CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON HORIZONTAL WINDMILLS
Year: 1809

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
SAMUEL LONG, of the Town of Leicester, in the County of Leicester,
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 Fourth day of
September, in the forty-ninth year of His reign, give and grant unto me,
the said Samuel Long, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence,
full power, solo privilege and authority, that I, the said Samuel Long, my
exors, adñiors, and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS ON HORIZONTAL WINDMILLS;" in which said Letters Patent there
is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Samuel Long, 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 per-
formed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two
calendar months 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Samuel Long, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly and
ascertained as follows, that is to say :-

page_text: My improvements do consist in disposing the sails of an horizontal wind-
mill, and supporting or suspending the same in such a manner that each
individual sail shall be capable of revolving not only round the principal shaft
or vertical axis, but, likewise, shall be capable of performing rotations upon
another vertical axis, or pivots, or gudgeons, or other equivalent contri-
vances peculiar to itself, and thereby of assuming any position of obliquity
to the direction of the wind during the time of and in combination with that
other change of obliquity which the revolution round the principal shaft or
vertical axis would produce; and also in connecting the said axis, pivots, or
gudgeons of each of the said individual sails with a motionless centre wheel
(or part of the nature of what mechanics call a dead pulley), by the reaction
of which motionless wheel or part during the revolution of the whole set or
system of sails which constitute the first mover of the mill, the said sails are
made to dispose themselves in positions adapted in succession to receive a
much greater impulse from the wind on the one side of the principal shaft or
vertical axis than on the other side thereof, and the means of disposing, support-
ing, or suspending the sails, and connecting the same as aforesaid with the
motionless centre or part, are set forth in the Drawings hereunto annexed.
In Fig. 1, the letter E may be taken to represent the centre of the prin-
cipal shaft or vertical axis of an horizontal windmill, observed by an eye placed
perpendicularly over it. The lines a, a, b, b, c, c, & d, d, represent four flat
sails or vanes standing upright, and supported by arms from the central axis E,
between which arms the sails are so suspended that each can revolve on its
own peculiar upright axis or line of motion, terminating in the points A, B, C,
and D. It may easily be apprehended that, if the revolution round E alone
were to take place, each of the sails would be made to direct its edge to every
point of the horizon in the course of one revolution. But again, if besides the
revolution round E each single sail were to make half a rotation backwards
round its own peculiar axis during the revolution aforesaid, each of the said
sails would, on its arrival at A, B, C, & D, assume or acquire the positions
delineated in the Figure; and if the wind were supposed to blow in the
direction d, d, the sail at D would not be perceptibly affected, and the sail at
A would be urged by the oblique impulse towards B, and the sail at B would
be urged by the direct impulse towards C, and the sail at C would be
urged by the oblique impulse towards D, and by these changes the impulse
would be exerted throughout the circle of revolution to force the main shaft
round in the direction A, B, C, D.
Fig. 2 shews the several positions which one sail would assume in the
various points thereof, and the manner of which a number of sails duly

page_text: disposed at first would be with regard to each other. The arrow denotes the
course of the wind parallel to the sail No. 1.
Fig. 3 shews a vertical section, and Fig. 4, by a ground plan or ortho-
graphic view, the manner of constructing a mill with my said improvements,
which is capable of being varied in dimensions, and in other respects not
essential to the nature of my said improvements, which millwrights will
adapt to the circumstances in which they may be placed. The same letters
in both Figures denote the same things. B, E, B, E, and C, D, C, D, are
clasped arms halved into each other, and securely strapped and bolted.
The arms B, B, C, C, and D, D, are broken off, but must be under-
stood to be fitted up and compleated in the same manner as E, E, all
the four sails with their fitting up being the same, and for that reason
it was not necessary to dineate more than one set of arms. The said clasp
arms embrace the main shaft A, A, a part of which is made square to receive
them, and upon which they are firmly wedged. Below this square part the
main shaft is turned cylindrical, and works in a collar projecting from a stout
cast-iron plate F, F, which is made of such size and form as may allow it to
be well fixed to the building which contains the machinery. The shaft A, A,
is continued downwards as far as may be found necessary, and rests and turns
at bottom upon a proper gudgeon, by which and the collar of the plate F, F,
it is effectually supported while moving. G, G, is a wheel in form of a ring,
resting upon the plate F, F, surrounding the collar in which the shaft moves;
it is placed horizontally, and is concentric with the collar and shaft. Its
upper surface is formed into bevel teeth, and another set of teeth project from
its lower edge, by means of which, and the nut H which takes into them,
the wheel G, G, can be turned round occasionally in order to alter its position.
For this purpose the spindle T of the nut is carried to some convenient
place, and is furnished with some proper apparatus to fit it for being turned
by hand when required. K, L, Fig. 2, is a long iron spindle turning upon
pivots a, a; one of these enters a bush fixed in the arm C, D, and the other
enters another bush screwed to M, a stout piece of timber framed into the
arms E, E.. Two bevel nuts are fixed near the end of this spindle; the one
marked K may have sixteenth teeth; there these take into the bevel teeth
(forty in number) formed on the upper part of the wheel G, G, Fig. 1 and 2,
and as this wheel is supposed to be stationary the spindle K, L, with its nuts
will be driven round two times and a half while the clasp arms and main
shaft are carried round once. In Fig. 1 the place of these nuts and spindle is
represented by dotted lines. The nut L has eight teeth, or half the number
of the nut K, and drives the bevel wheel N, N, (of forty teeth or the same

page_text: number as G, G,) fixed upon the square wooden shaft O, O, Fig. 1 and 2;
this wheel is placed over the nut L, and makes half a revolution on the
piece M, while the main shaft and arms are carried round once. The square
shaft O, O, has mortices b, b, Fig. 1, at convenient distances, in which bars c, c,
Fig. 2, are fixed; light boards are nailed upon these bars, and form the surface
of the sail or vane. P, P, Fig. 1, is one of two cross arms halved together
in the center Q: they are secured by bolts to the top d of the main shaft, which
is formed into a cross with brackets to support them. The extremity of the
arm P has a bush in which the upper gudgeon of the vane shaft O, O, works,
and the arm itself is steadied by an iron rod R, R, connecting it with a piece
of timber S, which is bolted to the clasp arms E, E; similar spindles and nuts
to those just described accompany the arms B, B, C, C, and D,, D, and
regulate in the same manner the other three sails placed at their ends.
Fig. 2 shews the position each sail when adapted in the most effectual
If
manner, the wind being supposed to blow in the direction of the arrow.
the wind should shift to a different point of the compass, the sails may be
adapted to it by turning the nut H, Fig. 1 and 2, and the wind continuing
to blow from the same quarter, its power to turn the sail may likewise be
lessened as much as we please by turning the same nut; and when the wheel
G, G, has by this means been carried a quarter round, the sails will balance
or have lost all power. If we turn the nut H onwards in the same direction,
the sails will again begin to move, but in the contrary direction, and tho
power to move them thus backwards will increase till the wheel G, G, has
been turned half round, when it will be greatest, and equal to what it was before
to turn them forwards. By these means the power may at all times, and while
the mill is going, be varied from its greatest quantity to nothing, or the sail
may be made to move with equal power in either direction, and may be
adapted to the wind from whatever quarter it may blow, and that merely by
turning the nut H. The sails may be varied in number, and may be made
of various forms and of different materials, as may best suit the intention of the
artist. The main shaft in the mill just described, as well as the regulating
wheels, spindles, and nuts, is supposed to be of cast iron. The machinery
itself employed to govern the sails may, likewise, be differently constructed
and arranged, and the number and proportion of the teeth in the wheels and
pinions may be varied at pleasure, provided the result be such as that each
sail or vane shall make half a rotation on its axis with regard to its supporting
arm, and in the opposite direction to that of the main shaft, while that shaft
makes one revolution. And I do further declare that the said teeth may be
thrown into each other by contrate as well as bevel action either in the larger

page_text: or smaller wheels, and in case it should be deemed requisite that the rotation
of the sail should not be uniform, while that of the principal shaft is uniform,
in order and for the purpose that while one sail, as in No. 7, Fig. 2, and
the others in its vicinity under a certain velocity of working shall derive
the greatest possible effect from the direct action of the wind, the sails placed
as in No. 4 and 10, and others in their vicinity, may be disposed at such other
obliquities as shall or may be best calculated to produce the greatest possiblo
effect under the same velocity of working. And, farther, that the said effect,
as to the rotation, may be produced by making the wheel G, G, of an oblong
form, resembling an ellipsis, with direct teeth, to drive a contrate wheel K, so
mounted upon K, L, as to allow of the requisite approach with regard
to the centre A, and by making the pinion L of considerable length to work
in contrate teeth from N, N. The same effect may be also produced by
other arrangements of the like nature, which will be sufficiently manifest
to millwrights without farther instruction, and among these means they will
perceive that the buckle chain or metallic strap may be used. But the
methods I have herein-before described are such as appear to me the simplest,
cheapest, and best for performing my said Invention, of which the distin-
guishing character is, that the sails are made to adapt themselves to the action
of the wind by a rotation in each, derived from the reaction of a stationary
center wheel or part.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Long, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-sixth day of October, in the year of our