number of flaps in a minute, for the weight of the bird is to the required
weight as the cube of the length of its wing is to the cube of the length of the
required wing when both are of the same shape and their angular velocities are
inversely as the square roots of their lineal; dimensions; and generally the
effects of any two similar wings are proportional to the products of the fourth-
power of the length by the square of its angular, velocity. The power required
to flap a wing of any given form and size through a given angle ina given
time may be calculated on known principles, as the force of the wind on the
sails of a windmill is calculated, or may be found experimentally by working
it by a fixed engine counting the strokes, and measuring the work of the
engine. by the usual methods.
. Having ascertained the required power by either method the requisite
pressure on the piston and amount of steam to be raised per minute are
known and the size of the boiler and cylinder determined.
Having thus explained the principles of construction I proceed to describe
a steam bird designed to carry one person.
Referring to the Drawings, Fig. 1 is a front elevation, the chimney, boiler,
furnace, and airway casing been shewn in section through their centres;
Fig. 2 is a front sectional elevation on a larger scale of the blast fan and
parts above through their centres; Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the same
part as Fig. 2, shewing the upper part of the boiler and parts above in section
through their centres; Fig. 4 is a plan of the whole. The chimney a,
cylinder b, steam chest c, boiler d, furnace c, and blast fan / have their axes
in the same vertical line, and the rotary engine f and rotary feed pamp g
being formed of two equal and similar parts have each the axis of one part in
the said line and the axis of the other parallel to and behind it, Figures 1, 2,
and 3. The shaft i, Figures 2 and 3, to which one of the pistons of the rotary,

page_text: engine and of the rotary pump is fixed passes through the condensed water
cistern j and through a stuffing box, and is fixed to and drives the blast fan
below, and passing up through the tube and nearly steam-tight through the
bottom of the steam chest c drives with a pinion of eight teeth a wheel with
forty-eight teeth forming the rim of a revolving or conical or cylindrical steam
valve, Figure 3, turning steam-tight in its seat at the top and front part of
the steam chest. This valve is a hollow cylinder open below to the steam
chest and above to a chamber at the top of the steam chest open to the
condenser, and is divided by a slanting diaphragm having a steam port
below it and an exhaust port above, each of which as the valve revolves
communicates through corresponding openings in its seat alternately with the
bottom of the cylinder and with the top by the steam pipe m, Figures 1 and 3,
on the side of the cylinder. The steam passes from the boiler through small
holes in the tube kand an aperture in the bottom of the steam chest covered
by a slide or regulator n, Figures 2 and 3, opened and shut by a screw working
in an interior screw in a boss attached to it above and carried by a rod
working through a stuffing box turned by a catgut line round a pulley o
Figures 1 and 2, fixed to the other end outside the stuffing box, this line being
carried down to a place convenient to the driver. A much smaller slide p,
Figure 2, on the opposite side of the steam chest similarly worked admits and
regulates the steam passing down a small tube within the tube to the
rotary engine. This may be Murdocks or any good rotary engine, and the
rotary pump may also be Murdoch's engine, or any that will act as a force
pump. The feed water drawn from the cistern j passes by the pipe q, Figure 3
into the bottom of the tube k, and through small holes in the tube into the
boiler. The steam from the cylinder and safety valve passes by the pipe r
Figures 2 and 3, into the tail and condensers, Figures 3 and 4, a large bag of
varnished silkorthethinnest vulcanized india-rubberstretched outhorizontally
by two steel rods t, t, Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, behind the boiler like a bird's tail, and
performing the same function in regard to flight, and the steam from the
rotary engine passes up by the pipe u, Figure 3, continued by a flexible india-
rubber pipe to the tail s, and the condensed water descends, the india-
rubber pipe 1, Figure 3 to the cistern.j. The steel rods t, t, revolve on sockets
round the top of two steel tubes nearly vertical, w, w, Figures 1, 2, and 3,
which form the framework, to which the boiler, wheels, and all parts of the
steam bird are attached, and these rods are drawn apart or together by cords
to stretch or fold the tail; this tail will not be sensibly distended by the steam
during flight if its surface is not less than the heating surface of the boiler
and the throw of the feed pump should be such as to keep the cistern empty

page_text: and the water in the boiler at a constant level. The reservoir for the fuel x,
Figures 1 and 4, is placed as low as possible, and so that as the fuel is consumed.
the centre of gravity of the whole steam bird and fuel is not shifted, and may
be conveniently used as the seat for the driver. On each side of it a small-
copper tube (y, Figures 1 and 2,) passes from its bottom up within the steel.
tubes w, w, and into the side of the chamber in which the fan revolves..
A lamp regulated by a damper boils the oil or liquid fuel in each tube y, and
the vapour passes into the fan, and mixed with with air is driven through the
sheet of copper perforated with round holes not more than 1th inch in
diameter, nor less than one diameter apart, and is burnt in the furnace, the.
hot air from the lamps passing up the steel tubes w, w. The perforated
copper has no holes within an inch of the sides, and a small copper cup (*) to.
hold alcohol is placed at its outer edge to be filled and lighted through a
small tube above it to warm the furnace before the oil vapour enters it and
to light it when it enters before too large a mass of explosive mixture.
accumulates. A small copper tube electro-plated and polished inside is so
fixed into the side of the furnace that the light of the flame is reflected.
through an aperture closed with glass to the eye of the driver, and on the:
opposite side a water guage is fitted to the boiler in a slanting position so;
that he may see it. The piston rod has a short cross head, to each end of
which an arm of a wing (A, Figures 1 and 2,) is pin-jointed, this arm being:
also pin-jointed to a rocking-link (B), which link is pin-jointed to the steam'
chest. The angle through which the wing moves will be that included by
the two equal sides of a triangle of the length of this arm from the cross head
joint to the link joint, and whose base is the stroke of the piston. This arm.
is formed by a carved steel bar with two parallel branches between these,
two joints spreading out beyond the link joint into the curved form shown;
in the plan (C, Figures 1 and 4,) with a depth much greater than its
thickness. Ten long tapering rods of hardened steel (D, D, Figures 1 and 4),:
the cross section of the longest of which at one end is (E, Figure 4,) and at the
small free end F, and those of the other rods similar pass through vertical
slots in both branches of the curved bar with the longer dimension of the
section vertical, and are firmly fixed therein. These have tied to their small
free ends fine silk cords or wires, which passing through small holes in the
curved bars (C, C,) are strained so as to bend these long steel rode, as shown,
in the plan (Figure 4), and passing through a ring at the top of each rocking.
link (B) are brought down in a bundle close to the driver's hand, and there
fixed by a loop slipped over a hook, so that they may be quickly disengaged.
on alighting. When so disengaged the steel rods become straight, and so far

page_text: furl the webs of the feathers that the steam bird will not be blown over by the
wind when on the ground. Between the rods and the silk cords or wires is
stretched a strong close silk or the thinnest vulcanized india-rubber, and each
rod overlaps and touches with its under edge the web of the preceding rod,
like the primary feathers of a bird's wing, and the several cords can be so
adjusted as to bring the centres of pressure of the wings into any required
position. The vertical line through the centre of gravity is near and behind
the axis of the cylinder and the axles of thetwo front wheels, and the remaining
third wheel is much further behind it. The length and duration of the wings'
stroke depends on the speed with which the steam valve revolves, and this on
the quantity of steam admitted by the small slide or regulator to the rotary
engine. The short quick strokes enabling a bird to hover without change of
place will be produced by a full opening of this slide, and a longer stroke as
it is less opened. In rising the front is to be turned towards the wind, and
the driver can guide the steam bird either by shifting the centre of gravity or
the centre of pressure of either wing or of both. He may ascend by leaning
backwards, descend by leaning forwards, turn to the right by leaning to the
right, and to the left by leaning to the left; or he may ascend by enlarging
the surface of one or more of the front feathers on both sides by pulling their
cords, or descend by pulling the cords of one or more of the hind feathers, or
turn by pulling the cords on one side only; or both methods may be combined.
These methods of descending causing increased speed are not suitable when
the intention is to alight. In that case the dampers of the lamps and the two
slides or regulators should be nearly closed, when the diminished force of the
wings' stroke will permit a gentle descent; then the front is to be turned to the
wind, and the driver leans back to check the descent by the action of the tail,
and to cause the hind wheel first to touch the ground and run along it. T'o
carry several passengers nothing more is needed than greater size and more
seats, and for large steam birds several pairs of wings arranged at the same
level behind each other, each pair being worked by a separate cylinder, or all
by one.
The mechanism above described is that which I consider the best, but it
may be varied in many details. Any other boiler with small vertical hot air
ways and sufficiently light may be used, and the steam or vapour may be that
.of other liquids besides water. Each wing may be driven by a separate piston,
or in a more direct manner by using a sector cylinder in which the piston
vibrates with an alternating motion round an axis coincident with that of the
cylinder, and forms one solid with the arm of the wing; or for the rocking
links (B) connecting rods may be substituted, the ends of the arms (A, A,)

page_text: being jointed to fixed points in the framing instead of the cross head of the
piston. The wings may have any number of feathers of various widths and
more or less overlapping, or may be framed like a bat's wing. The steammay
bc condensed within a vessel, the same as the boiler, down whose tubes the
cold air passes on its way to the fan, or in whose tubes the benzole, alcohol,
or ether used for fuel is evaporated, or by both methods combined, or by being
applied in any way to boil the fuel, heat the air for the furnace, or the carriage
for the passengers. The auxiliary engine may be of any construction. The
guiding may also be effected by the tail thus:-Slacken the tail by drawing
together the rods which stretch it; then by drawing the tail by cords up,
down, or sideways, the steam birds will ascend, descend, or turn.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I declare that I make no claim to any separate part of
the mechanism described, and I do not confine my claim to the details described,
which may be varied; but I claim the combining mechanism into a steam
bird or flying engine fitted with wings flapped by the action of steam capable
of carrying passengers through the air.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Kinnersley Smythies, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Third day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
J. K. SMYTHIES. (L.S.)