THE GENERATION AND APPLICATION OF MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Bourne, of No. 9, Billiter Street, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the Invention for "THE GENERATION AND
APPLICATION OF MOTIVE POWER."
Sealed the 25th September 1857, and dated the 4th April 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Bourne at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th April 1857.
I, JOHN BOURNE, of No. 9, Billiter Street, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "THE
GENERATION AND APPLICATION OF MOTIVE POWER," to be as follows:-
The power is to be generated by heating air by means of coal or other
ordinary fuel, but the heating is to be accomplished by drawing or projecting
the coal or other fuel in the state of dust along with the air into a fan, fans, or
other convenient instrument for condensing air, which instrument will propel
both air and fuel into a close chamber or furnace heated very hot, and in
which chamber the combination of the air and fuel will take place.
The motive power is to be obtained from the air or products of combustion
when thus expanded by heat, and this hot air may be used for propelling
vessels on the principle of a rocket by being forced out below the water astern;
or it may be used to move machines resembling a Barker's mill, a smoke jack,
or a turbine, which machines may either be immersed in a liquid or not, as
may be best for particular purposes.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Bourne in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
28th September 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS' SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BOURNE, of No. 9, Billiter Street, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Bourne, Her special licence that I, the said John Bourne, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Bourne, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "THE GENERATION AND
APPLICATION OF MOTIVE POWER," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said John Bourne, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Bourne, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
"
My Invention for "The Generation and Application of Motive Power
consists in forcing air and fuel into a heated vessel, and in using the
products of the combustion thus effected in the generation of power. The
vessel in which the combustion is carried on has a pressure within it greater
than the pressure of the atmosphere, and the fuel is projected into it under
any suitable arrangements for that purpose. The air may be forced into the
combustion chamber either by a pump, a fan, or any other suitable instrument
for the compression and propulsion of air, and the fuel must be fed or forced
into the combustion chamber either continuously or at short intervals by any
ordinary mechanical arrangement suited for that purpose. A liquid fuel like

page_text: tar may be employed, and may be forced in by means of a pump; but, the fuel
which I prefer to use is coal in the state of fine dust, and this dust may either
be sucked in by the suction orifice of a fan and be forced with the air by the
action of the fan into the combustion chamber, which is the arrangement I
prefer when a low pressure is employed, or the air may be forced in by means
of a pump, and the fuel in the shape of dust be fed in from a close vessel on
top of the combustion chamber, which is charged with coal dust from time to
time, and out of which a small stream of coal dust is made to descend into the
combustion chamber by the aid of an Archimedean screw or other usual
arrangement employed to feed small grains or. dust continuously from one
vessel to another. Under this arrangement it will be necessary to lead a pipe
from the forcing pump to the top of the vessel containing the coal dust, so as
to ensure as great a pressure of air above the dust as exists below it), other-
wise the dust would not flow out. Instead of a vessel standing above the
combustion chamber (which must be of sufficient strength to withstand the
pressure existing within that chamber), a wheel or circular valve revolving
continuously with pouches or recesses in it like the cavity in a hollow plug
cock may be employed. These cavities would be continuously filled with coal
dlust as the buckets of a waterwheel are filled with water, and they would be
emptied into the combustion chamber as the wheel revolved; there would
of course require to be sufficient breadth of metal around each cavity to enable
an air-tight face to be made between the edges of the cavities and the hollow
shell in which the wheel is set. The combustion chamber is a vessel made
of strong plate iron, in the same manner as a boiler; it is lined with fire
brick, in the manner of a cupola furnace, and its interior may be filled with a
loose mass of fire brick, among the interstices of which the air and coal dust
will circulate in passing to the escape orifice.
In putting this apparatus into operation, the first thing to be done is to
kindle a fire in the combustion chamber, and a door, which should be of a kind
casily removeable, like the door of a retort, or the man-hole door of a boiler, is
introduced in the most convenient situation to enable the fire to be lighted
casily. This fire will make the whole of the internal brickwork of the com-
bustion chamber red hot, so that upon coal dust being subsequently projected
into it, such dust will be inflamed, and the internal heat will thus be kept up,
at the same time that there is sufficient excess of heat to raise the escaping
products of combustion to a very high temperature. The escaping products of
combustion are employed in the same manner as steam to work an engine, but
inasmuch as their temperature is usually very high, it will not be convenient
under ordinary circumstances to employ a cylinder and piston for the realization

page_text: of the power, and I prefer to employ for this purpose an instrument resembling
a Barker's mill, or a smoke jack, or turbine, and such instrument may either
be immersed in a liquid or not, as circumstances may render most expedient,
but I prefer to have it so immersed. For propelling vessels in the water, I
introduce one or more propelling orifices in any suitable situation pointing
toward the stern of the vessel, and the vessel is propelled through the water
by the reaction of the escaping gases just as a rocket is propelled through the
air. To enable the issuing stream of gases to act upon a large quantity of
water, I in some cases communicate a motion to the escape nozzel or jet pipe.
This motion may either be circular, reciprocating, or any other which will
enable a large column of water to be acted upon in successive lateral portions
to the end, that the inertia of a large column of water may be rendered available
for purposes of reaction, whereby the amount of slip will be much reduced.
In some cases also with the same view, and also the better to realize the benefit
arising from the expansion of the escaping gases, I make the escaping nozzel
with a trumpet mouth, whereby the area of the escaping orifice is increased,
and the velocity of the escape is diminished. Such a form of orifice is equally
applicable, whether the escaping gases are used to propel a vessel in the water
by reaction beneath the water, or whether the orifice revolves like that of a
Barker's mill beneath the surface of a fluid or in the atmosphere.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and having pointed out
the manner in which the same may be applied, I beg to intimate that I do not
confine myself to the precise arrangements and forms of apparatus described
herein, for which may be substituted other arrangements of an alternative
character, and other forms of apparatus of an equivalent nature, and equally
common and well understood; and I do not claim as of my Invention the
general use of the products of the combustion of fuel for the generation of
power; but I claim as of my Invention the continuous or frequent injection
of fuel of a suitable character into a close vessel, in which its combustion is
accomplished by coming into contact with air also forced in, and with incan-
descent bodies maintained; at such a temperature as to enable combustion to
take place. And I also claim as of my Invention the utilisation of the products
of combustion at the highest possible temperature; for whereas under the
arrangements heretofore projected it was either impossible to obtain or to use
great extremes of temperature, the whole purpose of the arrangements pro-
jected by me and herein described for realizing the power is to enable a
temperature very little less than that which combustion produces to be
employed. I also claim as of my Invention the use of a reaction instrument
on the principle of a Barker's mill, moved by an elastic fluid escaping under

page_text: water or some other liquid. I also claim the utilisation of the inertia of a
large column of water or other liquid into which the elastic fluid escapes
even with a small orifice of discharge by giving such a lateral or other move-
ment to the discharge orifice as will cause the escaping fluid to act every
moment in a different circle-or line, whereby the collective area of the column
acted upon will virtually be much increased. I also claim the use of trumpet
mouth-pieces of discharge either in connection with the aforesaid lateral
motion or otherwise..
In witness whereof, I, the said John Bourne, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Fifteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
JOHN BOURNE. (L.S.)