IMPROVEMENTS IN HYDRO- STATIC ROTATORY MOTIVE-POWER ENGINES
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Burrowes Willcocks Arthur
Sleigh at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 29th December 1866.
I, BURROWES WILLCOCKS ARTHUR SLEIGH, of Langham Place, Portland
Place, in the County of Middlesex, a retired Lieutenant-Colonel in Her
Majesty's Colonial Service, and formerly of the 77th Regiment of Foot, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN HYDRO-
STATIC ROTATORY MOTIVE-POWER ENGINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements on an Invention for which Letters
Patent were granted to me on the 23rd day of September, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-four (No. 2385), and consists in an improved mode
of applying and augmenting bydrostatic power, whereby a rotatory motion is
obtained, conveying the power of hydrostatic propulsion augmented in force,
as herein-after described, by means of which all manner of machinery may
be driven, worked, and propelled, and the hydraulic element used to generate,
produce, and aid in communicating the augmentation of bydrostatic power
having performed this office by pressing upon the rams which drive onwards, the
acquired increase of power passes out and backwards from the ram cylinders,
which become emptied by the pistons of the rams driving them to the bottom
or ends of their chambers or cylinders into the cylinders of the pump
plungers ready to be forced and ejected forward again; nor is a fresh supply of
water required, for when once the cylindrical mechanism of this engine is
charged with the required amount of fluid no further replenishment is neces-

page_text: sary, except to make up for evaporation or leakage, and thereby each series
of rams and pump plungers having delivered their strokes no fresh supply is
required from an outside source, as the bases of the rams and pump plungers
are never while in work removed from contact with the hydraulic element.
My improved hydrostatic engine consists of a bed plate or platform of
metal which rests upon and is supported by a metal frame; slots are left in
the bed plate, through which work those parts of the engine and bands or
straps which are beneath or above the bed plate. The various parts of the
engine are bolted down, and portions operate above as well as beneath the bed
plate. In the first place there are placed upon the platform or bed plate in a
horizontal position four rams, behind which are attached their respective series
of pump plungers and cylinders. The ram and pump plunger cylinders are placed
with spaces between each parallel to each other. In each cylinder, duly bored
out for its reception is a ram of metal, and each cylinder is grooved out at its
mouth for the reception, of a stuffing box or hydraulic packing, through which
the rams pass outwards in giving their respective strokes, and then retire
inwards after delivering the same. The sets of ram cylinders, with their rams,
face the main four-throw crank driving shaft, which revolves through plummer
boxes or bearings, which are cast or bolted upon the bed plate with caps and
metal brasses; the four-throw cranks are set at right angles to each other,
and each crank being alternately driven one quarter of a circle the four cranks
thus complete an entire circle of revolution. The ends of the main crank
shaft project at either side of the bed plate, and in rotating work or drive
machinery. The rams are hollowed out to receive connecting rods which
drive direct on the cranks of the main shaft, thus conveying the hydrostatic
power to rotate the shaft. As the first of the four-throw cranks receives its
power of propulsion from the first ram it performs its quarter circle of
revolution, and the fourth ram then moves forward in like manner, and as it
does so the first ram begins to retire into its cylinder. The forward pressure
of the fourth ram drives its crank a quarter of a circle, in manner as
described of the first ram, thus causing the second quarter of revolution of the
main crank driving shaft and completing a half circle revolution of the shaft,
and the same alternate movement of the third and second rams completes an
entire circle of revolution of the shaft. At the base or ends of the ram
cylinders are the pump plunger cylinders before referred to. The pump
plunger cylinders consist of hollow cylindrical tubes of the necessary thickness
of metal and interior diameter and bore. In these cylinders moving through
bydraulic stuffing, work in and out solid metal pump plungers screwed on to
metal cross heads connected to guides. The guides are alternately pressed

page_text: upon by levers, which drive forward the pump plungers, which in their strokes
eject from their cylinders the water contained in each under the base of the
rams, which press forward in manner as before explained. These levers,
which I designate my compensating levers of oblique action, are arms or
jointed rods of metal of equal length standing upright at the end of the bed
plate and directly to the rear of the pump plungers. The lever arms are
forked at their bottonis to receive a pin which passes through the cross heads
of the pump plungers, thus attaching the rods thereto. The upper ends of
these levers are jointed to other or real levers pullies rotating between the
joint pins, the bases of the rear levers rotate upon a shaft which is firmly
fixed to the bed plate by plummer boxes extending between the bases of the
levers and of equal length, making an equilateral triangle is a third arm
laying horizontally and pointing to the pump plungers, at the rear end of
which and in close proximity to the bases of the rear levers are attached
pulleys. The horizontal bars or arms are attached at the ends to gun metal
lugs and slide between guides. At the upper ends of the jointed levers
straps, chains, or bands pass over the respective pulleys, descending over the
pulleys fixed on the ends of the sliding bars, and then passing through slots in
the bed plate run under the same to the second crank shaft, upon which are
at right angels four cranks of a throw equal to the length of one of the
lever rods. The chains or bands are fastened to the end of the cranks. The
second crank shaft is rotated by an outside power, and as it revolves the
cranks draw down alternately the chains fastened to the levers until the levers
reach nearly to a horizontal line, which pressing upon the cross heads of the
pump plungers drive them in their full length which ejecting the water under
the ram cause the rotation of the main driving four-throw crank, upon which
are keyed two fly wheels of the necessary weight and size for the purpose of
equalizing the rotation caused by the intermittent full power strokes of the
series of levers acting upon the hydrostatic element contained in the cylinders
of the pump plunger and ram. I can multiply the number of rams and
place them in other positions relatively to each other, and I can vary the
diameter and length of stroke according to the work to be done, and in
proportion thereto, as also of the levers and other parts of my engine.