IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER BY HYDRAULIC MEANS
Year: 1860

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Chowen at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th November
1860.
I, GEORGE CHOWEN, of Dippertown, Lew Down, Crediton, Devon, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING
MOTIVE POWER BY HYDRAULIC MEANS," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to obtain motive power by the agency of
water in places remote from a large running stream or river, by making the
water wheel pump or plunge up from a reservoir, previously filled with water
on the principle of the common pump, a sufficient supply of water to keep itself
in continual motion, and by economising the water which feeds the "water
wheel," using it again and again in the manner hereafter described, so as to
mako comparatively a few cubic feet of water do the work of a large river.
The water wheel or hydraulic engine will be placed in a wheel pit, so con-
structed that its bottom shall slope at an angle of 30 degrees towards the
opposite end of the pit to that at which the water is discharged from the wheel.
The wheel pit will also expand from its centre to this point, that it may form
a" reservoir," to contain the water which feeds the "hydraulic engine." In
this reservoir will be fixed two columns of pumps or more, if required, whose
respective diameters and lengths will be in proportion to the to the magnitude
of tho "water wheel." When the wheel is less than thirty feet in diameter, the
working barrel " will in every case be placed at the top of the column of pumps,
the first piece. Where the water wheel is of greater magnitude, the working

page_text: "
barrel will invariably be placed at an elevation of 25 feet at least above the
surface of the water in the reservoir of the wheel pit (save where the water is
plunged to the surface, when the working barrel may either be fixed at the
top or at a lower part of the lift of pumps). The "bucket rod" of each "lift"
of pumps
in the "wheel pit" will be connected to the end of a "bob "or
"rocking beam," which will be fixed on a pedestal; a rocking beam will be
placed on each side of the "wheel" at an elevation of six feet above the top
of the column of pumps; to the other end of the rocking beam will be attached
to a "sweep rod," connected to a crank of the "water wheel," which will impart
motion to the "bucket" in the column of pumps, and throw up from the reser-
voir a supply of water sufficiently copious to keep itself in constant motion.
The water on being pumped to the surface will be conveyed in a "launder'
to a reservoir at the surface, which will always be kept filled with water,
whence it will be conveyed to the hydraulic engine "or" water wheel, descend
into the wheel pit, will be an opening communicating with a day level to carry
off surplus water. In order that the water in the "wheel pit" may be kept at
a uniform height a "feed pipe" connected with the "reservoir" at the surface
will be inserted into the "wheel pit," the end of the said feed pipe to be fur-
nished with a "stop cock," which will be opened and shut by a self-acting
holiów metallic "ball" attached thereto, and which will float on the surface of
the water in the "wheel pit." On setting the "hydraulic engine" or "water
wheel" at work, a stream of water will be allowed to issue from the "reser-
voir at the surface to flow over the water wheel" by the elevation of a
"hatch" connected with the reservoir. The supply of water to be pumped up
from the "wheel pit" will be regulated by the number of gallons per minute
required to feed the "wheel," consequently one or more "lifts of pumps" can
be in use, as required.
The "water wheel" with its several connections and fixtures as heretofore
described constitute the hydraulic engine my Invention.
N.B. The column of pumps in the reservoir of the wheel pit will be double
columús, that is, each set of pumps will be formed of two columns communi-
cating with cach other at the lower end.