INVENTION OF SEVERAL NEW IMPROVEMENTS UPON THE METHODS OF WORKING AND GIVING POWER TO MACHINERY BY MEANS OF THE PROPERTIES OF AIRS, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO OTHER MACHINERY
Year: 1801

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
GLAZEBROOK, of Coalbrook Dale, in the County of Salop, Engineer, do send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-first day of May, in the
forty-first year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said James
Glazebrook, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His special licence,
that I, the said James Glazebrook, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within that part of the said United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
and also in all His Majesty's Colonics and Plantations abroad, my " INVENTION
OF SEVERAL NEW IMPROVEMENTS UPON THE METHODS OF WORKING AND GIVING
POWER TO MACHINERY BY MEANS OF THE PROPERTIES OF AIRS, PART OF WHICH
IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO OTHER MACHINERY;" in which Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said James Glazebrook, under
my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in
His Majesty's High Court of Chancery, within four calendar months next and
immediately ensuing the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by
the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Glazebrook, in pursuance of the
intention of the said Letters Patent, and in compliance with the proviso
therein contained, do hereby declare that the following is a particular descrip-

page_text: tion of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed (that is to say):-
My new improvements upon the methods of working and giving power to
machinery by means of the properties of airs, consist,-
First, in occasionally employing the properties of other than atmospheric air,
or mixtures of other airs, to work and give power to. machinery, and after-
wards, if necessary, causing the said air or airs to be repeatedly fit for use
again in the same machine.
Secondly, in exposing as large a surface of flued a possible to the action
of the air that is to be moistened within the heaters, as herein-after specified;
which said surface should be equal or nearly equal in length to the whole
length of the said heaters, by which means the heat that is applied to the
external surface of the said heaters is, from the greatest intensity to the more
moderate temperatures, most advantagiously received by the internal contents
of such heaters.
Thirdly, in separating and preserving the flued, whether water or other flued
or mixtures of other flueds, which are combined with the hot air that is dis-
charged after having done its office in the expansive vessell as herein-after
explained, and supplying the before-mentioned heaters with the said flued in a
hot state.
The above, I declare, does comprehend the real object of my improve-
ments; yet to specify the above and several other improvements that I have-
made without their manner of connection to the original Invention would
tend to perplex rather than inform; this renders it essentially necessary to
have the whole comprized in the following explanation. Therefore, for the
better comprehension of the whole, I do hereby further declare that the par
ticular advantages to be derived from my new methods of working and giving
power to machinery by means of the properties of airs, and also my several
new improvements upon the said methods, principally depend upon a chemical
process or method of increasing the elastic force of compressed atmospheric
and other airs, either separately or proportions of them, by the applications of
moisture and heat, and in some cases by heat alone, and admitting the said-air
or airs into proper vessels to exert their elastic powers against pistons and other
mechanical apparatus, and also against some fluids, so as. to produce effects
upon and give power to machinery; some methods of performing which are
herein-after described by way of explanation, which said methods may be
altered or varied to any other suitable apparatus, as the Invention does not
consist in the figure- or shape of the apparatus, but in the new methods of work-
ing and giving power to machinery. As all kinds of airs are not equally expan-

page_text: sive, I here insert some of them in their dry or unmoistened state' according
to their expansive force, beginning with hydrogen, whose expansibility is the
least, and which at two hundred and sixty degrees of Fahrenheit, being divided
into one hundred equal parts, the others will appear, according to experiment,
nearly as follows, viz:-Hydrogen air one hundred, nitrous air one hundred
and twenty, carbonic acid one hundred and seventy, atmospheric air two
hundred, oxygen five hundred, ammoniac air six hundred and twenty, azotic
air six hundred and fifty. Such airs as would act detrimentally on the metals
of the machine I use only portions of, according to their purity. For moist-
ening the aforesaid airs or portions of them I make use of water, or other
fluids more volatile than water, separately or combined; particularly of such
fluids as would of themselves be injurious to the machines I use only in such
proportions as their strength will admit without injury to the machine.
The several kinds of apparatus (and likewise the terms I make use of to
express them) which are necessary for putting in practise my said Invention,
whatever may be their forms or materials, are as follows:-
First, a forcing pump or injector, or such other mechanical contrivance as
will answer the purpose of compressing air to any required density. These I
term compressers.
Secondly, vessells for moistening compressed air, by causing it to pass through
fluids contained in the said vessells. These I term saturators.
Thirdly, vessells wherein compressed air may receive a partial degree of
moisture from fluids therein contained, and wherein the elastic force of such
compressed moist air may be increased by the application of licat. These I call
heaters.
Fourthly, a forcing or lifting pump, to supply the heaters and saturator with
fluids. for moistening and saturating the compressed air, and likewise for re-
gulating the quantity of fluids in each, in such manner as is herein-after
explained, or otherwise. These I term feeding pumps.
Fifthly, a small compresser, which I term a charger, to be worked by hand,
for charging the. heaters and so forth with compressed air by which the engine
is to be first put in motion, after which the heaters are supplied by the com-
pressor which is attached to the said engine. The density of the air in the heator
is measured by the connection of a barometrical tube, such as is generally used
in pneumatic experiments.
Sixthly, vessells wherein may be employed the properties of compressed moist
heated airs, to act against pistons or fluids, or in any other way, for the purpose
These I term expansive air
of working and giving power to machinery.
vessels.

page_text: Seventhly, regulating wheels, as herein-after described, for making more equal
on machinery the unequal action of the air in the expansive vessel and compressor.
Eighthly, in cases where the air made use of in the machine, and likewise the
fluid for its saturation, or either of them, are scarce or expensive, or for any
other reason should be preserved, instead of discharging them into the atmo-
sphere, after they have done their office in the expansive vessell, I introduce them
into an apparatus, as herein-after described, for depriving them of their heat,
or such part of it as will sufficiently separate the fluids so as to be fit for use in
the machine again. This apparatus I term a refrigeratory.
The several before-mentioned parts or apparatus I have here combined into
a machine so as to form a double powered engine, and will be sufficient to
explain, with the assistance of the annexed Drawings, the nature of my said
Invention. But in this case the air made use of is supposed to be atmospheric
air, and the fluid for moistening it to be water. The cylinders are supposed to
be bored smooth, and the pistons, valves, and so forth, made true and fit for use.
The machine is supported upon a frame of wood, as the double steam engine,
and the valves are moved by working gear similar to the valves in such engines.
Figure 1 is a section of the machine; A the compresser, constructed similar
to the expansive vessel K; B, its piston, whose rod is connected by links to
the working beam Q, Q.
Figure 2. C, the pipe to supply the compressor with cool air; D, the pipe
that conducts the compressed air to the heaters; E is the plan of the heaters
inclosed in their flues.
Part of Figure 3 is an end view of the said heaters in their flues, noted by
the same letters. These heaters have a projection on their inside rising from
their bottom, so that each course may keep one fourth of its internal diameter
filled with water (see Figure 9, where J is the projection, the dotted lines
shew the height of the water in each); F (Fig. 4), the saturator; G, the heater
that is first acted on by the fire; II (Figure 3), the fireplace; the saturator
F and heater G have cach two fifth parts of their internal diameter filled
with water, regulated by the buoy in J.
Figure 4 is a section of the bottom course of heaters and saturator; I, I,
the pipe that conveys the elastic air to the expansive vessel K (see Figure 3);
a, a, is the tube that stops the passage of air from E to F, otherwise than
through the water therein contained.
Figure 5 is the side section of the tube a, a, and saturator F; b, b, b, the
height of the water therein; &, holes in the tube, something lower than the
surface of the water, below which the tube is cut away to give more free
passage to the air.

page_text: Figure 6, the section of the tube out of the saturator; Figure 7, the
plan of it.
Figure 8 the side section of the heater 9, shewing the connection of the
buoy vessel J. When the water falls lower than the dotted lines b, b, b, the
buoy falls, and by a connection of the wire d, to a cock in the pipe e, Figure 3,
hot water is let into the feeding pump cistern f; the feeding pump g, by means
of the pipe h, h, h, supplies the heaters with the said hot water, till it raises the
buoy and wire d, and shuts the cock in the pipe e (the pipe is connected to
a reservoir, which said reservoir is situated so as to receive the hot fluid that
seperates from the moist air that is discharged from the expansive vessell K; as
the water falls again in the heater G and saturator F the operation is re-
peated; at i, i, Figure 8, is fitted the safety valve, see Figure 17, on a larger
scale). From the heater G (Figure 3) goes the pipe I, I, to the expansive
vessel K (Figure 1); L the pipe to connect the admittance nozles M, M;
N the pipe to connect the exhausting nozles 0,0; P the piston connected by
its rod and links to the working beam Q, Q; R the connecting rod; S the
crank; T and U spur wheels, one half the size of the other, to connect
the shafts V and W (Figure 2); X, X, the regulating wheel, loaded on one side,
to equalize the unequal action of the air in the expansive vessel and co:n-
pressor; Y the charger connected to the pipe D for charging the heaters
with compressed air; Z the barometer connected to the pipe D (see Figure 3)
for measuring the density of the air within the heaters.
Figure 10, view of one of the diagonal braces to the beam Q.
Figure 11, a transverse section of the refrigeratory;
are a number of flat
pump
or other formed vessels of sheet iron, copper, or other suitable substances;
s the flues between them; t the pipe that receives the hot air from the pipe N
(Figure 1) of the expansive vessel; u, the pipe that delivers the cool air to the
pipe c of the compressor, to which pipe must be a branch for taking off the
condensed fluid to the herein-before mentioned reservoy, or to the feed
cistern f, see part of the pipe at 7 (Figure 3). When other than atmospherical
air or mixtures of other airs are used, the end of the tube c should be inserted
below the surface of the fluid in the cistern, or any other means may be used
that will prevent the admittance of air into or escape from the said tube e;
, studs to fasten the vessell in the brick or other work.
Figure 12, the lengthwise section of the refrigeratory, noted by the same
letters, and the vessels joined by means of the curve pipes V. These vessels
are cooled by a continual draft of air from W, which goes under and over them
to a, where it enters the stack y, whose height determines the quickness of the
draft. In some cases the refrigeratory is contrived to be cooled by water. The

page_text: letters in in several of the Drawings denote the flues about the heaters; n, flues
between the brickwork; 0, fire bricks; p, common bricks.
Figures 13 to 19, inclusive, are on larger scales.
Figure 18 a section of an improved piston, which I make use of for double
engines; A the piston rod; B, B, and C, C, packings of cotton, or other suitable
substances: At D, D, is a quantity of rape oil, or other fluid answering the
purpose, which in the piston's descent is in part driven thro' the packing B, B,
into the cavity E, E, in which cavity the pressure is always the same as below
the piston, by means of the tubes F, F; by this contrivance the fluid in the
piston's ascent is driven back to the top of the piston, and vice versa.
Figure 14 the manner of joining the parts of the said piston.
Figure 15 the same piston, further improved, which hath a tube and valve G
when the pressure is only below the piston; but when the pressure is only
above, the tube and valve G are reversed, as dotted at H. The tubes F, F,
are not necessary in this last case.
Figure 16, section of expansive vessel, lid, nozles, and valves. I is the
admittance valve; K; the exhausting valve; and L the piston rod, made air-
tight in its box, upon the same principle as the piston attached to the said rod.
Figure 17, an improved safety valve, being double (the branch M is to join
the buoy vessel J shewn on Figure 8). The pipes N, O, P, and box Q, are
not necessary but when the air and fluid, or either of them, that escapes at the
valves i, i, are intended to be preserved. The joints in the machine are made
air-tight by screwing between their flanches rings of copper or lead, according
to their several situations..
Figure 18 is the plan of one of the rings, and Figure 19 the section.
In the following explanation the engine is supposed to be free from its work,
and the piston of the expansive vessel is supposed to be at the top. To put
the engine in motion a fire is made under the heater G at H (Figure 3), and
the arrows in several of the Figures are intended to shew the passage for the
smoak to the chimney stack. The valves of the expansive vessel inust be set
open for the steam to pass thro' it from the water in the heater G. When
by this means the expansive vessel is made hot the admittance valves are
to be shut, and the charger Y must be worked by the handle K till the heaters
are charged sufficiently with compressed air to move the engine, which being
done the exhausting valve at the top of the expansive vessel is to be shut; after
which the top admittance valve is opened, and such a quantity of elastic air from
the heaters is admitted to press upon the piston as will cause it to descend to the
bottom of the vessel (the air from the underside of the piston escapes at the
bottom exhausting valve to the pipe N, from thence into the flues about the

page_text: heaters or otherwise as circumstances may require, and the flued that sepe-
rates from the said air is received by the reservoy, as before explained); the
operation is reversed by the other valves to cause the piston to ascend, and so
alternatively repeated. After a few strokes the engine will have acquired too
great a velocity (owing to the increased quantity of air injected into the
heaters by the compressor A).. which must be checked by shutting quick the
admittance valves.till such time as the expansion of the air in the heaters is
increased so much as to be equal to the work the engine will have to do, and
this will be known by attention to the barometer Z, which must denote a
pressure of from seventy to one hundred inches of mercury more or less
according to the work to be done. When the engine is at work with its load,
the admittance valves are intended to be open for the admittance of air only
one fourth part of each stroke. In some cases the compressor is one third
the capacity of the expansion vessel, and then the admittance valves are to be
open one third of the stroke, and so for other proportions. Motion may be
given to the machinery required to be moved or worked by the engine by a
connection to the square at the end of the crank shaft V, or otherwise. When
the air and fluid or either of them that is made use of in the machine is
scarce or expensive, or if it be otherwise deemed necessary that they should be
preserved after they have performed their purpose in the expansive vessel, the
engine must be connected to the refrigeratory, as herein-before explained; and
in such cases it would be prudent to have in a convenient situation a reservoir
of such airs, and, fluids as may be introduced by pumps or otherwise into the
machine when found necessary to supply the loss of them occasioned by con-
tinued use; and when atmospherical air should not enter the internal part of
the machine I construct the connections thereto accordingly. Be it remem-
bered, that the power of these engines is encreased by using airs more expan-
sive than atmospheric air and by fluids more volatile than water, and also by
encreasing the size of the compressor so that it shall contain from too of
the capacity of the expansive vessel more or less. When economy in fuel is
an object of consideration I proportion the compressor so that the air when
discharged from the expansive vessel shall have previously exerted nearly the
whole elastic force on the machine.
Figure 20, section of a single power beamless engine to be worked by the
expansion of air. The parts for the same purpose as in the first varicty are
expressed by the same letters.
Figure 21, view of. the beamless engine, and section of a different formed
set of heaters. The same letters refer to the parts similar to the first variety of
heaters.

page_text: Figure 22, plan of the beamless engine and heaters. Instead of making a
fire under the heaters at H, I in some cases heat the compressed air and fluid
by means of the heat that escapes from blast furnaces, melting furnaces, or
any other furnace or fire-place to which the heaters and its connections may
with propriety be applyed. The expansive vessel and other parts of the
machine that are required to be kept hot I inclose in substances not easily
admitting heat. In some cases the hot air that is discharged from the expansive
vessel I convey to the flues about the heaters, as herein-before noted, to assist
in the heating the compressed air within the said heaters. In other cases I
vary the construction of the heaters, so as to answer the purpose of the
refrigeratory, by cooling the hot air, &c. when discharged by the expansive
vessel, or partially cool it by means of the cool air injected by the compressor.
If only partially deprived of its heat, the compresser will require to be larger.
I likewise in some cases produce a partial vacuum in the expansive vessel
after the air bath exerted its expansive force against the piston, or what may
have been used in its stead, by condensing or depriving it of its heat in manner
similar to what is practiced in Mr. Watts's steam engine, only that the air
pump for clearing the condenser must be larger, in general equal in capacity
to the expansive vessel.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Glazebrook, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, the Fifteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and one

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Fifteenth day of Sep-
tember, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid James Glazebrook came
before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.