IMPROVEMENTS IN FANS, PUMPS, AND MACHINERY FOR PROPELLING AIR, FLUIDS, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES BY CENTRIFUGAL FORCE
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Christopher Brakell at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th October 1869.
I, CHRISTOPHER BRAKELL, of North Moor Foundry, Oldham, in the
County of Lancaster, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FANS, PUMPS, AND MACHINERY FOR
PROPELLING AIR, FLUIDS, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES BY CENTRIFUGAL FORCE," to be
as follows:-
I construct a casing in which vanes or blades mounted or otherwise
fixed on the sides of circular plates or discs revolve after the manner
of centrifugal fans or pumps generally.
I form the revolving discs or fans as follows:-I take two circular
plates of wrought iron, copper, brass, or other suitable metal, which I
fix at a certain distance apart from each other by a boss or block
between them at the centre. On the outer side of each of these plates
I mount or otherwise fix vancs or blades extending from the cir-
cumference to about half way towards the centre; these vanes revolve
in close proximity to the sides of the casing in which they are contained.

page_text: The air, fluids, or other substance being drawn or sucked in through
the central openings in each side of the casing is discharged by the
centrifugal action of the revolving discs into a space beyond the cir-
cumference and into the space between the plates forming the revolving
fans or discs referred to, from which it passes through a suitable opening
in the circumference of the casing. Hitherto the revolving fans or discs
of fans, pumps, and other machinery of similar description have been
keyed on or otherwise fixed on a spindle or shaft, on which also is fixed
one or more driving pulleys, the spindle then revolves in fixed bearings,
by which it is supported at each end.
I construct the bearings of my improved machines as follows:-I take
a tube or hollow spindle of metal, which I securely fix at each end,
so that it cannot revolve; I then prepare a loose boss to work on the
said fixed spindle, and on this loose boss is fixed the revolving fan or
disc. For convenience of manufacture I prefer to cast the loose boss
referred to and a driving pulley for the machine in one piece. I somc-
times form the hollow tube or spindle of wrought iron or steel, and cast
around it a coating of metal suitable for bearings, and sometimes instead
of such coating I cover it or else the interior surface of the hollow boss
with the wood called "lignum vitae," and effect the lubrication by
water. To lubricate the bearing I close the ends of the tube or hollow
spindle and fill the same through an oil cup with oil or other lubricant,
which passes through openings in the tube to the surface of the same
and that of the hollow boss. This form of bearing is applicable not
only to the construction of fans or pumps have described, but to any
and every description of centrifugal machine used for similar purposes
which have hitherto been made with their spindles revolving in a fixed
bearing at each end.
Another form of machine for passing, raising, or lifting large quantities
of fluid consists of a boss fixed on a shaft or spindle from which radiate
vanes or blades, the receiving edges of which are bent forward, so that
when the shaft is caused to revolve the edges of the blades act in such a
way as to force the water between them. In this form of machine the
air or other fluid enters and leaves in a direction parallel with the axis.
It is sometimes necessary to pass a larger quantity of air or fluid on the
level, or nearly so, through a pipe or conduit than such a pipe or
conduit will pass under the head pressure available, and a contrifugal
pump is in such a case applied to increase the speed of the current.

page_text: Generally the pipe would be jointed to the centrifugal apparatus, and
the whole of the fluid drawn through the pump; instead of which I
propose to carry a pipe from the pump of less diameter than the pipe to
be exhausted for a certain distance up the same, so that instead of the
whole quantity of the fluid passing through the pump the velocity
imparted to the general volume would cause a portion of it to rush along
between the outside of the pipe in connection with the pump and the
inside of the general supply pipe.