IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN, PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO THE FORCING AND EXHAUSTING OF AIR
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Jabez Edwin Mayall at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
19th August 1869.
I, JOHN JABEZ EDWIN MAYALL, of Brighton, in the County of
Sussex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR
APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN, PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE
TO THE FORCING AND EXHAUSTING OF AIR," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates partly to a mode or method of obtaining motive
power by the buoyant action of compressed air or gases acting upon
levers or their mechanical equivalents working in water or other
liquid.
According to one mode of carrying out this part of my Invention,.
I employ a wheel having air chambers or buckets made on its periphery,
such wheel being mounted on a horizontal axle or shaft and wholly or
partially imersed in a trough or tank of water or other liquid. At or
near the bottom of the tank air is forced in against the pressure of the
column of liquid by a bellows or other suitable air forcing apparatus
worked by horse or other power. Or in lieu of air gas may be employed

page_text: generated from explosive or other compounds or materials. The air or
gas on entering the several chambers or buckets (which are made with
inverted mouths on the rising side of the wheel) displaces the water
therefrom and exerts a lifting power upwards, which imparts a rotatory
motion to the wheel, the force applied being due to the buoyancy of the
air or gas in the water or other liquid. As the chambers or buckets
arrive at the surface the air or gas is in its turn displaced by the water
or other liquid which takes the place of the air or gas on the descending
side of the wheel.
According to another arrangement applicable where great power is
required, I propose to mount one or more long levers loosely upon a
horizontal shaft contained within a tank or trough of water or other
liquid, the liquid being of such a height as to entirely cover the
mechanism. Each of these levers in its rising motion acts upon a
ratchet arrangement carried by the shaft, but during their descent the
levers cease to act. By combining with one shaft two or more such
levers and ratchets working in succession it is obvious that a continuous
rotatory motion of the shaft will be obtained. These levers are each
provided with an inverted air chamber or bucket at its outer end, into
which air or gas is forced through the surrounding liquid when the lever
is in its lowest position, the buoyancy of such air or gas acting upon the
ends of the long levers causes them to rise and so impart motion to the
shaft through the ratchet arrangement. So soon as each chamber
or bucket arrives at the limit of its upward course the air or gas
contained therein is allowed to escape through a self-opening valve
provided for that purpose, the lever then descends again by its own
gravity and the escape valve is closed so soon as the lever arrives at the
limit of its downward course, when it is again elevated as before; the
supply of air or gas thereto being intermittent and regulated by valves
worked from the machine itself if desired. The supply of air or gas to
these machines is of course regulated or adjusted by suitable cocks or
valves in the air or gas pipes. In order to equalize or balance the
motion of the shaft above referred to, I propose to apply a heavy
fly wheel thereto, which may be provided with a hollow axle com-
municating with hollow arms, such arms again communicating with
a series of double action weighted bellows or other suitable air forcing
apparatus situate at or near the rim of the fly wheel. As the wheel
revolves the bellows will be alternately filled and emptied by the
gravitating action of.their weights, and thus a continuous current of air

page_text: will be forced through the hollow arms and axle of the wheel into an
air chamber or vessel which may be used as a reservoir of air for assisting
in supplying the chambers or buckets of the engine. This wheel with
its bellows may also be used separately either for creating a blast or for
compressing air in a chamber to be employed for any useful purpose,
or for exhausting air from a chamber, in which latter arrangement the
bellows will draw the air through the hollow axle and arms and
discharge it through valves in the outer ends of the bellows.
According to another mode of obtaining motive power, which is
intended as an auxiliary to a high-pressure steam or gas engine, I
propose to direct the exhaust steam or gas through the hollow axle of a
wheel or screw propeller, such exhaust steam or gas issuing through
suitable appertures made in or near the periphery of the wheel or propeller
and imparting a rotatory motion thereto.