IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE. POWER BY THE AID OF STEAM, GAS, OR OTHER FLUIDS
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Brookes, of 62, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer and Patent Agent, for the Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE.
POWER BY THE AID OF STEAM, GAS, OR OTHER FLUIDS."-A communication
from abroad by Joseph Perrigault, Marie Joseph Denis Farcot, Jean
Joseph Leon Farcot, Michel Basile Abel Farcot, Joseph Etienne Eloi
Chateau, and Emmanuel Denis Farcot, all of Paris, in the Empire of
France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Brookes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th April 1865.
I, WILLIAM BROOKES, of 62, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Civil Engineer and Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE
POWER BY THE AID OF STEAM, GAS, OR OTHER FLUIDS," (communicated to me from
abroad by Joseph Perrigault, Marie Joseph Denis Farcot, Jean Joseph Leon
Farcot, Michel Basile Abel Farcot, Joseph Etienne Eloi Chateau, and Emmanuel
Denis Farcot, all of Paris, in the Empire of France) to be as follows:-
[Price 8d.]

page_text: The improvements consist in a new mode of employing steam, gas, and
other fluids to act upon revolving wheels. For this purpose the wheel is
arranged in such manner that it receives a series of successive different and
decreasing impulses of the same fluid without the progress of the fluid being
stopped or hindered in its passage. The impulses may be successive and
intermittent or successive and continuous according to the arrangement of the
wheel without the principle of the Invention being modified, because it consists
specially in obtaining a repetition of the action of the same fluid, which thereby
successively gives up a part of its velocity.
In order to produce intermittent impulses the floats or vanes of the wheel
are of form variable enclosed between two parts of the same fixed case. The
fluid being introduced with a certain velocity comes in contact with one of the
floats of the wheel giving to it a part of its velocity, and then escapes by a
lateral orifice which conducts it upon another float to which it gives likewise
a part of its velocity. The fluid acts thus successively upon the different floats
or vanes of the wheel, losing each time a fraction of its velocity approximating
to that of the wheel, and it will at the end of the motion have given off its
power almost entirely without requiring great velocity of rotation as in wheels
as ordinarily arranged.
In order to transform a wheel with successive and intermittent impulses into
a wheel with successive and continuous impulses, it suffices to prolong suffi-
ciently one of the floats; this may be realized by giving to the wheel the form
of a spiral curve or involute of a circle departing progressively from its
axis. Wheels of this system may be worked by steam with or without con-
densation, and the apparatus may be surrounded by a case heated to prevent
cooling.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Paient, filed
by the said William Brookes in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
4th October 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
BROOKES, of 62, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer
and Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant

page_text: unto me, the said William Brookes. Her special licence that I, the said
William Brookes, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said William Brookes, my 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, sc, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER BY THE
AID OF STEAM, GAS, OR OTHER FLUIDS," a communication to me from abroad
by Joseph Perrigault, Marie Joseph Denis Farcot. Jean Joseph Leon Farcot.
Michel Basile Abel Farcot, Joseph Etienne Eloi Chateau, and Emmanuel
Denis Farcot, all of Paris, in the Empire of France, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I. the said William Brookes. my executors or admi-
nistrators, 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 William Brookes, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:
The Invention relates to improvements in motive power wheels worked by
steam, gas, or other fluids acting by a series of successive different and
decreasing impulses without the motion of the fluid being arrested or stopped
in its course. To facilitate explanation the principles of the Invention are
represented in Sheet 1 by various elementary views, which are more fully
developed in Sheets 1, 2, and 3.
Figure 1, Sheet 1, a is a moveable annular crown with vanes or float
boards of form variable enclosed between the two parts b and c. Supposing
the fluid to enter by the orifice d with a velocity of 9, the velocity of rotation
of the crown a being, it will come against the pallet a¹ of the wheel with
a velocity relative to 9-, giving to it a first impulse, and following with
velocities of 9-1-1-9-1-8 against the fixed and stationary curve e,
then passing by the orifice in continuance of its movement the fluid or
vapour will come again at a" upon the pallette of the wheel ceding to it again
about a velocity of 1, and rushing into g against the curve h with a velocity
8-1-7, and so on. The movement of the current of fluid continues also
in passing i, j, k, l, m, n, encountering each time the pallettes, and losing

page_text: successively a fraction of its velocity approximately equal to twice that of the
wheel, in such manner that the final velocity at n would not be more than 1,
the initial velocity being 9, and the fluid escaping from the apparatus by the
opening z, after having transmitted its power almost entirely without calling
for a great velocity of rotation as in wheels constructed as at present. The
box or chamber c, b, may be surrounded by a case of steam or heated air, as
is usual with steam cylinders, for the purpose of re-heating its fluid in its
passage and its expansion. The form of the vanes or floats represented in the
first Figure should be calculated upon the rules approved in use of such vanes
or floats in turbines and other wheels receiving their motive power from
fluids.
Figures 2, 3, and 4 represent other forms which may be adapted. p is a
moveable crown with vanes or floats formed in the box or chamber g. and
secured to the axis of rotation by arms or by the disc o. The fluid enters
laterally in a plane perpendicular to that of the disc o; r is the inlet orifice.
It may be easily seen that the fluid, after having produced upon the curved
vane or float p' a first impulse, it will rush into the conduits following its
curve and returning again to impel the floats or vanes at p to rush out
again into the conduit s¹, and so on, pursuing its movement freely, and pro-
ducing successive impulses, as in the preceding apparatus, Figure 1, and
passing each time the breadth of the vanes or floats. To the canals, as to
the conduits of the preceding wheel, should be given a section larger and
larger in proportion as they depart from the entrance orifice so as not to
impede the movement of the fluid which augments in volume in proportion as
it decreases in density and velocity; these proportions will be determined by
calculation and experiment.
It might be advantageous to coil the conduits is from going outside the
periphery of the apparatus in such a way as to return all the conducting
orifices on the same side as the primitive orifice r, the orifices of escapement
being thus all on the other side. The change of direction of movement of
the fluid upon the vanes or floats are thus avoided, and it will be advantageous
to give to each vane or float at the extremity. which throws back the fluid
towards the escape passage a greater inclination than that which it received
on admission. It may be established in a plane parallel to that of rotation
that which is represented in Figure. 2 perpendicular to that plane and parallel
to the axis in such a way that the floats or vanes p and the conduits s will be
as in Figure 1 in a plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation, and enclosed in
a box or chamber as b, c.
Wheels with successive impulsions such as described are applicable to

page_text: liquids or non-elastic fluids as well as to clastic fluids varying only in their
outline according to the difference of the fluid employed. The fluid employed
may be hot air supplied from a high-pressure furnace fed by combustible
liquid, as petroleum for instance, or by solid matter worked by a blast.
Surcharged steam may be employed with advantage. To prevent the fluid
passing from the crown of the vanes or floats into the interior of the wheel,
and encircling it, there may be a packing formed by successive circular
channels or grooves and projections, as shown by Figure 5, and also similar
grooves or projections in the interior surface of the box or case m. "
Figure 6 represents a section of one of these radiations; there is also a
flexible packing like that of a piston, and which may be metallic and elastic,
of steel or other substance.
The arrangements represented in Sheet 1 will realize the action by suc-
cessive impulsions, but it may be remarked that jets of steam being arranged
at considerable distances from each other also, that the orifices of escape
which are called "rejets." The vapour which rests in each float after its
passage becoming a jet escapes into the case or into the atmosphere: if it
escapes freely it is of course lost, and that loss will be very considèrable, to avoid
which; as the result of experience, the "jets" are all brought together and the
same the "rejets." This arrangement is indicated completely by the Figures
of Sheets 1, 2, and 3. The "jets" should all be consecutive, separated only
by the thickness of their partition, see Figure 7, Sheet I. T shows the
series of "jets"; U that of the "rejets:" These two series are joined together
by tubes or canals s, s¹, s¹¹, &c., which constantly return the fluid upon the
wheel. The vapour injected by the first jet t is collected as it passes out of
each vane or float by the first return passage or "rejet" u, and is conducted
by the passages to the second jet ¹, which injects it afresh upon the vanes or
floats; it is then returned by the second return passage or "rejet.". u', which
delivers it to the third inlet passage or "jet" ", and so on until it finally
passes out by the last conduit & which is the final escape passage, and may be
in communication with either the atmosphere or with a condenser. 'The
vanes or floats clear themselves of steam in passing the outlet u when the
fluid has entirely lost its power, and there is no further loss of steam. The
wheel may work in the atmosphere or be placed in an enclosing case closely
packed, and serving to collect the escape steam or to aid the movements by a
vacuum more or less complete, or for reheating or superheating.
The series T, which may be called the injectors, and the series U the
rejectors, are represented at Figures 7, 8, and 9, Sheet 1, and Figures 10
and 11, Sheet 2, acting over a wheel analogous to that of Sheet 1 (Figure 2

page_text: and following Figures) in which the vanes or floats are of a curved form, and
the plane of injection is perpendicular to that of rotation.
In Sheet 2, Figures 12, 13, 14, and 15 is represented another arrangement
of double wheel in which the disc o carries on each of its faces a crown of
vanes or floats parallel to the plane of rotation; these two crowns are "in
effect inverted one to the other admitting of the apparatus changing the
direction of its motion. T, T¹, are the injectors; U, U¹, the rejectors of this
double machine; they are represented opposed to each other for facility or
clearness in the Drawing, but these two sets of passages T, U, T'. U¹, will be
readily joined by a competent mechanist.
Another modification may be obtained by concentrating the vanes or floats
in the width of the felloe of the wheel and inside or outside of the crown of it.
Figures 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22, Sheet 3, show clearly these arrange-
ments in which the injectors and the rejectors are collected together.
Figures 16, 17, 18, and 19, show a wheel in which the injecting jets and the
rejecting jets are placed upon the circumference interior of the crown. In
Figures 20, 21, and 22. on the contrary, the various injecting and rejecting
jets are placed on the exterior circumference of the crown. In these two
specimens t, t, are again the successive injecting jets and u, u, are the rejecting
jets. The vanes or floats are inclined in helices in relation to the crown in
order that steam escaping from one vane or float may be able to find a rejet
or outlet opposite to it. The injecting and rejecting jets increase in diameter
as well as in length in order to realize the same progressive increase of the
section as in the preceding apparatus, for which there is only varied the depth
of the "jets" and "rejets;" it is necessary for this to increase their width, the
extent being limited by the form and disposition of the floats. This last
system appears more simple than the preceding, but it possesses this incon-
venience, that the floats have a relative transverse movement in relation to the
injecting and rejecting jets, by which it follows that the steam of each jet
acts always on two or three vanes or floats at one time producing a diffusion
of the fluid, and further, that the direction of the steam is oblique in reference
to the rotary movement which would produce an injurious disagreement of the
relative movements of the fluid and of the floats.
In these various arrangements are indicated conduits progressively increasing
in section, and confining the steam by remaining constantly full of it, and
protecting it also against the diffusion to which it would be subjected if it
passed away with variable depth upon the walls or sides of conduits of equal
sections not entirely filled with steam, but having in the centre air or other
more or less rarified gas or vapour which would be dispersed into the interior

page_text: of these tubes as if they were in the atmosphere when the jet of steam is
projected. If, nevertheless, experience should demonstrate that the diffusion
in a tube with equal section is not injurious as is feared, the forms will
still be maintained, substituting only the modifications which experience will
have demonstrated to be necessary for the section and form of conduits,
("jets" and "rejets").
Sheet 3, Figures 23, 24, and 25 represent another variety of wheel in
which the jets of injection and rejection are constituted spontaneously by
the effect of the form of the sides of the case and of that of the vanes or
floats.
In Figure 23 will be seen the development of a crown of vanes or floats
analogous to those of Sheet 1, but formed simply of straight blades or a little
curved, or of other form, and more or less inclined to the plane of rotation.
The steam is injected at t, and it deviates in direction in passing over the
blades, the pressure being rejected upon each by the action of the sides of the
envelope. The fluid passing the vanes or floats in its course flows at intervals,
continuing free with a velocity greater than that of the rotation, and successively
losing the power of transmitting progressive motion to the wheel; after one
turn the vapour escapes by the orifice u into the atmosphere or into a con-
denser. The disposition of this system may be varied by the fluid acting by
successive impulsions, the jets " and "rejets forming themselves ·spon-
taneously in its course upon each of the vanes or floats. The blades may be
more or less inclined, or curved, or perpendicular to the plane of rotation.
The crown of vanes or floats can be either single or double, and occupy divers
relative positions to the preceding wheels in relation to the axle and to the
plane of rotation.
"
Sheet 3, Figures 26 and 27 represent two other varieties of wheels con-
sisting each of a series of rings of concentric vanes or floats (Figure 26) being
parallel and mounted on the same axle (Figure 27), of which the first receive
the steam by the first jet t, and transmit it to the second crown by the
"rejet'
u and the conduit s, which terminates by the second "jet" t, of
which the section may be regulated by means of a moveable "obturator
There may also be produced a successive series of crowns separated by a fixed
ring y, in which are placed the "rejets" and their conduits; this disposition
avoids the diffusion which may be feared if the moveable crowns were con
secutive without fixed divisions and without direct " rejets.'
2.
It may be remarked, that in all the precedingly described arrangements of
wheels there might be employed many systems or collections of "jets" and
"rejets" for each wheel. The injectors and rejectors multiplied might be

page_text: useful for the separation in order to augment the normal power of the
machine; they would each correspond to an orifice or conduit of final
escapement.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Brookes, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
WILLIAM BROOKES. (S.)