IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PROPULSION BY ATMOSPHERIC
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Sir John Scott Lillie, Knight and Companion of
the Bath, of 104, Pall Mall, in the County of Middlesex, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PROPULSION BY ATMOSPHERIC
Sealed the 15th August 1865, and dated the 3rd March 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Sir John Scott Lillie at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd March 1865.
I, Sir JOHN SCOTT LILLIE, Knight and Companion of the Bath, of 104, Pall
Mall, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PROPULSION BY ATMOSPHERIC
PRESSURE," to be as follows, that is to say :-
My improvements consist in propelling carriages by a partial exhaustion of
the air on one side of a piston or surface, which piston or surface passes
through a partially closed tunnel, which tunnel may be constructed underneath
or alongside of a railway, having valves in its side or other convenient part,
which rise and fall as the carriages pass, such carriages being attached to this
piston by rods, chains, or ropes.

page_text: When these tunnels are placed alongside a railway they may be made to
serve also as platforms for passengers, as shewn in Figure 3 of the ac-
companying Drawing, in which a, a, is the tunnel; b, the rod connecting the
propelling piston to the carriages; c, c, supporting wheels; d, valves, which
rise and fall as the carriages e pass.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section, and Figure 2 a transverse section,
shewing carriages running on the exterior of a tunnel. a, a, is the tunnel;
b, connecting rod; c, supporting wheels; d, the piston; e, valve; f, carriages.
By these means canals can be converted into railways by removing the
water and substituting tunnels or covered ways, as above described, or running
trains in the open air on rails placed at the bottom or sides.
I propose removing the air from these tunnels or covered ways by the
attractive force of currents of elastic fluids passed through cylinders. I will
assume, for instance, the area of a jet of steam to be one inch, and to be
passed through a cylinder three feet long by six inches wide, by the attractive
force of the current thus produced the required object will be accomplished.
Currents of air have been thus produced for the ventilation of coal mines and
blast furnaces, but never applied for atmospheric propulsion, I therefore claim
the novelty of their application for such purposes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Sir John Scott Lillie in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 16th August 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
SCOTT LILLIE, Knight and Companion of the Most Honorable Military Order
of the Bath, of 104, Pall Mall, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Scott Lillie, Her special licence that I, the said John
Scott Lillie, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said John Scott Lillie, 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 Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS

page_text: IN PROPULSION BY ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said John Scott Lillie, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Scott Lillie, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
These improvements consist in causing tunnels to be constructed under-
neath or alongside of railways, the trains to be propelled by pistons inside
these tunnels, connected by chains or iron bars passed through valves at the
side or other convenient part of such tunnels.
Also in the conversion of canals into railways by the removal of the water,
and substitution of tunnels or covered ways in which the carriages are to be
propelled by atmospheric pressure on lines of rails laid on the bottom or sides
of such canals.
If trains travelling in covered ways are preferred, two such covered ways
or tunnels can be constructed by a wall erected longitudinally along the
centre of the canal, and roofed in, by one of which trains could be moved in
one direction, and by the other in an opposite direction, whereby liabilities to
collisions and other accidents now so much complained of would be provided
against.
For the removal of the air from the front of the propelling pistons to which
trains or carriages are to be attached, I propose using the attractive force of
currents of elastic fluids, such as steam jets, or meal powder, as used in
rockets, passed through cylinders of about six times the diameter of the
steam jet or rocket case, and about six diameters in length; but I do not
confine myself in any of these details to any particular dimensions, as the
same may be modified without any departure from the principle upon which
these improvements are based. I also propose to propel carriages by the
removal of the air from their front by means of such currents passed through.
horizontal cylinders placed underneath the centre of such carriages, as thus
described.
The accompanying Drawing will serve to illustrate to a certain extent the
nature of these improvements.
Figure 1 is a side elevation, and Figure 2 a transverse section describing a

page_text: train running on the exterior, or on rails placed on the perpendicular sides of
a tunnel; and Figure 3 is a section showing a tunnel alongside a railway, the
said tunnel to serve also as a platform for passengers if required.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Scott Lillie, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
JOHN SCOTT LILLIE. (L.s.)
Witness to the signature of
Sir John Scott Lillie,
SAMUEL M. WELLS,
1, Manchester Buildings,
Parliament Street, S.W.