CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING
Year: 1845

page_text: TAYLOR AN.
NDERS
CATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
HANNIS TAYLOR, of Piccadilly, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, and
FRANCIS ROUBILIAC CONDER, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twentieth day of December, in the ninth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
William Hannis Taylor and Francis Roubiliac Conder, our exors, adiiors,
and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that we, the said William Hannis Taylor and Francis Roubiliac Conder, our
exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others as we, the said William Hannis
Taylor and Francis Roubiliac Conder, our exors, adññiors, our 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, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING; " in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that we, the said William
Hannis Taylor and Francis Roubiliac Conder, or one of us, shall cause a
particular description of the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
William Hannis Taylor and Francis Roubiliac Conder, hereby declare that the
nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, are fully described in and by the present Specification thereof, refer-
ence being had to the Drawings hereto annexed (that is to say):-
Our said Invention consists in the application in manner following of
electro-magnetic power to what is commonly known by the name of the
atmospheric system of railway propulsion, in order to connect the piston
carriage of a train with the driving piston within the tube.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section, and Figure 2 a cross section, of an atmo-
spheric railway tube and piston carriage, shewing the manner in which this
connection is effected. T is the tube, in the top of which there is a longi-
tudinal slit or opening as usual, but much narrower; C is a continuous air-
tight cover, which is bolted down upon the longitudinal slit. It is about
three inches in height, and of a square form, with broad flanges c, c, by which
it is secured to the tube. The tube (T) is of iron, but the cover (C) is made
of copper, brass, or some other substance not susceptible of the electro-mag-
netic influence, and bolted to the tube by copper bolts. D is the driving
piston, which consists of two end dises d, d, of the same diameter as the
interior of the tube (or nearly so), connected by a rod r, which carries (as
here shewn) four upright square pieces, A, A, A, A, called armatures, which
project upwards through the top slit in the tube, and fit into the square space
within the cover C. These armatures are made in the under part of some
substance not susceptible of the electro-magnetic influence, as brass or wood,
but capped at top by pieces of iron secured by copper bolts. P is the piston
carriage, to the bottom of which there is attached (instead of the usual piston
connecting rod) four electro-magnets M, M, M, M, of the peculiar form
separately represented in Figure 3, each of which presents its two extremities
or poles to the sides of the cover C. The power of these magnets may be
increased by enclosing them in a tube or case of iron, leaving the extremities
or poles open. G is a galvanic battery placed in the piston carriage, and
which may be of any approved form and of any required power. W, W, are
wires by which the battery is connected with the electro-magnets M, M, M, M.
The mode of action is as follows:-Motion being given to the piston by the
exhaustion (more or less) from the tube of the air in front of the piston, and
the magnets being at the same time connected with and excited by the
battery, the magnets act by induction on the iron armatures A, A, A, A,
attached to the piston rod, as they come within the sphere of their attraction,
(the cover C offering no obstruction to that attraction, as it is of a substance

page_text: not susceptible of the electro-magnetic influence,) whereby the magnets and
armatures become virtually coupled together, and draw along with them
whatever carriages may be attached to the carriage which holds the magnets
and battery. When it is desired to disconnect a train from the piston, this is
effected instantaneously by disconnecting the wires of the battery from the
magnets. Instead of using one electro-magnet for each armature of the form
before described (which we prefer because of its convenience), two ordinary
horse-shoe magnets may be employed, as represented in Figure 4, care being
taken that the positive pole of the one magnet shall be placed opposite the
negative pole of the other. Instead also of employing four armatures and
four electro-magnets or pairs of magnets, as represented in the Drawings, and
before described, any other convenient number may be employed, and they
may be varied also at pleasure in size and shape; but in all cases this general
rule must be observed, that there should be a separate electro-magnet or pair
of magnets for each armature employed. To allow air to pass through the
piston, as may occasionally be required, the discs d, d, of the piston are
provided with valves v, v, which are respectively connected to vertical iron
spindless, s, which terminate within the cover C, immediately opposite small
electro-magnets N, N, affixed beneath the carriage; so that, when it is desired
to open either valve, all that is necessary is, to excite the magnet which com-
mands the spindle of that valve (by connecting it to the galvanic battery), on
which the magnet will draw the spindle upwards, and thereby open the
valve.
And having now described the nature of our Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, we declare that we make no claim to the general
application of the electric magnetic power to propulsion on railways, being
aware that such an application of it has been repeatedly before suggested; but
that what we claim as of our Invention is,-
First, the mode before described of applying electro-magnetic power in aid
of the atmospheric system of railway propulsion, wherby the traction tube is
kept constantly closed at top, and the present waste of power from leakage is
wholly prevented;
And, second, the form of electro-magnet represented in Figure 4, and
before described as applied. to propelling, and whether it is made use of
according to the said mode, or as subsidiary to any other mode of propelling.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Hannis Taylor, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of June, One thousand
eight hundred and forty-six
W. H. (L.s.) TAYLOR.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of June, in the
year of our Lord 1846, the aforesaid William Hannis Taylor came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twentieth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thou-
sand eight hundred and forty-six.