IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING AND APPLYING MOTIVE POWER FROM THE RISE AND. FALL OF THE TIDES
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Stephens and Charles
Stephens at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 10th August 1870.
.
We, THOMAS STEPHENS and CHARLES STEPHENS, both of Admirals
Hard, Stonehouse, in the County of Devon, Manufacturers, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
OR APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING AND APPLYING MOTIVE POWER FROM THE RISE AND.
FALL OF THE TIDES," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of machinery or apparatus worked by the rize.
and fall of the tides.
.
The apparatus consists of two or more vessels, boxes, or tanks (called
the "floats") of any suitable shape constructed so as to float on water
and capable of being loaded with weights or ballast. The floats are
placed and float in docks, basins, or tanks, or other receptacles (called the
tanks") supplied with water from and communicating with the sea,
a tidal river, creek, or other tidal water. The tanks are supplied with
the water by means of a pipe or pipes, conduit, aqueduct, or other
"

page_text: suitable means of sufficient size at or below the level of the lowest low
water of the ebb tide, and so as to allow the tidal waters to flow freely in
and out of the said docks, basins, or tanks, as the tide rises and falls.
The ingress and egress of the water can be regulated by means of sluices
or valves. The tanks are connected by means of a pipe or pipes, the flow
of water being regulated by sluices or valves.
When the tide is at half flood, open the valve or sluice communicating
with the sea in tank No. 1, and the float will rise twice as fast as the
tide on tank No. 1 being full close the valve or sluice communicating
with the sea in tank No. 2, allowing the tank to fill as fast as possible;
when full the sluice or valve communicating with the sea is closed, the
rapid flow of the tide into tank No. 2 will submerge the float, the float
to take 3 hours to rise to the top of the tank; by the time the float
has risen to the top of the tank the tide will be at half ebb, then the
valve or sluice communicating with the sea is opened in tank No. 1;
when No. 1 is empty the valve or sluice communicating with the sea in
tank No. 2 is opened, the tide will then be at the ebb. As the water
will run out faster than the float will descend the float will be left at the
top of the tank, the ballast in the float causing the floats to descend,
thereby keeping the machinery in motion when tank No. 2 is empty the
valve or sluice communicating with the sea is closed, and by the time
the float in tank No. 2 has reached the bottom of the tank the tide will
be at half flood; the sluice or valve communicating with the sea in
tank No. 1 is then opened as before, and the same process repeated.
The floats are raised by the rising of the tide and depressed or lowered
on the falling of the tide by the weights with which they are loaded.
The floats in rising and falling are steadied or kept in place by "guides."
The floats are loaded with a weight slightly exceeding that which would
give the required power so as to depress or cause the float to fall with the
tide. Racks (of sufficient length to reach the top of the tanks at low
water) are fixed to the floats, the racks work in or drive pinions on a
shaft or shafts called the driving shaft or shafts. Racks are constructed
so that when the floats reach the top of the tank the valves or sluices
communicating with the sea in tank No. 1 are closed, and the valves or
sluices communicating with the sea in tank No. 2 are opened. The
pinion is shifted on the shaft from on rack to the other by means of a
clutch and lever or any other suitable means, which keeps the machinery
working in one direction; when the tide has reached its lowest ebb the

page_text: water begins to rize; the same process is repeated with the downward
moving part of the rack and by the same means.
Instead of being driven or worked by a rack or racks the driving shaft
or shafts may be, worked by ropes or chains fixed to the bottom of the
floats, the ropes or chains are fastened to the bottom of the float and
passes or pass round a pulley fixed in the bottom of the tank, and two or
three times round a roller on the driving shaft, the end of the rope being
fixed to the top of the float.
Suitable multiplying gear or machinery is fitted to and driven by the
driving shaft or driving shafts, either with tooth wheels or belt or
friction gearing. The valves or sluices between the tanks and the tidal
waters may be regulated by means of a fly wheel connected with or
driven by the driving shaft and a governor depressing or lessening the
size of the sluice the faster the water flows in or out, and raising or
enlarging the size of the sluice the slower the water flows in or out, or
they may be regulated by hand.