A NEW METHOD OF PUMPING WATER OR OTHER FLUIDS
Year: 1815

page_text: RIDGWAY'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JONATHAN
RIDGWAY, late of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, but now of Saint
Peter's Place, Walworth Common, Plumber, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at. Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of May,
in the fifty-fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said. Jonathan
Ridgway, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said Jonathan Ridgway, my exors, admors,
and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of years therein
mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF PUMPING
WATER OR OTHER FLUIDS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso that if I, the said Jonathan Ridgway, shall not particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause
the same to be inrolled in. His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said. recited
Letters Patent, that then the said Letters. Patent, and all liberties and
advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and
become void, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may
more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso. I, the said
Jonathan Ridgway, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,

page_text: and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are. particularly
described and ascertained in manner following (that is to say) :—
The nature of my said Invention, and the object of the same, is the produc-
tion, such as is herein and hereby described, of a machine or apparatus for the
working ships' pumps without the aid or intervention of animal labour, and
applying to it, and using for its moving power the pitching and rolling motions
of the ship, or the so applying the said machine or apparatus to the ship or
vessel that the pitching or rolling motion of the ship or vessel may become its
moving power or first mover; for which purpose I suspend a heavy body or
weight at the bottom end of a strong arm or lever from a point above its
center of gravity (in the usual way and manner of suspending pendulums) in
or upon a frame of sufficient strength. To the center of suspension of the
weight so suspended, and in a direction at right angles with it, I fix a beam
or arm which projects equally on each side the center, and to each extremity
of the said beam or arm is attached, by a single bolt or pin, the upper end of
the piston rod of a ship's pump, and the apparatus is set athwart the ship or
vessel (that is to say) in such manner that the suspended weight might swing
in the direction of the ship's breadth. The effect of this arrangement is that
at each roll or inclination of the ship or vessel the suspended weight will
always retain, or endeavour to retain, its natural perpendicular position; the
beam or arm which is attached to its upper end also retains its natural level
or horizontal position; and the pump barrels, being fixed to the ship, and the
buckets or pistons easily moveable in them, the pumps are thus put in action
with each roll of the ship. The aforesaid suspended weight and its attached
beam or arm may be said to hold the piston rods and buckets of the pumps
stationary in the pumps while the rolling motion of the ship or vessel moves
the pump barrels up and down on them, and so makes the pumps work them-
selves. I further declare that the aforesaid frame can, by well-known means,
be so constructed as to be slued or turned so as to work with the pitching
motion of the vessel. It is necessary that the aforesaid weight should be so.
considerable as readily and constantly to be able, without assistance, to over-
come the friction and resistance of the pumps and its own suspension. I
further declare that, when required, I connect my aforesaid suspended weight
with a wheel and pinions in such manner that each roll of the ship may pro-
duce more than one stroke of the pump; (that is to say,) the large wheel is
placed upon the axis on which the weight is suspended, and upon distinct axis
that run parallel with the axis of the aforesaid suspended weight are fastened
pinions that work in the afore-mentioned wheel, and two projecting pins,
placed near the outer edge of the aforesaid pinions, are connected the piston
rods of the pumps respectively. so that if one roll of the ship turns the pinion

page_text: for
once round, two motions of the piston or pump bucket is produced. I further
declare, that in cases when the motion of the ship may not be sufficient
to work the pumps, I reduce the aforesaid suspended weight, and work it to
and fro, after the manner of a pendulum, by the application manuel labour;
for this purpose the weight is made up or composed of any required number of
pieces or seperate weights, the required number of which may be detached and
laid aside at pleasure. I declare that I set forth this use of the suspended
weight in its reduced state to shew a useful application of it in a different way
when it is so reduced, and not claiming such application of it for my Patent.
The aforesaid suspended weight, in its compleat state for producing the action
of the pump by the roll of the ship as aforesaid, I make of about fifteen cwt.
pumps of six or seven inches bore, and for pumps of larger bore I encrease
the weight, taking generally for my scale of encrease the rate of encrease of the
pumps' barrels. This I judge to be sufficient when suspended at the distance
of five or six feet from the point of suspension, I do further declare, that as
the construction of the frame in or upon which the aforesaid weight may be
suspended will differ according to the position of the pumps and the construc-
tion of the vessel, and as it may in large ships be suspended to the beams of
the deck, and consequently the length of the arm or leaver at which the afore-
said weight is suspended may likewise differ, I claim only for my Patent the
application of a weight (suspended in any convenient manner, sufficiently
ponderous, that with the rolling, pitching, or lurching motions of the ship or
vessel, it will work the pumps without manuel labour.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jonathan Ridgway, have hereunto set
hand and seal, this twenty-fifth day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifteen.
my