NEW INVENTED MACHINE OR ENGINE FOR RAISING WATER, AND FOR VARIOUS OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES IN ARTS AND MANUFACTURES, BY MEANS OF STEAM AND OTHERWISE
Year: 1798

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JONATHAN
HORNBLOWER, of the Borough of Penryn, in the County of Cornwall, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the Eighth
day of June, in the thirty-eighth year of His said Majesty's reign, did give
and grant unto me, the said Jonathan Hornblower, His special licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Jonathan Hornblower, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the
term of years therein expressed, make, use, exercise, and vend, throughout
that part of His Majesty's Kingdom of Great Britain called England, the
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my "NEW INVENTED
MACHINE OR ENGINE FOR RAISING WATER, AND FOR VARIOUS OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
IN ARTS AND MANUFACTURES, BY MEANS OF STEAM AND OTHERWISE;" in which recited
Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Jonathan Horn-
blower, by writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description
of the nature of the said Invention to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court
of Chancery, within one calendar month after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the said Letters Patent, and the Statute in that
behalf made, relation being thereunto respectively had, may more at large-
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, and in pursuance
of the said Statute, I, the said Jonathan Hornblower, do declare that the fol-
following is a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, both
in respect to its principles and also the way and manner in which the same is
performed and rendered practically useful, that is to say:

page_text: First, in respect to principles, I admit the steam from the steam vessels or
boilers into certain other vessels, so particularly contrived and disposed as
to produce an immediate circular motion round an axis, and thereby communi-
cate a rotary motion also to other parts that may be appended to or connected
with the machine, without the intervention of that wheelwork and other com-
plicated machinery which has hitherto been found necessary where motions
that are rotative are produced-by-means-of-such-as-are-rectilinear and inter-
changeable.
Secondly, I cause the steam to operate on certain moveable parts within the
aforesaid vessels in such a manner that they occasionally and alternately serve
the purpose of abutments to the force of the steam in one direction when
admitted between them, but in a contary direction are permitted freely to
revolve in perpetual succession, the one after the other.
Thirdly, those particular parts of the machine which I cause to serve as
abutments to each other also serve the purpose of moveable diaphragnis or
partitions, each having an apartment within itself, and by means of which par-
t tions I establish separate apartments within the body of those vessels which
receive the steam from the boiler. Into some of these there is a constant
accession of steam; and others have open and uninterrupted communication
with cold water.
Lastly, from the practical application of the foregoing principles, as herein-
after particularly set forth, I obviate all those inconveniences attendant on
such steam engines as are retarded in their operations from vis inertiæ as often
as the directionof their motions are reversed, and consequently require both a
smaller quantity of fuel and machines of smaller dimensions for the necessary
work to be performed. And in order for the better comprehension and under-
standing how the aforesaid principles may be reduced to practical use, I do
hereby further declare that although I valy ny modes of construction as a
difference in circumstances may offer, to produce the same effect and obtain
the main purpose intended, yet I principally adhere to the following method,
as being fully answerable to what is required, and as best calculated to be
understood from a description of the same (that is to say):
;
First, the vessel in which the steam operates consists of a hollow cylinder,
composed of two unequal parts, the smaller section of which is screwed off and
on for the purpose of rectifying and repairing the internal structure. These
parts are cast separate, and then screwed together firm and 'close by means of
proper margins or flanches for the purpose, and in that state the cylinder is
bored true from one end to the other. At each end of this cylinder flanches
are also cast, for the purpose screwing on two lids, which are faced true on

page_text: their sides, next to the body of the cylinder, and the whole will then form a
figure somewhat resembling, a drum.
Secondly, the lids of this vessel are perforated in the centers for the recep-
tion of two metaline tubes, which meet in the center of the drum, and thereby
form an hollow axis, thro' one end of which. the steam enters the body of the
drum, and thro' the other makes its exit to the condensing water. On these two
tubes, are fixed two moveable parts of the machine, which I call diaphragms,
the nature and
construction of which will be best understood by attending to
the annexed Drawing. -A, Z, Fig. 6, are the two tubes which pass through the
central openings in the lids of the drum, meeting each other at B. a, b, c, d,
are the interior limits of those tubes on the inside of the drum, which are con-
siderably larger than at A, Z, in their diameters, the use of which is that there
shall be a proper cavity at e, f, g, h, to receive a packing of tow and grease, or
any other materials answering the purpose, between that particular part and the
end of the druin, and also that the frames of the diaphragms C, C, may have
the firmer holding to the hollow axles or-tubes at D, D, leaving the parts of
the diaphragm pendent at i, k. The dotted lines show the interior limits of
the drum when the diaphragms are, in their places, between which and the
extremeties of the diaphragms there is a proper rabbet to receive the packing,
and as well also between the pendant part of the diaphragms and the central
hollow tube about which it revolves. This rabbet is formed by means of plates
of metal screwed on to the frame of the diaphragms, having their edges nearly
in contact with the inner surface of the drum, and will be found accessible to
repair or renew the packing, when the pannel, which constitutes a part
of the drum, is removed. The parts e, f, g, h, may also be repaired at the same
time by means of removing two screws at each end of the hollow tube, see
Fig. 3d. The diaphragms (which are here standing in opposite directions) may
therefore freely revolve, the one after the other, or one may move whilst the
other remains stationary. The tubes to which they are attached will have their
concentricity preserved by means of the solid axle within the hollow one at E,
which is fixed to the end of. the tube Z, and passes closely through a hole in
the end of the tube A till it reaches the extremity at Y, where by means of a
second collar its central position is critically maintained. The two diaphragms
are hollow within, and hold communication with the cavities of their respective
tubes, which compose the hollow axis, and these communications are made by
oblong openings where the diaphragms and tubes are connected together at
D, D. Figure 3d represents the diaphragms and tubes enclosed within the
drum, the diaphragms being compleated by having their plates screwed on.
In these plates are fixed two valves G, G, opposite to which are two others-
1
+4

page_text: one in each diaphragm, so corresponding that at the opening of one the other
is closed, and vice versa. These valves are balanced and held on trunnions,
so that in every situation of the diaphragms they may uniformly obey the
impulse by which they are opened and shut; the manner in which that is
effected is as follows:-The two diaphragms widen towards their extremities
in the manner of radii (see Fig. 5th), and may therefore be brought into
sufficient contact to force open the valves by means of certain prominent
parts in them for that purpose.
It should here be noted that the efforts by
which, the valves are caused to open take nothing from the power of the
machine, because the impulses are reciprocally communicated from one
diaphragm to the other in one common direction.
Thirdly, to explain the manner in which the diaphragms are wrought upon
when in their proper place, let Figure 5 represent one end of the hollow
cylinder or drum which surrounds them, one of the lids being taken away.
The central circles exhibit the ends of the hollow tubes, which have already
been explained in Figure 6th. The two diverging parts are the ends of the
two diaphragms, which, as before mentioned, are packed with tow and grease,
or other packing, and are furnished with valves. Now these diaphragms being
hollow within, if we consider one of them to be constantly supplied with steam
by means of the hollow tube to which it is connected, and the other continually
holding communication with the condensing water, the consequence will be,
when steam is admitted thro" a valve into the lesser apartment of the drum,
and another valve open from the empty diaphragms into the larger apartinent,
that the diaphragms will recede from each other with all the force of the steam
between them; but if by proper prevention they can move only in one
direction, it is plain that the one will remain stationary till overtaken by
the other, their junction will then shift the valves into contrary positions
by means of the prominent parts in them for that purpose, and the apart
ment before filled with steam instantly becoming empty, the diaphragm which
was before stationary now becomes active, and the momentum of the former
may in effect be considered as transferred to the latter; there being, there-
fore, in these parts of the machine a continual motion by rapidly succeeding
each other in a circular direction, their respective axles, on which they turn,
and which communicate motion to other machinery without the drum, and
influenced in the same manner agreeable to the main principles herein
primarily set forth.
Fourthly, in order that the steam shall have a power of turning the
diaphragms only in one direction, let Figure 4th represent one of the lids of the
drum, having the side that is faced true on the opposite direction to that ex-

page_text: hibited in the Drawing. In this is a circular channel G, G, and a projecting
ring P, which serves as a perpetual fulcrum to support the two levers C, D,
that occasionally revolve in the channel, and act as detents. The outer
boundry of the channel also acts as a fulcrum to the extremity of the two
levers at their thick ends, so that when they are acted upon from their con-
nection with the axles, turning them to the right hand by means of a strong
collar E, there will be no impediment to their freely revolving in the circular
channel, but when the axles strain upon the small ends of the levers in a
contrary direction, they instantly become fixed so firmly between the two
boundaries of the channel as effectually to resist the whole force of the
machine. And in order that these levers may operate with the greatest
advantage an exact counterpart is provided in the false lids D, E, Fig. 3d,
which screw on the drum; and the ring P, Fig. 4th, may be supposed to be a
part of these lids, by which means the links which connect the levers and the
collars together partly disappear, to show that both the channel in the inner
lid of the drum and that in the false lid are partly occupied by the thickness of
the lever. To provide against the least retrograde motion whatever, when the
levers may be partly worn from friction, they are furnished with springs between
them and the outer extremity of the channel, so that the two bearing points
may at least touch their respective fulcruins.
Fifthly, by an inspection of the part S, Fig. 3, which I call the tympanum,
it will be perceived that there are proper channels a, b, for the reception of
four levers similar to those at Fig. 4, which will there also act as detents, two
being connected with the hollow axle I, and the other two fixed on the solid.
axle W, so that as the axles are turned in succession by the diaphragms within
the drum, the tympanum may be continually carried on by one or the other of
the detents, and being firmly connected with the shaft R, both it and the
tympanum are uniformly turned with the whole power of the diaphragms as
long as the steam is admitted between them.
Sixthly, the water that enters the machine for condensing the steam is
extracted by a pump, which may also be made to extricate any air that by
accident or otherwise may enter the machine, or a separate pump may be
made use of for the purpose after the manner that is commonly practised.
Seventhly, where a considerable altitude of water can be obtained, I lay
aside the use of a pump, and the machine is then calculated in every respect
for being wrought by means of water passing through it.
Parts in the Drawing remaining to be explained:-A, Figure 3, the brass which
receives the end of the hollow axle thro' which the steam makes its exit to the
condensing water. This brass is adjusted to maintain the central position of the

page_text: #.
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24
in order that when the
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it,
pivot by means of the screw at L, when the machine stands erect, but when
horizontaly the screw is fixed at c. B is the opening leading to the pump;
that at Copens to the boiler; 0, 0, 0, 0, the space between the false and inner lids
of the drum for receiving the detents, which are collared upon a part of the
hollow axle left octagon in those places. F, a passage for the steam to enter
into the proper diaphragm, passing between the inner extremity of the hollow
axle and the outer extremity of the solid one. Here the due proportion of
steam, that enters is adjusted by means of a collar of brass with rings on
which is made to move forward and backward by means of a pinion intersecting
the projecting rings, which rings serve as teeth, and this pinion is moved on
the outside, see Figure 1st. At a is a hole from the hollow axle.into the solid
brass collar does not admit steam enough to keep
out the atmosphere at the stuffing collar, a sufficient quantity may enter by
that way for that purpose into the apartment o, Figure 6, where it will meet
the stuffing in the apartment p, and keep out the air, tho' it may partly pass
into the diaphragm, where the solid axle nearly fills the hollow one at 7. The
stuffing round this solid axle is supplied thro' two
Figure 3, covered over by means of a clasping gland V. This clasp, also serves
to retain the stuffing. round the hollow axle at a, which may be repaired either
by taking off the clasp or thro' two oblong openings in the iron stuffing box at
Y. The air cannot enter the machine at the stuffing round the hollow axle,
because the strength of the steam on the inside is uniformly the same with
that in the boiler, or nearly so. The end of the solid axle has its pivot inserted
into the main shaft, where the tympanum is fixed, and the brasses on which
the main shaft turns are adjusted by screws at any time for maintaining the
central position of both the solid and hollow axles within the body of the
machine when used to produce alternate motions. On the main shaft,
Figure 2, is fixed a fly wheel at B, in order to regulate the unequal action
and reaction between the rectilinear motion of the pump work and the circular
direction of the diaphragms.
12
داد
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th
oblong openings at e
In witness whereof, I, the said Jonathan Hornblower, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-third day of June,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Jonathan Hornblower came before
our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.