A FLYING
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Kinnersley Smythies, of 27, Kensington Park
Gardens, in the Parish of Saint Mary Abbotts, Kensington, in the
County of Middlesex, Barrister-at-Law, for the Invention of "A FLYING
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Kinnersley Smythies
at the Oflice of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition on the
29th February 1860.
I, JOHN KINNERSLEY SMYTHIES, of 27, Kensington Park Gardens, in the
Parish of Saint Mary Abbotts, Kensington, in the County of Middlesex, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A FLYING ENGINE," to
be as follows:-
A tubular or a Hancock's boiler, with the tubes or other passages for heated
air as numerous and small as possible, and heated by the combustion of oil or
some liquid fuel injected into the furnace of the boiler in vapour, so as to
admit of an extreme subdivision of the heating air and heated water without
clogging the minute air passages, has attached to each side a sector cylinder,
which is a steam chamber, wherein the piston turning round a fixed axis
oscillates like a door on its hinge by an arrangement of valves similar to that
of other steam engines. The prolongation of each piston's axis is a rocking
shaft turning round at each oscillation of the piston through the same angle.

page_text: On each shaft is fixed a wing, so that piston shaft and wing form one solid,
on which the steam acts directly to flap the wings. Each wing is formed of
pieces, the number not being essential, which I call feathers. Each feather
consists of a long tapering, flexible, and elastic rod of steel, whose base is fixed
firmly on the rocking shaft, and whose apex is fixed to a wire, whose other end
is so fixed to the shaft as to bend the rod. The surface between the rod and
wire is covered with silk or thin sheets of gutta percha.. Each successive
feather from the front backwards slightly overlaps the preceding, so that every
feather but the last is supported against the air's resistance in the down stroke.
by the rod of the next feather overlapping it's wire, and the whole descends as
one entire surface. The last feather is bent by the air's resistance into an
oblique position, which gives a forward impulse, while the rest gives an, upward
one. In the wing's upward stroke, the feathers not supporting each other fly
apart, and assume that oblique position which causes nearly the least resistance
to the air, and a slight forward impulse. Wings like those of bats may also
be used. A seat for the rider is fixed to the boiler between the wings, so that
he can by slightly inclining his body throw the centre of gravity of the engine
and himself together behind the line joining the middle of the pistons, when
he will ascend, or before it, when he will descend, or nearer to one wing than
the other, when he will turn to the side of that wing which he approaches.
He may also turn by checking the access of the steam to one piston by a
throttle valve, and thus enfeebling the stroke of one wing. To alight gently,
the engine should have an expanded tail of silk on a light frame and long
elastic legs, and for long flights a condenser, to diminish the weight of water
carried.
SPECIFICATION
in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Kinnersley Smythies in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 29th August 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
KINNERSLEY SMYTHIES, of 27, Kensington Park Gardens, in the Parish of
St: Mary Abbott's, Kensington, in the County of Middlesex, Barrister-at-Law,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, hearing date the Twenty-ninth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Kinnersley Smythies, Her special licence that I, the said

page_text: John Kinnersley Smythies, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said John Kinnersley Smythies, 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 King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man,
an Invention for "A FLYING ENGINE," upon the condition (amongst others)
that 1, the said John Kinnersley Smythics, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, 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 John Kinnersley Smythics, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:--
My Invention consists in constructing a flying engine, by greatly reducing
the weight of a steam engine and boiler when obtaining a given power, and
of the water and fuel necessary to work the engine at its full power, by the
means herein-after described, and in adapting a light steam engine to give an
alternating motion to one pair of wings, or it may be more than one pair of
wings, so as to sustain and carry the engine and load by the action of the
wings. The requisite lightness in respect to the boiler is obtained by a very
minute subdivision of the current of hot air passing through the boiler, com-
bined with the use of liquid or gaseous fuel, regulated when burning as
herein-after described, for preventing smoke, so as to admit of such minute
subdivision of the hot air through the boiler without liability of the air
passages becoming clogged with soot or solid particles. The fuel preferred is
a liquid or gaseous hydrocarbon, as being capable of producing the greatest
heat with a given weight. The reduction of the requisite weight of water for
working the engine is by condensing the steam from the engine by the means
herein-after described. Though the flight of the engine is best secured by the
combination of all these means, yet it may be obtained with other fuels.without
the condensor, and with other modes of applying the steam to cause the wings
to flap.
The following is a description of a flying angina adantad to COPY
مسم

page_text: Figure 1 shows a vertical section through the centre of the fire-box, boiler,
and chimney. The fire-box consists of two concentric cylinders A, A', the
interior one being divided into two compartments, which I call the flame
chamber (a) and mixing chamber (b), by a diaphragm of platinum wire
gauze (c), and has a second wire gauze stretched over its end (d). The
exterior cylinder is continued lower, and has a bottom of solid metal, with an
aperture of about an area of 5 square inches at (e). A circular cotton wick
()surrounds the interior cylinder between the two wire gauzes, kept con-
stantly soaked with the liquid fuel by means of two thick cotton wicks in the
tubes B, B, communicating with the reservoir C by means of the tube E, and
raising up the liquid by capillary attraction. The circular wick is made to
extend higher or lower, according as the volatility of the liquid is less or more,
so as to obtain a sufficient supply of vapour. This vapour descends the tube F
into the chamber G, and through numerous small holes (g, g,) into the mixing
chamber (b), where it mixes with the ascending air, and is burnt above the
higher wire gauze in the flame chamber (a). The quantity of the vapour is
regulated by the screw (h) carrying the conical head (i) more or less into the
aperture of the tube F, according to the indications of the Breguet's thermo-
meter in the chimney, read on a scale placed in any convenient spot.
So long as an increase of vapour causes the thermometer to rise there will be
no smoke, and the quantity of vapour admitted must not exceed that which
just causes the greatest heat in the chimney.
The supply of vapour may also be regulated by sliding the circular wick (S)
higher or lower as in a common lamp, or by both methods combined. The
liquid fuel should be contained in one or more reservoirs, so placed and formed
that the centre of gravity of the liquid is always in the vertical line passing
through the centre of gravity of the engine, so that the consumption of the
fuel shall not shift the centre of gravity of the whole. The boiler His
cylindrical, with "vertical tubes placed with a space between them equal to
their diameter, and passing through every part except the space occupied by
the steam pipe T. The water is kept at a fixed height, which may be regulated
so as to superheat the steam more or less by keeping the water at a less or
greater height. This depends on the amount of water supplied at first to the
boiler and water reservoir, because the whole engine being enveloped with
oiled or varnished silk, the whole steam is condensed and runs into the
reservoir J (Figures 4 and 6), which is a pocket formed in the lowest part of
the silk, and is thence pumped up by the feed pump K (Figures 2 and 6).
:

page_text: By making the stroke of this pump rather more than enough to pump up the
water as it collects, the reservoir is kept empty, and all the water is constantly
in the boiler, except that in the form of steam, which is very nearly uniform
in quantity. Hancock's boiler may be used, or any other which gives an
equally great heating surface for a given weight as that described, and super-
heats the steam. The steam cylinder L, (Figure 2, an end view, and Figure 3,
a side view,) with its slide valves, is the same as in common steam engines,
and to the end of the piston are pin jointed two levers M, M, on which are
two sliding collars (1, 1) capable of being set at any distance from the end of
the piston rod within a range of from five to eleven inches by the set screws
(m, m.) Each sliding collar is pin jointed to a vibrating link (n, n,) whose
other ends are pin jointed to the bottom of the steam cylinder. These
levers M have each a cross piece N, N, curved to a radius of eighteen inches,
into which are fixed the six long rods 0, 0, 0, (Figure 7,) made by
preference of flexible and elastic steel about 21 feet long. To the ends of
these rods cords are attached, passing through holes in the cross piece, so that
cach cord passes behind the rod to which it is attached, and through a hole in
the cross piece N about five inches from the insertion of the rod, each cord,
except the last, passing under the rod next behind it, the cords of each wing
passing through a ring close to the point where the nearest of the vibrating
links is jointed to the cylinder, and thence to the nearest of the two rods
supporting the seat, so that the cords coming from the right wing are fastened.
to the seat close to the right hand of the rider, and the cords coming from the
left wing similarly arranged, and all stretched to bend the rods till the end of
each, except the last, nearly touches the next behind it. The space between
the bent rods and cords is covered by preference with a close or varnislied silk,
though other material might be used, and the length of the cords is to be so
adjusted that the straight line from the centre of pressure of one wing to that
of the other passes through or very near to the vertical line through the centre'
of gravity. The weight of the parts of the engine should also be so adjusted
as to bring the centre of gravity nearly in the line of the steam cylinder's axis.
The seat is suspended from the cylinder and fixed by a moveable adjustment
according to the weight of the rider, so that the centre of gravity of the whole
(flying engine and rider included) may be nearly in the line of the steam
cylinder's axis. The whole of the flying engine, except the wings, seat, and
oil reservoir, is enveloped with a covering of oiled or varnished silk, or other
light air-tight covering, stretched out into a wide flat form by the rods P, P, P, P,
(Figures 4, 5, and 6,) and supported by light cords, over which the silk is
drawn like a bag, and made nearly air-tight. Within this case the steam passing

page_text: from the steam cylinder and escaping from the safety valve is confined, and is
therein condensed, the water collecting round the bottom of the fire-box casing,
whence it is pumped into the boiler. The flying engine is guided by shifting
the relative positions of the centre of gravity and the centres of pressure of
the wings, ascending when the centre of gravity is behind the line joining the
centre of pressure, descending when before it, turning to the right when the
centre of gravity approaches the centre of pressure of the right wing, and to
the left when it approaches the centre of pressure of the left wing. The
centre of gravity is shifted by the inclination of the rider backward to ascend,
forward to descend, and sideways to turn; and the centres of pressure are
shifted forwards by pulling the three first cords of each wing. backwards by
pulling the three last, and sideways by pulling all the cords of one wing.
These modes may be combined, as if the rider leans to the right and pulls the
cords of the left wing, both actions turn the engine to the right. The cords
should be fastened at the end to rings put on a hook near the arm of the chair
or seat, so that the rider by slipping the rings on each side off their hooks may
cause the rods to straighten and draw the cords close to them, thus doubling
up the silk and throwing it loose to avoid the action of the wind as soon as he
alights. The rods which stretch the silk envelope, also turn on joints, and may
be closed for the same purpose. Elastic legs should be added to break the fall
on alighting. The boiler and steam cylinder are surrounded by an interior
envelope of oiled or varnished silk fitted closely to the before-mentioned
envelope at top, and extending to the bottom of the boiler and cylinder, and
there left open, so that the steam escaping from the cylinder and safety valve
enters the first-named envelope below the boiler and cylinder, which are thus
kept surrounded by steam. To raise the steam at first some volatile com-
bustible liquid is poured on the bottom of the fire-box casing through the air
entrance, and the small spirit lamp below it lighted, and when the vapour
rises it is fired by a match introduced into the flame chamber through the
match tube 2, and the combustion of this heats the circular cotton wick ()
enough to raise vapour to continue the action. Any suitable mode of supplying
the vapour of the lighted fuel may be used, provided the quantity can be
regulated by the indication of a thermometer in the chimney or fire-box, either
self-acting or not, and the vapour issues through numerous small holes, so as
to be well mixed with the air before combustion.
Other forms of steam boilers may be employed which will sufficiently
subdivide the current of hot air when used in combination with liquid or
gaseous fuel and the means of preventing smoke, which are the necessary
conditions of small air passages through the boiler, though one which super-

page_text: heats the steam to a degree capable of adjustment is to be preferred.
Other constructions of steam cylinders may be used to work the wings,
such as where the pistons vibrate on axes, and make a partial rotation with
their axes.
The wings admit of various modifications, and may be made with any
number of rods, and have various widths of silk fitted to each; the rods also
may be jointed and fold together in their ascent, and expand in their descent
like the wings of a bird or bat, the only essential point being that their
resistance to the air in ascending should be small compared with that in
descending. The upper portion of the silk of the condenser may be made of
silk, neither oiled nor varnished, nor otherwise made air-tight.
To adapt the engine to carry several passengers nothing more is necessary
than greater size and more seats, which should be arranged behind each other
longitudinally to diminish the air's resistance.
For large flying engines it would be advisable to have several pairs of
wings, each pair being worked by a separate steam cylinder. In this case the
ascent or descent may be conveniently regulated by diminishing the supply of
the steam to the hindermost cylinder to rise, and to the foremost to descend.
The smoothness of its motion would also be promoted by so arranging the
valves that each piston on reaching its highest point opens the steam port at
the bottom of the nearest piston, so that when there are an even number of
pairs of equal wings as many wings should be descending as ascending, and
where the number of pairs of wings is odd, that the total effect of those
descending together should be equal to that of those ascending together.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I make no claim to any
of the mechanical parts separately, nor do I confine myself to the details
herein described, as variations may be made therein; but what I claim is,
the combining mechanism into a flying engine as herein described, whereby
wings actuated by a steam engine or engines cause such flying engine to be
raised and impelled through the air by their alternating motion.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Kinnersley Smythies, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
J. K. SMYTHIES. (L.S.)

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