AN IMPROVED HYDRAULIC MACHINE FOR REGISTERING OR INDICATING THE FLOW OR QUANTITY OF FLUIDS, AND OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1854

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Francis Herbert Wenham at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th
March 1854.
I, FRANCIS HERBERT WENHAM, of Effra Vale Lodge, Brixton, in the County
of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVED
HYDRAULIC MACHINE FOR REGISTERING OR INDICATING THE FLOW OR QUANTITY
OF FLUIDS, AND OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER," to be as follows:-
In the following description of my Invention, the letters of reference apply
to the same parts in each of the five Figures hereunto annexed. Figure 1 is
a longitudinal section; Figure 2 is a horizontal section through the dotted
line a, b; Figure 3 is a plan; Figure 4 is an end view; and Figure 5 is an
elevation of the rotating cylinder shown in section in Figures 1 and 2, c, c, is
a cast iron casing for containing the revolving cylinder d. The top and bottom
spindle or axis of the cylinder passes through the fixed guides e and f, so as to
allow it to rise and fall vertically, and when down the cap will entirely close or
cover the aperture of the pipe around the bottom guide. In Figure 1 the
cylinder is shown partly raised. The sides of the cylinder are perforated or
bent inwards so as to leave a series of waterways or openings g, g, which allows
the water to escape at a tangent to its periphery, as shown by Figures 2 and 5.
h, h, Figures 1 and 2, is a cylindrical casing encompassing the rotating cylinder;

page_text: its base has two apertures i, i, placed exactly opposite, as shown in Figure 2.
The use of this casing is to prevent the water from escaping downwards through
the rotating cylinder, and the two apertures serve to divide the exit current
and equalize the action. The action of the machine is as follows:-The water
enters through the pipe j, and follows the direction of the arrows, and lifts the
cap of the rotating cylinder off its seat, and then escapes through the tangential
openings 9, 9, at the sides, and by its reaction producing a rapid rotation.
When the pressure and velocity of the water increases, the cylinder will be
raised higher, and the rapidity of its rotations also increased in the same ratio,
the cylinder in both cases having no other support or bearing than the rising
columns of water, upon which it rotates without friction or wear. After the
water has passed through the cylinder it descends around the outside of the
encompassing casing, and escapes through the two openings i, i, Figure 2, and
makes its final exit through the pipe or nozzle k.
The method of registering the number of revolutions of the cylinder is as
follows: The upper guide spindle is cut into a screw or spiral groove which
turns a worm wheel, the horizontal axis of which passes through a cup leather
or stuffing box, and gears into another worm wheel, which through the medium
of other wheel work serves to move the index of the dial 1, Figures 1, 3, and
4, after methods generally known.
On the top of the cap m, m, which closes the cast iron case of the machine
is a glass tube and divided scale n; up the hole of the tube a wire passes,
which is fixed to the upper spindle of the rotating cylinder, by the rise and fall
of which the end of the wire in the tube will indicate on the scale the velocity,
force, or rate in gallons of the passing current of water.
In using this machine as a motive power, the cast iron casing c, c, may be
dispensed with, and the rotating cylinder and its encompassing casing wholly
submerged; the upper vertical spindle may then be made to drive any
machinery requiring power.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, what I claim is,―
First, a cylinder, disc, or drum, having attached to it vanes or blades, either
at right angles or parallel to its axis; which cylinder, disc, or drum shall rise
and fall vertically with the ascending columns of water, and be supported and
rotate thereon; the rotation being caused either by the current acting on the
inclined vanes, or by the reaction caused by its flow through the tangential or
other formed interstices, the compensation for speed being also performed by
the rise and fall of the cylinder, disc, or drum opening or closing the entrance
of the waterway, more or less, in proportion to its current.

page_text: Secondly, I claim the use of the encompassing casing h, h, in combination
with the foregoing claim.
And, thirdly, I claim the use of the glass tube and divided scale n, for indi-
cating the velocity, force, or rate in gallons of the current of water passing at
the time; these being ascertained by means of a wire contained in the glass
tube, and acted upon by the force of the current, causing an endlong motion
in the cylinder, disc, or drum.