AN IMPROVEMENT TO BLAST ENGINES AND STEAM ENGINES
Year: 1818

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, We, TпоMAS
JONES, of Bradford Street, Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Iron
Founder, and CHARLES PLIMLEY, of Birmingham, aforesaid, Refiner, sond
greeting.
WHEREAS we, the said Thomas Jones and Charles Plimley, have invented
"AN IMPROVEMENT TO BLAST ENGINES AND STEAM ENGINES:" And whereas His Ma-
jesty King George the Third, by Letters Patent bearing date at Westminster, the
Seventh day of May, in the fifty-eighth year of His reign, after reciting our
said Invention and our petition for the said Letters Patent for it, for the term
of fourteen years, hath given and granted unto us, the said Thomas Jones
and Charles Plimley, our exors, admors, and assigns, especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said Thomas Jones and Charles
Plimley, our exors, admors, and assigns, and every of us, by ourselves or by
our deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as we, the said
Thomas Jones and Charles Plimley, our exors, admors, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term of years therein expressed, should and might
lawfully use, exercise, and vend our said Invention within that part of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion
of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to us the
said Thomas Jones and Charles Plimley, our exors, admors, and assigns, or
any of them, should in our or their discretion seem meet. And it is by the
said Letters Patent provided, that if we, the said Thomas Jones and Charles
Plimley, or one of us, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of our said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand
and seal of one of us, and cause the same to be inrolled in the High Court

page_text: of Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent, then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and
advantages thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become
void, anything therein contained to the contrary thereof in anywise notwith-
standing, as in and by the said Letters Patent, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Thomas Jones and Charles Plimley, do hereby declare that the nature of
our said Invention or improvement, and the manner in which the same is
to be performed, are particularly described in the Diagrams and Specification
following, that is to say:―
We surround the piston with a body of water or other liquid, instead of
packing, which renders it air-tight and relieves it from the friction of packing.
We take a hollow cylinder, called for distinction sake an outside cylinder, a
section of which is shewn in the annexed Diagram No. 1, of which the flanche
of the left side appears to be separated for the purpose of introducing the
communication with the reservoir; within this we place a hollow cylinder of
less diameter, called the inside cylinder, No. 3, about half the height of the
outside cylinder, so as to leave on its exterior a cavety or space for the piston
to work freely in the water or other liquid, this cylinder is screwed by its
flanche to the flanche of No. 1. In this cylinder is a passage for the blast
shewn No. 9, and at its upper extremity a valve or valves, and its lower
extremity is open for the admission of air, and the blast pipe passes through
it as shewn in No. 9. We make the piston No. 2 also a hollow cylinder,
and of less diameter than the cylinder No. 1, and greater than No. 3, and
place it within the former and over the latter, but so as not to press on or
against it, and it then works in the cavity or space between them filled with
the water or other liquid. The length of the piston must be such as when
the engine makes its ascending stroke to allow the lower extremity of it to
reach below the upper end of the cylinder No. 3, as shown in No. 9, and
continue immersed in the water or other liquid. We form a reservoir No. 4
for the water or other liquid, which by the alternate motion of the piston is
displaced to prevent it from overflowing, and screw it to the flanche of No. 1;
this reservoir communicates with the cavity between the cylinders No. 1 and
3, as shewn in No. 9.. No. 5 is the blast pipe in general use, and one of its
valves.
No. 6, the upper cap of the cylinder No. 1, showing its valves,
passage for the blast pipe, and piston rod. No. 7 is a section of the piston
shewing its caliber. No. 8, the cap of cylinder No. 3, its valves and air-pipe.
The parts above described are put together in the usual manner, and shewn
united in the section No. 9. The water or other liquid is placed within No. 1

page_text: nearly as high as the upper extremity of the cylinder No. 3, and above the
lower extremity of the piston, so as at all times to form a barrier to the
passage of the air; the piston is connected with the other parts of the engine
in the usual manner. When the engine works with its descending stroke,
it forces the air into the blast pipe at a, and the water displaced by the piston
is received by and rises in the reservoir, with its ascending stroke, the air is
forced through the valve at 6 into the blast pipe, and the water returns into
the cylinder No. 1. The valves, c, d, in the blast pipe alternately open and
shut, according to the action and reaction of the blast and atmosphere upon
them. The cylinders, piston, and reservoir we use are of cast iron, and the
capacity and dimensions of the cylinders, piston, blast pipes, valves, and
other parts of the machinery may correspond with the direction or wants of
the artificer.
In witness whercof, we have hereunto set our hands and scals, the Fourth
day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
eighteen.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourth day of July, in the year
of our Lord 1818, the aforesaid Thomas Jones and Charles Plimley came
before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Speci-
cation aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.