IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Hargreaves, of Appleton-within-Widnes, in
the County of Lancaster, Analytical Chemist, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER."
Sealed the 3rd December 1867, and dated the 8th June 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Hargreaves at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
8th June 1867.
I, JAMES HARGREAVES, of Appleton-within- Widnes, in the County of
Lancaster, Analytical Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER," to be as
follows:-
My Invention consists in obtaining motive power from an admixture of
atmospheric air or oxygen and those waste gases or products of combustion
which contain a considerable proportion or consist entirely of carbonic oxide.
Hitherto the said gases or products of combustion, herein-after for convenience
denominated by me carbonic oxide, have been with few exceptions allowed to
escape from iron-smelting and other furnaces into the air, and have been of no
value. By utilizing them, according to this Invention, I am enabled to provid
any requisite amount of power at a most economical rate in places where it is
most largely required. The carbonic oxide is collected in pipes, or otherwise,
and mixed with the necessary quantity of air or oxygen to form an explosive

page_text: gas. The mixture is exploded in the cylinder or other vacuum vessel of any
ordinary vacuum engine. The power is conveyed from the engine to the
place where required in any usual way.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said James Hargreaves in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
7th December 1867.
•
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I. JAMES
HARGREAVES, of Appleton-within-Widnes, in the County of Lancaster,
Analytical Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
James Hargreaves, Her special license that I, the said James Hargreaves, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Hargreaves, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
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 James
Hargreaves, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Office within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Hargreaves, 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, that is to say :-
My Invention consists in obtaining motive power from an admixture of
atmospheric air or oxygen with the waste gases or products of combustion
given off from blast furnaces used in making iron, from cupola furnaces used
in melting iron and other metals, and from other furnaces, which said gases
contain a great proportion of carbonic oxide, together with hydrogen, carbonic

page_text: acid, and nitrogen. The said gases, herein-after-for convenience in this Speci-
fication denominated by me carbonic oxide, have been with few exceptions
allowed to escape into the atmosphere, and have therefore been of no value.
By utilizing the said carbonic oxide, according to my Invention, I am enabled
to provide any requisite amount of motive power at a most economical rate
in places where it is largely required; the said carbonic oxide is collected in or
by pipes or otherwise by known or suitable means, and mixed in a holder or
elsewhere with the necessary amount of atmospheric air or oxygen to form an
explosive mixture. The amount or volume of atmospheric air or oxygen
required for that purpose varies with the composition of the gases evolved
from the furnace; the carbonic oxide from iron blast furnaces requires about one
and a half times its bulk of atmospheric air to form a good explosive mixture.
Instead of adding an amount of atmospheric air or oxygen to the said carbonic
oxide sufficient to form an explosive mixture I sometimes add only a limited
amount in the holder or elsewhere, and at other times I do not add any. In
all. cases I prefer to cool the said carbonic oxide, whether mixed as aforesaid
or by itself, and I employ for this purpose, when the area of the collecting and
storing pipes or pipes, or vessel or vessels exposed is not sufficient, a surface
condenser or refrigerator, in which water or other fluid is made to circulate on the
opposite side of the pipes to that through which the said gases pass. Holders
or storing vessels of any desired size can be used. I conduct or introduce the
said explosive mixture of the said carbonic oxide and atmospheric air or
oxygen into the cylinder or other vessel of any suitable gas or so-called vacuum
engine, or I conduct the said carbonic oxide, mixed or by itself, as aforesaid,
with atmospheric air or oxygen in such manuer that they will be intimately
mixed before, at, or immediately after entering into the said cylinder or
vessel of the said engine, and there explode them in any ordinary or convenient
manner, utilizing the force of the explosion of the gases, or the vacuum
formed after explosion and atmospheric pressure, to move pistons or other
mechanism or agents, so as thereby to provide motive power. Engines of the
kind worked by the force of the explosion of a mixture of coal gas and atmo-
spheric air answer well. The product of the said explosion may be conducted
from the exploding cylinder or vessel of the engine into a condenser, where they
are cooled and a partial vacuum produced by their contraction in volume;
they, the said cooled and contracted products, may then be drawn from the
condenser by an air pump; or instead of being cooled and contracted in volume
such products of explosion may be allowed to escape directly into the
atmosphere.
And now having set forth the nature of my said Invention, and particularly

page_text: described and ascertained the means by which 1.carry the same into effect, I
wish it to be understood that I do not. confine myself to the use of any exact
proportion of the said carbonic oxide with atmospheric air or oxygen, nor to
the use of any particular construction of engine; what I claim is, the use of
the waste gases from blast and other furnaces to form with atmospheric air or
oxygen an explosive mixture, and the employment of the said mixture to
provide motive power by its explosion within any suitable engine, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Hargreaves, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of December, in the in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
In the presence of
JOHN T. KING,
Patent Agent,
Liverpool.
JAMES HARGREAVES. (L.B.)