IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE METHOD OR MEANS OF OBTAINING AND EMPLOYING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Greaves, of Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, Veterinary Surgeon, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE METHOD OR MEANS OF OBTAINING AND EMPLOYING MOTIVE
POWER."
Sealed the 1st April 1853, and dated the 7th October 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Greaves
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 7th October 1852.
I, THOMAS GREAVES, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OR MEANS OF OBTAINING AND
EMPLOYING MOTIVE POWER" to be as follows:-
This machine consists of a beam about 6 feet long fixed upon a pivot
in a standard 3 feet long; this standard is itself affixed upon a frame;
at one end of this beam there is attached two connecting rods: one
proceeds to and is attached with a crank axle of a working pully; the
other connecting rod is attached to a pump rod over a hopper. In the
other end of the beam is a slott,. in which is fixed a small pully, over

page_text: which pully plays a flat chain about 4 to 5 feet long, the ends of which
hang down and are affixed, one in the circumference of a pully 1 foot
in diameter, the other end of the chain is affixed into the circumference
of another larger pully 4 feet diameter; each of these pulleys work
exactly one fourth of their entire circle, and their shafts rest upon the
frame. On one end of the shaft of the large pully is fixed a small
lever 3 feet long, called the working lever, or else a wheel; and from
the certre or axle of this large pulley proceeds a crank about 1 foot,
and from which proceeds a connecting rod, and is attached to the beam
above for the purpose of acting as a stay. On one end of the shaft of
smaller pully is attached a small lever, called the counterbalancing
lever, and which is weighted according to the requirement, for the
purpose of enabling the acting lever shewn to make this back stroke
complete. It is found, as the acting lever decends the other or coun-
terbalancing lever ascends, also that this end of beam is brought
down and the other end rises: it is also found that a very little power,
equal to a very small weight on the end of the acting lever, can raise
a great weight on the opposite end of the beam. My method of
obtaining power is by appropriating a fraction of that weight when
raised, and conduct it by its own gravity into a receptiele situated over
the action lever, upon the end of which lever is affixed a bucket; and
as this lever or wheel with buckets on its circumference touches a
spring in the bottom of the resceptacle, a given quantity of the weight
therein contained escapes into the bucket or the lever or wheel, as the
case may be, causing it to decend and work the beam, and conse-
quently the working pully, also the pump or hopper, as the case may
.be; the weight escapes from the bucket by a certain contrivarice as
it decends to the bottom; then the lever or wheel ascends again to be
reloaded, whilst the weight (be it a fluid or metallic balls) pass on by
their own gravity into the pump or hopper, as the case may be, to be
raised again. I again conduct it into the rescepticle over the lever or
wheel from which it escapes through a valve which is fixed in the
.bottom of the recepticle, & controuled by a certain spring when such
spring is touched by the ascending lever or wheel.
This machine will dispense entirely and altogether with either steam

page_text: power or manual labour, rendering it complete within itself, and wholly
independent of any aid of any kind whatsoever, and is completely
under control; it will be found applicable to raising water, hoisting
goods, &c., and a variety of great and useful purposes; it can acquire
great power & considerable rapidity.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Greaves in the Great Seal Patent Office,
on the 7th April 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
THOMAS GREAVES, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Veterinary
Surgeon, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, and in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Greaves, Her especial licence
that I, the said Thomas Greaves, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Greaves, 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, usc, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE METHOD OR MEANS OF OBTAINING AND EMPLOYING MOTIVE POWER," upon.
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Greaves, 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 Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Greaves, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same

page_text: is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, that is to say:
I obtain power to raise heavy bodies and to discharge or deliver them
at any convenient height without the use of steam or manual labor,
except what may be necessary to give the first momentum or starting
power. I obtain this motion by arranging a certain number of levers
or pulleys, with weights and counterbalancing. weights, affixed to a
beam, so that, motion being once given to them, they will continue to
move by their own gravity, aided by a water wheel to be hereafter
described, and by relieving each other of a portion of its weight at a
periodical or given time it is capable of raising a certain amount of
weight in proportion to the relief given to it. It is also evident that
the said up and down motion or momentum imparted to the fixing or
beam may be applied to a pump or pumps, or to turn a wheel or shaft,
and thus convey motive power to any purpose required. I can also
regulate, increase, or diminish the amount of the said power by simply
increasing or diminishing the diameter of the pulleys or levers and
size of the weights, as the case may require. Or, when a great power
is required, I add two additional shafts, with additional pulleys at
cach end of the beam, as well as those in the centre, and cause them
all to work together, or in concert, by means of connecting rods, by
which arrangement or contrivance the weight on the pulleys or levers
on one end of the beam is thrown upon and rests upon the centre of it,
whilst at the same time the weight on the pulleys at the other end is
thrown out beyond the end of the beam, and the weighted side of the
centre pulleys is thrown in the same direction, thus imparting great
power to the beam. The utility and power of this Invention will be
clearly seen by its applicability to raising water, as by fixing a double
acting pump at one end of the beam, or a single acting one at each end,
of it, the water is thrown up in a greater or less column to a greater or
less height, and by allowing the whole of the water to flow down again
and pass over the water wheel the power will be so great as to project a
portion of the water from a jet to a great height; thus adapting it most
admirably for purposes of water fountains, &c.; and which contrivance
will perpetuate the motion to expend a fractional portion of its over-

page_text: power upon itself. For other purposes it will be necessary only to raise
the water a sufficient height to pass upon the water wheel, and only
just a sufficient quantity to work the wheel and pulleys, whilst the over-
plus of power can be applied or imparted to other purposes, namely,
pumping, turning a shaft or wheel to hoist goods, &c., or other similar
purposes, by rotatory motion, or in any convenient manner.
Circum
stances may arise where metallic balls or other weights would be pre-
ferable to water to work my machine, in which case I use a hopper or
some other such contrivance to raise the weights in the place of a punip
raising water, and then these weights pass upon a wheel to weight it and
work it in the same manner as the water passes upon and works the
water wheel. For the better understanding of this my said Invention
I will now describe the machinery or apparatus with a water wheel
attached, by which I make the motion continuous or self-acting. I fix
a strong frame firmly on a large foundation stone, and on the upper
part of the frame I have two pedestals to carry a centre shaft, upon
which rests a beam; upon this beam, exactly over its centre, I fix two
double pedestals, one upon each side of it. Upon these pedestals I
place two shafts across the beam, one shaft projecting several inches
beyond the end of the other on one side, and the other shaft projecting
several inches beyond the end of it on the other opposite side. On the
projecting ends of these shafts I fix large weighted pulleys, one on each
side, so that the pulley on the projecting shaft can pass the short end of
the other shaft as it revolves. On the centre of these two shafts I key
two spur pinions, which gear into each other, and care must be taken
that the weighted side of one pulley is an exact straight line upwards,
whilst at the same moment the weighted side of the other pulley on
the opposite shaft is in an exact straight line downwards, so that as one
is coming down it weighs the other up, and they are consequently con-
tinually balancing and counterbalancing each other. But they do more
than this; it will be easily perceived that as the weighted sides of the
pulleys whilst they are revolving pass each other, one passing down
whilst the other is passing up, they are continually meeting each other
in an horizontal line, on first one end of the beam and then on the
other, thus depressing the beam on the end where the weighted side of

page_text: the pulleys are on, and consequently lifting up the other, and as they
revolve to the opposite end of the beam they depress it, and raise the
opposite end in the same manner. To make this machine self-acting
I fix upon another frame by the side of the first-mentioned frame a shaft,
the centre of which is exactly opposite the centre of the shaft that
carries the beam; upon this shaft I key a water wheel and also a spur
wheel, the latter gears into a spur pinion (or this spur wheel and spur
pinion may be reversed, as the case may be,) upon the end of the pro-
jecting shaft of that side upon the centre of the beam; the wheel upon
the shaft works in a quadrant upon the wheel fixed on the water
wheel shaft. It will now be seen that as the water whcel revolves the
large pulleys revolve also, and the weighted sides of which, being first
thrown in the direction of one end and then on the other end of the
beam, will enable the beam to work a pump shaft or wheel attached to
one or both ends of it. The speed of the water wheel will depend upon
the quantity of water passing upon it, which may be regulated by an
ordinary water governor tap, or tap and float. I regulate the stroke
by a shaft running across underneath one end of the beam in pedestals
fixed in the foundation stone, to which shaft I connect a crank working
or connecting rod to the beam, and another crank upon the same
shaft worked by a connecting rod from an eccentric fixed inmediately
underneath the spur pinion or spur wheel on the water wheel shaft.
With this eccentric is cast a spur pinion which gears into the spur wheel,
and thus the speed and stroke are regulated. Or I may, if I consider it
necessary or expedient, fix the water wheel on one or both of the pro-
jecting shafts on the beam instead of on a second frame; or I
may be
able to dispense with the cranks and eccentric by merely using a slotted
fixing or similar contrivance for the beam to work in, and thus regulate
the stroke. The nature of this my said Invention will be more clearly
understood by reference to the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, in
which the same letters of reference are used to represent similar parts
where different views or diagrams are shewn. Figure 1, represents a
front elevation of my machinery or apparatus, and Figure 2, a side
clevation thereof. A, is the front or stand; B, the beam; C, the
pumps; D, the exit pipe from the pumps to the reservoir; E, the

page_text: reservoir to supply the water wheel; F, the exit pipe from the reser-
voir to the water wheel G; F, the pulleys; I, weights attached to
the said pulleys; K, the gearing; L, the eccentric and levers to
regulate the length of the stroke; M, the well; N, the pipe from the
water wheel to the well; and O, the foundation stone.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, I desire it
to be distinctly understood that I do not confine myself to the exact
details thereof, nor to any of the several parts herein described taken
separately. But what I claim as new and of my Invention is, the coni-
bination and general arrangement of mechanism as herein described
for the purpose of producing motive power.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Greaves, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of April, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-three.
Signed, scaled, and delivered
by the said Thomas Greaves
in the presence of
E. J. HUGHES,
THOMAS GREAVES. (L.S.)
Patent Agent,
Manchester.