IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR UTILIZING THE RISE AND FALL OF TIDAL WATERS FOR THE OBTAINMENT OF MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Illius Augustus Timmis at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 30th June 1882.
ILLIUS AUGUSTUS TIMMIS of No. 17 Great George Street Westminster S.W.
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR UTILIZING THE RISE AND FALL OF TIDAL WATERS FOR THE OBTAINMENT OF
MOTIVE POWER."
With
The objects of this Invention are to utilize the rise and fall of Tidal waters, by
treating such risings and fallings as primary agents and so dealing with them as to
create motive power which is either used as made or stored for after use.
these objects in view I take a pontoon or Landing stage or vessel of any suitable
shape and size-hereinafter called a Pontoon and put it in any suitable position
on a Tidal water, by preference as near the shore as will allow the Pontoon to float
properly at low water; and at any suitable positions round, or by the sides or ends
of it, or otherwise, I put posts or other guides which keep the pontoon in the same
vertical position, as the tide rises and falls. Above the Pontoon I put a pillar or
pedestal, and as the Tide rises and forces them upwards I cause them to force a piston
or ram or rod-hereinafter called a ram-into a cylinder or vessel of any convenient
size and shape hereinafter called a cylinder. The ram compresses the air in the
cylinder and the air so compressed can be used as made or stored for after
use. The cylinder may be placed, fixed, at any suitable height above the Pontoon
and the Ram may compress air at the rise of the Tide, and also at the fall by the
weight of the Pontoon acting on the same. It is evident that the upward thrust of
the Pontoon and its power will not be the same as the power developed by the
downward fall of the Pontoon, but will be a greater quantity. Instead of placing
the cylinder above the Pontoon it may be placed at any suitable distance from it
and the ram made to work into it from either or both ends, by means of a Beam or
levers. If a Beam is used and it is hinged on gudgeons at its centre it is evident
that if one end is forced upwards or downwards by a Pontoon and the other end
actuates a Ram-the Pontoon and the Ram will travel through equal distances
but if it is hinged on gudgeons at one third of its length from the Pontoon the
Ram will travel through double the distance of the Pontoon's rise or fall,

page_text: Or the Pontoon may pull a chain or rope in its rise and another in its fall-which
chains or ropes pull directly or by means of levers on a Ram or Rams. The chains
or ropes, of course, pass over pulleys which are fixed below and above the Pontoon.
Geared wheels may be used to regulate the comparative speed of the Ram and the
Pontoon
When convenient I prefer to compress air in an initial degree by the downward
fall of the Pontoon and complete the compression by the rise of the Pontoon
It is necessary to make the cylinders of great strength and I prefer to make them
so that they fit the Rams through the whole length of the stroke so that the greater
the compression of the air the greater is the resistance to the escape of the air.
The Rams can have an arrangement fitted to secure them in any given position if
necessary. One or more Rams may enter the same cylinder-I find it frequently
advisable to have a storage Reservoir to receive the compressed air from the
cylinders and it may be any convenient distance from them. Of course there may
be one or more storage Reservoirs and there may be any number of Pontoons
Cylinders Rams &c. and it is evident that there are an almost endless number of
ways, in which the Pontoons Rams Cylinders &c and their gearing may be
arranged without interfering with the object of my Invention which is to cause the
risings and fallings of Tidal waters by means of Pontoons or other vessels, acting on
Rams or Pistons to compress air in cylinders or other shaped vessels.