MY INVENTION OF A NEW METHOD OF APPLYING AN ELEMENTARY OR PHYSICAL POWER TO BLAST FUR- NACES, AND ALL OTHER WORKS WHERE POWER IS REQUIRED
Year: 1798

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
HINDMARSI, of Walworth, in the County of Surry, Printer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of November, in the thirty-ninth
year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Robert Hindmarsh, His
especial licence, that I, the said Robert Hindmarsh, during the term of years
therein mentioned, should and lawfully might nse, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, "MY INVENTION OF A
NEW METHOD OF APPLYING AN ELEMENTARY OR PHYSICAL POWER TO BLAST FUR-
NACES, AND ALL OTHER WORKS WHERE POWER IS REQUIRED;" in which said Patent
there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Robert Hindmarsh, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and scal, to cause a particular descrip-
tion of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
four calendar months after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as
in and by the same, (relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at
large appear).
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Hindmarsh, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in
manner following:-

page_text: It is well known that the pressure of water and other fluid bodies in any
containing vessel is in proportion to the altitude of the fluid, without any
regard to the quantity; thus, if a cylindrical or otherwise figured vessell, whose
bottom, for example, is three feet in diameter, have a close top, with a tube
twenty feet high fitted into it, and the vessel and tube when full contain only
one pint of water, which weighs only one pound, yet the pressure of this
water upon the bottom of the said vessel will be equal to 10737 pounds
which is the same as it would be were the vessel a perfect cylinder twenty feet
high and three feet in diameter throughout, and filled with water; and this
pressure is exerted, not only in a downward direction upon the bottom of the
vessel, but, by the peculiar property of fluids, is also exerted with the same
It is of no
power at equal depths, upwards, laterally, and in all directions.
consequence whether the tube be perpendicular or inclined, the pressure being
always in proportion to the absolute height of the fluid and the base against
which it presses, whatever the form of the vessel or tube may be.
This
wonderful property of fluid bodies is called the hydrostatic paradox, and tho'
long known to scientific men, has hitherto been thought incapable of being
applied to machinery with any mechanical advantage; but having discovered
a method of bringing it into effect, it is in the application thereof, under an
indefinite variety of forms, that the principle of my said Invention consists.
Suppose a stream of water to run from the side of a hill or other elevated
situation into a tube communicating with the top and bottom of a cylinder,
suppose three feet in diameter, in which is a movable piston, water-tight, with
a rod working thro' a stuffing box also water-tight. If, by means of a cock or
valve, the communication be opened for the water to pass into the cylinder
below the piston, while the communication with the part above the piston is
cut off by another cock or valve, the water will force the piston up, and by
shutting the cock or valve below, and opening that above, the piston will be
forced down again. N.B. When the piston descends, the water below it
passes off thro' a pipe at the bottom of the cylinder, and when the piston
ascends, the water above it passes off thro' a pipe at the top of the cylinder,
the cocks or valves of which pipes are previously opened for that purpose, and
thus the piston is worked alternately upward and downward with a power
equal to 5368 pounds if the water in the tube be ten feet high, with a power
equal to 10787 pounds if it be twenty feet high, with a power equal to
21475 pounds if it be forty feet high, and with a power equal to 53689
pounds if it be 100 feet high, the power increasing in arithmetica pro-
portion according to the altitude of the water in the tube, and in geometrical
...
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page_text: proportion according to the diameter or surface of the base against which the
water presses. On this principle the piston rod, by being connected in the
usual way
with machinery of any kind, will act upon it with great advantage,
being applicable to blast furnaces, to mills of every description, to cranes for
raising and lowering goods, &c., to pumps, presses, and all other machinery
where power is required.
The above description is given on a supposition that the water which
works the piston of the cylinder runs away, either wholly or partially,
in waste. But the following description shews how the same water may
be returned back so as to work the machine over and over again, and
consequently how the principle of this Invention may be applied in all
situations, even where there is no natural fall of water. In addition to the
before-mentioned cylinder let there be provided a second cylinder, suppose
four feet in diameter, with a piston water-tight, the rod of which communicates
motion to any other machinery. Upon this piston let there be placed weights
equal to 20282 pounds. The piston. being down with this great weight upon
it, is raised in the following manner:-At the bottom of this second cylinder
a tube is inserted, the lower part of which may be of iron or other strong
materials, and the rest of leather for the convenience of bending.
The upper
end of this terminates in a large cup or reservoir capable of holding as much
water as will fill the cylinder at the bottom of the tube, and the cup so filled
to the end of the tube is placed at the top of a wheel, which we will suppose
to be twenty feet or more above the cylinder, and of a diameter sufficient to
answer the undermentioned purpose; pour water into the cup, and it will
descend thro' the tube into the cylinder below the piston, which will be imediately
forced up (say two, three, or more feet), together with the weight of 20282 pounds
upon it; the piston being elevated, the cylinder is now full of water, as is the
tube up to the bottom of the cup, which itself is empty. In order to discharge
the water from this second cylinder and permit the piston to be again depressed,
the wheel, by a connecting rod or other medium passing between it and the
piston of the first cylinder while at work, is caused to make half a revolution,
by which motion the empty cup, together with the upper end of the tube, is
lowered to the bottom of the wheel, and consequently the pressure of the
water against the under part of the piston of the second cylinder is so far
taken off that the great weight of 20282 pounds upon the piston presses it
downwards and urges the water out of the cylinder thro' the tube, into the cup,
which cup is again elevated to its former position by another half revolution
of the wheel, effected as before by the piston rod of the first cylinder, and so
on alternately, without any loss of water in the second cylinder. The waste

page_text: water from the first cylinder may run into a reservoir, and be raised thence
to its former situation by the action of the piston in the second cylinder,
working a pump or other engine, besides having sufficient power to drive other
machinery. The elevation and depression of the cup and upper end of the
tube may also be effected in a variety of other ways, as by a man or a horse
working it; but the method here described is sufficient to explain this part of
the principle of my Invention, which consists in applying and taking off, in
certain required proportions, the pressure of water in the cylinder, by alter-
nately elevating and depressing the upper end of the tube, on the altitude of
which full of water, depends the momentum of the power produced. Or the
same effect may be produced by substituting a heavy rolling weight, suppose of
nine tuns, instead of the second cylinder with its apparatus; this weight, by
means of the piston rod of the first cylinder, is to be made to roll withinside
the arch of a large wheel, like that of a crane, backwards and forwards over
the center of a balance, the framework of which is so contrived as to keep the
rolling weight always on the same level, while the balance moves freely up
and down. In the above descriptions no allowance is made for the friction of
the pistons in the two cylinders, as is usual in other machines, for having
invented a method of working the pistons without any friction at all, I apply
the power thereby saved to the actual working of the machinery itself, and
therefore the said method of working without friction is considered as a part
of my said Invention, and is described as follows:-Let the piston be fitted to
the cylinder, but neither air nor water tight, so that it may slide up and down
without any friction. The upper and under part of the piston must be lined
with leather or any other substance that is water-tight, which leather or other
substance must be continued from the piston, when elevated, down to the
bottom of the cylinder, and when depressed, to the top of the cylinder, in the
form of a bag on each side of the piston; the extreme ends of both bags must
be well fastened to the cylinder, leaving the sides loose and free to fall in folds
during the ascent and descent of the piston. Now, when water rushes into
either end of the cylinder, it enters the cavity of one of these bags, and
pressing against the piston endeavors indeed to force the bag thro' the insensible
space between the edge of the piston and the cylinder, but it being impossible
for the bag to pass that way without being doubled, and also inclosing a
portion of the water, and the piston being fitted to the cylinder so closely as not
to admit even the substance of the bag singly, much less doubly and with a
portion of water inclosed, the consequence is, that the piston rises and falls
without any friction at all, and yet the water is prevented from passing between
the piston and cylinder. Thus the power which is usually lost by the friction