IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS OR MEANS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Henry Lawson and William
Darlow at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition,
on the 17th April 1863.
We, ROBERT HENRY LAWSON, of Victoria Terrace, Victoria Docks, in the
County of Essex, and WILLIAM DARLOW, of Victoria Place, North Woolwich
Road, in the County of Essex, do hereby declare the nature of the Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS OR MEANS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE
POWER," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the means or apparatus
employed for obtaining motive power, which may be applied by ordinary or
known appliances to any purpose to which the present methods of obtaining
motive power by steam, air, water, or other methods are now used; and for
the purpose of carrying out our improvements we will describe one of the
methods which we propose to use in practice; but the forms of the various
parts may be changed without departing from the spirit of our Invention.
We take a box or receptacle of cylindrical form of about 6 times the diameter
as to length, such box being divided in the centre by a partition, and having the
ends made tight by covers. The box is suspended from the centre by suitable
pivots, upon which it partially rotates, as required. The pivots are carried
by a framing attached to the ground or other foundation as may be suitable.
This tube or box has two holes in it, which are partially closed by two balls
or ball valves, hereafter described, and two air holes are also arranged in the
opposite ends of the two divisions. On the top of the tube or box two other

page_text: tubes or boxes are placed, which we prefer to make about one-fourth of the
diameter of the large tube or box; these are fixed on the tube at an angle
of about 5°, more or less, and they are in length about 4 times the diameter
of the large tube or box; they are fixed so that one end of each tube is
directly over and connected with the larger orifice in the box, while the other
end of each tube projects beyond the end of each partition or portion into
which the tube or box is divided. The end of the box or tube opposite to
that where the upper tubes overhang is furnished with a rod or bar of about
1times the diameter of the tube or box in length, to which a weight is
attached, as required. The two upper tubes are open, or partially so, at the
outer ends. These tubes are partly filled with a number of pieces or balls of
iron, or partly of wood, or other suitable substance, and partly iron, two of
which balls close or partially close the apertures in the tube or box before
referred to.
The apparatus above described is entirely filled, as to the tube or box,
with mercury (by preference), and is then ready for use. The apparatus is
pulled over on its pivots to a certain point by power being applied to the rod
or bar attached to the end of the tube, the mercury then enters the small
tubes by the apertures therein, and as it enters it causes the pieces of wood,
iron, or other material to rise in the small tubes. When they have ascended
sufficiently high the weight of the balls or other pieces of iron causes the
tube or box to lose its inclined position, and return to its original horizontal
position when on its arrival at such position the mercury in the small tubes
runs out into the large box or tube, and is thus made ready for another lifting
or tilting operation. These are continued at regular intervals, and the power
so obtained may be readily transmitted in any convenient manner, as is well
understood.