IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William John Cunningham
and Alfred Patrick McCarthy at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with their Petition, on the 24th March 1869.
We, WILLIAM JOHN CUNNINGHAM, of 480, Oxford Street, in the
County of Middlesex, Engineer and Machinist, and ALFRED PATRICK
MCCARTHY, of Broad Street, in the County of Middlesex, aforesaid, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in obtaining motive power by means of
springs and levers acting upon cog wheels, which communicate their
motion through suitable gearing to the driving axle of the machine.
In a suitable frame are placed two cylinders containing springs, the
said cylinders being free to revolve partially on their axes, or the cylin-
ders and their axes may revolve together when required, and to any
convenient part of the periphery of each of the said cylinders is fixed
a chain or its equivalent, the other ends of which are attached to levers
having their fulcrums on suitable hollow bosses fixed to the said frame
and surrounding the shaft carrying the driving cog wheel. This said
wheel is supplied at suitable points near its periphery with pins or

page_text: projections against which the levers press. when operated upon by the
springs, thus causing the said cog wheel to rotate, and by means of inter-
mediate cog gear of any desired multiplicity imparting its motion to
one or more pairs of carrying wheels, by which means the machine is
caused to travel, or cranks may be used with the cog wheel when re-
quired. On one lever reaching the extent of its forward travel it presses
against a pin or lug projecting from a piston or plunger working in a
suitable slide, the said piston or plunger operating through a slotted bar
on a windlass or holler roller on one of the carrying or other shafts
or axles of the machine, the said windlass when put in gear with a clutch
on the said shaft or axle by the lever arriving at the extent of its.
forward stroke as before stated winding the lever back into its normal
position by means of a chain or its equivalent, one end of which is
fixed to the lever while the other end is fastened to a flange or other
part of the said windlass or hollow roller, or the chain from the windlass
may be secured direct to the spring cylinder if required, in which case
an auxiliary spring is used to pull the lever back to its normal position,
while the operation of winding back this said lever is being performed
the other lever is operating upon the cog wheel or crank in its turn and
causing the progression of the machine, at the same time unwinding
the chain or rope to which it also is attached to the windlass, and when
this said lever has performed its work it puts the windlass in gear with
the clutch and thereby is re-wound back to its normal position as before.
On arriving at the end of its back stroke, during which it performs no
work, the lever operates upon the said piston or plunger in a contrary
direction and causes the said windlass to be thrown out of gear with
the clutch on the shaft, so that there may be no back pressure on the
lever that is giving motion to the machine. A brake of any suitable
construction may be applied to the machine operating either on the
spring cylinders or the carrying wheels or any other convenient part
thereof, the said break being worked by the engineer or other attendant,
and instead of the said spring cylinders a spiral or other spring may
be caused to operate on the said levers. In lieu of the said driving cog
wheel a ratchet or its equivalent may be used and the axle carrying
the windlass may be stationary, the said windlass being fixed to and
rotating with the carrying or other wheel. A guide wheel or guide
wheels may be carried on an axle fixed to any suitable part of the
frame, so that the course of the machine may be directed if not running
on metals.

page_text: This means of obtaining motive power may be applied to locomotives,
velocipedes, and all other machines to which either manual labor, or
steam, gas, air, or animal power, has hitherto been applied, it can also
be worked on a continuous circular tramway it being in this case placed
in communication by a bar or coupling with a vertical shaft from
which power may be imparted to any machinery required to be driven
thereby,