A NEW AND SIMPLE METHOD OF COMBINING WHEELWORK TOGETHER, BO AB TO PRODUCE ANY REQUIRED PROPORTION OF VELOCITY BETWEEN THE WEIGHT AND THE FIRST MOVER
Year: 1806

page_text: DONKIN AND MAUDSLAY'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, BRYAN
DONKIN, of Fort Place, Bermondsey, in the County of Surrey, Engineer, and
HENRY MAUDSLAY, of Margaret Street, Cavendish Square, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer, 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-fourth day of July, in the
forty-sixth year of His reign, give and grant to us, the said Bryan Donkin and
Henry Maudslay, our exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence that we,
the said Bryan Donkin and Henry Maudslay, our exors, adññiors, and assigns,
during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might use, exer-
cise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
our Invention of "A NEW AND SIMPLE METHOD OF COMBINING WHEELWORK TOGETHER,
BO AB TO PRODUCE ANY REQUIRED PROPORTION OF VELOCITY BETWEEN THE WEIGHT AND THE
FIRST MOVER;" in which said recited Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging us, the said Bryan Donkin and Henry Maudslay, or one of us, by an
instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of
one of us, to cause a particular description of the nature of our said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month after 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 in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Maudslay, do hereby declare, that our said Invention is described in
manner following, that is to say:-
Fig. 1 represents a set or system of wheels combined according to our

page_text: method into the form of an engine or apparatus for raising weights, to be
used instead of the well-known engine called a crane. G represents a small
wheel or pinion turned by the first mover applied to an handle, and giving
motion to a larger wheel F; B and C represent two wheels having a common
axis, upon which they are so fixed that when one wheel is turned the other
must likewise turn along with it. The axis passes through the wheel F. A
represents a wheel which is fixed in its place so that it cannot be moved or
made to turn. D is a wheel attached to the barrel E, which it carries round
by rotation upon the axis I, H. Fig. 2 exhibits the outline of a section of the
said apparatus taken across the axis of motion. The operation-or effect of
the combination here described is as follows:-When the wheel F is turned
round it will carry the axis of the wheels B and C along with it, and would
cause those wheels to make one absolute rotation in each turn if the said
wheels B and C were without connection with any other part if the appa-
ratus; but as the wheel B works by its teeth in the motionless wheel A, it will
run or roll thereon, and will in each turn perform a quantity of rotation amount-
ing to as many of its own teeth in angular measure as shall equal the number
of teeth in A over and above the single rotation before mentioned, as produced
by the revolution of the axis, which is carried round by the motion of F.
Whatever angular motion shall be performed by B, the same will also be
effected in C. If, therefore, we, for the sake of illustration, make the before-
mentioned supposition (that F should revolve without causing B to roll by any
connection with A), the wheel C, if connected with D, and without any rolling
motion, would carry D round once in every rotation of F, and D would thus
move in the same direction as F. But if we attend to the apparatus in its
complete state, and admit that B shall roll upon the motionless wheel A, then
C will have a rotation on that account, which, with regard to D, will carry its
teeth at the place of connection in a direction contrary to that in which D was
last supposed to be carried round; whence it must follow that the rotation of
D in the complete engine will be equal to the difference between one entire
rotation of D in the direction of the motion of F, and the quantity of rotation
which is caused in D in the opposite direction by virtue or in consequence of
the rolling of B upon the motionless wheel A. So that if A and D be made
equal to each other, and B and C be made equal to each other, as shewn in
the Drawing, then the quantity of rolling motion will exactly counteract and
destroy the effect which might have been produced by the rotation arising
from the axis of B and C being carried round; but if C be made less than B,
the effect of the rolling motion will be less than the effect of the revolving
motion, and D will be carried round in the direction of F through a space

page_text: equal to the difference as aforesaid, which difference may consist of one single
tooth or of any greater number, according to the relative magnitude of the
wheels to each other; and so, on the contrary, if C be greater than B, a
motion will be produced in D in the contrary direction to that of F, with any
desired velocity; and as the proportions of A and B to each other, as well as
those of C and D, are also capable of any required variations, it will be prac-
ticable to obtain any desired ratio of velocity, either quicker or slower, between
the wheels F and D; and, moreover, it will be practicable in this (as is the
case with every other mechanical engine) to reverse the situations or places of
applying the first mover and the weight, and by that means to obtain what is
called power or purchase, or, on the other hand, velocity, as may be required
when the apparatus itself is not intended to be altered. Lastly, I do declare
that the several parts of wheelwork combined according to our said method
(the nature and principles of which may be understood from the foregoing
description and explanation) may not only be varied as to their respective and
relative dimensions with regard to each other, but that the combinations
according to our said method may be applied to give motion and effect to
screws, capstans, lathes, and all other engines which act in the way of rotation,
and that the said wheels may be constructed of any fit material according to
the intended uses thereof, and connected together by teeth or bands, or
straps, or chains, or in any other of the methods by which wheels, barrels,
pinions, or other circular revolving bodies are made to drive each other, and
that the first motion may be given by any of the forces or means which are
commonly used and applied for such purposes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Maudslay, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-third day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and six.
HENRY MAUDSLAY. (L.s.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-third day of August,
in the year of our Lord 1806, the aforesaid Henry Maudslay came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that
purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-third day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and six.