AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN WORKING WATER WHEELS
Year: 1824

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MOULT, of Lambeth, in the County of Surry, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Ninth day of December, in the fifth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Moult, His especial licence, that I, the said William Moult, my
exors, adiiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Moult, my
exors, adors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in His said Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT OR
IMPROVEMENTS IN WORKING WATER WHEELS;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William Moult, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Moult, 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 and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say):-
My said Improvement or Improvements in Working Water Wheels consists
in placing the wheels in cisterns, reservoirs, rivers, &c. so as to be partially
or wholly covered with water, and in introducing atmospheric air or other
permanently clastic fluid near the bottoms of the cisterns, reservoirs, &c. so
as to enter the buckets made around the peripheries of the water wheels in
succession and a little on one side of their axes (not perpendicularly beneath
them); and the hydrostatic pressure of the water exerted in endeavouring to
take the place of the air in the buckets, causes the water wheels to revolve
whilst the supply of the air or other permanently elastic fluid is continued,
and thus to produce a rotatory movement applicable to the driving of machinery
or other purposes. I can produce this supply of air or other permanently
elastic fluid by various means, as by a fall of water, in the manner of the
blowing machines used in France, Italy, and other parts of Europe, &c.; but
I prefer to use steam in the following manner :-A is a pipe leading from a
steam boiler; B, a three-wayed cock in the middle of another pipe communi-
cating with the upper parts of the vessels C and D alternately in the manner
to be described hereafter; E and F are two other pipes descending from the
bottoms of the vessels C and D, and furnished at their upper ends with valves
G and H, opening outwards; these pipes E and F enter the upper part of a
gasometer I, which is placed in a cistern or reservoir of water J, and is open
below. From the top of this gasonicter a pipe K ascends, having a regu-
lating cock L at the highest part of it. It then descends into the adjacent
cistern M, in which the water wheel N is placed, and is covered with water,
and, by the pressure of the column of water in the cistern J upon the air or
other permanently clastic fluid contained in the gasometer I, it is caused to
enter the buckets in the manner already described, and produce the conse-
quent revolution of the water wheel. The steam is shewn in the Drawing as
entering the vessel 1), and forcing the air out beneath through the valve II
and the pipe F into the gasometer I. When all the air or other permanently
elastic fluid has thus been driven out of the vessel D by the action of the
steam, the plug of the steam cock B is to be turned, so as to shut the passage
into the vessel D, and to open that leading into the vessel C; at the same
time another three-wayed cock O is opened below, which permits a jet of
cold water, brought by the pipe P, to condense the steam in the vessel D
and a fresh supply of air or other permanently elastic fluid enters the vessel
through the valve Q, ready to be again driven out by a fresh supply of steam.

page_text: R is another entrance valve in the vessel C, and in which said vessel the jet
of cold water S is shewn in operation. The plugs of the three-wayed cocks
B and O may be actuated by a movement communicated to them from the
machinery driven by the water wheel in the manner here shewn. The rod T
being moved backwards and forwards by a crank, &c. gives a similar move-
ment to the lever U, which turns upon an axis in its centre, and has a slit or
groove at each end of it, which receive into them the levers or handles of the
cocks, and thus communicates to them opposite and alternate movements. By
these movements, whilst the steam is entering and driving the air out of one
vessel, a partial vacuum is forming in the other, and in consequence a fresh
supply of air enters it ready to be driven out in its turn, and so on, as long as
the supply of steam is afforded.
Having thus described a method of carrying my said Invention into effect,
I hereby declare that it is not my intention to limit or confine myself to this
particular method only, but to avail myself of any other, whereby the atmo-
spheric air or other permanently elastic fluid can be conveyed underneath the
water so as to act upon the water wheel in the manner described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Moult, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand night hundred and twenty-five