IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Gerolamo Cavanna, of Genoa, in the Kingdom of
Sardinia, Mechanician, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING
MOTIVE POWER."
Sealed the 20th October 1857, and dated the 22nd April 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Gerolamo Cavanna at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd April 1857.
I, GEROLAMO CAVANNA, of Genoa, in the Kingdom of Sardinia, Mechanician,.
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for object to obtain by a new hydraulic engine an
elevation of water for the purposes of irrigation or producing motive power.
The annexed Drawing represents a vertical section of the apparatus and part
of a boat fitted with my new hydraulic engine. A, a deck and framework;
b, b, keel; c, frame; d, pedestal; C, beam oscillating on d as a fulcrum ;
h and h³, counterweights or cases, provided with slides i and with valve j, the
latter having motion from inside to outside; ff, connecting rods, articulated
with and connecting the beam C with counterweights h and h¹; e, e, vertical
guide for the slides i, i; 1, rod for the motion of the valve j,j; there is also a
rod to the counterbalance h', but one rod only is seen. B, reservoirs formed

page_text: by an elastic side n, n, and a resisting side m, m; q, induction water pipe
provided with a cock p; r, water pipe provided with a cock r¹; s, water pipe
provided with a cock s¹; t, hydraulic turbine sustained by the supports u, u;
E, pullies transmitting motion to the screw shaft H; F, F, level of water.
Suppose that the counterweights h, h', are full of water, if, the cock p is
opened the exterior water will fill the reservoir B'; this result obtained, the
counterweight h¹ will fall and oblige the water to pass from B' into B, and by
this motion the counterweight h will rise and arrive at the upper point of its
stroke and its valve will be closed; the counterweight 'having arrived at
the lowest point of its course its valve will be opened. At this moment the
cocks r and p are closed, and the counterweight h falls and obliges the water
to go from B into the turbine t, which it moves, and which gives motion to tho
screw.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Gerolamo Cavanna in the Great Scal Patent Office on the
21st October 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEROLAMO
CAVANNA, of Genoa, in the Kingdom of Sardinia, Mechanician, send
grecting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Gerolamo Cavanna, Her special licence that I, the said Gerolamo Cavanna, my
exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Gerolamo
Cavanna, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during tho
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING
MOTIVE POWER," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Gerolamo
Cavanna, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Offico within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Gerolamo Cavanna, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
My Invention relates to a hydraulic motor of a new kind. This hydraulic
motor works enclosed in a vessel below the level of the water. It acts by
pressure exercised by two weights on the surface of the water to be raised.
The water to be raised is enclosed in two vessels, the sides of which are formed
by two flexible parts, on which the counterweights act. These counterweights
are fixed to the two extremities of a beam or lever, which takes an oscillatory
motion on a fixed axis midway of its length. Water is raised by the machine,
and its force utilised by any hydraulic receiver, which operates and gives
motion to the parts required. The apparatus may be used, first, for raising
water for the purposes of irrigation. In this case it pours out the water
raised into a reservoir, whence it flows on to the land to be irrigated and
fertilised. Secondly, as a motive power, and in this case it is susceptible of
a great many applications; for example, it can work a hydraulic wheel, a
turbine, a screw, or any machine requiring a column of water for actuating it.
I have herein specified the application of my machine or apparatus to the
propulsion of a vessel.
The annexed Drawing represents a central vertical section of the apparatus
constructed for the purposes of navigation. It is lodged, as seen, in the interior
of the ship; and placed below the water line, as herein-after described. I have
only represented a portion of the ship in the Drawing, but this partial Drawing
suffices to render the idea intended to be protected by the present Patent
perfectly intelligible.
I will now describe all the parts represented in the annexed Drawing.
A, deck of the ship; a are the beams constituting the support of the deck;
b, b, planking or flooring at the bottom of the hold; it supports the whole
machine properly so called. c is an iron or wooden frame; d is the pedestal,
supported by the frame c; C is a cross beam, having an axis through its centre
of gravity; this cross beam has its fulcrum or axis fixed to the pedestal d; it
has two eyes for connections at its two extremities. e, e, pillars forming slide
bars for guiding the action of the counterweights in their alternate motions of
ascent and descent; they are connected together at the top by means of two
transoms, but they may be fixed to the hull of the ship. At the lower part
these pillars e, e, rest on a prolongation of the frame reaching to the flooring of
the hold. ff, two connecting rods jointed at one end to the cross beam C, and

page_text: at the other end to a joint pin fixed at the interior of of the counterweights,
which are about to be described; h, h, counterweights, each composed of a
vessel or capacity of any form and dimension according to the work to be
done by the machine; these cases when in motion are filled with water, and
work in the manner about to be described. i, i, slide pieces attached to the
counterweights h, h, and working in the two vertical guides e, e, in order that
the counterweights may ascend and descend vertically; j, j, clack valves,
fixed to the lower extremity of the counterweights; they open from the inside
to the outside; for this they are jointed on a scat fixed to the lower part of
the counterbalances, they may be ball valves or other kinds of lift valves. k, k,
rods actuating the valves j, j'; B, B¹, vessels placed directly below the two
counterweights h, h; their form and dimension is in relation with those of the
counterweights, which, as before said, vary with the work to be done. These
vessels rest on the flooring at the bottom of the hold, and are formed as about
to be described. m, strong iron or other metal cases which form a part of the
frame; their interior form is the same as the lower part of the counter-
weights, the former is suited to the reception of the counterweights. n,
elastic circumference or sides fixed to the lower part of the counterweights;
this fixing is effected by rings and bolts or otherwise. These several parts
surround the valves j, j, in each of the two parts of the apparatus, so that
when the valves are opened the casing 7 of the counterweights communicates
with the interior of the right and left hand vessels B, B¹, by the effect of
pressure, and pass within the fixed case m, as seen at B. o, o, capacities
serving to permit the opening of the valves j, j¹, when the counterweights are
lowered; p, cock for the ingress of the water; this cork is worked either by
band or by mechanism. 9, duct or induction pipe conducting the water from
outside into the first or right-hand vessel B', and emptying itself at o at the
lower part; r, duct or induction pipe conducting the water into the second
vessel B, and communicating with capacity or vessel o; this piper is
furnished with a cock ¹. s, s, pipes conducting the water to the part
receiving the force or power; they are furnished with a cock s¹. v, reservoir
into which the pipes s, 8, empty themselves; it is furnished with valves v², v',
suitably arranged. t, turbine, or motive wheel or apparatus, having a column
of water, the axis of which is supported from the deck or hull of the ship;
u, u, u, bearings of the shaft of the turbine and of the transmitting shaft; v,
bearings of the turbine; E, E, strap or chain transmitting the motion of the
turbine t to the axes of the motive parts, wheel, screw, &c.
The apparatus of transmission is here represented as enclosed in channels ;
F, F, water-line. The ship should always be so ballasted that the vessels

page_text: B, B', can fill themselves completely with water, so that the sides n swell
out.
Supposing all the parts arranged as indicated in the Drawing, that is to say,
that one counterweight is raised and the other lowered, tho valve of the
former open and the valve of the latter closed, and also supposing that the two
cases of the counterweights are filled with water, and that the cock p is
opened, the water from outside introduces itself into the right-hand vessel B'
and fills it. As soon as it is full, the right-hand counterweight h, the valve of
which is shut, presses on it and forces all the water in the right-hand vessel to
go into the reservoir v, and thence on to the turbine t, through a pipe made for
that purpose, but not represented in the Drawing. Owing to this passage of
the water the left-hand counterweight h ascends, and when it has reached the
height of its course its valve shuts. The right-hand counterweight h is then
at the lowest part of its course and its valve opens; as in the preceding action
the cock p is closed, the left-hand counterweight descends again on the
diaphragm B and forces all the water enclosed in its case to rise into the tube
s to enter reservoir v, and thence issue on to the turbine t, and thus act on the
parts for transmitting or communicating motion or power. Thus, the machine
after one oscillation of the cross beam is ready to act again, as indicated in the
Drawing, in the opposite direction.
Having described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of performing
the same, I declare that what I claim as my Invention, intended to be
protected by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is, the hydraulic
machine herein-before described applied to all purposes for which it is applicable
as a motive power by raising water.
In witness' whereof, I, Gerolamo Cavanna, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Sixteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
GEROLAMO CAVANNA. (L.S.)