CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN DRIVING MILLS AND OTHER MACHINES OR MACHINERY BY THE POWER OF WIND
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
BIDDLE, late of Leadenhall Street, in the City of London, Surgical Mechanician,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Third day of November, in the ninth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Richard Biddle, my exors, adiñors and assigns, Her especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Richard Biddle, my exors,
admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Richard Biddle, my exors,
adiñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey,
Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN DRIVING
MILLS AND OTHER MACHINES OR MACHINERY BY THE POWER OF WIND;" in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Richard Biddle,
shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and n
what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and

page_text: by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Richard Biddle, declare that the nature of the said improvements consists in
causing the windsails and arms and booms to which they are attached, and
by which motion is communicated to the mills and other machines or machinery,
to rotate in a horizontal plane (instead of vertically as in the common
windmill, and by such means, arrangements, and appliances that a cheap
working power may be obtained from the wind at all times, in all places, and
under all circumstances-(calms only excepted, whereby the power of the wind
may be rendered more generally applicable to the driving of machinery of all
sorts than heretofore; and the manner in which the said Invention is per-
formed or carried into effect is represented in the Drawings hereunto annexed,
and in the following description thereof :-
or
.
a
Figure 1 of the said Drawings.represents.an elevation of the principal parts
of an engine constructed according to my Invention, which I propose to call the
"Eolian Engine. A is a triangular framework, firmly secured to the ground
or other basement, and supporting platform or gallery A; B is a vertical shaft
spindle, which turns in an orifice in the centre of the platform or gallery A",
and in a socket at bottom, and carries at top a circular head piece B"; C and
D are two radial arms or bars, which project horizontally from the head piece
B, each arm carrying at its outer end an upright eye bolt a; E is a sail boom,
which extends the whole length of the two horizontal arms C, D, and is
placed above and parallel to the same, being supported at its two ends in the
eye bolts a, a, in which it is at liberty to turn freely, but is prevented from
slipping out of, by means of the screw stops b, b; F and F are two sails
fixed at right angles to each other on the boom E and uprights d, d, that is to
say, so fixed that when one sail is vertical the other shall be horizontal; and
9, 9, are weights fixed beneath each sail to the under side of the half of the
boom to which it is attached, to act as a counterpoise to the sail. Each sail
when acted on by its counterpoise only rests at an angle of about forty-five
degrees to the horizon, and is so balanced that a light wind is sufficient to
destroy its equilibrium. From the ends of the arms C, D; stays S, S¹, and
S³, S³, are carried to a triangle T raised on the head piece B", and to the
shaft or spindle B at the part immediately above the platform or gallery A,
in order to steady the arms, boom, and sails. The action of the engine is as
follows: Supposing the wind to blow in the direction of the arrows, it first
raises the sail F from its inclination of forty-five degrees to the horizon to a
vertical position (depressing simultaneously the opposite sail F to a horizontal
position), and then drives the sail F round in 'the circular path to which it is

page_text: confined by the radial arms to which it is attached, till on reaching the
opposite point to that from which it started it falls into a horizontal position,
and the influence of the wind upon it is reduced to a minimum. Meanwhile
the other sail F, which was depressed to a horizontal position at the same
time that the sail F¹ was elevated to a vertical, has by the rotation of the
engine and the action of its "counterpoise g been brought into the place of the
sail F, and into the like favorable position for the wind to act upon it. One
sail is thus always acting to produce a rotary motion of the shaft or spindle B,
while the other is coming forward to take its placè, and so to keep up a
continuous rotary' motion as long as there is wind enough to actuate the sails.
Each sail, when erect, bears against the stays S³, S¹, behind it, while the bar
to which its counterpoise g is attached presses in the opposite direction against
the arm C or D, so 'that even the most violent wind cannot force it out of its
proper working position. Instead of the sails and boom being attached to
the upper sides of the radial arms, they may. be underhung from it, as repre-
sented in Figure 2, and instead also of employing only one set of sails working
in one horizontal plane, two sets may be employed working in different planes,
the one above the other, in which case the sails of the two sets should be so
alternated that the overhung sail of. the set shall always be succeeded by an
underhung sail of the other set, and so on throughout, and thus the power of
the engine may be increased in a progressive series by doubling, tripling, or
quadrupling the number of radial arms (whatever their .length), and attaching
a boom to each pair of arms. It will probably however be found in practice
that two booms at right angles to each other placed above, and two below,
with the upper and lower. booms. attached to alternate radial arms, and each
boom carrying its pair of sails, will produce the best working effect.
confined places, as in the narrow streets and alleys of towns, where it may be
impracticable or inconvenient to have the arms and booms of the length
requisite to obtain a given amount of power, two sets of shorter arms and
booms may be employed, the one raised above the other, in which case
the triangle T must be lengthened. proportionally upwards. The arms,.
when four, six, eight, or more are employed; are connected towards their
outer extremities, as seen in Fig. 8 cross bars H, H, so as to form a
complete frame; and to prevent use and chafing as well as to steady the
sails in violent weather, a buffer rope is rove from the outer end of one arm
to an ere bolt near the inner end of another, in such a way as to receive
upon it such sail as it falls or rises (as the case may be) to a horizontal
position. The arms, booms, and sails are all made to taper outwardly, in order
that the greatest pressure on thein may be nearest the centre or.principal points
In

page_text: of support, and that they may pass easily from one position into another; and
where space will allow of it, iron sliding bars V, V, are attached to the outer
ends of the arins, as shewn in Figure 3, which may be projected more or less
beyond the arm and fixed by pins in the position assigned to them, in order
that they may help to equalize the motion of the engine in stormy or variable
weather. The average height of each sail may be about a sixth of the length
of the arm of the boom to which it is attached.. The material of which the
sail is composed may be any strong but light cloth, and it will be improved,
both in point of durability and of equality of action, by being waterproofed, or
even thin plates of iron or other metal may be employed for the purpose. The
efficiency of the sails will be in all cases the same from whatever direction the
wind may blow, or how often soever it may shift, because the sails being all
hung to fall and rise only one way, the engine can never be taken aback nor
turn in a wrong direction, whereby of necessity the maximum force or leverage
exerted is always in the required line of direction of the revolving arms and
booms. Should it be desired at any time to remove any one of several pairs of
sails, this may be readily effected by unscrewing the stops b, b, at the ends of
the boom to which the pair of sails is attached. For greater facility of raising
and lowering or shifting the sails, each sail may be attached to a separate boom,
and regulated by cords from below in manner following:-The booms of each
pair of sails, that is, of the two that are directly in a line with each other, are
united in the centre by a metal tube M, as shewn in Figure 4, in which tube one
of the booms is fixed tight, while the other is left free to turn in it. The boom
which is free to turn is then set at the proper angle by a small lever N, similar
to a common flute key but hatchet-shaped at one end, and this lever is passed
down through a hole in the metal tube into the wood of the boom, and has
attached to its other end a cord which is carried down alongside the shaft B,
through a hoop or cylinder R attached to it, and worked from below. On
pulling this cord the sail is detached. When the sails are in this state, that is,
detached from each other, they will still continue to work well as long as the
breeze is fresh; while, by attaching a down-haul to each, and also conveying
that down-haul through the hoop or cylinder R, the whole of the sails may be
struck by a single pull and the engine rendered motionless. On again letting
go the cords from below, the reaction of the counterpoises g, g, brings the sails
once more to an angle with the wind, and the levers N, in taking again, fix
them at the proper angle as regards one another, and the engine resumes its
rotary movement as before. The rotary motion imparted by the sails to the
vertical shaft or spindle B may be transferred to other machines or machinery
by any of the various means commonly used for such purposes.

page_text: And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim as my Improve-
ments in Driving Mills and other Machines or Machinery by the Power of the
Wind, is, the mounting, adjusting, and balancing of the sails of horizontal wind
engines in the manner before described, whereby they oppose themselves to
the wind in such positions as are favorable to continuous rotation in one
direction only, and to the obtaining of a great amount of duty at a small cost,
all as embodied in the "Eolian Engine," and its different modifications herein-
before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Biddle, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Second day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-six.