IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF MOTIVE POWER FROM ELASTIC FLUIDS
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Archibald Slate, of Woodside Iron Works,
near Dudley, in the County of Worcester, Civil Engineer, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF MOTIVE
POWER FROM ELASTIC FLUIDS."
Sealed the 20th April 1858, and dated the 16th December 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Archibald Slate
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 16th December 1852.
I, ARCHIBALD SLATE, of Woodside Iron Works, near Dudley, in
the County of Worcester, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of my said "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF MOTIVE POWER.
FROM ELASTIC FLUIDS" to be as follows:-
I cause the elastic fluid, whether steam or gas, to enter a hollow
spindle, on which revolves another hollow spindle carrying hollow
arms, of the kind employed in engines commonly called reaction
engines. I cut in the internal spindle one or more holes,
through which the elastic fluid may issue into cach hollow
arm as it passes in rotating. By means of the clastic fluid thus

page_text: passing at intervals into the hollow arms, I am enabled to obtain
the advantages resulting from the expansion and working of elastic
fluids.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, filed by the said Archibald Slate in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 16th June 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
ARCHIBALD SLATE, of Woodside Iron Works, near Dudley, in the
County of Worcester, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria,
by Her Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster the Sixteenth day
of December, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Archibald Slate, my executors,
-administrators, and assigns, Her especial license, full power, sole
privilege, and authority, that I, the said Archibald Slate, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such other's as I, the said
Archibald Slate, my executors, administrators, 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 the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and
Isle of Man, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF
MOTIVE POWER FROM ELASTIC FLUIDS," in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso that I, the said Archibald Slate, shall cause
a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, to be enrolled in 'Her said
Majesty's high Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said in part recited.Letters
Patent, and in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that, in compliance with the said proviso,
I, the said Archibald Slate, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed and to the Figures and letters marked thereon (that is to
say):
I cause the elastic fluid, whether steam or gas, to enter a hollow
spindle, on which revolves another hollow spindle carrying hollow
arms, of the kind employed in engines commonly called reaction
engines. I cut in the internal spindle one or more holes, through
which the elastic fluid may issue into each hollow arm as it passes
in rotating. By means of the elastic fluid thus passing at intervals
into the hollow arms, I am enabled to obtain the advantages result-
ing from the expansive working of elastic fluids.
Having described the general nature of my Invention, I proceed
to describe the mode in which it may be accomplished. Figures 1,
and 2, shew, in section and elevation, an arrangement of an engine
by which these results can be obtained. The steam or other elastic
fluid is admitted by the centre pipe, a, a, having one or two holes
cut in its centre, through which the steam, or other elastic fluid, can
pass; around this pipe are two other pipes, made tight by two
stuffing boxes b, b.
These two pipes, joining in the centre, are capable of being turned
so that the orifices in either of them may correspond with orifices
in two other pipes, e, e, which encircle or cover them. These two
pipes e, e, are secured to the two frames f, f, by double nutts g, g.
Upon these two pipes the centre, with hollow arms h, h, revolves.
On the steam or other elastic fluid entering the centre pipe a, and
the openings of one of the pipes e, and being opposite an opening
of the pipe e, the steam or other elastic fluid passes from one of
the orifices in the centre pipe, through the orifices in the two pipes
c, and
and escapes into the hollow arms as they pass the openings,
imparting an impulse to each arm as it passes. To reverse the
engine, the openings through the one pipe c, are closed by the pipe
e₁

page_text: being turned round, which stops the engine; and the openings
through the other pipe being opened, the steam or other elastic
fluid enters the hollow arms, having a discharge in an opposite
direction, which causes the engine to revolve the other way.
And I claim, as my Invention of improvements in the production
of motive power from clastic fluids,.; the intermittent action and
expansive working of steam or other clastic fluid, in a reaction
machine, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Archibald Slate, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of June, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
ARCHIBALD (L.S.)
Taken and acknowledged by the said
Archibald Slate, at No. 30, Waterloo
Street, Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, the Eleventh day of June,
one thousand eight hundred and fifty-
.