CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON PUMPS, OR MACHINERY FOR RAISING OR FORCING WATER, CHIEFLY APPLICABLE TO SHIPS
Year: 1827

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
JOHN THOMPSON HOOD, of Arundel Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex,
Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, 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 Twenty-sixth day of May, One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-seven, in the eighth year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said William John Thompson Hood,
His especial licence that I, the said William John Thompson Hood, my
exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William John
Thompson Hood, my exors, adññiors, 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, my
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON PUMPS, OR MACHINERY FOR RAISING
OR FORCING WATER, CHIEFLY APPLICABLE TO SHIPS;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said William John Thomp-
son Hood, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, parti-
cularly 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 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.

page_text: Invention, and the manner in which the
ticularly described and ascertained in and
same, is to be performed, are par-
by the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and the following description thereof (that is to say) :—
DESCRIPTION.
Within the limits of the well, such as are common to all ships, there is to
be a wooden or a metal tube across the keelson, so that the apertures will open
one on each side of the keelson, as shewn by the dotted lines and letters D, D.
The black squares near D, D, in the Drawing represents the squares of
grating work which let down into the limbers round the chock C, C, to prevent
the approach of anything that might tend to stop the pumps if sucked in. A
wooden trunk hooped, or a metal cylinder, such as that shewn by letter E, is
to fit with a flanch over where the above-named apertures meet at (e), and at
()there is another flanch, which is to secure the trunk or cylinder E to the
lower part of what I denominate the condensing reservoir. The condensing
reservoir is an oblong box, of nine feet in length, seven in breadth, and four
feet deep externally, the four sides and bottom of which may be of wood, but
the top should be of metal; the whole is to be dovetail'd and let into each
other, as well as being secured by bolts and nuts, so that when the pumps are
at work and there is a strong pressure each part will bear an equal strain.
There are within this reservoir three partitions, the first running at right
angles with the keelson (marked) 1, 2, 3, 4, across the middle of the reservoir,
which divides it into two equal compartments, shewn in the Drawing by the
black and red ink outline; the other two run in the after side from the athwart-
ship partition, parallel to each other, and in a line with the ship's keel, and so
far apart only as to admit of very little more space than is occupied by the
communicating hole at (9), which is equal to the bore of the trunk or cylinder
E. By these partitions the reservoir is divided into four parts, similar to
Fig. 2, which is an outline plan of the reservoir; the letters K, X, I, and J
represent the holes through which the valves marked with those letters in the
Drawing of the reservoir and pumps are let down, and secured with screws
through their tops. 'Fig. 3 represents one of the valves detached. Of course to
each of those equalized valves there is a hole in the partition to admit of the pas-
sage of the water to and from the cylinders Land M without its being wiredrawn,
also admitting of greater plunge for the pistons, and combining the advantage
of being enabled to remove the valves by the handles i, i, when requiring repair
without disturbing any other part of the apparatus. From the bean or deck,

page_text: and right over the two bored cylinders, is suspended by its axle on a pair of
strong iron arms a metal spracket wheel of sufficient diameter to admit of the
stop binge chain (x, x,) plumbing their centres. To the ends of this chain
are the two pistons G and H, which work alternately up and down by the
semi-rotatory motion of the wheel and connecting rods s, s. The Drawing only
shews the connecting rods and winches on one deck, as it would have been too
complex to have introduced them on the orlop, where I wish the machinery
more immediately about the pumps to be distinctly shewn, on whatever deck it
might be thought necessary to work them upon, the chain being so constructed
that when ascending it winds round the wheel, and when descending it
straightens itself, and thereby has the same power on the pistons in forcing as
a straight rod would have, as the bar of the wheel acts on the shoulders of the
stop hinges and keeps the chain in a straight line. The option of working
those pumps on either deck of any ship (including the orlop of a man-of-war) by
the application of a different length connecting rods must be obvious, and the
improbability of their ever being shot away or injured in action is equally so,
from the circumstances of all the material parts being fitted below the water-
line, where shots are but rarely known to strike. Practice will also convey to
the mariner that when a ship is heeling over under a press of sail, or rolling in
a heavy seaway, the lifting force pump will shew its superiority over the
chain pump, from its being calculated to force water out of the ship on both
sides at the same time, when the pump dale of the chain pump may be stopped
by immersion in the sea on the lee side, while the water will not go out on the
weather side, as it cannot ascend without some forcing power to convey it
above the horizontal level of the power of the sausors, thereby causing an
unnecessary accumulation within the cisterns, which often overflows the sides
on to the deck. The method of converting the force pumps for extinguishing
fire is simple in the extreme, and is as follows:-The wash-deck pipes are to
be fitted to meet at holes in the top of the conducting part of the condensing
reservoir close to the female part of the screw W. This screw has attached to
its end an oblong piece of metal, faced with leather on the upper and lower
surfaces, and is sufficiently large when screwed close down to stop all com-
munication with the trunk (E), and consequently with the well of the ship, and
admits at the same time from the sea pure water through the wash-deck pipes,
already described at (Y). As described in red ink, there is a screw, which is
hollow right through, and has a similar oblong piece of metal attached to its
end as the screw W, so that when it is hove up tight all communication with
the conducting pipes or pump dales (N and O) is closed, and the water is
forced with great velocity through the confined space of the hollow part of the

page_text: screw, to which is affixed at the upper end an elastic hose for conveying the
stream whenever it may be required.
Here it may be necessary to remark, that in transferring the application of
the force pumps from the purport of a fire engine to that for pumping out a
ship, the screw W should be first screwed tight up to open the communication
with the limbers through the trunk E; also to prevent the water from being
sucked in through the wash-deck pipes, should the cocks at the sides be left
open, and for the admission of the water out through the conducting pipes or
pump dales (N and O), the screw Y should be screwed tight down, thereby
opening the communication with those pipes, and closing up that with the
lower part of the hollow screw, by preventing the water from getting at it
between the leathering of the stopper and the bottom of the reservoir. The
wash-deck pipes will of course be fitted with cocks at the sides as usual, and
should it at any time be deemed necessary to let water into the ship to sweeten
her, if the screw W is hove about half-way down, the water will have a passage
past the stopper at its end along the sides and holes for the fire and aft valves
in the two partitions, and will go through the trunk E, and the limber chock
and passages D, D, into the ship's hold.
In witness whereof, I, the said William John Thompson Hood, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven.