IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1853

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Honoré Mauc at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
2nd May 1853.
(Foid by reason of notice to proceed not having been given within
the time prescribed by the Act.)
I, HONORE MANE, of 15, Arundel Street, Strand, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES" to be as follows:-
Every man knows that the must lights bodys will rise above the
caviers ones, (wether gaseous, aqueous, or melted.) if nothing disturbs
the physical laws which govern the world. According to this law, you
can not sink or move downward the lighter across that which is heavier,
without loading the first to balance or break the difference. This
difference is the power which opperate in my Invention. I do not claim
this principle as my own; I claim only for its application on my steam
machinery.
I have constructed two differents apparatus, which will give a com-
plete explanation of my improvements. 1°. I have constructed a kind
of cock, or a circular sliping valve, having a feeding pipe in the spindle.
(or circular valve), and six leading pipes on the box that receive the

page_text: spindle. Upon this first work, I have placed in a circular order six
boxes having exactly the same diameter, the same thickness, the same
size, and having also, when put together, the shape and the appearance
of a short cylinder. Every box by the centre receive one of the six
leading pipes, and in the circumference there is a large hole which let
pass the water or the steam as it my be be wanted, when the wheel per-
forms its motion. The wheel which I have described must be placed in
the interior of a box on its axle-tree, large enough to let it move freely
in a circular motion. The feeding pipe (so I call the first one that cross
the spindle and leads the steam) must be oval, and larger than the six
others, because it must feed two bares at the same time, and must also
have it opening at the lower part of the spindle, just opposite to the
six others bored in round, and in such a manner that they must pass
one after the other, before the first hole (spindle hole). This
being done, I fill up the big box with boiling water; boiling water
cannot absorbe a new quantity of steam, but let it pass without any
change. In order to put this wheel in motion, having arranged every
thing in perfect order, I opens the feeding pipe, with which I fill up
the
lowest box. This will be driven up by the steam, according to its
ascending power; and by its motion it bring the second; this second
box, being fitted up, bring also the third; and so on for the others.
When the first box is in, up the water comes in by the external hole,
and fills up the room left by the steam, which can not remain, its
natural place being above the water.
2. According the law heretofore mentioned, the mercury lies even
with the two branches of a barometrical tube, when pressed ou
both sides by the same power, or free of every kind of pressure.
Pressed on a single side, by air I suppose, it will rise on the other;
pressed by water it will be 13 A time higher. Accordingly, the
mercury cannot be moved, nor any other body, either gaseous,
aqueous, or melted, across such a pipe, without a power that balance,
suspend, or neutralize its gravity. I have constructed a circular
tube resting on a concentric axis, and placed six equidistants valves
in such a manner that each one can slip from its box across the tube,
and divide it in six sections. Every section must have a feeding

page_text: pipe and a escaping pipe, to receive and let fly the steam whenever it
be necessary. Hire on the centre I have a cock or a circular sliping
valve having two boxis, and two holes on the boxis of the same
diameter; the first on the right hand, the second on the left above the
mercury one liads the steam, the other let it run back (fly). Suppose
a quantity of mercury lying at the bottom of my circular tube, high
enough to fill up a quarter of the tube:-With one of my sliping
valves (the highest) I cut the upper part which has no mercury in two
compartments; the mercury acting down by its gravity can not be
moved by the steam. (I suppose here my wheel well suspended, runing
freely in a circular motion without any obstacle whatsoever.) If I
blow the steam on a side, the escaping pipe being oppen on the other,
the first compartment will be enlarged by the steam; the mercury
slipping down during this motion, the second compartment looses the
room gained by the first; the wheel alone have turned; the melted
metal submited to the law of gravity, lies down without riseing, not
having found a power strong enough to move it upwards. The first
valve is brought back by a wedge, when the second beguin the same
service, the third comes after, and so on. The escaping pipe become
a feeding pipe when you run a valve which I have placed across the
steam passage, and change the circular motion end by end, when you
wich it to run back, in order to have this advantage, the feeding and
the escaping pipe must have, and have in fact, the same shape in my
engine. There is room enough to have two escaping pipes, if the first
is to small for such service; the second side of the wheel being free,
you can place it there. You can work with mercury for a small
machine, but it is not the same for a large one. The mercury appears
to my too expensive; and therefore, for the same raison, impraticable.
Newton metal will be cheaper. A solid iron stopper, mouldet tight
like the piston of our present steam engine, heavy enough for a
complete resistance, if the rubing surfaces are perfectly finiched, being
very smooth, well greased, can slide very easily, and will, I belive, be
prefered for larges engines.
I do not claim the principle has my own, nor the separate articles.

page_text: I claim but for the order the organization of my described engine,
but chiefly for having introduced, not a new mean, but a new appli-
cation of a known mean, in steam enginery; which I belive my Inven-
tion, for the best of my knowledge, and I disclaim every thing contestable
in the dominion of most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria.