AN IMPROVED APPARATUS OF MACHINERY FOR PURPOSE OF DIMINISHING FRICTION AND COMMUNICATING A DIRECT ROTATORY MOTION PROM ONE WHEEL TO ANOTHER, BY MEANS OF CRANKS, WHICH I CALL ALTERNATE RELIEVING CRANKS, APPLICABLE TO WIND OR WATER DRAINAGE MILLS, OR THOSE FOR RAISING WATER FOR IRRIGATION, AND VARIOUS OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1801

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
SELLER, of Piccadilly, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighteenth day of
June, in the forty-first year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
William Seller, His especial license, that I, the said William Seller, during
the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might use, exer-
cise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS OF MACHINERY FOR
PURPOSE OF DIMINISHING FRICTION AND COMMUNICATING A DIRECT ROTATORY MOTION
PROM ONE WHEEL TO ANOTHER, BY MEANS OF CRANKS, WHICH I CALL ALTERNATE
RELIEVING CRANKS, APPLICABLE TO WIND OR WATER DRAINAGE MILLS, OR THOSE
FOR RAISING WATER FOR IRRIGATION, AND VARIOUS OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES;" in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said"
William Seller, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause
a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, 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 same, relation being thereunto had, may more
fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Seller, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described by the
above Drawings and description thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Seller, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Eighteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and one.
Plate 1st represents a drainage windmill, the wind shaft and vanes of which
are placed on the head of the conical frame of timber A, B, C, D, E, which.
turns round to the wind on the pivot.E, and is stayed from the head A, B, to
the base C, D, by an external and fixed frame of timber F, F, F, F. On the
base of the turning frame rest two parallel beams G, G, on which the axle H
of the water or scoop wheel I, I, plays, and this scoop wheel, instead of being
worked in the usual way by two setts of cog wheels and trundles, is put in
motion thus: On the centre of wind shaft is placed the spur wheel K, whose
teeth work a larger wheel L, L; the axle M of this last-mentioned wheel, which
I call the crank shaft, plays on two cross beams on the upper part of the turn-
ing frame, and is furnished with two cranks N, N, placed at equal distances
from the centre, and standing at right angles to each other. A crank rod O
is fitted to each of those cranks, the other or lower ends of which crank rods
work two corresponding cranks P, P, placed also at corresponding right angles
to each other on each end of the axle of the scoop wheel. As the crank shaft
turns round, the cranks and rods communicate the same motion to the scoop
wheel, and which raises the water from the circular bason R, R, through the
spout or trough Q, Q, and discharges it into a circular ditch without-the basin,
which communicates at a convenient point with the general outfall. If there
is a great depth of water at the beginning of a drainage, the beams G, G, on
which the scoop wheel plays, may be so contrived as to be lowered or raised
together with the wheel and trough, and the crank rods to be lengthened or
shortened in proportion, so as to give the scoop wheel more or less immersion
at pleasure. It is evident that in each revolution of the crank shaft the two
setts of cranks, from their position at right angles, must act alternately, and
mutually relieve each other on the two sides of the circles they describe, in such
manner that the one or the other always acts almost directly, and is in full
power, because the crank rod is nearly perpendicular to the crank, and having
a rotatory motion in the first instance, very little power is lost either by oblique

page_text: action, as with a common single crank, or by friction, as with working gear.
The same kind of water mill may be used with equal advantage for raising
water for the purpose of irrigation as for that of drainage.
Plate 2 represents a water wheel A, A, working on a steam, or a tide wheel
working in a tideway, whose axle is furnished with alternate relieving cranks,
which, on the principle above described, set in motion a scoop wheel B, B, of a
much less breadth of float than the working wheel for raising water from a
lower level than the mill tail for the purpose of drainage.
Plate 3d represents a water wheel A, A, furnished with the same apparatus
for raising water by a scoop wheel B, B, placed higher than the working water
wheel, and of a smaller breadth of float, for raising water from the level of the
mill head for the purpose of irrigation.
Plate 4th represents several horizontal or perpendicular shafts, such as the
several main shafts in the different stories, or the several drum shafts on the
same floor of a spinning mill, or. other machine requiring a number of shafts
which have the same degree of velocity. The first of these shafts A, having
the proper motion communicated to it by working gear from a water wheel or
steam engine, transmits the same uniform motion to as many other shafts
B, B. B, B, as may be attached to it by the alternate relieving cranks and
crank rods C, C, C, C, and the wheels or drums D, D, D, D, may be taken
off or put on work at pleasure, by the usual contrivance for taking off and
putting on gear. This mode of setting in motion a number of shafts may in
certain cases be more éligible than the usual mode by working gear.
Plate 5th represents the beam of a steam engine communicating a rotatory
motion to 'an axle by means of alternate relieving cranks suited to that
machine. A, A, represents. the horizontal beam working on its fulcrum in
the usual manner. B, the crank rod working the crank C, placed in the com-
mon way on the axle D. E, a perpendicular arm fixed on the lower side of
the beam, under its axis, of the same length as the arm A, but having its
lower end turned two or three feet sideways, so as to be out of the line of the
common crank rod and crank B, C, but in a line with the relieving crank F,
which is placed on the axle D at two or three feet distance from the other
crank C, and stands at an angle of thirty-five to forty degrees to it. The per-
pendicular arm E communicates with the relieving crank F by means of the
sliding crank rod G, in such manner that as soon as the horizontal arm of the
beam A rises considerably above the horizontal line, and consequently the
direct action of the common crank rod B begins to diminish as it rises above
the point H, the near end of the slider I begins to push on the relieving
crank F almost directly, and continues to do so, with accumulating power,

page_text: till it quits the crank at the point K, when the horizontal arm begins to sink,
and the perpendicular one to retire, and the impulse given by this direct action
of the sliding crank carries round the crank shaft and the common crank to the
point L, where the common crank rod begins to act forcibly on the crank C,
and continues to do so till it passes the point M, after which its action begins
to diminish from its obliquity, but it is relieved immediately by the sliding
crank rod, for the relieving crank F having, by running along the open part of
the slider, passed the extreme point of the circle without interruption, has now
got to the point P, where the further end of the slider N begins to pull it
almost directly, and continues so to do with accumulating force till it comes to
the point Q, when the horizontal arm of the beam beginning to rise and the
perpendicular one to return, the relieving crank quits this end of the slider and
runs along the open part round the point H, but the impulse given by this
direct action of the pulling end of the slider is sufficient to carry round the
shaft till the common crank rod begins to act with full power at the point B,
and so in rotation. The principle of the improvement proposed in all these
and similar machines by means of alternate relieving cranks is obvious. It is
demonstrable that a common crauk rod has no effect when in the same line.
with the crank, either on the nearer or further extreme point of the circle
which the crank describes, and that it has but little power to the extent of
forty-five degrees on each side of both those points; the effective power of a
common crank is therefore limited to the two quadrants on the two sides of the
circle where the crank is nearly perpendicular to the rod, and the shaft worked
by it is carried round thro' the other two quadrants merely by the momentum
previously acquired, which is usually aided by a fly wheel; but in Plates 1, 2, 3,
and 4, one or other of the relieving cranks is in full operation, or very nearly
so, on the four quadrants, and in every point of the circle, so that scarcely any
power is lost by oblique action, and but very little by friction; consequently
these cranks may be substituted to advantage for working gear, as being less
expensive, and it is believed more powerful. In the application of the relieving
crank and sliding crank rod to a perpendicular power, as in Plate 5th, it does
not indeed operate through the whole of the upper and lower quadrants of the
circle during the inactivity of the common crank, but it acts, and acts almost di-
rectly, thro' the first halves of each of those two quadrants, and by continuing in
full power till the moment the sliding crank rod quits the relieving crank on the
turning of the beam, it gives an impulse to the shaft sufficient to carry it thro' the
remaining forty-five degrees to the point where the common crank commences
its full action, and thus keeps the machine in uniform and unabated motion, and
greatly assists the common crank, which by itself acts only thro' half the circle.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Eighteenth day of July,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid William Seller 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.