IMPROVEMENTS IN HELICAL PUMPS
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Matthew Piers Watt Boulton, of Tew Park, in
the County of Oxford, and John Imray, of No. 20, Southampton
Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, for the
Invention of " IMPROVEMENTS IN HELICAL PUMPS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Matthew Piers Watt
Boulton and John Imray at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 25th June 1875.
We, MATTHEW PIERS WATT BOULTON, of Tew Park, in the County of
Oxford, and JOHN IMRAY, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for “ IMPROVEMENTS IN HELICAL Pumps,” to be as follows :—
In the Specification of a Patent granted to us on the 4th December
1868, No. 3694, we described a construction of rotary helical pump con-
sisting of a wheel with vanes or floats on its periphery, mounted within
a cylindrical casing, this casing being provided with inlet and outlet
channels for liquid guided helically to and from the wheel.

page_text: Our present Invention relates to a modification in the construction of
pumps of this kind, whereby they are adapted for raising liquids to a con-
siderable height, or forcing them with considerable pressure, without the
necessity for working at very high speed. For this purpose we mount
within a cylindrical casing two or more wheels, having vanes or floats
on their peripheries, all these wheels boing fixed on one central shaft at
intervals apart from one another. We provide an inlet at one end, and
an outlet at the other end of the casing for the ingress of liquid to the
first wheel and its egress from the last wheel, its passago in both cases
being helically guided, as described in the Specification above referred
to in respect of a pump having a single wheel; also between each wheel
and next wheel in order we fix helical guides for the passage of the
liquid from each wheel to the next. On the shaft and the wheels fixed
thereon being caused to rotate liquid will flow into the casing, and will
issuo from it at a pressure depending on the number of successive wheels
that act on it in its helical course through the casing, each of these
wheels effecting an increase of pressure.
Instead of employing on the wheels flat vancs or floats parallel to the
axis they may be made portions of helical surfaces, or they may be flat
and a little inclined to the axis. Also, instead of the holical guides
between the successive wheels flat guides may be employed, such guides
being inclined at an angle corresponding nearly with the inclination
which a true helical guide would have, and the guides for the inlet to
and outlet from the casing may be curved from their inclined or helical
direction next the first and last wheels to a direction at their outer edges
parallel to the casing, which in such case may be extended both ways to
serve as the supply and discharge channel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Matthew Piers Watt Boulton and John Imray
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 10th December 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, MATTHEW
PIERS WATT BOULTON, of Tew Park, in the County of Oxford, and JOHN
IMBAY, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, sond greeting.
80

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
5 give and grant unto us, the said Matthew Piers Watt Boulton and John
Imray, Her special license that we, the said Matthew Piers Watt
Boulton and John Imray, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as we, the said Matthew Piers Watt Boulton and John
Imray, our 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,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN HELICAL PUMPS," upon the condition (amongst
3 others) that we, the said Matthew Piers Watt Boulton and John Imray,
our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under, our
or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or
them, 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 John Imray, on behalf of myself
and the said Matthew Piers Watt Boulton, 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, reference being had to the accompanying Sheet of
Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to
say:-
J.
.
In the Specification of a Patent granted to us on the 4th December
1868, No. 3694, we described a construction of rotary helical pump
consisting of a wheel with vanes or floats on its periphery mounted
within a cylindrical casing, this casing being provided with inlet and
outlet channels for liquid guided helically to and from the wheel.
Our present Invention relates to a modification in the construction of
pumps of this kind, whereby they are adapted for raising liquids to a
considerable height, or forcing them with considerable pressure without
the necessity for working at very high speed. For this purpose we mount

page_text: within a cylindrical casing two or more wheels having vanes or floats on
their peripheries, all these wheels being fixed on one central shaft at
intervals apart from one another. We provide an inlet at one end, and
an outlet at the other end of the casing, for the ingress of liquid to the
first wheel and its egress from the last wheel, its passage in both cases
being helically guided, as described in the Specification above referred
to in respect of a pump having a single wheel; also between each wheel
and the next wheel in order wo fix helical guides for the passage of the
liquid from each wheel to the next. On the shaft and the wheels fixed
thereon being caused to rotate liquid will flow into the casing, and will 1
issue from it at a pressure depending on the number of successive wheels
that act on it in its helical course through the casing, each of theso
wheels effecting an increase of pressure.
Instead of employing on the wheels flat vanes or floats parallel to the
axis they may be made portions of helical surfaces, or they may be flat 1
and a little inclined to the axis. Also, instead of the helical guides'
between the successive wheels, flat guides may be employed, such guides
being inclined at an angle corresponding nearly with the inclination
which a true helical guide would have, and the guides for the inlet to
and outlet from the casing may be curved from their inclined or helical
direction next the first and last wheels to a direction at their outer edges
parallel to the casing, which in such case may be extended both ways to
serve as the supply and discharge channel.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 represents a longitudinal, and Fig. 2 a transverse section, and
Fig. 3 a plan of a helical pump according to our Invention, in which
three wheels are arranged on one shaft, so as to rotate respectively
between helical guides. A is the shaft, on which is fixed a drum B.
Three sets of blades C project, from this drum, each set revolving with
the drum within the casing D, which is made with helical outer cheeks
at E, E, leading to tangential passages G, H, and which has helical
ribs K projecting inwards between the blades C. When the shaft A
with its drum and blades is caused to revolve in either direction the
liquid contained in the casing is put in rotary motion by the blades C,
and is guided in a helical direction by the cheeks E, F, and ribs K, so
that a current is caused to flow into the casing by one of the passages G
or H, and is caused to flow out at the other of these passages with a

page_text: velocity depending on that of the blades, and a pressure depending on
the number of sets of blades that successively act upon the liquid in its
helical course through the casing.
Fig. 4 represents a vertical section, and Fig. 5 a sectional plán of a
modified form of helical pump of this kind, in which the helical guides
are arranged in segments. In this case the shaft A has on it-a drum B,
from which project five sets of blades C that revolve within a casing D
between helical guides K placed in segments, of which there are four in
each tier.
Fig. 6 is an elevation of one of these helical segments shewn separately.
The casing D is continued both ways to form an inflow and an outflow
passage, contracted, if desired, as shewn at G and H, and the drum B is
made with its ends b, b, of conoidal form, so as to present less resistance
to the liquid flowing past them. The extreme helical guides / at each
3 end are preferably made to terminate in curves such as to guide the
liquid in a direction parallel to the axis, being shaped as shewn at
Fig. 7, which is a separate elevation of one segment of these terminal
guides. On causing the shaft A. with its drum and blades to rotate in
either direction the liquid in the casing is also caused to rotate with the
blades, being directed helically by the guides K, so that a current flows
in at one end of the casing, and out at the other end, according to the
direction of rotation.
Although we have shewn three wheels or sets of blades in Figs. 1 and
3, and five sets in Fig. 4, it is to be understood that any number of sets
5 might be arranged, as described, with intervening helical guides; also
that the blades, instead of being flat and parallel to the axis, as shewn
in the Figures, might be somewhat curved or oblique to the axis.
5
In the modified form of pump, shewn in Figs. 4, 5, 6, and 7, each set
of the helical guides is shewn as consisting of four segments, but they
O might obviously be divided into a less or a greater number of segments,
and when the segments are numerous their guiding surfaces, instead of
being truly helical, might be made with the average inclination of
the helical curvature without materially affecting the action of the
apparatus.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we claim, constructing helical
pumps with two or more wheels or sets of blades fixed on one axis

page_text: within a casing provided with helical guides on each side of each set of
blades, substantially in the manner and for the purposes heroin set
forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Imray, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of December, in the year of our 5
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.