CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING OR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AMBROISE
ADOR, of Leicester Square, in the County of Middlesex, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twentieth day of January, in the first year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Ambrose
Ador, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said Ambrose Ador, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Ambrose Ador, my exors, admors, or 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 all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING OR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER;" in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Ambrose Ador,
shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be enrolled in Her said 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 being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Ambrose Ador, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the

page_text: Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon
that is to say:-
My Invention consists of a mode of applying hydrogen gas to the purposes
of obtaining or producing motive power.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 represents an engine in section, suitably arranged for carrying out
my Invention, as applicable to the propelling of vessels. Figure 2 represents
the transverse section of a ship or vessel, with some of the parts. By a careful
examination of which, and the description hereafter given, an engineer will
readily be enabled to apply my Invention to that and to other purposes in
the two Figures; the same letters indicate similar parts.
It is well known that on subjecting certain metals, such as iron or zinc, to
the action of certain acids, such as sulphuric, muriatic, citric, tartaric, &c. acid,
with water, hydrogen gas will bo ovolved; and further, if jets of such gas come
in contact with spungy platina, or platina powder, the gas will inflame. I would
therefore have it understood that I lay no claim to such results, using them
not as a discovery of mine, but as chemical facts fit for effecting the purposes
of my Invention. a is a cylindrical vessel with hemispherical ends, the interior
of which is lined with lead or other substance most suitable to prevent the
sulphuric acid acting on the metal of the vessel a. To that vessel a is applied
the pipe b, with a stop cock, by which the same can be supplied with a proper
charge of sulphuric acid and water. The vessel a has also a pipe and stop-
cock c, by which the acid and water can be drawn from the vessel a when
exhausted of their power of evolving gas. Within the vessel a is a cylindrical
vessel d, d, of lead or other material best resisting the destructive power of
acids. This vessel d, d, is suspended by a chain, which passes over a pulley e,
affixed on the axis f, which moves in suitable bearings, as is clearly shewn at
Figure 1 of the Drawings, the outer bearing acting as a stuffing box to prevent
the escape of the gas, as is clearly shewn; 9 is a sort of dial, a circular plate,
graduated on the face; and h is a hand or pointer, which, together with the
handle h', is affixed to the outer end of the axis f; by that handle the axis can
be turned in order to raise the vessel d, d. out, or to lower it more or less into
the acid, so as entirely to stop the evolution of the gas, or to regulate the
supply of it according to the power which is wanted; i is a perforated plate of
lead, or any material fit for the same various purposes. The cylinder a being
made of two pieces, that plate i is laid over the inferior one, which has a
conical end to be adapted into the other, the brims of the plate, exceeding
those of the piece under it, are turned down, and pressed between the two

page_text: pieces, when these are joined by means of outer screw pins, so the joint is made
a hermetical one. The plate i has another use, which consists of stopping
any water the gas may carry up with it, its holes permitting the gas, and not
the water, to pass over. It has, however, a larger opening in the centre to
allow the dropping of the materials with which the vessel i is filled. Those
materials, viz., small portions of zinc, iron, or other suitable metal, are thrown
into the vessel i by means of the safety valve j being raised. k is an ordinary
The
pressure gauge, to indicate the pressure of the gas in the vessel a.
hydrogen gas as it is evolved, and rises to the upper part of the vessel a, passes
off by the pipe to what I call the safety chamber m, which has two valves
m' and m. The valve m' closes the opening from the pipe I, and the valve m³
closes the upper part of the vessel or safety chamber m. This chamber has
also two safety valves n, n, the object of which will be hereafter clearly under-
stood. The hydrogen gas for passing through the chamber m raises the two
valves 'm', m³, and thence proceeds up the pipe o (if I may term it so), which
is formed by the joining of two cylindrical accessory parts belonging the one to
the vessel m, the other to the following vessel p. This vessel is a spherical
one, the entrance of which is shut by a valve m³. The gas having raised that
valve flows into the vessel p by three holes q, after which, within the vessel p,
there are platina spunges or platina powder; in one word, platina suitably pre-
pared to produce the intended effect, viz, to inflame hydrogen gas, as it is a
fact well known to chemistry. The gas therefore coming in contact with the
platina thus prepared suddenly ignites, and, by igniting, expands its volume,
and becomes of a very high elastic force. At the very moment the ignition,
and consequently the expansion, of the gas takes place, a reaction is produced
against the valve m³, which is shut, the power above it being momentarily
greater than the power beneath. Let us suppose the ignition to have been so
rapid as to have propagated itself beyond the valve m³, then it will be stopped
at least by the valve m', if not, which is a most improbable case, by the valve m³,
the two other valves of the same vessel n, n, opening then, under the excess of
pressure which they have been provided for to correct, by permitting a certain
quantity of the expanded gas to escape. To return to the vessel p.. It has a
safety valve r, a thermometer, and a pressure gauge, as is clearly shewn. As it
is at intervals, infinitely small intervals, submitted to sudden augmentations of
pressure, in consequence of the explosions of the gas, so it requires more
solidity than the above-described pieces of the engine. The elastic force
acquired there by the gas being applied to suitable machinery can serve for
various mechanical purposes, and work as a substitute for steam wherever this

page_text: is now employed in propelling boats and locomotive carriages, producing motion
in general, raising and forcing fluids, &c. As to the machinery, it requires
that which is now used for steam may be preserved, and the boilers or gene-
rators of steam merely superseded by the above-described combination of
apparatus for producing and igniting hydrogen gas.
But I shall now proceed to describe another apparatus, which I think more
convenient for the working of my gas, and which is, as already remarked,
appropriated to a boat. s is the pipe which conveys the gas from the vessel p
to the machine provided for it. This is a double engine of the rotatory kind,
which works on the principle of what is called the "Barkers Mill;" it consists,
as is shown in the Drawing, of six hollow bent arms t, t, t, u, v, v, the ends of
three pointing in one direction, and the ends of the other three pointing in the
opposite direction; hence according as the gas is permitted to flow off through
the set t, t, t, or the set u, v, v, so will be the direction of the rotary motion, and
according as the apparatus is arranged the direction of the motion can readily
be changed, as will readily be traced in Figure 2 of the Drawing, in which
there is shewn two engines, one to each side of the vessel, and which are so
arranged as to have motion independant each of the other. The pipe 8, from
the vessel p, enters a cross pipe w, on which there are two stopcocks w³, w³.
x, x, are two axes, carrying the paddles or propellers y; to these axes the two
engines are affixed, as is clearly shewn. The centre of each engine being
hollow has a conical pipe or cock containing openings in such manner as to
open into the open ends of each set of three arms t, t, t, or u, v, v, as the case
may be; the conical pipes at their opposite ends to where they work in the
engines work in stuffing boxes at the ends of the cross pipe w, as is clearly
shewn. ≈,=, aro pulleys or wheels affixed on the pipes having conical ends, the
object of which is, that when it is desired to change the direction of motion
of tho engines (by moving the openings in the conical pipes from the ends of
the arms t, t, t, to the ends of the arms u, v, v, dr from v, v, v, to the arms t, t, t,
as the case may be,) the operation is performed by pressing suitable brakes, as
is shewn at Figure 3, on to the pulloys, by which the motion of those pipes
will be stopped, and the arms t, v, moving, will change the relative position of
the openings in the conical pipes by means of the plates and stops, which are
shewn separately at Figure 4.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of com-
bining and using the same, I would remark that variations may be made in
the parts thereof, and further, where, in place of simply employing the ignited
and consequently expanded hydrogen gas, other gases or vapours may be

page_text: evolved or generated in suitable vessels, and brought by suitable pipes into the
pipe s, and be expanded thereby, and with it proceed to work the engine.
And I would have it understood, that I lay no claim to any of the parts
separately of which the engine is composed. But what I do claim is, the
mode herein described of using hydrogen gas by igniting the same in a vessel,
and in such ignited and consequently expanded state permitting it to flow to
a suitably arranged engine for producing or obtaining power as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ambroise Ador, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Tenth day of February, One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-eight