IMPROVEMENTS IN WATER-PRESSURE
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Edwards Amos, of the Grove, in the Borough
of Southwark, Engineer, and John Francis, of Bangor, in North Wales;
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN WATER-PRESSURE
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Edwards Amos
and John Francis at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 28th January 1859.
We, CHARLES EDWARDS AMOS, of the Grove, in the Borough of Southwark,
Engineer, and JOHN FRANCIS, of Bangor, in North Wales, Engineer, do.
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WATER-
PRESSURE ENGINES, AND THEIR APPLICATION TO PUMPING MACHINERY," to be as
follows:-
Our Invention of improvements in water-pressure engines, and their appli-
cation to pumping machinery, relates, in the first place, to an improved mode
of constructing the slide valve, whereby the passage of the water is controlled,
so that towards the end of the stroke of the piston a communication is opened
between the back and front of the piston, in order that the latter may be in
equilibrium. The object of this improvement is to prevent the water on one
side of the piston from being imprisoned as the piston rises, and which would
occasion a jar to the machinery by the piston striking against the solid and
imprisoned body of water. This inconvenience is prevented by allowing a

page_text: portion of the water in front of the piston to pass by the slide valve to the
back of the piston as the latter advances.
The second part of our Invention relates to the mode of applying the power
of pressure engines to pumping machinery. This improvement consists in
adapting the connecting rods of the pressure engine and the connecting rods
of the pumping machinery to the same pin or pins of the crank shaft.
In carrying out this part of our Invention we prefer to employ three pressure
cylinders and three pumping cylinders, and to arrange the direction of the
stroke of the piston of the pressure cylinders and the buckets of the pumping
cylinders at about an angle of 60 degrees to each other. By this means
great uniformity and regularity of motion of the crank shaft is obtained. If
two pressure cylinders and pumping cylinders are employed, the cranks should
be placed at right angles to each other, but if one pumping and one pressure
cylinder only are used, then a fly-wheel would be required to ensure regularity
of motion.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Edwards Amos and John Francis in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 28th July 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, CHARLES
EDWARDS AMOS, of the Grove, in the Borough of Southwark, Engineer, and
JOHN FRANCIS, of Bangor, in North Wales, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Charles Edwards Amos and John Francis, Her special license
that we, the said Charles Edwards Amos and John Francis, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Charles Edwards
Amos and John Francis, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
WATER-PRESSURE ENGINES, AND THEIR APPLICATION TO PUMPING MACHINERY," upon
the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Charles Edwards Amos and
John Francis, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or

page_text: under the hand and seal of one of us, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain 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 Edwards Amos, on behalf
of myself and of the said John Francis, do hereby declare the nature of our
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement,
reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the letters
and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
This Invention relates, in the first place, to an improved mode of con-
structing the slide valves of water-pressure engines, the object being to
prevent the water from being imprisoned towards the completion of the stroke
of the piston between the piston and one or other of the cylinder heads, the
effect of which has been to occasion a jar to the machinery that is very
detrimental to its stability.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 shews in longitudinal section a
water-pressure cylinder fitted with our improved arrangement of slide valve,
which will be found entirely tove the defect above referred to. a, a, is
the valve, which may be worked directly from an excentric on the crank shaft
of the engine, or otherwise, as thought desirable. This valve, it will be seen,
has no inside lap, the object being that when in the position shown in the
Drawing, at which time the piston b of the water-pressure cylinder c is com-
pleting its stroke, a communication will be established through the passages
d, d, between the opposite ends of the cylinder; thus, instead of the water
which the piston is driving before it in completing its stroke being imprisoned
and compressed, it will be free to escape before the piston, and thus the
water being in equilibrium on both sides of the piston, the engine will be
relieved of the shock that would otherwise be produced. To the back of the
valve a a kind of trunk piston (which is capable of sliding in a cylindrical
projection of the valve box) is connected by a link for the purpose of equalizing
the pressure of the supply water on the slide valve.
The second part of our Invention relates to the mode of applying the power
of pressure engines to pumping machinery. This improvement consists in
adapting the connecting rods of the pistons of the several pressure-engine
cylinders respectively to the crank shaft by a pin that connects a lifting rod of
the pumping machinery to the same crank shaft.
In carrying out this part of our Invention, we prefer to employ three

page_text: -
pressure cylinders and three pumping, cylinders, as shewn at Figures 2, 3,
and 4, Fig. 2 being a side elevation of a pressure engine combined with
pumping machinery, according to our Invention; Fig. 3, a plan view, with
the pump rods and the movements for working the slides omitted; and Fig. 4
a front elevation, with the connecting rods of the motive cylinders, and also
the movements for working the slide valves, omitted. A, A, A, are the
pressure cylinders, and B, B, B, the connecting rods of their pistons attached
to their respective crank pins C, C, C, to which the lifting rods D, D, D, of
the pumps E, E, E, are connected. We prefer to arrange the direction of
the stroke of the pistons of the pressure cylinders and the buckets of the
pumping cylinders, to which they are respectively connected at about an angle
of sixty degrees to each other. By this means great uniformity and regularity
of motion of the crank shaft are obtained. If two pressure cylinders and
pumping cylinders are employed, the cranks should be placed at right angles
to each other, but if one pumping and one pressure cylinder only are used,
then a fly-wheel would be required to ensure regularity of motion with our
improved mode of connection.
The main advantage of our improved arrangement for transmitting the
power of water-pressure engines to lifting pumps will be seen to be simplicity
of construction.
Having now set forth the nature of our Invention of "Improvements in
Water-pressure Engines, and their Application to Pumping Machinery," and
explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, we wish it to be under-
stood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent, we claim,-
First, placing the piston of water-pressure engines in equilibrio, at or near
the end of the stroke, in the manner and for the purpose above described.
And, secondly, connecting together the piston rods and lifting rods of water-
pressure engines and pumps, in the manner above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Edwards Amos, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-eighth day of July, in the of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
year
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
C. E. AMOS. (L.S.)