CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MACHINERY FOR RAISING WATER, WHICH WE DENOMINATE A HYDRAGOGUE
Year: 1821

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, The
Reverend JOHN MAYOR, of Shrewsbury, in the County of Salop, Clerk, and
ROBERT COOK, of Shrewsbury, in the said County, Accountant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth; did, by
His Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of that part of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, called England, bearing date at Westminster, the
Ninth day of May, in the second year of His reign, give and grant unto us,
the said John Mayor and Robert Cook, our exors, adññors, and assigns, His
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said
John Mayor and Robert Cook, our exors, admors, and assigns, during the '
term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully inight make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MACHINERY FOR RAISING
WATER, WHICH WE DENOMINATE A HYDRAGOGUE;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso, that if we, the said John Mayor and Robert
Cook, or one of us, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
our said Invention; and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal
of one of us, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties
and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly ceasc, determine, and

page_text: become void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, will more
fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
John Mayor and Robert Cook, do hereby declare that the nature of our said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particu-
larly described and ascertained in the following description thereof (that is
to say):-
The principle of the hydragogue is the causing the column of water raised
to act by its weight on the opposite ends of a balance of any description, to
maintain a nearly constant or alternate equilibrium, that the power, necessary
to raise water or other fluid may be small. Of the variety of engines that
might be constructed, and to which our principle is applicable, we shall
describe the improvements in the machinery of two only, which will give a
sufficient explanation of our Invention. Let us suppose the common fire-
engine to be so far inverted that its moveable parts, the pistons, should be
fixed, and the fixed parts, that is, the barrels, suction, and conduct pipes to be
moveable, and you will have a general idea of this engine to be described.
To each end of any contrivance, by way of balance, such, for instance, as the
beam of a steam engine, is suspended one or more pump barrels, and portions
or the whole of the suction and conduct pipes, connected together, and fur-
nished with the usual valves. The remaining necessary lengths of the said
suction and conduct pipes, if parts only of them are moveable, are fixed in
their places, in or over which the said moveable portions respectively slide
water-tight. The pistons of the said barrels are also fixed. Now, when the
lever beam is put in motion, it is evident from the nature of hydraulic
machines that the water will rise proportionably to the stroke, alternately yet
equally in the pipes at each end of the lever beam, and thereby maintain its
balance, however large the pump barrels may be, or the height of the level to
which the fluid is raised in the conduct pipes, the pressure of the column of
water and of the atmosphere on one end of the beam being equal to that on
the opposite end, so that no more power is required to keep the engine in
motion than is sufficient to raise the weight of the length of one stroke of the
pump, and overcome the friction of the machine and water. The equilibrium
may be maintained by a weight on one.end of the beam, and the pumps may
be constructed with single barrels, pistons, and pipes, or with a greater
number. The conduct pipe or pipes may either be carried such a length as
merely to discharge water at any convenient height, or they may be moreover
continued as higli as is necessary to fall upon a wheel or wheels of any dimen-
sions to put machinery in motion. The same effect may be produced, at any

page_text: intermediate height of the conduct pipe or pipes, by employing a portion of the
water contained therein for the same purpose.
Let an engine similar to the former be imagined, having its pistons alter-
nately raised and depressed, and the conduct pipe carried to any required alti-
tude. Let a pipe branching from the conduct pipe, and of sufficient area at
its base to resist the pressure against the valve at the bottom of the barrel
slide in or upon a continuation of the same pipe attached to the head of each
piston rod or plunger; these being alike on both sides, the pressure upon
each will be equal, and the two pumps will counterbalance each other. If
attached to the ends of a balance, as in the former instance, each piston as it
descends will force the water up the conduct pipe with no more additional
power than to give each side an alternate preponderance with sufficient velocity.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Mayor and Robert Cook, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Sixth day of November, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-one.