IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING. AND MULTIPLYING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Melville Clark at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 23rd April 1868.-A. communication from abroad by François
Jobard, Gentleman, of 29, Boulevart St. Martin, Paris.
I, ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention.
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING. AND MULTIPLYING MOTIVE
POWER," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a combination of parts forming an improved
motor whereby increased power may be produced and applied. This
motor consists of two fly wheels independent one of the other, mounted.
in the same plane, the ends of their shafts being contiguous to each.
other. Two pullies are mounted at each end of these shafts, the one
fixed, the other loose, and provided with a band, by means of which
the fixed pullies are driven alternately for setting the fly wheels in.
motion. These four pullics are of equal diameter so that the driving;
band may be readily transferred from one to the other; the two pullies,
fitted one at the end of each shaft are loose and made only half the

page_text: breadth of the fixed pullies, so that the two together have a surface
equal to one of said fixed pullies. These two movable pullies are so
fitted for the purpose of transferring the belt from one to the other of
the fixed pullies without actuating them, by reason of the difference
of speed imparted as the belt would meet with an obstacle to its motion
were it to be placed at the same time on two fixed pullies having
different speeds.
This improved motor may be set in motion in different ways, either
by means of water, steam, gas, or air engine or by animal or human
power. Each fly wheel should have a speed imparted to it by suitable.
motive power of twelve, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, or thirty yards per
second at its periphery and both at nearly the same time. On attaining
this speed the power or momentum of each fly wheel is alternately
utilized but so as only to reduce the speed a few yards per second, care
being taken to restore this speed to the same degree it had previously
acquired, which is effected by acting alternately on the two pullies
fixed near the ends of the fly wheel shafts. The amount of power
acquired per second by each fly wheel should be ascertained when
quickening it by the aid of the principal motor, in order that it shall
only accomplish its due proportion and preserve the equilibrium in the
working of the apparatus. This may be found by verifying the number
of yards or fractions of yards of speed acquired per second when set
in-action by the motor, as it is in proportion to the square of their
velocity that they are more or less capable of producing the power.
Clutches are employed for throwing the apparatus in and out of gear in
such manner that when the one fly wheel is thrown into gear with
the motive power the other which has just received motion therefrom
is thrown into gear with the shaft to be driven, or fast and loose pullies
may be substituted for the clutches, in which case one pulley would
be fixed on the fly wheel shaft, and the other mounted loosely on
the shaft carrying the fixed pullies. The motion would still be alternate
as with the couplings, while the belt would also be shifted from one
to the other the same as before.
By this arrangement the endless chains and pullies employed for
transmitting the power from the fly wheel shafts may be dispensed
with and ordinary strap pullies substituted, the shifting of the straps
being operated by the aid of a lever similar to that for moving the
strap setting the fly wheels in motion.

page_text: It should be remarked that in order to prevent the straps of these
pullies acting at same time on both the fixed pullies driven by the
fly wheels a loose pulley should be placed at each side of the apparatus
of double the width of the fixed pulley, by the aid of which one of
the straps may be transferred to one of the fixed pullies while the
other only acts on the loose pulley. This is necessary in consequence
of the difference of speed of the fixed pullies driven by the fly wheels,
which is constantly varying on account of the shaft carrying the pulley
used for transmitting the power produced to any apparatus being suc-
cessively set in action by the parts on which the fly wheels act, otherwise
the two straps would exert a pressure on said shaft with a difference
of speed, the strap also slipping on one or other of the pullics acting
on this shaft so as to cause a loss of power.