IMPROVEMENTS UPON PATENTS ALREADY OBTAINED BY ME FOR COMBI- NATIONS OF APPARATUS FOR GAINING POWER
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
COPLAND, of Courland, Wandsworth Road, in the County of Surrey, Esquire,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fifth day of November, in the seventh year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Robert Copland, His especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Robert Copland, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Robert Copland, my exors, adiñiors, 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 England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, and also in all His said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS UPON PATENTS ALREADY OBTAINED BY ME FOR COMBI-
NATIONS OF APPARATUS FOR GAINING POWER;" in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso that I, the said Robert Copland, shall 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 said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar mouths next and immediately after the date of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being there-
unto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Copland, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the

page_text: Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, as
well as to my former Specification, that is to say:-
My Invention consists of applying certain improvements, additions, and
alterations to that description of engine which is described in the Specification
enrolled to a Patent granted to me on the Sixteenth day of January, in the
fourth year of the reign of His Majesty George the Fourth; and as the
nature and mode of action of the engine is set forth and described in that
Specification, it will not be necessary to enter into an explanation of the
principles thereof in my present Specification, but shall for the most part
confine my description to the parts which constitute the improvements secured
by my present Patent, which consist of the following additions and alterations,
that is to say 0, 0, 0, 0, are cases added outside C1, C2, C3, and C, of the
former engine, and of this of the same contents as C less S for the purpose of
receiving and returning the water or other fluid rising and falling in C,
enlarged opposite the expanding and collapsing parts of C, as shewn in the
Drawings, or in such other part or parts or form as may be found useful,
and being open at top; or the water in top of O may be separated from
top C, so as not to touch the moveable part of top of C. O communicates
by a continuation of the vessel at bottom (or pipe, not shewn in the Drawing)
for receiving and returning the fluid with the bottom of C. In like manner
bottom communicates with bottom C³, bottom Os to bottom C', and
bottom 0 to bottom C², having the same rise and fall of water or fluid
in C and O, or rising and falling more or less in one than the other, and the
pipes of communication continued sufficiently large to secure the free passage of
the fluid without reducing its column, and the opening to O also giving ample
space. C¹, C, C³, C, are made to collapse and expand in certain parts of tops
and bottoms, so as to alter the relative capacities of these parts, and the pro-
portions or parts collapsing and expanding may be varied, and may collapse
and expand together, or at bottom before top, or at top or bottom only, or in
any part of C, or vessel connected with C, that may be adapted or required to
any modification of the engine.
But I do not claim anything new in the action of collapsing and expanding parts,
but in the application of it in any way to any modifications of my engine in the
various ways of which it is susceptible. The spaces collapsed and expanded, as
intended to be shewn by the Drawing, are equal in contents of cubic inches to S,
and the rise and the fall of the parts nearly one fourth of the length of C, or of
the rise and fall of the fluid in it, say as thirty to one hundred and twenty-two.
The water in C¹ and C* rises and falls with the stroke of beam 2, and the
water in C and C, with beam 1, and the moveable or collapsing parts of C in
like manner moving with the same beam as the water inside either together

page_text: or separately and assisted by that beam when in motion, either by a cross
beam or lever working at a right angle to the beam in motion, and connected.
with the moveable parts of C, as required, together or alternately, or by any
of the other methods known to mechanics for communicating motion, for
which I here propose giving the source or means; top of C' communicates by
an air pipe with the bottom of A³ (A' to A* being marked D¹ to D' in the
former Specification and Drawings), and having a valve or cock marked
V8, C to A, C to A³, and C to A', having valves or cocks to open and close
these pipes, V, V, and V¹. The collapsing and expanding parts of C to be made
of any suitable material that will confine the air and water during the stroke,
and give the power of collapsing and expanding the vessels by any method
selected or preferred, using for the purpose the patent water and air proof
cloth generally known as Mackintosh's leather, or other flexible material that
can be rendered air-tight, or sliding plates or tubes of metal, like the telescope
joints, and the pieces connected or not by the cloth or otherwise. The engine
is represented in the Drawing with beam 1 having finished its stroke, and
beam 2 prepared for making its stroke; the state of the water or fluid in each
being shewn by the dotted lines, and supposing the valves are all closed at
commencement. Beam 2 is set in motion by opening valves V and V*,
allowing a free communication of the air between A³ to C', and A* to C³, and
when set in motion one beam being made to close its own valves and open
those of the other beam at the end of each stroke by any of the common
methods not necessary to describe.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Copland, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven.