CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF ELASTIC AND DENSE FLUIDS TO THE PROPELLING OF MACHINERY OF VARIOUS DESCRIPTIONS
Year: 1828

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
WILLIAMS, late of Tabernacle Walk, in the County of Middlesex, but now of
Canterbury Buildings, Lambeth, in the County of Surrey, Civil Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Fifteenth day of December, in the ninth year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Richard Williams, His especial licence that I, the said Richard
Williams, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Richard Williams, my executors, administrators, 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 His said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF ELASTIC AND DENSE
FLUIDS TO THE PROPELLING OF MACHINERY OF VARIOUS DESCRIPTIONS;" in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Richard
Williams, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly
to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His said

page_text: 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
Richard Williams, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to
consist in applying as a first mover the motion of inverted vessels immersed
in a dense fluid, and caused to rise and fall in that dense fluid something like
ordinary gasometers, by the introduction under them, and subsequent emission
from them, of an clastic fluid; and in further compliance with the said
proviso, I, the said Richard Williams, do hereby describe the manner in which
my said Invention is to be performed, by the following description thereof,
reference being had to the Drawing annexed, and to the figures and letters
marked thereon, (that is to say):-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
The Drawing represents a vertical section of a closed metal vessel A, A,
containing a dense fluid, supposed in this case to be oil, to the height B, B.
This vessel is placed over a steam boiler C, C, mounted in brickwork, and
furnished with a fire-place D underneath it, fitted up in the usual manner.
The heated air, flame, &c. from this fire-place are caused to circulate around
the vessel A, A, in flues marked E, whence they pass into a chimney as usual,
but which chimney is not shewn in the Figure. The steam, which is the clastic
fluid supposed to be used in this case, passes up from the boiler C, C, through
the apertures or openings F, F, F, as indicated by the arrows, into the sliding
valve boxes G, G, G, and whence it passes into the receivers H, I, and J,
upon the sliding valves being opened. Each of these receivers is furnished at its
upper end with a conical valve K, K, K, opening forwards, the stem of which
is connected with a lever L, L, L, turning upon a fulcrum at one end of it,
and its other end acted upon in the manner to be described hereafter. To the
same levers L, L, L, the rods V, V, V, are affixed, which are united with the
slides of the valve boxes G, G, G. M, N, O, are three inverted vessels, which
are attached to the rods P, P, P, which slide through stuffing boxes W, W, W,
in the top of the vessel A, A; these cylindrical rods P, P, P, are cach jointed
to a crank rod Q, Q, Q, the other ends of which are united by couplings to the
neck of the triple crank R, R, R, in the usual manner. The inverted vessels
M, N, O, are kept steady in their up and down motion by guide rods, marked
X, and rollers, marked Y, and each vessel is furnished at its top with a sliding
valve S, S, S, and has within side of it a spring catch T, T, T, which acts upon

page_text: the levers L, 1, 1, on the ascent and descent or the inverted vessels, causing
the levers alternately to open and shut the slides at G and valves K. The
steam generated in the boiler Centers the receivers H, I, J, the slides G, G, G,
being open, and those marked S and K shut, but when any one of the
inverted vessels M, N, O, descends low enough for the spring catch within it
to act upon the lever L, the slide at G is closed, and the conical valve K
opened, and the steam then passes out of the receiver into the inverted vessel,
as is shewn in the vessel M, which has received its charge and is in the act of
ascending; as it ascends the spring catch T will act upon the lever L and
raise it, thereby closing the conical valve K, and opening the slide at G, to
enable the receiver H to take in another supply of steam from the boiler
C. The inverted vessel M having thus received its charge of steam, and
thereby expelled a portion of the oil it was filled with, has now acquired a
degree of buoyancy which causes it to ascend. When it has nearly attained
its greatest elevation, nearly the whole of the oil will have been expelled, as
appears in the inverted vessel O, but when it has attained its greatest height
the stem E of the valve S will strike against the top of the vessel A, A, and
thereby open the valve, when the steam will escape into the upper part of the
vessel A, A, above the oil, and pass out at a pipe U, which is provided for that
purpose, into a condenser. The inverted vessel will now become filled with
oil, as shewn in the inverted vessel N, which is now in the act of descending,
as indicated by the arrows, ready to receive a fresh charge of steam in its turn,
and as described in regard to the inverted vessel M, previous to which, how-
ever, the sliding valve S will be shut by its lower stem f striking against the
top of the receiver I. In this manner, by a constant succession of filling and
emptying those inverted vessels in the manner above described, and by the
uniform action produced by the triple crank axis with which they are con-
nected, a continued revolving movement is produced on the latter, which
motion may of course be employed to work machinery in the ordinary manner.
Now, whereas I claim as my Invention the application of dense and clastic
fluids in manner aforesaid, to give motion to machinery by means of the rise and
fall of inverted vessels as herein-before described, and such my Invention being,
to the best of my knowledge and belief, entirely new, and never before used
within that part of His said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland called England, IIis said Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, nor in any of His said Majesty's Colonies or Plantations abroad,
I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do
verily believe this my said Specification doth comply in all respects, fully and
without resevre or disguise, with the proviso in the said herein-before in part

page_text: recited Letters Patent contained. Wherefore, I hereby claim to maintain
exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth
day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-nine.