IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND ELECTRICITY 11 APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Barlow at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 24th July 1882.
JOHN BARLOW, of 40, Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND
ELECTRICITY
11
APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER Y
This invention has for its object novel methods of applying Electricity to the
production of motive power, as for instance to causing the revolution of wheels or
shafting by which machinery of any kind may be driven; to causing the
revolution of the driving wheels of locomotives or the propelling shafts of vessels;
or, in a modified form to the propulsion of carriages upon railways or tramways
without such driving wheels.
Supposing my invention to be applied to the purpose of producing the revolution
of a driving shaft to be used for the purpose of actuating machinery of any kind, I
fix firmly upon such shaft a wheel consisting of a sufficient number of more or less
radial arms, which number may be varied according to the size of the apparatus
and the purpose to which it is to be applied, and at the extremity of each arm I fix
firmly an armature or block preferably of soft iron. These armatures I prefer
should be electrically insulated from each other and from the arms upon which they
are fixed. In a convenient position outside the ring of armatures described but as
near as conveniently possible to the latter, I fix firmly a sufficiently strong electro-
magnet consisting of one or more suitable soft iron bars surrounded in the usual
way with insulated wire through which electricity is made to pass from galvanic
batteries of any of the ordinary well known kinds, from dynamo-electric generating
apparatus of any suitable kind, or from accumulators or storage apparatus from
which Electricity is given out as and when required in the usual way.
I arrange at one side of the electro-magnet arranged and fixed as described &
sufficient thickness of a substance opposing sufficient resistance to the passage of
magnetic force, so that as each armature in succession passes the pole or poles of
the electro-magnet and as it commences to recede from the latter the substance
described interposes between the electro-magnet and the moving armature, and
prevents the further action of the magnetic force upon the latter.

page_text: The magnetic force, therefore, acting upon each armature in succession with a
force increasing as the latter approaches the pole, and the attractive force ceasing
nearly or entirely to act immediately the greatest force has been attained, and
before it has commenced to act in the reverse direction, the revolution of the series
of armatures and the shaft upon which they are fixed becomes continuous, the
power which it is capable of giving out being dependent upon the amount of the
inagnetic attraction and the latter being itself dependent upon the quantity of
electricity passed through the coils of the electro-magnet.
Instead of one electro-magnet only as described, two or more may be used
arranged round the series of revolving armatures.
In order to reverse the direction of revolution of the armatures, a second series
of electro-magnets may be used, or the material described opposing resistance to
the passage of magnetic force may be made moveable so that it may be applied to
either side of the Electro-magnets as desired.
In a modified form of my apparatus, which I apply to the propulsion of carriages
upon railways or tramways, I arrange a sufficient number of electro-magnets fixed
in the carriage to be propelled so that their poles are directed forward near the
metal rails, upon which the carriage is to run. Between such poles and the rails
and projecting beyond the former, I interpose a sufficient thickness of a material
such as that already described opposing sufficient resistance to the passage of
magnetic force, so that such force can only act to a sufficient extent in the direction
in which the carriage is to travel, and the latter is consequently drawn continuously
forward by the magnetic attraction between the electro-magnetic poles and the
metal rails at a point sufficiently in advance of the latter.
In this method of arrangement no propelling mechanism of any kind is required.
The rails may be divided into separate lengths, insulated from each other. The
electricity is preferably supplied to the coils of the Electro-magnets from
accumulators or Electrical storage appliances carried in the carriage itself.