CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER, AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edmund Perré at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd July
1865.
I, EDMUND PERRÉ, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE METHOD OF OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER, AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED
THEREWITH," to be as follows:-
The Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of
machinery or apparatus for obtaining motive power by the pressure of a body
or column of water acting upon compressed air, and consists in the employ-
ment and use of a fixed cylinder divided into two parts, the central division
being made by a valve of any suitable construction, the upper or top portion
of this cylinder is filled with water, and the under or lower portion is fitted
with another cylinder sliding telescopically within it, resting on the bottom of
and within this internal telescopic cylinder is an air chamber which is caused
to expand and collapse as herein-after described; also through the bottom of
this internal cylinder a flexible tube is conveyed from the said air chamber to
another air chamber placed outside, the top cover of which is moveable and
expands as the air chamber contained within the internal cylinder collapses,
the moveable cover of this second air chamber is connected by a connecting
rod to a crank keyed on a driving shaft, on the opposite side of this shaft a
similar arrangement of apparatus is placed, so that when the two are set in
motion in the manner herein-after described they alternately will give a con-
stant rotatory motion to the said crank, the sliding telescopic cylinders on each

page_text: side the driving shaft being connected by a beam or balance lever. When
the machine is ready for work the middle valve of one of the fixed cylinders
retaining the water is opened, which has the effect of lowering the telescopic
internal cylinder and at the same time compressing the air chamber contained
in such cylinder, the air of which as it is expelled enters and expands a second
or outside air chamber with a force equal to the pressure of water exerted on
the internal air chamber, such force being transferred to a crank on a crank
shaft through a rod connected therewith, it will readily be understood that the
column of water being equal in each cylinder that they are alternately caused
to lower and rise with each revolution of the shaft by their being connected
as before described, that is to say, one of the telescopic cylinders by the
pressure of water is caused to lower or descend during the collapsing of its
internal air chamber, the opposite or second internal cylinder is raised, which
forces the water through the valve of the second cylinder until it is wholly
contained in the top second cylinder, at which time the valve is closed; at
the same time also a valve is opened in the outside flexible tube which imme-
diately refils the air chamber of the second internal telescopic cylinder, thereby
expanding the same ready to be acted upon by the water, which takes place
immediately with the simultaneous opening of the water valve and closing
of the air valve in the flexible tube, the action of the two cylinders alternately
acting as before described giving a constant rotation to the centre crank
shaft.