IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER, AND FOR REGIS- TERING THE QUANTITY OR QUANTITIES OF STEAM, WATER, OR OTHER LIQUID, GASES OR VAPOURS, AND FOR PUMPING PURPOSES
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Carl Johann Reinhart Jähns at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 25th August 1868.
I, CARL JOHANN REINHART JÄHNS, of Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER, AND FOR REGIS-
TERING THE QUANTITY OR QUANTITIES OF STEAM, WATER, OR OTHER LIQUID, GASES
OR VAPOURS, AND FOR PUMPING PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in improved mechanism for using the power of
water, air, steam, or any liquid, gas, or vapour moving through a flexible
pipe for acting as a rotary engine, or for making any motive power useful
to move water, air, steam, or any liquid through a flexible pipe for
acting as a meter of liquids and air or gases, or to be used for a
rotary pump.
I construct a partly cylindrical box having two nozzles or short
pipes, and place in the interior of the box and nozzles a flexible tube or
pipe which is unelastic but perfectly water and air-tight. The pipe is
fastened to a circular periphery of the box to the extent of about 140
degrees, and from these points the periphery at each side is inclined to

page_text: the internal termination of its corresponding nozzle. In the interior of
the box there are three rollers of elastic caoutchouc, which at equal
distances apart are pivotted to two parallel discs connected to each other
by a central shaft or axis, having one end passing through the centre
of the box and the other end working on a centre, or having both ends
passing through the sides of the box. These discs revolve in the interior
of the box, so that the rollers when passing the circular periphery may
be always at equal distances from the centre, and roll on the flexible pipe
which lies between them and the circular periphery, and the diameters
of the rollers are such that they will be slightly pressed when rolling on
the flexible tube.
The working of the apparatus is as follows:-The liquid under pressure,
such as from a fall of water or from elevated mains, or the air and gases
under pressure, flow from the supply into the flexible unelastic tube, and
whilst trying to widen or expand the said tube is always pushing the
rollers forward over the circular periphery, namely the first roller until
the moment that the second roller following the first presses down the
flexible tube closely to the circular periphery, thus cutting off the liquid
behind, which now while continuing the endeavour to expand the flexible
tube is compelled to push the second roller (as its connection with the
first roller has thus been shut off) until the third roller comes forward
on the circular periphery and acts in the same manner as the second
roller did before, and so on continuously, and according to the pressure
of the liquid, air, or gases, and the dimensions of the apparatus will be
the power exerted on the central shaft. When this apparatus is to be
used as a meter the shaft of the discs carries a toothed wheel, which when
put in connection with any ordinary clockwork will count the numbers
of revolutions of the rollers and discs.
When the apparatus is to be used as a pump one end of the flexible
tube communicates with the supply pipe and the other end with the
discharge pipe, and when the discs and rollers are turned by hand or
power the water will be drawn at one side and forced out at the
other.
The method of measuring is as follows:-The liquid, air, or gases
which under pressure flow through the flexible tube during one complete
revolution of the roller system is divided into three equal quantities
which press against the tube when passing over the circular periphery
in consequence of the three rollers being at equal distances from each

page_text: other, for just before the front roller leaves the circular periphery in order
to allow the liquid, air, or gases which has pushed the said roller over
the circular periphery to pass and be discharged into the discharge
pipe, the second roller following the first presses the flexible tube
closely to the circular periphery, and thus a certain quantity of liquid,
air, or gases is shut off for a moment inside the flexible tube between
the first and second roller, as after one full and complete revolution of
the roller system all three rollers have passed over the circular periphery
and thus renewed the above described process of measuring the quantity
of liquid, air, or gases between two of the rollers when pressing down
the flexible tube to the circular periphery, the second roller being
followed by the third, and the third by the first, and so on, and thus
they have measured three equal quantities of liquid, air, or gases which
have passed through the apparatus and been discharged into the
discharge pipe. How many of such measured equal quantities will
represent a cubic foot can easily be ascertained by experimentally
filling a vessel with the liquid, air, or gases which has passed through
the apparatus and measuring the said vessel's cubical contents, and by
adjusting the clockwork accordingly, a simple arrangement of the clock-
work being as follows:-The toothed wheel which is attached to the shaft
or axis of the roller system outside a cover of the box and which moves
the clockwork is divided into one hundred teeth, and this wheel is to
be geared into a wheel having as many teeth as the above described
experiment will shew as being required in order to enable the several
indicators outside the clockwork to shew that one cubic foot has passed
through the apparatus, one indicator counting the exact number of
revolutions, and the others shewing the number of cubic feet that have
passed through the apparatus.