Year: 1897

page_text: A communication from abroad by PAUL ALPHONSE THEODORE DE BOUILHAC, of
Bourzac.
I, JOHN PATRICK O'DONNELL, of 70 & 71, Palace Chambers, Westminster, in
the County of Middlesex, Chartered Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention to be as follows:-
The present invention has reference to improvements in connection with the
invention set forth in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to me, No. 20594,
dated September 17th 1896, and comprises a combination of contrivances.
With this invention motors worked by carburated air, petroleum, naptha, and
the like, such as are generally used for motor-cars, may be employed, a great
variability of the rate of speed at which they are running being imparted to them.
Hitherto these motors have necessitated the use of speed-changing gear, gearings,
and belt arrangements of a very complicated nature and a low output of power.
This invention comprises:-
(1). An oil or other engine, which is the source of power, and will do a given
amount of work which is constant for the variable rates of speed of the vehicle.
By means of a centrifugal governor, which can be regulated at the driver's will,
he can arrange to have at his disposal whatever number of foot-pounds per second
he may require.
(2). A compressed-air power transmission gear, consisting of a special air-pump
worked direct from the piston of the engine, pipe connections, an air vessel and
a reversing cock. The whole of this arrangement is passed through by the air,
the pressure of which will vary in the inverse ratio of its velocity of flow, auto-
matically, (owing to the peculiar arrangement of the pump) in accordance with
the resistance to be overcome.
(3). One or several receivers, serving as compressed air motors, with piston or
rotary action, and which are arranged directly above or on the driving wheel or
wheels of the vehicle to be propelled.
The receivers are, preferably, independent of the principle motor and are con-
nected with it by a simple flexible tube only. The vehicle can be run at any rate
of speed and consequently with the same mechanism one may drive either a light
vehicle at a high rate of speed, or a heavier one at a low rate.
If there are two driving wheels they may run at different rates, being driven
by separate motors; hence the differential movement is dispensed with.
These contrivances may be fitted to a motor car, and on this car, either the two hind
wheels, or the steering wheels, or the four wheels altogether, may be driven. The
driving gear may also be fitted up on a small separate vehicle, and may be used to
drive a carriage of ordinary construction, the wheels being fitted up, as driving

page_text: wheels by mounting next to them a compressed air motor; in this way the car-
riage may be speedily transformed into a motor can without changing its character.
The facility afforded for rendering a steering wheel self-propelling, also permits
of arranging the motor apparatus on a special vehicle which may be attached to any
kind of carriage in order to haul the latter, as with this mode of transmission it
is easy to attach this hauling car to the fore-carriage of the vehicle to be hauled,
and to make it carry, (if necessary) part of the weight of the carriage; if necessary
a connecting pipe arrangement laid on from the motor-car would permit of work-
ing special motors fitted to the hind wheel of the vehicle by way of supplement
to the haulage. This apparatus will be described in the present specification as
being the one which appears to me to present the greatest interest.
The output of power of the apparatus may also be materially increased by
heating the air in the air reservoir; for this purpose a pipe worm would be fitted
inside it through which the exhaust gases would be made to pass, or else the air
reservoir itself may be made in the form of a worm placed in the cooling-water
tank. Under these circumstances, the air being heated, after compression, and
admitted warm into the motor, the whole will work somewhat after the style of
a hot-air engine.
With my invention the oil or other engine has its piston coupled direct to the
piston of an air pump, the piston of which air pump leaves at the bottom of the
cylinder in which it works a considerable dead space in front of the valves;
from the forcing valve the air passes to the reservoir on which a safety valve is
arranged and from the reservoir it will pass to a reversing cock and thence to the
motor. This motor is arranged directly over or on the driving wheel or wheels.
Assuming the dead space at the bottom of the air pump cylinder to be equal to
the distance travelled by the piston, at the commencement of the stroke, the
cylinder being full of air which has just been sucked in, the pressure is equal to
that of the surrounding atmosphere. As the piston moves forward the pressure
will rise up to the point when the pressure in the cylinder is equal to that in the
reservoir. At this moment the forcing valve is raised, and the compressed air
will pass into the reservoir. The pressure remains virtually constant. At the
commencement of the return stroke, owing to the falling off of the pressure, the
forcing valve recloses and the air contained in the dead space at the bottom of
the cylinder will expand.
For speeds varying within very wide limits, for instance from a unit to the
six-fold thereof, the power utilized is evidently the maximum work. The effort
of propulsion (i.e. the resistance overcome in locomotion) is inversely proportionate
to the speed; at zero speed of the receiver motor the power consumed is nil, and
the oil engine runs light after having brought up the pressure to a maximum
which it is impossible for it to exceed.
It follows therefore that while running on the road the vehicle will, of its own
accord, adjust its rate of travelling in accordance with the resistance to be over-
come, slackening speed as soon as increased resistance is offered and again resum-
ing its former rate when the extra resistance is overcome.
If the driver wishes to stop the car he will close the reversing cock situated
between the before mentioned reservoir and the motor. On passing beyond the
middle position the relation of the orifices or valve holes is reversed and the
secondary motor will then act as a pump, compressing the air in the reservoir and
thus creating a resistance which will serve to recover part of the momentum
imparted to the vehicle. If starting, after the stoppage, with the cock completely
reversed, a backward movement will take place.
The motor pump is of the type working at one stroke per revolution i.e., single-
acting, and the distribution is effected by a set of orifices or ports made in the
sides of the cylinder and in the piston, as will be explained.
The piston acts direct, by means of a connecting rod, upon the beam of an
alternating circular double-acting pump arranged within a drum underneath the
motor cylinder. The left hand part of this drum, which is divided into two com-

page_text: partments by a central partition, forms the "dead-spaces" of the pump, and the
valve boxes. The beam works a fly-wheel by an arrangement similar to that of
"Cardan's well."
The governor, arranged within the fly-wheel, acts by shutting off the admission
of the carburated air compound and admitting pure air only as soon as the speed
rises. The shutting off arrangement may be of any suitable kind. The governor
is unstable, that is to say it has two extreme positions only so that the shutting
off arrangement must be either closed or open so as to cause either a full supply
of the carburated air compound or none at all to be admitted into the cylinder,
and to have no variation of the compound. This governor is held in equilibrium
by a spring, the tension of which can be modified at will from outside and which
permits of varying the speed as has been explained above.
Towards the end of the stroke of the piston in the motor cylinder, the space at
the bottom or inner end of said cylinder having been filled with the gases generated
by the explosion of the charge, at a certain pressure, and the exhaust orifice
being exposed by the piston, the gases will escape; shortly afterwards orifices or
ports in the face of the piston are laid open and establish communication between
the space below and that above the piston. This space, as will be seen, is filled
just now with slightly compressed carburated air which escapes through ports
or holes in the said piston and then through an annular space or passage also
formed in the piston, through an orifice or port and through a pipe at the inner
end or bottom of the piston and enters at the bottom of the cylinder there replacing
the burnt gases.
As the piston redescends the orifices or ports previously opened
will be closed.
The carburated. air is now compressed in the space at the inner, end or bottom
of the cylinder while a certain amount of vacuum is produced in that above. At
the end of the downstroke ignition takes place by means of an incandescent tube
communicating with the annular space in the piston in which the mixture is
richest. At the same time the outer or upper edge of the piston has cleared the
orifice or port which communicates with the air carburator, and the compound
enters into the space above or beyond the outer end of the piston under the
influence of the vacuum there produced.
When ignition has taken place the piston is impelled by the explosion, the
explosion gases expand, the compound is compressed in the space above or beyond
the outer end of the piston, and at the end of the stroke the same processes of
expulsion and readmission take place as previously.
The piston is connected by means of a connecting rod with the beam, paddles
or blade which revolve in the before mentioned drum being keyed on the same
shaft as said beam. These paddles or blades have an alternating movement and
work between stationary paddles or blades which are fixed to the sides of the drum,
thus displacing the air contained between them and constituting a double acting
pump. The air passes off through orifices alternatively at the outer and inner ends
of said paddles or blades. These orifices discharge, respectively, into two chambers
each of which is fitted with a double-valved box one for the suction and the other
for the forcing action.
The fly-wheel of the motor is worked by the beam by means of a cross-bar
attached to a crank which is fixed to the shaft of the fly-wheel. It thus receives
a continuous rotary motion.
Although any air motor, whether with piston or rotary, would do, I have
selected a rotary motor owing to its small compass, the simplicity of its working
parts and the possibility afforded of making this style of motor run at high speeds;
as I propose to work at very low pressure the question of having very light joints
becomes of little importance. Moreover the motor which I am about to describe
has the property of acting direct upon the driving wheel at a very low speed,
although mounted on the axle of this wheel itself. This motor consists of a
spherical box provided with two hollow gudgeons which are supported by the
fork or part of the framework of the motor vehicle provided for the driving wheel

page_text: and at the same time serve as bearings for said driving wheel, the spherical box
being enclosed in another box or casing forming the hub of the wheel. On these
gudgeons the wheel runs loose. The gudgeons serve also for introducing com-
pressed air and letting the air which has done its work escape; for this purpose
the gudgeons are connected by pipes with the reversing cock. These pipes may
be flexible if the wheel is movable round its vertical axis. From the hollow
gudgeons connecting channels or pipes communicate with the admission and
escape ports.
In the interior of this spherical box with hollow gudgeons are placed to revolve
(carried by the gudgeons) two diametrically placed paddles or fan blades, one
paddle carrying on its gudgeon a curved slide which may be geared into by
rollers or slide blocks arranged in the interior of the box or casing forming the
hub of the driving wheel as above referred to. In this way, by the rotary move-
ment of the wheel a varied, periodical, (although continuous) motion is imparted
to one of the paddles, the speed of the paddle being at its minimum when the
roller or block enters the slide and at a maximum when the latter is in the middle
position. The arrangement is similar in the case of the other paddle, but in this
case the rollers or slide blocks are overlapping. By this arrangement, during
the rotation a respective to and fro movement of the paddles with regard to each
other takes place whereby a space is formed between them. If the orifices or
ports of admission are suitably arranged on the periphery admission will result
during the whole period the paddles or blades are receding from each other, the
paddles themselves effecting the closing of the orifices at the desired moment.
At the commencement of the admission into the space between the two paddles
or blades and commencement of the escape from between them, one of said blades
has been moving very slowly and the other has made almost half a revolution.
When the admission is completed between the blades or paddles and the escape
is about to commence, the paddle which was moving slowly (simply in order to
change orifices), is now about to travel very quickly in its turn, while the other is
about to move very slowly.
If six rollers or slide blocks are put on each side, seeing that there will be,
for each passage of a roller, (or slide block) one approach to and one recession
from each other of the paddles, that is to say, twice the volume of the sphere as
the space covered by their travel,-
-we shall have, for one revolution of the wheel,
twelve times the volume of the sphere. This motor will therefore notwithstand-
ing the large quantity of air which will pass through it, be of small compass, and
carries within itself, thanks to the very nature of its mechanism, the means of
"gearing down," which are indispensable in any motor for vehicles which works
at a high speed. Moreover its arrangement is such as to constitute a compact
whole completely, enclosed in the interior of the wheel, and it reduces the number
of working parts to a minimum.
The apparatus which I am about to describe is the one which utilises, in the
best way, the advantages of my new transmission gear, and I give it by way of
example of the application. From this description it will be easy to conceive
the arrangement which will be best suited for the various cases mentioned in the
first part of this specification. Its object is to replace the horse which is harnessed,
indifferently, to the master's carriage, or to the working cart, or the carrier's van,
to the four-wheeled carriage or to a trap.
Hitherto this particular and interesting head of the question of auto-locomotion
has been solved in an imperfect manner and the types hitherto brought out have
been, roughly speaking of two kinds :-
1. The fore-carriage is replaced by a special motor fore-carriage. This system,
apart from the fact that it cannot be applied to vehicles with two wheels and one
single axle, moreover has the following disadvantages, viz., steering is difficult
and slow, as all the friction of the fore-carriage has to be overcome; moreover it
will only do for vehicles which are of about an equal height, and lastly it dis-

page_text: figures the carriage by placing in front of it a piece of carriage-building of an
incongruous aspect.
2. An altogether independent system of engine-car is employed, and in this
case the necessity arises of making it very heavy, for fear of its lacking sufficient
adhesion.
For these reasons I have devised a special vehicle placed on three wheels, two
in front and one behind which latter is the driving wheel. This vehicle carries
the whole of its motor plant. It forms, so to speak, one piece with the fore-
carriage and is arranged in front of it and takes up part of the weight carried
which will rest on the driving wheel. The three wheels revolve on their axis
and are shifted (as regards their position to each other), for steering purposes, in
such a way as to have one common pivoting point situated in the prolongation of
the axis of the fore-carriage. This arrangement affords greater stability and
greater ease of steering than the introduction of a second bolster pin, as has
generally been done when using independent driving-gear arrangements.
In the case of application to a two-wheeled carriage, this driving-gear appa-
ratus, in view of its small size, can easily be fitted up in the front part between
the shafts. The centre of pivoting must lie in the prolongation of the single
axle of the vehicle, which is ensured by a slight modification of the steering
mechanism.
It will therefore be seen from this statement,
1. That this new driving gear arrangement can be easily fitted to any style of
vehicle, and that it can be attached in a moment. At the most it will be
necessary in certain cases, to permanently fit on the fore-carriage of the vehicle,
a cross-bar on a by no means conspicuous piece which may be painted the same
colour as the vehicle itself and will not disfigure the appearance thereof and will
always permit subsequently harnessing the horse to the vehicle.
2. That the fore-carriage still retains all its value for steering purposes, while
necessitating, to this end, a very feeble effort only on the part of the driver.
3. That the adhesion is assured in any case and may even be rendered variable
at will.
The whole comprises: -The oil-engine and the air pump belonging to it, an
air reservoir, a reversing cock for starting, stopping, braking or reversing. There
is also an oil reservoir, a cooling water reservoir of large capacity which being
more or less filled with water may act as ballast to ensure adhesion. The driving
gear arrangement is attached by means of a T-bar. In order to attach it a
cross-bar is inserted in and fixed to one of the cross-bars of the fore-carriage of
the vehicle to be hauled, or failing this to a special bar permanently fixed to the
fore-carriage. This bar is pivoted at the back of the traction apparatus. By
means of a screw which passes into an arm the weight may be raised so as to be
placed at a suitable height and thus relieve the fore-carriage by bringing the
whole difference to bear on the rear driving wheel.
In the case of a vehicle with one single axle the cross-bar is attached to a special
piece fixed to the shaft so as not to interfere with a horse being harnessed to the
conveyance if desired. The steering is effected by means of a large bar which
is manipulated from the driver's seat by means of a suitable handle. This bar
is hollow and has passing through it a rod by means of which, with the aid of a
lever, the starting cock and governor can be manipulated; this result is obtained
by means of another lever at the end of the rod in the hollow steering bar, a
socket which carries a rack causing a pinion fixed on the spindle of the cock to
make a quarter of a turn. This spindle also works, by means of a cam and levers,
the oil-engine governor spring so as to modify the speed at which the engine
works. Hence by means of this hollow steering bar and its connected parts the
driver has complete control of the engine.
The lever or bar, the height of which can be regulated, acts upon a vertical
spindle on which a beam (or lever) with four heads is arranged, the two heads at
the back being connected by rods with the fork supporting the back wheel, and

page_text: the two others act, by means of connecting rods and cranks upon the front wheels.
The connecting rods may be attached or pivoted to the beam at different points
to suit different requirements.
Dated 1
201
improvements in and relating to Motor-cars.
A communication from abroad by PAUL ALPHONSE THEODORE DE BOUILIAC, of
Bourzac.
I, JOHN PATRICK O'DONNELL, of 70 & 71, Palace Chambers, Westminster, in
the County of Middlesex, Chartered Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be par-
ticularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
The present invention has reference to improvements in connection with the
invention set forth in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to me, No. 20594.
dated September 17th 1896, and comprises a combination of contrivances.
With this invention motors worked by carburated air, petroleum, naphtha, and
the like, such as are now generally used for motor-cars, may be employed, a great
variability of the rate of speed at which they are running being imparted to them.
Hitherto these motors have necessitated the use of speed-changing gear, gearings,
and belt arrangements of a very complicated nature and a low output of power.
This invention (shewn in general plan in Figure 1 Sheet 1 of the drawings)
comprises:
(1) An oil engine A which is the source of power. It will do a given amount
of work, which is constant for the variable values of the speed of the vehicle. By
means of a centrifugal governor, which can be regulated at the drivers will, he
can arrange to have at his disposal whatever number of foot-pounds per second
he may require.
(2) A compressed-air power transmission gear, consisting of a special air
pump C, worked direct from the piston B of the engine, pipe connections, an air
vessel G and a reversing cock H. The whole of this arrangement is passed
through by the air, the pressure of which will vary in the inverse ratio of its
velocity of flow, and this automatically, (owing to the peculiar arrangement of
the pump), in accordance with the resistances to be overcome.
(3) One or several receivers, serving as compressed air motors, with piston or
rotary action, and which are arranged directly above or on the driving wheel or
wheels of the vehicle to be propelled.
Hence it follows that:-
The receivers are, so to speak, independent of the principal motor and are con-
nected with it by a simple flexible tube only. The vehicle can be run at any
rate of speed and consequently with the same mechanism one may drive either a
light vehicle at a high rate of speed, or a heavier one at a low rate.
If there are two driving wheels they may run at different rates, being driven
by separate motors; hence the differential movement is dispensed with.
These contrivances may be fitted to a motor-car, and on this car, either the two 4
hind wheels, or the steering wheels, or the four wheels altogether may be driven.
The driving gear may also be fitted up on a small separate vehicle, and may be
used to drive a carriage of ordinary construction, the wheels being fitted up as

page_text: driving wheels by mounting next to them a compressed air motor; in this way
the carriage may be speedily transformed into a motor-car without changing its
character.
The facility afforded for rendering a steering wheel self-propelling, also permits
of arranging the motor apparatus on a special vehicle which may be attached to
any kind of carriage in order to haul the latter, as with this mode of transmission
it is easy to attach this hauling car to the fire-carriage of the vehicle to be hauled,
and to make it carry (if necessary), part of the weight of the carriage; if necessary
a connecting pipe arrangement laid on from the motor-car would permit of work-
ing special motors fitted to the hind wheel of the vehicle by way of supplement
to the haulage. This apparatus will be described in the present specification as
being the one which appears to me to present the greatest interest.
The output of power of the apparatus may also be materially increased by heat-
ing the air in the air reservoir; for this purpose a pipe worm would be fitted
inside it, through which the exhaust gases would be made to pass, or else the air
reservoir itself may be made in the form of a worm placed in the cooling water
tank. Under these circumstances, the air being heated, after compression, and
admitted warm into the motor, the whole will work somewhat after the style of
a hot-air engine.
The oil engine A, Fig. 1, has its piston coupled direct to the piston B of an
air pump C. The air pump piston leaves at the bottom of the cylinder in which
it works a rather considerable dead space interposed in front of the valves E:
from the forcing valve the air passes to the reservoir G, on which a safety valve J
is arranged from the reservoir it will pass to a reversing cock H and thence to
the motor I. This motor is arranged directly over the driving wheel or wheels.
The diagram, Figure 2, illustrates the variation of air pressures in the cylinder
of the pump. It has been designed on the assumption of a dead space of an extent
equal to that travelled by the piston at the commencement of the stroke, the
cylinder being full of air, which has just been sucked in, the pressure is equal to
that of the surrounding atmosphere. As the piston moves forward the pressure
will rise, in accordance with the curve "zy," up to the point y, when the pressure
in the cylinder is equal to that in the reservoir. At this moment the forcing
valve is raised, and the compressed air will pass into the reservoir; the pressure
remains virtually constant and follows the line "yz." At the commencement of
the return stroke, owing to the falling-off of the pressure, the forcing valve
recloses and the air contained in the dead space at the bottom of the cylinder
will expand as per curve "zu," until the atmospheric pressure is equalled, while
the period from "u" to "z" is the period of suction. The work done by the
pump is therefore represented by the area
ty z u.'
The quantity of air
which has been supplied is given by the ratio of "y" to the total stroke "av"
of the piston. This ratio represents the speed of the receiver motor "I" and
consequently that of the vehicle (as the space covered by the travel of the piston B
is constant for a given adjustment of the oil engine). The pressure, that is to
say the power of propulsion in the motor, is represented by the abscissa "yt."
In order to form an idea as to what passes, if assuming various pressures in the
reservoir, that is to say more or less considerable resistances, refer to Figure 3,
being a diagram in which various speeds are shown in the form of abscissæ, to
which values in kilometres have been assigned.
"
""
The ordinates of the curve traced in full lines, indicate the work or power con-
sumed by the pump for these various speeds, and the curve drawn in dotted
lines indicates the efforts of propulsion.
Hence it will clearly appear,
(a) For speeds varying within very wide limits, for instance from a unit to
the six-fold thereof, the power utilized is evidently the maximum work.
(b) The effort of propulsion (i.e., the resistance overcome in locomotion) is in-
versely proportionate to the speed; that at zero speed of the receiver motor the

page_text: power consumed is nil, and the oil engine runs light after having brought up
the pressure to a maximum which it is impossible for it to exceed; the pressure
curve "zy" coinciding with "zu" and the line ". yz" being nil, the output will
be nil.
Hence it follows that while running on the road the vehicle will, of its own
accord, adjust its rate of travelling in accordance with the resistance to be over-
come, slackening speed as soon as an increased resistance is offered and again
resuming its former rate.
If the driver wishes to stop the car he will close the reversing cock H. On
passing beyond the middle position the relation of the orifices is reversed; the
secondary motor will then act as a pump, and will compress the air in the re-
servoir thus creating a resistance which will serve to recover part of tho
momentum imparted to the vehicle. If starting, after the stoppage, with the
cock completely reversed, a retrograde movement will be obtained.
The motor pump is represented on Sheet 1 of the drawings, Figures 4, 5, 6
and 7, and is of the type "working at one stroke per revolution," i.e., single
acting, and the distribution is effected by a set of orifices or ports made in the
sides of the cylinder and in the piston, as will be explained.
The piston acts direct, by means of the connecting rod upon the beam of an
alternating circular double-acting pump, tarranged within a drum underneath the
motor cylinder. The left hand part of this drum which is divided into two com-
partments by a central partition, forms the "dead spaces" of the pump, and the
valve boxes. The beam works the fly-wheel by an arrangement similar to that
of " Cardan's well."
The governor, arranged within the fly-wheel, acts by shutting off the admission
of the carburated air compound, and admitting pure air only, as soon as the speed
rises.
This shutting off arrangement, which may be of any suitable kind, is not
shown in the drawing. The governor is "unstable," that is to say it has two
extreme positions only so that the shutting-off arrangement must be either closed
or open, so as to cause either a full supply of the carburated air compound, or
none at all, to 'be admitted into the cylinder, and to have no variation of the com-
pound. This governor is held in equilibrium by a spring, the tension of which
can be modified at will from outside and which permits of varying the speed,
as has been explained above.
.
A (see Fig. 5) is the motor cylinder in which the piston B works. Towards the
end of the stroke of the piston in the motor cylinder the space at the top of said
cylinder having been filled with the gases generated by the explosion of the charge,
at a certain pressure, and the exhaust orifice a, being exposed by the piston, the
gases will escape; shortly afterwards the orinces 63 and 63, in the face of the
piston are laid open and establish a communication between the space below A¹,
and that above the piston. This space as will be seen, is filled just now with
slightly compressed carburated air which escapes through the ports or holes b
and and then through the annular space or passage * formed in the piston,
through an orifice or port 65 and a pipe 66 and enters at the top of the cylinder,
there replacing the burnt gases. As the piston reascends. the orifice or port 6
previously opened will be reclosed in the first place, and subsequently a¹.
The carburated air is now compressed in A while a certain amount of vacuum
is produced in the space A¹. At the end of the downstroke ignition takes place
by means of an incandescent tube a communicating through a³ and the hole
with the annular space in the piston in which the mixture is richest. At the
same time the margin b' of the piston has cleared the orifice or port a² which com-
municates with the air carburator, and the compound enters into the space A¹
under the influence of the vacuum there produced.
When ignition has taken place the piston is impelled by the explosion; the
explosion gases expand; the compound is compressed in the space A¹ below the

page_text: piston, and at the end of the stroke the same processes of expulsion and readmission
take place as previously.
The piston is connected by means of a connecting rod 133 with a beam C which
is keyed on the same shaft with paddles or blades C (Fig. 7), which revolve in the
drum D. These paddles or blades have an alternating movement and work between
the stationary paddles or blades D¹, which are fixed to the sides of the drum, and
thus displace the air contained between them, constituting a double-acting pump.
This air passes off through the orifices on the one hand and d³ on the other
hand. These orifices discharge respectively, into one of the chambers E¹ and E,
each of which is fitted with a double-valved box e for the suction and for the
forcing action.
The fly-wheel of the motor is worked by the beam C by means of a cross-bar F
attached to a crank f which is fixed to the shaft of the fly-wheel It thus
receives a continuous rotary motion.
Although any air motor, whether with piston or rotary, would do, I have
selected a rotary motor owing to its small compass, the isimplicity of its working
parts and the possibility afforded of making this style of motor run at high
speeds; as I propose to work at very low pressure, the inconvenience presented
by these motors of having no very tight joints, becomes an altogether secondary
cne. Moreover the motor which I am about to describe has the property of
acting direct upon the driving wheel at a very low speed, although mounted
on the axle of this wheel itself.
This motor (Sheet 2 of the drawings, Figs. 8 to 15), consists of a spherical
box A provided with two hollow gudgeons a¹ and a which are supported by the
fork or part of the framework of the motor vehicle provided for the driving
wheel and at the same time serve as bearings for said driving wheel, the
spherical box being enclosed in another box or casing forming the hub of the
wheel. On the gudgeons the wheel C runs loose; the gudgeons serve also for
introducing compressed air and letting the air which has done its work escape.
For this purpose the gudgeons'a¹ and a are connected by pipes with the revers-
ing. cock. These pipes may be flexible if the wheel is movable round its vertical
axis as the drawing shows it to be. From these gudgeons connecting channels a³
a (Fig. 11) issue which communicate with the admission and escape ports.
In the interior of this box there revolve (carried by the gudgeons) two
diametrically placed paddles or fan blades, D and E. One paddle D carries
on its gudgeon a curved slide-D¹ and this slide may be geared into by rollers
or slide blocks D2 which are arranged in the interior of the outer spherical
box C¹ forming the hub of the wheel. In this way, by the rotary movement of
the wheel a varied periodical, although continuous motion is imparted to the
paddle C, the speed of the paddle being at its minimum when the roller or block
enters the slide and at a maximum when the latter is in the middle position.
The arrangement is similar in the case of the other paddle E, but in this case
the rollers or slide-blocks are overlapping. Hence results, during the rotation,
a respective approaching to or receding from each other of the two paddles
whereby a space is formed between them. If the orifices of admission are suit-
ably arranged on the periphery, admission will result during the whole period
during which the paddles recede from each other, the paddles themselves effect-
ing the closing of the orifices at the desired moment. Figures 11 to 15 show
a whole series of successive positions of the slides and rollers, as well as of the
corresponding paddles, and will completely explain the action of the apparatus.
Referring to Figure 11, at the commencement of the admission into the space
between D and E and commencement of the escape from between E and D;
one of said blades, D, has been moving very slowly and the other has made half
a revolution.
:
Figure 12,-Half way between the admission and the escape.
Figure 13, Half a turn afterwards when the admission is completed between

page_text: the blades or paddles D and E, and the escape is about to commence, the paddle D
which was moving slowly, simply in order to change orifices, is now about to
travel quickly in its turn, while the other paddle or blade E is about to move
very slowly. The other figures complete the cycle.
If six rollers or slide blocks are put on each side, (seeing that there will be,
for each passage of a roller or slide block, one approach to and one recession
from each other of the paddles, that is to say, twice the volume of the sphere as
the space covered by their travel), we shall have, for one revolution of the wheel,
twelve times the volume of the sphere. This motor will therefore, notwithstand-
ing the large quantity of air which will pass through it, be of small compass,
and carries within itself, thanks to the very nature of its mechanism, the means
of "gearing down," which are indispensable in any motor for vehicles which
works at a high speed. Moreover its arrangement is such as to constitute a
compact whole completely enclosed in the interior of the wheel, and it reduces
the number of working parts to a minimum.
As the system just described enables motors of all kinds to yield widely varied
outputs of power up to a limit which may be very high, it is more expedient
with this than with any other system to arrange the mechanism on an inde-
pendent vehicle, a kind of universal traction appliance which can be attached,
like a horse, to any vehicle whatever its shape and weight.
This traction appliance, shown on Sheet 3 (Figs. 16 and 17) by way of example
only, which will enable it to steer an ordinary fore-carriage with bolster pin, if
it is attached to a four-wheeled vehicle, with greater certainty than with any
other arrangement, and to be attached, very easily, to a two-wheeled vehicle of
whatever kind. This single wheel would suffice for running, but in order to
give this traction appliance, which may be very light in proportion to the load
hauled, the adhesion which is required for it, it should comprise a fore-carriage
on which, while in a state of rest, the greatest part of its weight would rest.
This fore-carriage would serve, during the run, as a counter-weight to a certain
portion of the weight of the vehicle hauled which the driving wheel would take
upon itself. The latter will therefore, if necessary, have to bear almost the
whole of the weight of the traction appliance (the fore-carriage of which will
scarcely rest at all on the ground) plus a fraction of the weight of the vehicle
hauled, which may amount to one-half and even more, if a two-wheeled car is
in question.
For this purpose the traction appliance is arranged in the following manner,
shown in Sheet 3.
<<
Figure 16 is an elevation of the traction appliance attached to a Victoria,"
Figure 17 being a horizontal section above the two wheels.
The traction appliance is supported on two wheels A and B arranged tandem,
B being the driving wheel.
Each of these two wheels is movable round a vertical axis passing through
their axle, and is also adjustable vertically as to height.
The rotation of these wheels on a vertical axis is necessary for the purpose of
steering.
The mechanism of the traction appliance, viz., the oil engine C¹, the air-
pump C3, the air reservoir C³, water reservoir E and oil reservoir E³ are grouped
together so as to make up a kind of box, to which are fitted :-
--
(1) The fork A³ of the front wheel and steering bar G. On the fork A³
there is mounted, with a spring, wheel A, by means of the two twin levers A'
keyed on the fixed axle A and springs A2.
(2) The large fixed ball bearing ring B³ supporting the movable ring B³
which carries the driving wheel.
This latter runs on hollow pivots a¹ and a³ fixed to the "receiving motor"
(see above the description of this motor). These pivots run loose in beams E³
which with the levers E and E form a straight-guiding movement for the
pivot a (analogous to Watts parallelogram). These levers E' and E are

page_text: mounted on the movable ring and the centre of the wheel is thus made to
describe a straight line perpendicular to the plane of this movable ring.
The appliance is attached by means, firstly, of two pairs of elastic tongs Fi
and Fattached to the fixed ring B and embracing the axle X of the vehicle
hauled, and secondly, by the bars 13 replacing the shafts of the vehicle. This
arrangement: ensures the equilibrium of the traction appliance and prevents it
from falling to the right or to the left, by supporting it on the axle.
While the wheel B is not in action as a driving wheel, it will fall to the
ground through its own gravity, owing to its movable arrangement in a vertical
plane, the weight of the traction arrangement resting partly on A and partly
on the axle X.
As soon as the engine is set to work the arrangement described hereafter
causes the wheel A to rest on the ground, and this in proportion to the effort
of traction, that is to say part of the weight of the traction arrangement and of
the weight, borne by the fore-carriage is thrown on this wheel.
On the pivot a³ of the receiving motor, arranged in the interior of the wheel,
there are keyed three pulleys of different diameters S1, S2, S3; on one of these
pulleys a chain is wound which is attached thereto with one end and with the
other to a spring lever $5.
On referring to the description of the motor it will be seen that the bearing
point of the rotary impetus imparted to the wheel is in the pivots a¹ and a³;
it will be seen that the pivot impelled to revolution in a direction opposed to
that of the wheel, will exert a pull on the chain tending to cause this wheel to
descend and the traction appliance to rise.
If therefore we call R the radius of the driving wheel, T the effort of traction,
tangentially to the driving wheel, p the radius of pulley S, and P the pull on
the chain, we shall have
It is expedient to have several pulleys so as to be able to vary this ratio
according to circumstances and the weight of the vehicle hauled, so as to stop
short of complete uplifting of the fore-carriage or the front wheel on starting.
This arrangement of graduated or step-pulleys may be replaced by a pulley
with variable spokes.
In the drawings divers detail arrangements will be seen which explain them-
selves and require no special description. These are:-
The gear by means of which the driver can vary the speed of the motor by
acting on the governor through G³, G³ G*, G³, Go; the arrangement of the com-
pressed air piping and the admission cock of the receiving motor C; the exhaust
of the oil-engine through the worm-pipe C³ situated in the interior of the air
reservoir C and intended to heat the compressed air, the transmission of the
steering movement from the bar G to the driving wheel by means of the lever H¹
and H, joined by rod H2, spindle H, lever H³, and the rod H attached to
the fore-carriage.
•
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:―
1. The use of compressed air as a mode of transmission under special con-
ditions explained above, giving an effort of traction which can be varied auto-
matically according to the resistance, the only system which permits, both with

page_text: regard to the power of traction and that of adhesion, the adoption of a universal
traction appliance applicable for all uses, and which moreover permits of trans-
mitting the motive power to all the wheels of a vehicle or even to all the vehicles
of a train by means of flexible tubes.
2. The apparatus for the realisation hereof and arrangements of detail, a the
motor pump, b the receiving motor, c the recovery of waste heat from the
exhaust by heating the compressed air in the reservoir by means of the exhaust
gases or the cooling water.
Dated this 28th day of May 1898
JOHN P. O'DONNELL,
Fel. Chart. Inst. P.A., Mem. Inst. Mech. E.