CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS OR MECHANISM FOR DRIVING MACHINERY THROUGH THE AGENCY OF WATER
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles John Burnett, of Edinburgh, Scot-
land, Gentleman, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS OR MECHANISM FOR DRIVING MACHINERY THROUGH THE
AGENCY OF WATER."
}
Sealed the 27th May 1853, and dated the 14th February 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles John
Burnett at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 14th February 1853.
I, CHARLES JOHN BURNETT, of Edinburgh, Scotland, Gentleman, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IM-
PROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS OR MECHANISM FOR DRIVING MACHINERY THROUGH
THE AGENCY OF WATER" to be as follows:.
My Invention consists in the employment of the apparatus or
mechanism herein-after named as a substitute for water wheels, so
that instead of the well known water wheel acting intermediately.
between the body or stream of water and the machinery to be
driven, I employ other apparatus or mechanism to perform the
same mechanical function of transmitting the power arising from
the impact or pressure of the water to the machinery required to
be driven..
The more essential parts of the mechanism or apparatus consist
of a shaft or axis, to be duly supported or maintained in a position

page_text: as nearly as may be parallel to the direction of the current or pres.
sure, and having keyed or otherwise attached to or connected with
it a blade or blades, vane or vanes (analagous to the screw
propeller), the said vane or vanes being arranged so as to present
an inclined plane to the action of the motive impulse.
The rotatory motion is produced by the water's oblique impact
or pressure on the vane or vanes, blade or blades, just as in the
common windmill the current of air produces a similar effect; the
plane of rotation being in both these cases at right angles to the
direction of the motive impulse, instead of parallel with it, as in the
more ordinary water wheels.
The precise form, number, structure, connexion, arrangement of
any part or parts of the apparatus may be varied according to cir-
cumstances, provided I adhere to the principle of my Invention,
which may be characterized as the converse of the screw propeller.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, filed by the said Charles John Burnett in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 21st July 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
CHARLES JOHN BURNETT, of Edinburgh, Scotland, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of February, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in
the sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Charles John Burnett,
Her special license that I, the said Charles John Burnett, my
éxecutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Charles John Burnett, my executors, administrators, and assigns;
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed;
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel

page_text: Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS OR MECHANISM FOR DRIVING MACHINERY THROUGH THE
AGENCY OF WATER," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Charles John Burnett, by an instrument in writing under-
my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to
be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
:
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles John Burnett, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement (that is to say):
My Invention of certain improvements in apparatus or mechanism
for driving machinery through the agency of water is designed as
a substitute for the older water wheels, whereby the motive force
of water may be employed to drive machinery through the medium
of apparatus or mechanism capable of being adapted to various lo-
calities and circumstances for which the ordinary water wheels are
not so applicable.
'
And the peculiar character of my Invention may be understood
by considering it as bearing a similar relation to the screw pro-
peller, to that which the ordinary water wheel (more particularly
the under-shot water wheel) bears to the ordinary paddle wheel
propeller with straight floats. The essential parts of my apparatus
are the central shaft or axis to be duly supported or otherwise
inaintained in a position parallel with the direction of the motion-
imparting current or pressure, and having keyed or otherwise
attached to it, directly or indirectly, a vane or vanes, blade or blades;
the said blade or blades, vane or varies, being presented obliquely
to the impact or pressure, by the action of which their motion is to
be produced. The most distinctive features of this arrangement
are, first, the oblique presentation of the motion-receiving surface to
the action of the motive impulse; secondly, the parallelism of the
axis of rotation with, the direction of the motive impulse. From

page_text: these peculiarities it obviously follows, that the revolution of this
apparatus will be performed in a plane at right angles with the
direction of the current or pressure by which it is caused, instead
of in a plane parallel with the direction of the current or pressure,
as in the cases of the common under-shot, over-shot, and breast
wheels, in which the axis is placed at right angles with the direction
of the motive force employed.
It is to be understood that I do not confine or bind myself to
any particular construction for dimension, mode of support, or sus-
pension for the central axis or shaft, or to any particular number or
form, whether straight, spiral, or otherwise curved, for the impulse
receiving vane or vanes, blade or blades; or to any particular form
in which it or they are to be placed round, or arranged, or dis
tributed in relation to the central axis or shaft; or to any particular
mode in which they are to be attached to or connected with the
same, whether direct or indirect, immediate or intermediate; or to
any particular angle which they are to present to the surface of the
water or (in case such a facility should in any case prove desirable)
to any particular contrivance by which they should be rendered
capable of being feathered or having their angle of presentation to
the motive force changed or annihilated, so as to impart the facility
of decreasing or accelerating, reversing or arresting, the rotation of
the apparatus, or of performing all or any of these opérations; or
to any particular mode of collecting, confining, or conducting the
water, should such process or processes be in any case advisable so
as to enable or cause it to act on the apparatus in the manner
deemed most advantageous; but I reserve full power and entire
liberty to make and adopt any such particular or general modi
fication or modifications in any or every part or parts or the
whole of this apparatus, or in the number of any part or parts,
or the position of any or every part or parts in relation to
each other, or to the moving force or the machinery to be driven,
as may prove desirable or requisite, according to the more or less
abundant supply of water, or to the greater or smaller force of
the same, or other circumstance or circumstances, feature or

page_text: features, peculiar to the different localities as well as the different
descriptions of machinery to be driven, and the particular power
or velocity required in each individual case, as well as to make
or adopt at any time any such alterations, additions, or improve-
ments in the form, dimensions, structure or disposal of any of
the parts or the whole of my apparatus, or in the application to it
of the moving force, as time, thought, and experience may suggest.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I would have it understood
that I do not claim as of my Invention any particular form of
oblique or curved vanes or blades, or any particular mode of
mounting or supporting the shaft or axis of the vanes or blades; ;
neither do I confine myself to the use of any particular form of
vanes or blades, or of mounting or supporting their shafts or axes:
but what I do claim as of my Invention is, the adaptation and
application as described of the apparatus or mechanism, consisting
of oblique or curved vanes or blades on fixed shafts or axes in such
a manner as that the water may act on the surface of the vanes or
blades in an oblique direction, just as in the case of the screw pro-
peller the vanes or blades are made to act upon the water.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles John Burnett, have
hereunto set iny hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of July,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-three.
5
Witness,
JAMES SMITH.
CHARLES JOHN BURNETT. (L.S.)