AN IMPROVED WATER WHEEL FOR DRAINING MARSH LANDS, WHEREBY WATER MAY, BE, RAISED FROM A GREATER DEPTH BY A WHEEL OF LESS DIAMETER AND A LARGER QUANTITY OF MARSH LAND DRAINED IN. A SHORTER TIME THAN BY ANY WATER WHEEL NOW IN USE, AND THEREBY GREAT LABOUR AND EXPENCE SAVED
Year: 1819

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
JORDAN, of the City of Norwich, Engine Maker, do send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland; bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-second day of
June, in the fifty-ninth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Edward Jordan, my executors, administrators, and assigns; His special
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Edward
Jordan, ny executors, administrators, and assigns; during the term of years
therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England and Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "AN IMPROVED WATER WHEEL FOR DRAINING MARSH LANDS,
WHEREBY WATER MAY, BE, RAISED FROM A GREATER DEPTH BY A WHEEL OF LESS
DIAMETER AND A LARGER QUANTITY OF MARSH LAND DRAINED IN. A SHORTER
TIME THAN BY ANY WATER WHEEL NOW IN USE, AND THEREBY GREAT LABOUR
AND EXPENCE SAVED;" in which Letters. Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging, me, the said Edward Jordan, .by. an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal; to cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention; and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and
by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Edward Jordan, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention; and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in manner and form following, reference being had to the
Drawings or Figures hereunto attached, that is to say:-
The component parts of my said improved water-wheel and it's necessary
appendages differ from the water-wheel before in use in the fen counties
(particularly in the county of Norfolk) in the following respects :-The
wheel which is now and has for a long time been in common use as an
instrument for lifting or scooping up water from a lower to a higher
level, of which a pretty correct idea may be obtained by inspecting Figure 1,
has its float boards (a, a, a, a, a,) of great depth, proportioned to the
diameter of the circle described by their outer extremities (b, b, b, b), and the
said float boards are not furnished with any bottom or sole, or backing at
their inner extremities, where they are inserted into or joined or fastenend
to the circular framework (c, c, c), so that any portion of the water which by
any obstruction or by irregularity of speed, or by any other cause, is not
discharged into the upper level at U, returns with little or no impediment
towards the centre of the wheel, where it meets with a ready passage through
the wheel to the lower level (or dike or ditch as it is usually called), whence
it was before raised; but in my said improved water-wheel (see Fig. 2) the
float boards (a, a, a, a,) are of less depth compared to the diameter of the
circle described by their outer extremities (b, b, b, b,) than in the common
water-wheel (as may be seen by comparing the Figures), and are furnished
with a bottom or backing or sole (c, c, c, c, c,) at their inner extremities, where
they are inserted into or joined or fastened to the circular framework (d, d, d),
which backing, bottom, or sole is framed into or nailed on or otherwise made
fast to the said circular framework (as in common breast or overshot water-
wheels employed with water as a moving power). The float boards of my
said improved water-wheel (like those of the water-wheel in common use for
draining marsh lands) are made to fit, but so as to move freely between the
perpendicular sides of the trough in which the wheel works, and also to fit as
closely, as is consistent with free motion. The solid breast and bottom (e, e, f,)
of the said trough, as in the common water-wheel employed for scooping up
water from a lower and driving it over a breast into a higher level, and the
trough (or what in some places is called the wheel-case, when applied to water-
wheels employed for power,) in which my said improved water-wheel works,
is constructed in the usual manner, excepting at the top of the breast, where it
differs from the usual or common construction in the following particulars,
that is to say: The top of the breast in the common construction is composed
of or surmounted by a folding door, standing upright, and moving horizontally

page_text: on hinges (which door need not be described, being well known and in very
general use), and the degree of opening given to the said door depends on the
quantity of water brought up by the wheel and discharged through it into the
upper level; but instead of making the top of the breast for my said improved
water-wheel to open or shut by moving on hinges horizontally, I make the said
top part of the breast to rise or fall vertically in two groves (g, Fig. 2),
namely, one at each end of the said top part, and I make it self-acting by
attaching to it a sufficient quantity of wood or of cork to make it buoyant, or
by making it partly hollow, or by attaching to it a hollow vessel, to give it
the required buoyancy, so that the said top part, which, for distinction, I call
my buoyant or floating breast, always adapts itself to the height of the water
on the upper level, which prevents any return of the said water of the upper
level when raised by the tide or other cause. And, moreover, to secure the
free motion of the said buoyant or floating breast in the said groves (9), and
prevent it's being locked against the side of the grove by the weight of the
water that may press against it, I sometimes attach wheels (i, i), one near
the bottom and one near the top of each end of the buoyant breast, which
wheels are made of a diameter a little greater than the thickness of the breast,
making the groves of the necessary width to receive the said wheels; or I
insert wheels in the sides of the groves to lessen or take off the friction which
the pressure of the water might occasion between the buoyant breast and the
grove, and which friction might prevent the said breast from rising or falling
freely according to the varying height of the water in the upper level; or I
employ any other known mechanical means adapted to answer the desired
end. But from the trials I have hitherto made I think it will be but seldom
necessary to employ these small wheels, as the motion occasioned by the
working of the water-wheel seems to give the floating breast sufficient play.
By means of this vertically moving floating breast (and from my float boards
being furnished with a backing or sole, as before described, to prevent the
water when once raised from returning through the centre of the wheel), I am
enabled, by the use of my said improved water-wheel, to raise the water higher
on the breast than is or can be effected with the common water-wheel hitherto
employed for draining, which' puts it in my power to employ wheels of smaller
diameter, placing the axis (h) lower than the top of the trough (see Fig. 2),
whereas in the common mode of working it rests on the said top (see Fig. 1).
When the
And here it is proper I should mention another circumstance.
velocity with which my improved water-wheel is moved is such as to prevent
the whole water that is brought up by the float boards from being delivered
over the breast, that portion which is not so delivered may be carried over

page_text: the centre of the wheel, and converted into moving power,, provided the wheel
be supplied with cheeks to cover the side edges of the float boards, which, in
this case, become buckets like those of water-wheels employed for power; but
unless this water be wished to be employed, in aid of. the moving. power, the
expence of the cheeks may be saved;, as the greater..height of the sides of my
trough makes them answer the purpose of cheeks, so far, as is required for the
delivery of the water over the breast: ..I need say nothing, of the materials;; or
of the mechanical modes of combining them, these being the same as áre in
common use (viz, metal or wood), and commonly followed in the construction
of the water-wheel for draining marsh lands which has been long in use, and
in the construction of the commion wheel, to which water is applied, when used
as a moving power; and indeed a pretty correct idea of my improved water-
wheel may be obtained by considering it as a common bucket water-wheel,
which is employed for power (as in grinding corn), but, like the common wheel
employed for draining it, works in a reversed, direction against the weight of
the water, my said improved water-wheel. (like those before in use.. for
scooping up water) not being employed with water as a moving power; but
employed. as an instrument, and being itself moved. by an applied power
of any kind, as animal power, steam; or wind, the latter being the power most
commonly employed in the county, of Norfolk...
To conclude, the circle k, k, k; k, is an iron ring, or a series of iron ties,
to which the outer extremities of the float boards are made fast, to keep them
steady in their places; and sometimes I cover over the whole diameter of the
spoke part of the wheel on both sides, that this part, like a solid drum or
cylinder, may fill the whole space which it occupies between the upright sides
of the trough; but neither the said iron ring or ties, nor the said covering of
the spoke part of the wheel, are pretended to be of my invention.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Third
day of August, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and nineteen.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Third day of August, in
the
year above mentioned, the aforesaid Edward Jordan. came before our Lord
the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And
also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Fourth day of August, in the year above written.