A MACHINE OR APPARATUS FOR THE PURPOSE OF ACQUIRING A VERY HIGH MECHANICAL POWER IN A SMALL COMPASS, AND WITH LITTLE FRICTION, WITHOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF RUNNING AMAIN IF EMPLOYED IN RAISING OR LOWERING WEIGHTS
Year: 1818

page_text: HORNER'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HORNER, of Howick, in the County of Northumberland, Clerk, Bachelor of
Arts, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at Westminster, the
Twenty-seventh day of January, in the fifty-eighth year of His reign, give
and grant unto me, the said William Horner, my exors, adiñors, and
assigns, His special licence, full power, sole priviledge and authority, that
I, the said William Horner, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, should and
lawfully might, during the term of years therein mentioned, make, usc,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "A MACHINE OR APPARATUS FOR THE PURPOSE OF
ACQUIRING A VERY HIGH MECHANICAL POWER IN A SMALL COMPASS, AND WITH LITTLE
FRICTION, WITHOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF RUNNING AMAIN IF EMPLOYED IN RAISING OR
LOWERING WEIGHTS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
that if I, the said William Horner, shall not particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the
same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent,
that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever
thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by
the same (relation being thereunto had) will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Horner, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say):-
The Invention consists in a new combination of certain known mechanical
principles and powers, and in their application or adaptation to various pur-
poses, according to the modes herein-after detailed, and not in the separate parts
of which the machine is compounded. Two wheels firmly fixed on the same
axis, so as to be incapable of moving seperately, are made to revolve round
within or upon another wheel, which is not at liberty to move with them, and
which I call the primary wheel; one of these first-mentioned wheels (which
may be called double wheels) is connected with the primary wheel by teeth,
cogs, chains, straps, ropes, or the friction of rough surfaces, and they both are
made to revolve round their own axis by performing a revolution round
the axis of the primary wheel. The primary wheel is not attached to the
axis which passes through it, but is occasionally fixed to the frame of the
machine. Another wheel is firmly fixed upon this axis, which I therefore
call the axis wheel, and upon this axis is also fixed the barrel, or any other
mechanism, which is to produce the effect intended by the machine. The axis
wheel is put in motion by the other double wheel by means of a winch applied
to the metal frame M, M, in which the double wheels move. All the wheels
above mentioned may be either circular or of such other forms as to be capable
of acting upon each other in the ordinary manner of toothed wheels or band
riggers, and if a wheel is employed broad enough to work both in the axis
and primary wheel, one such wheel will in some cases answer the purpose of
both the double wheels; that is, when both the double wheels are equal as to
the number of teeth to each other, and the primary and axis wheels have a
considerable number of teeth. The power gained by this machine is to unity
as the entire revolution of the axis wheel is to that portion of it which it
noves during a complete turn of the winch, the radii of the barrel and of
the winch being considered in this case equal. To illustrate the above, let the
primary wheel be called A (see Fig. 1), the double wheels B & D, the axis
wheel C; B and D being fixed upon the same axis revolve together about the
common axis F of A and C. Suppose, in the first place, all these four wheels
to be what are technically called spur wheels, and that the double wheels
revolve round the primary and axis wheels; suppose, also, A to be immoveable,
and A and B to be similar in the number of their teeth, and C and D to be
the same, then whatever motion is gained by B and D from their connection
with A will only have a tendency to keep C at rest with respect to A, conse-

page_text: quently C will have no motion; but if there be a disproportion in the teeth or
dimensions, viz, let A be as 30, B and D also each as 30, and C as 31; the
equation in this case will be incorrect, the disproportion being ; then the
winch must turn 31 times in order to turn the axis wheel once round, and the
power is consequently 31. If 80: 30::30 33 be the disproportion, the
power in like manner will be 11. If a fraction be the difference, let A 30,
B=31, C=31, D= 32; the difference then is r part of 31, or r: the
power therefore equals 961. The same effects may be produced by using face
united with spur wheels, or by using bevelled or other wheels, but the machine
will be less compact from the projection of the teeth of the wheels; also
cylinders or polygons connected by chains or harrels will produce the same
effects if made according to the above arrangements. Suppose, again, the
double wheels to revolve within the primary and axis wheels, let the same letters
represent the primary, &c. wheels, as in the former case, the result will be the
same, except that the double wheels cannot have so great a proportion to the
primary and axis wheels, and consequently the power gained by making the
difference a fraction will not be so great in proportion to the number of teeth
in the primary and axis wheels. The power in this instance may be increased
by applying a wheel in the centre, which may be called the centre wheel,
which runs unconnected with its axis, and is occasionally attached to
the winch, which in that case is by a bolt or catch K, disengaged from the
frame M and fixed into the wheel E, or into a projection from it (see
Figures 2, 3, 4). To gain the greatest possible power, the difference being
unity, let the primary and axis wheel differ 1, and let the double wheels
be equal, viz, let A and C have 84 and 85, and B & C any convenient
equal number of teeth, the power will then be about 84. To acquire the
greatest possible power, the difference being a fraction, let the double wheels
be very nearly an aliquet part of the wheels in which they act, viz, or .
In using the latter proportion, the power may be raised still higher by en-
ploying the central wheel. In all the above cases I have supposed the primary
wheel to be immoveably fixed, but by adding a wheel V to the edge of the
primary wheel, and connecting it with the barrel by the intervention of wheels
or other contrivances, a motion will be given to the primary wheel contrary to
the direction of the winch, which, by allowing it to recede as the double wheels
advance, will very much increase the power, or a motion will be given to it in
the same direction which will increase the velocity. (Figures 2 and 3) explain
Lot the wheel V on
how this may be effected with a great variety of powers.
the edge of the primary wheel be connected with the spindle N by means of
the wheel Q (Figure 2 and $); upon this spindle let any convenient number of

page_text: wheels be fixed in such a manner as to have a sliding motion upon it, but pre-
vented from turning round, except when it also turns; let these wheels be
capable of uniting with the wheels L, L, which are fixed upon a frame R
moving truly upon or about the centre F of the axis, and connected with a
wheel I fixed upon the barrel. The frame R may be fixed by the pin S, so
as to admit the connexion at pleasure of H or L, L, with G1, G2, or G 3,
the moveable wheels on the spindle N, which will add twelve different powers
to the machine H when connected with G, producing a high power and L, L,
a low one, as the latter impels A forward and the other inverts the motion.
The catch T, which fixes A to the frame of the machine, must be released
when the spindle N is engaged with the barrel wheel I. In the above illus-
tration the machine is supposed to act as a crane, but it is applicable to various
mechanical purposes, as a capstan, windlas, jack for lifting timber, &c.,
steering wheel, rolling press, engine for dividing astronomical instruments,
&c., and various other purposes to which the known mechanical powers have
been heretofore applied by means of a hollow axis or winch may be applied to
each side of the barrel. It is represented by the dotted line T, T, passing
through the axis F, F, in Figure 3. Its advantages arc, first, that the weight
will be sustained in any part of its progress without the aid of a catch or any other
contrivance, for the effort of the weight to run down is to the exertion required to
raise it as the difference of the radii of A and C to the whole radius of C; suppos-
ing therefore the power to be only 10, the difference of these radii will be one
10th, and if the friction be less than one tenth, the weight will merely make an
effort to run down equal to one 10th, substracting the friction, that is, suppose
the weight on the winch to be 60, the effort to run down in this case would be
6b if there was no friction, but suppose the friction equal to four pounds,
the effort to run down would be two pounds. This applies only to the action
of the double wheels in connection with the primiary and axis wheels, for
whether the power be increased afterwards by the application of the central
wheel E or the segment wheel F, or decreased by the use of the segment
wheels L, L, the above advantage is not affected.
Second, another advantage is, that the power (contrary to the ordinary
crane) does not depend upon the disproportion between the wheel and pinion,
the greatest power being that which is produced by four wheels, as nearly as
possible equal or proportional, without being exactly so; all the wheels there-
fore being of considerable dimensions, the teeth when in contact lyc nearly in
the same plane, consequently the equal friction occasioned by the oblique
action of the teeth upon cach other inseperable from the use of very small
pinions is avoided.

page_text: Third, this machine also admits of being made four or five times, or more
(if necessary as strong) as other cranes, &c. of the same dimensions; for the
double wheels may be increased to any number which can be applied to the
axis and primary wheels, and also from their size the points of contact will be
multiplied. This strictly applies only to those instances in which the primary
wheel is fixed, as in Figure 1 and Figure 4, where four pair of double wheels
are shown at B, B, B, B.
Fourthly, a very high mechanical power may be acquired in much less
space than by the known mode of repeating the wheel and pinion.
Fifth, if used in the division of philosophical instruments the greatest accu-
racy may be acquired, for, supposing the wheels to be A 59, B 60, C 60, D 61,
see Figure 1, the power will then be 60 × 60, or 8600, each of which 3600
divisions is formed by a complete revolution of the winch, and all the teeth
excepting th part of a tooth or or of each wheel are successively engaged
in every turn, consequently there can be no variation in the divisions of the
wheels are but with a tolerable degree of accuracy.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Horner, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighteen.
W DICKSON, his Clerk.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fourth day of July, in
the year of our Lord 1818, the aforesaid William Horner 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.