AN IMPROVED WATER WHEEL APPLICABLE TO" MILLS AND NAVIGABLE BODIES, AND FOR OTHER IMPROVEMENTS ALSO APPLICABLE TO"
Year: 1819

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
LAMBERT, of Princes Street, Leicester Square, in the County of Middlesex,
Laceman, send greeting.
"
WHEREAS His most, Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fourth day of December, in the sixtieth year of His reign, did,"
for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me His espe
especial
licence that I, my executors, administrators, or assigns, or such others as I or
they 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, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed,, and also within all His Majesty's Colonies and Plan-
tations abroad, my Invention for "AN IMPROVED WATER WHEEL APPLICABLE TO"
MILLS AND NAVIGABLE BODIES, AND FOR OTHER IMPROVEMENTS ALSO APPLICABLE TO""
MILLS AND NAVIGABLE BODIES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained
a proviso, obliging me, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, and to 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 recited Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that my said Invention consists of an improved water
wheel applicable to mills and navigable bodies, and for other improvements,

page_text: also applicable to mms anu navig
in their proper order.
21
little
My improved water wheel, as shewn in Figures 1, 2, and 3, represent the
paddles standing in a vertical position to the surface of the water through
which they are to pass, and in whatever situation or direction the wheel either
rests or moves the paddles preserve the same vertical position. The great
advantage derived from the paddles of a water wheel entering and quitting the
water through which such wheel revolves in a perpendicular direction has long
been admitted to be a most important and desireable measure in that class of
water wheels known-and-called engineers. "under shot wheels," either for
water mills or for navigable purposes. The benefits of working the paddles of
such wheels in a vertical position is not only the supperior hold and pressure
very
which the water takes on the paddles or floats of such wheels, but the
back water which they create on leaving it. These are the principal advan-
"tages of my improved water wheel when it is applied to the working of mills
and machinery; that is, when a fail of water is to be employed, through the
agency of a wheel, to communicate power to mills and machinery. Equal
advantages will be derived from my improved water wheels when they are to
be rendered the agents of applying power communicated to them through the
intervention of manual force, horses, wind, or steam, for the purpose of pro
pelling boats or vessels in canals, rivers, or at sea, because it will be clearly
seen that by the paddles entering and quitting the water in a vertical direction
that such wheels meet with much less resistance in their rotation, and thereby
communicate more of their power towards propelling navigable bodies than
have hitherto been attained by the ordinary fixed paddlés in water wheels for
propelling through water boats or vessels. The principle of my improved wheel
is to make the lower paddles recede from the centre of the axle and the arms
to which they are attached, while the upper paddles proceed to the centre of
the axle in equal distances as the others recede, and in the rotation of the
wheel every paddle passes through the various evolutions and positions to
which every revolution of the wheel subjects each paddle. The lower paddles
describe a greater radius of a circle than the upper paddles, and thereby travel
at an increased velocity, or rather they pass at their extreme points through a
greater space in the same period of time. This effect renders the lower half of
the wheel heavier than the upper by the eccentric position of the paddles, and
the flat ring of iron to which they are attached; and it also increases the speed
of any navigable body through the water to which such wheels are applied. I
do not, however, claim the merit of first discovering the means of giving to
the paddles of such wheels such motions and results, but for the particular mode
11

page_text: and construction of an improved wheel by which I effect and secure, these
desireable and useful ends in a manner more simple: and effectual than has
hitherto been accomplished.
:
Figures 1, 2, and 3 are views of my improved wheel with one paddle, as in
5. Fig. 1, at its greatest depth in the water. B, B, B, B, is one of the iron arm
...frames, "to which one end of, the paddles C, C, C, C, C, C, are attached by the
joint pins D, D, D, D, D, D, to the arm frames B, B, B, B., E, E, is the flat
iron, ring or eccentric circle to which the other ends of the paddles are attached
by similar joint pins F, F, F, F, F, F. G, G, are, the.. iron guard or guide
0 rollers, a section of one of which is shewn .at Fig. 4, which may either
revolve on fixed axles, or these rollers may be fixed on revolving axles, which-
ever is most convenient. The objects of these rollers are. to keep the iron
circle E, E, in its proper situation, which is an equal distant position from the
centre of the wheel shaft in a longitudinal direction, and eccentric in a vertical-
5 position to the shaft A. ¡These rollers must be placed apart from each other a.
distance exactly equal to the diameter of the iron circle E, E, consequently the
rollers G, G, must be placed in a line through the centre, of the circle, E, E, and
which will allow the circle to rub and give motion to the rollers G, G, at the speed
it revolves. The circle E, E, forms an eccentric course, while it rubs on every
0 part of its periphery against the rollers G, G., This circle E, E, may be formed.
with teeth like the rim of, a cog wheel, and in that case the rollers G, G, may,
either one or both of them, be formed into spur pinions, to fit the teeth of the
circle E, E, which would be a quick and simple mode for my improved water
wheel to work machinery. I sometimes use two flat hardened steel springs, as
5 shewn at Fig. 5, instead of the rollers G, G, to keep the circle E, E, in its
proper place, and in certain situations they will be found to answer very well.
Great care must be taken to make the joint pinholes in the iron arm
frames. B, B, B, B, exactly an equal distance apart from each other; and it
must also be observed, in piercing or drilling the joint pinholes in the circle E, E,
o that they correspond with the holes made in the arm frames B, B, B, B. It
will be always adviseable, to drill both the arm frames B, B, B, B, and the
circle. E, E, together, that the joint pinholes in all three may correspond exactly
with each other; and particularly from the centre of each. The joint pinholes.
.. in the. paddle plates or floats should also be made to correspond with each
5. other; and it is the distance of the holes from D to F in the paddles C, C, as.
..shewn at Figure 6, which determine the eccentricity of the course of the iron
ring E, E; and it is by connecting these paddles at D to the arm frames B, B, B, B,
and at F to the ring E, E, which, in the rotation of the whole by the axle A,
and by keeping the circle E, E, in its proper situation, as before, described,

page_text: "
either by the rollers G, G, or 'when the springs H, H, are substituted for the
rollers, that the paddles always preserve a vertical position to the surface of the
water, and which cause the upper paddles to approach whilst the lower paddles
recede from the centre of the axle A.
Figure 2 represents a view of the wheel combined with all the paddles con-
"nected to both frames of the wheel, with the iron ring or circle E, E placed in
the middle of the frames, and between the sides of the paddles, with the joint
pins in their proper places, with the two lower paddles at their most extended
distance from the centre of the axle A. Whilst the two upper paddles are brought
'to their nearest situation to that axle, the joint pins must either have nuts and
screws or other proper fastenings to keep them in their several places, or split
keys; the latter of which I decidedly prefer. The axle A must be properly
placed and secured in the iron frames B, B, B, B, in any of the ordinary modes
which an experienced and skilful workman will adopt. The number of sets of
paddles or floats for any one wheel must be determined according to the mag-
"nitude and duty of such wheel. It is the general construction and combination,
as described, which constitute my improved wheel, and not the number of the
12 paddles or floats, or their magnitude. I should, however, never recommend
less than six sets of paddles or floats to be combined in any wheel made on the
"plan of my improved wheel, although I am aware it would act with a less
number, but not so advantageously. The same letters in Figures 1, 2, and 3,
"represent the same parts of either of these figures, and, as far as any of the
similar parts are shewn in Figures 4, 5, and 6, the same letters and characters
distinguish them also.
'My other improvements; also applicable to mills and navigable bodies, consist
"of applying a trough or raceway to water wheels, made either on the plan of
my improved wheel, or that of any ordinary under shot water wheel. The
object of such trough or raceway, when applied to water wheels to work mills
or machinery, is, "to confine the falling stream or head of water within the
breadth of the floats or boards of the wheel, and, instead of the tail water
being carried up above its natural level by the centrifugal power of the wheel,
the bottom of my trough or raceway is left open at that part of it where the
water has spent all its useful force or power upon such wheel, while the top of
the trough or raceway is closed from the wheel, both at its head and tail, as
"near as its rotation will permit; by which means the tail water is conveyed
sufficiently by the length of the trough or raceway beyond the point where it
is first discharged, and thereby prevents as much as possible the power the
water communicated to the wheel by its gravity from hanging or acting on the
tail of the wheel to retard its force. When my trough or raceway is intended

page_text: to be used to assist the propelling of navigable bodies, the advantage of its
application to such bodies I consider of great importance, not only as it will be
found to assist the power of propulsion in such bodies, but it will add "consi-
derably to the security of the paddles and wheels used for such
purposes. When
my troughs or raceways are applied to a boat or vessel, it will be necessary to
give them as favorable a form or fish shapeness as can conveniently be adopted,
to enable them to pass through the water with all possible facility. These troughs
or raceways must be strongly secured either to the sides of the boat or vessel
or to the framing which is to carry and support the paddle wheels and their
machinery; and when the troughs or raceways are used for navigable bodies
it will then be necessary to make them open at the top, behind the tail of the
wheels, so that the back or tail water should rise to the natural surface of the
water towards the stern of such boat or vessel, and that the bottoms should"
be closed along the whole extent of the troughs or raceways. These troughs
will assist considerably in increasing the buoyancy of the vessel. As it is desireable
to let the escape of the water towards the stern of the boat or vessel be as free
as possible, so also it is essential that the water towards the head of the wheel
should be retarded a little for the purpose of compelling it to enter into the
troughs or raceways below the surface of the water, which would cause the
rotation of the wheels to suck the water into the troughs towards the head of
the wheels, and the bars placed across the ends of the trough not only retard
the entering of the water but prevent and guard any considerable bodies from
approaching the wheels, which by the exposed situation of the ordinary wheels
of steam vessels, without troughs or raceways, accidents are constantly occurring
by floating bodies striking and entangling with the wheels. These troughs or
raceways may be made of wood, iron, or other suitable materials.
Figure 7 is a side view of a water wheel, working in a trough or raceway,
for a boat or vessel. I, J, K, is a side view of a trough or raceway, open at
the end or head, as shewn in Figure 8. K, K, K, K, are the bars which are
fixed at the head of trough, and which retards the entering of the water upon
the wheel, as well as protects the wheel trough or raceway from large sub-
stances getting entangled in either. When a trough or raceway is made for a
boat or vessel it is closed wholly at the bottom from J, O, N, and open at the
top from P, P, to J, J, for the free escape of the back water.
Figure 9 is a perspective view of my trough or raceway for a water wheel
for the working of mills or machinery, closed at J, J, and P, P, and open at the
bottom at J to O for the escape of the tail water; and although the Figure 9
shews a trough or raceway similar to what I should recommend for a boat or
vessel, yet many other forms may be adopted towards the tail, which would

page_text: answer equally well for a raceway for a water wheel for working mills or
machinery, but for boats or vessels an inclined shape or fishes tail must be
preferred.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Lambert, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Third day of June, in the year of our Lord One!
thousand eight hundred and twenty.