IMPROVEMENTS IN MOTIVE-POWER ENGINES
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Morgan-Brown, of the Firm of Brandon
and Morgan-Brown, Engineers and Patent Agents, of 38, South-
ampton Buildings, London, and 13, Rue Gaillon, Paris, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MOTIVE-POWER ENGINES."-A com-
munication from abroad by Jacques Viglino, Engineer, and Jacques
Donna, Solicitor, both of Turin, Italy.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Morgan.
Brown at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 20th February 1875.
I, WILLIAM MORGAN-BROWN, of the Firm of Brandon and Morgan-
Brown, Engineers and Patent Agents, of 38, Southampton Buildings,
London, and 13, Rue Gaillon, Paris, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MOTIVE-POWER ENGINES," to be as
follows:-
-
These improvements are based on the means of utilizing as a motive
power the difference between the specific gravity of liquids and their
vapours, and preferably between a liquid, such as water, and the steam
generated from the same when the said water is submitted to the action
of heat. For this purpose we make use of a fixed cylindrical vessel, in

page_text: which we place a central shaft, one or both ends of which pass through
stuffing boxes fixed in the end of the cylindrical vessel, and on this
shaft we fit a drum provided externally with curved or inclined vanes,
the outer diameter of which is nearly equal to the inner diameter of the
fixed cylinder. This fixed cylinder is in communication with one or more
fixed cylinders placed below in a furnace, and the connection of which
with the upper cylinder is established to that side of the same at which
the vanes incline downwards. We charge these vessels with water, and
on application of heat below the steam generated rises and fills the
vanes on one side only of the drum, which steam, conjointly with the
water on the vanes situated on the other side of the drum, imparts a
rotary motion to the same, which is made available as a motive force by
means of a pulley, a crank, or an excentric keyed on one of the pro-
truding ends of the central shaft.
The upper vessel may be open topped, so that the steam on leaving
the vanes will simply escape in the atmosphere, or the same may be
closed and the steam directed into a condensor, whereby a vacuum or
partial vacuum will be created on the surface of the water, thereby
facilitating the generation of the steam.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 2
filed by the said William Morgan-Brown in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 18th August 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MORGAN-BROWN, of the Firm of Brandon and Morgan-Brown, Engineers.
and Patent Agents, of 38, Southampton Buildings, London, and 13, Ruc 2
Gaillon, Paris, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
eighth year.of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, a
give and grant unto me, the said William Morgan-Brown, Her special
license that I, the said William Morgan-Brown, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Morgan-
Brown, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any

page_text: time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MOTIVE-POWER ENGINES," a communication to me from
abroad by Jacques Viglino, Engineer, and Jacques Donna, Solicitor, both
of Turin, Italy, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
William Morgan-Brown, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said In-
vention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Scal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Morgan-Brown, do hereby.
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained:
in and by the following statement thereof, that is to sày :-
The motive power, the most economical that can be established, in no
matter what locality, is certainly steam, although hydraulic power may
appear at first sight to be so; nevertheless, water being the privilege of
special and distant localities, it is difficult to have it available and useful, if
not rarely and often, even according to the season of the year, insufficient,
besides requiring considerable expense for its derivation, and for keeping
up the works, etc. So that if means could be found to equal and even
to surpass the economy of water in relation to least cost, under other
conditions of steam it is evident that manufacture and agriculture.
would feel immense advantages and the public wealth would be aug-
mented in a manner really extraordinary.
To achieve this end has been invented the hydro-steam motor viglino,
which is the object of this description motor, which by the small cost.
of its construction, because it requires no expense for its maintenance,
for even oil and all kinds of grease are eliminated, by the great facility
and safety with which it can be handled and adopted, for no matter what
locality, by the extreme simplicity of the manner of its action, this
motor serves innumerable and even the most petty applications, whether
for agriculture, manufacture, or even for household purposes.

page_text: The principle upon which is based the hydro-steam motor viglino
consists essentially in the means of utilizing as motive force the difference
in specific gravity which exists between the specific gravity of liquids
and their corresponding vapours, and thus between the specific weight
of water and that of vapour which developes itself when water is exposed
to the action of heat.
The drawing annexed shows the truth of the principle announced.
In a steam boiler of different forms is fixed the motive wheel A
(Figures 1 and 2) with curved buckets or floats like the hydraulic wheel,
The motive wheel A fixed on the axle B, which is the centre of rotation,
occupies all the length of the boiler O to E, Figure 2. The axle B
projects beyond one or both sides of the boiler; in this case it passes
through two stuffing boxes, m, n, which, solidly attached as they are to
the boiler, serve as the support to the axle of the wheel A, preventing
the water of the boiler and the steam from escaping in the direction of:
the axle. A geared wheel P, fixed on the axle B, and a pinion P', serve
to transmit the movement and so augment the speed of the driving
pulley C.
It is easy to understand how the wheel A is obliged to turn in the
direction indicated by the arrow (Figure 1) by the action that the steam 2
exercises to carry itself to the surface of the water.
The vapour raised around the fire-box Q (Figures 1 and 2) seeks to
rise vertically through the water in the boiler, which is above it, and
directed by the plate R of the fire-box, enters the buckets D of the
wheel A, which by that even acting as floats full of vapour, and by 2
the difference in specific gravity between that of the water and that of
the vapour, gives to the wheel A a rotative movement facilitated by the
current of hot water which seeks to rise. During the movement of the
wheel, as the buckets arrive at the surface of the water, the vapour which
had filled them escapes into the reservoir H, from whence it escapes in 3
the open air; or better, employed for any industrial purpose, or better still
passed into a condensing apparatus F through the pipe G. In the latter
case, in producing the vacuum above the surface of the liquid in the
reservoir H, the production of the steam, proportionally to the vacuum
formed, augments in such a manner that it is possible to obtain ebullition a
at a very low temperature, even at 40° C. for water, and at a still lower
temperature for other liquids. From this fact it results evidently as a
necessary consequence a very sensible diminution of any combustible

page_text: for the vapour, the more it is rarefied the more it augments its volume,
and by that even the end of the Invention is better arrived at.
Having thus demonstrated the application of the principle on which
is based the hydro-steam motor viglino, any one can easily understand
why this motor, besides its little cost, for all reasons may be employed
with every facility in working security, and without any peril of
explosion, because the vapours condensed by the pipe I return anew to
the boiler, the level in which always remains constant, and also because
the rotation is obtained under very low pressures. It may be driven by the
commonest driver or laborer, and in the same time placed anywhere, in
no matter what locality, either open or covered, and even where the
police regulations prohibit the use of steam, and that is why it may be
asserted with all reason that in a little time the hydro-steam motor
viglino from the universality of its application, will receive the name of
universal motor, or better, family motor.
The motor in question, according to its use, may be of different forms,
and that represented in the annexed Drawing is only a special arrange-
ment destined to better explain the theoretical principle of the Inven-
tion.
Having now described what has been communicated by Jacques
Viglino, Engineer, and Jacques Donna, Advocate, in asking the Patent
for the application of the principle on which the Invention be based as
above described, I would have it understood that it consists essentially
in the means of utilizing as motive power for agriculture and for manu-
factures (or industrial arts) the difference of the specific gravities of
liquids and their vapours, and thus between the specific gravity of water
and that of the steam which developes itself when the water is exposed
to the action of heat.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Morgan-Brown, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of August,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.
WILLIAM MORGAN-BROWN. (L.S.)