CENTRIFUGAL BARREL ENGINE OF CENTRAL FORCE FOR RAISING WATER AND GREAT WEIGHTS FROM GREAT DEPTHS, AND APPLICABLE TO ALL MANUFACTURIES OR SYSTEMS OF MACHINERY, EITHER GREAT OF SMALL, REQUIRING THE ACTION OR CIRCULAR MOTION, SUCH AS AN EFFECTUAL POWER IN MILL WORK, WATER WORKS, AND CLOCK WORK
Year: 1799

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MICHAEL
LOGAN, of Paradise Street, in the Parish of Saint Mary, Rotherhithe, in the
County of Surrey, Engineer, do send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Eighth day of March, in the thirty-ninth year of His reign, did
give and grant unto me, the said Michael Logan, my executors, administra-
tors, and assigns, His especial licence, that I, the said Michael Logan,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, during the terin of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my new Invented
"CENTRIFUGAL BARREL ENGINE OF CENTRAL FORCE FOR RAISING WATER AND GREAT
WEIGHTS FROM GREAT DEPTHS, AND APPLICABLE TO ALL MANUFACTURIES OR SYSTEMS
OF MACHINERY, EITHER GREAT OF SMALL, REQUIRING THE ACTION OR CIRCULAR MOTION,
SUCH AS AN EFFECTUAL POWER IN MILL WORK, WATER WORKS, AND CLOCK WORK;"
in which Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said
Michael Logan, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description
of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
one calendar month next and immediately after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, (relation being thereunto had), may
more fully and at large appear..

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Michael Logan, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the powers of the centrifugal barrel engine is to be pro-
duced, and the effects thereof is to be performed, is particularly described and.
ascertained according to the following principles and plan of action, that is
to say:-
First, the principles upon which the construction of this engine is formed, or
those by which its powers are produced, are those conformable to the laws of
falling bodies, such as the force with which any heavy body, whether solid or
fluid, descends towards the surface of the earth; as, for instance, the weight or
force with which a column of water falls into the bucket rim or buckets of an
overshot wheel, and thereby driving it round on its axle, is what, in the con-
struction of this engine, I call the gravitating force, and that weight or pressure
with which the air or atmosphere is known by constant experience to bear or
press upon the still water in a reservoir, is what I call, in the operations of this
engine, the atmospheric force. These two distinct powers are, by the con-
struction of this engine, rendered alternately the cause and effect of each other
by a third or intermediate power which, by construction, is a consequence of
both, and is what I call the centrifugal force. The plan of construction by which
those powers are brought into action will be easily conceived by any experienced
millwright or mechanic accustomed to the construction of hydraulic engines by
attending to a description of the two principal sections of the engine itself, and
the computation of its force, according to the magnitude or dimensions which
may be indefinitely augmented or increased. Fig. 1st is therefore a perpendi-
cular section of the centrifugal barrel engine with the works belonging to it,
where A, B, C, D, is the section of a circular reservoir, which, according to the
scale of four lines to a foot, by which the sections are drawn, is 18 feet 9 inches
diameter, and 5 feet deep, with 4 feet 5 inches water, the surface of which
being represented by the dotted line C, D. This reservoir may be built
according to its situation, either of wood, bricks, stones, or cast iron, or any
other substance that can be made perfectly water-tight. E and F are sections
of the circular sill or frame surrounding the reservoir when built of wood, and
upon
which the pillars or columns No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, are raised and fixed
for the support of the upper works of the engine. G, H, I, K, is a section of the
upper or ring cistern, 21 feet 6 inches extreme diameter, and 5 feet 6 inches
deep, with 4 feet water, the surface of which is represented by the dotted
lines L, M. This cistern is supported round the engine (see Fig. 2d, which is
the horizontal section), by the columns from the lower sill, and must be strongly
and firmly built of sound wood covered with lead, or with any of the materials

page_text: above-mentioned, perfectly water-tight. It is inclosed or covered on the top
with light planks or thin oak boards as far in as the double lines N and O over
the engine arms, in order to prevent the water from being thrown over the
cistern when the engine is going; and upon the interior rim of the cistern is
the circular wash board P, Q, under the engine arms, to prevent any water from
falling through the ring in the bottom of the cistern, in the sluice or penstock
represented by the dotted line between G and H, 40 inches in length and
55 inches wide, or 220 square inches in area. R, S, is the section of a strong
beam of oak timber, being the top frame supporting the barrel axis of the
engine in its perpendicular position, and supported by four pillars with a cross
piece at each end (two of which pillars are only seen in the section). These
pillars are fixed on a sill at the bottom of the cistern, connected with the lower
columns, but which is not represented here, in order to avoid unnecessary
explanation. T, T, is the breast of the great water wheel upon its axle U, U,
being 16.5 feet diameter in the periphery or pitch line of the bucket rim, and
5.5 feet breast by 10.5 inches deep. As the power of this wheel depends upon
its proper construction, by reducing the depth of the bucket rim, it can, by the
quarter scoop, see Fig. 2d, placed under the lower part of the wheel for receiving
the falling water and conducting it into the the reservoir, be made to act at one
and the same time both as an overshot and undershot wheel. V, V, the cog wheel.
upon the same axle, and 8 feet diameter in the pitch, driving the lower plane
wheel W, 2 feet diameter, which, being on the same axle with the upper
plane wheel X, four feet diameter, drives the shaft trundle Y, Y, 2 feet.
diameter in the pitch, at the rate of 8 revolutions for one of the great wheel,
and, consequently, the barrel engine with the same velo-
city. The cog wheel and lower plane wheel acting at
right angles to the plane' of each others motion, I
prefer to those constructed on the principle of bevel geer
when the cogs are properly formed to act in this position,
but as I intend to apply different modes of construction
and methods for the communication of motion to the
centrifugal barrel engine, according to its use or appli-
cation, any further explanation is here unnecessary.
a, b, c, d, is the barrel of the engine, which I construct
into various forms, such as that of a cone, the frustrum of a cone or that of a
cylinder, a sphere, an oblate or prolate spheroid, or into the various sections or
frustrums of those, or into those forms generated by the revolution of a semi-
parabola, the semi-hyperbola, the cycloid or epicycloid, or that of any other
line, whether incurvated, crooked, or straight, moving round a given centre.
Fig: 2nd in this section
of the engine, those of
the plane and cog wheels,
are left out in order to
avoid too complex an
appearance of the works,
and the same letters in
both, in the perpendi-
cular and horizontal
sections, are the corre-
sponding references to
the same parts, of the.
engine.

page_text: ..
Although in the present instance I make use of the middle frustrum of the
spheroid, whereon a, b, is the crown or barrel head, which is from 1 to 6 inches
deep in the inside, according to the capacity of the barrel; in the crown is
brazed a water plug or short pipe, No. 1, upon whi
which a cap
is screwed on air-
In the crown
tight, and upon the head of the barrel is fixed the axis No. 2.
wheel, the lower edge of which surrounds the head of the barrel as a collar
equal to the depth of the crown upon the upper plane of the wheel, is the
side haunches or shoul
shoulders, No. 3, to which the length hoops are fixed length-
ways down the side of the barrel, parallel to its axis. These hoops having each
two quarter hoops in the middle in the form of a cross, and encompassing the
barrel at the extreme diameter, meet at right angles to the length hoops, and
are there screwed together at both ends, by which the barrel is kept from
bursting when the engine is going. In case of air by any means collecting in
the crown or barrel head,. which may happen when any part of the work is not
sound or tightly constructed, or when the engine is not put in motion with
sufficient velocity to prevent the ascent of air balls, I make the barrel axis
in the form of a tube, through which a smaller tube or pipe passes into the
crown of the barrel, and is there fixed or brazed air-tight. Upon the top of this
tube I fix an extracting apparatus, which turns on the piston that works in the
cylinder of the air pump, and consequently not affected by the motion of the
engine in any other way than that of extracting the air. c, d, e, f, is the cylinder
upon which the barrel is fixed air-tight by the rims or flaunches being screwed,
clinched, or rivetted, and firmly soldered together, when the engine is of large
dimensions, but in those of less capacity, the cylinder and barrel may be made
in one vessel. In the cylinder are fixed the engine arms g, h, No. 4 and 5,
being the cylindrical apertures, the diameters of which are, to those of the
extreme apertures No. 6 and 7, as 3 to 2; the length of those arms being
according to the altitude of their axis or horizontal diameter above the level of
the water in the reservoir, and their number according to the dimensions of the
barrel, and the velocity with which it turns upon its axis. An engine with only
two arms is what I call a single armed engine, one with four, arms (see the
horizontal section Fig. 2d), is what I call a double armed engine, and so on to
a triple, quadruple, quintuple armed engine, or one of ten arms. . Those arms
being inclosed or covered to near the curve of their extremities by either light
boards of wood or thin plates of copper, brass, or iron, or that of any other
metal or substance made perfectly air-tight all round the engine, making
thereby a circular plane in the form of a millstone, by which the resistance of
the air to the motion of the engine will be completely diminished or removed.
In each of the extreme apertures there is a valve fixed upon a hinge or joint

page_text: upon the outside of the arm, and kept shut by a spring on the same side, in
order to keep the water, or any other fluid by which the engine is put in motion,
from falling out of the "barrel when the engine is not in action; these valves
being opened by the force of the fluid flying out of the engine arms when it is
in motion; or in place of the spring valves, I make use of tamkins or plugs with
catches, by which they are struck out when the engine is set to work. i, k, is.
the main tube or shaft of the barrel engine, which I make of wood, copper,
brass, or iron, or any other metal or substance that can be made waterproof
and air-tight. "This main pipe or shaft, standing perpendicular to the horizon,
is made to different altitudes, from 10 to 20 or 30 feet in the extreme, and of
different diameters, according to the force or power of the engine, which power is
to be estimated by the number of cubic feet of water discharged in one second
of time into the ring cistern, compared with that of an engine 16 feet' and one
inch altitude in the shaft from the surface of the water in the reservoir; for at
this altitude the mean velocity with which water rises' by the weight of the
atmosphere into a vacuum is at the rate of 28 feet per second; at all other alti-
tudes the velocities will be inversely as their perpendicular heights above the
surface of the fluid, let its specific gravity be what it will; that is, the greater
the altitude the less the velocity, the less the altitude the greater the velocity,
let the diameter be what it will. The weight of one cubic foot of water being
62.5 lb. avoirdupois, the force or power of the engine will therefore be esti-
mated by the number of cubic feet discharged by a shaft of sixteen feet and
one inch altitude, and one square foot in area, or 13.5 inches diameter; that
is, an engine which discharges the same quantity in the same time will be an
engine of the first power, let its altitude and diameter be what it will; one that
discharges one cubic foot more in the same time will be one of the second
power, and one that discharges two cubic feet more will be one of the third
poiver; and so on. At the upper end of the shaft, the barrel and cylinder,
with the engine arms, is fixed air-tight in the strongest manner, the arms being
secured by the flaunches of the length hoops, and by arm rings rising by branches
from the shaft trundle, the bottom of the cylinder being as far down upon the shaft
(see Fig. 1st, section 1st) as will bring the aperture into the plane, or equal with the
extrenic diameter of the barrel, which is a principle not to be lost sight of in the
construction of this engine. The shaft trundle is a strong doublé ring encom-
passing the shaft, with two rims or flaunches, into which the rounds are fixed
or screwed,' similar to those in a corn mill; it is made either of brass, copper,
or iron, and fixed upon a flaunch of the shaft, within a foot of the bottom of
the cylinder. k, l, m, n, is the base of the shaft containing the base valve O,
(in a box), which rises clear of the aperture, both of the base and shaft,

page_text: the aperture of the valve always exceeding that of the shaft by at least one
inch in diameter, or as much more as the box into which the valve is fixed
on a hinge or double joint will admit. m, n, is a strong ring, either of brass,
copper, or iron, or any other kind of metal, encompassing the aperture of the
base, which is twice the diameter of the shaft, and supported or fixed upon
another ring or circle of like metal and of equal dimensions, by two strong
metal curves screwed and dovetailed into each ring or circle, each equal in
length to at least one sixth of the circumference of the circles with which
they constitute the base frame. s is the centre in the; form of a perfect
hemisphere, with which the engine turns upon the centre plate t, fixed, in
the bottom of the reservoir.. This plate must be a perfect plane of hard
polished metal, upon which a center ring with four friction rollers is to be
fixed, to keep the center in its place. The engine being compleatly. built,
and all its works in good order, the manner of setting it to work is very easy:
let the water contained in the reservoir and cistern be at its proper level in
each, and let the barrel engine itself be compleatly filled or charged with
water, and the air vent or water plug tightly screwed. down, and let the
buckets in the great wheel be also charged with water,, and let there also. be
a vessel of sufficient capacity to contain one charge of the great wheel;. other-
wise a pump to raise the water to its level in the cistern, until the engine
arrives at its uniform velocity. This preparation being made, remove the
from the great wheel, and the engine will fetch way of itself. In the com-
putation of the powers of this engine there are two distinctions to be observed
to ascertain its principles and plan of action, namely, the water falling from
the barrel, and discharged. by the force of the engine arms into the cistern,
is what I call the centrifugal reflux, or the reflux of the engine, and the water
rising into the barrel head to prevent a vacuum being. therein formed by the
reflux, is what I call the central influx, or the influx of the engine. The
altitude of the shaft in proportion to the other, works herein specified being
25 feet, and its area one square foot, or 144 square inches, makes the cubic
contents of this column 25 cubic, feet, and. its..weight at the surface of the
reservoir 1562.5 lb. avoirdupois. The weight of. a column of air from the
same surface to the top of the atmosphere is 2062.5 lb. avoirdupois; the
weight of the column of air. will exceed that of the column of water placed in
a vacuum by the actual force of 500 lb. avoirdupois absolute weight. Now
it is to be observed, by the construction of this, engine, that there is no
diminution' of the atmospheric force upon the base of the lighter column,
where it acts with a force of 15 lb. upon every square inch contained in the
urea, since there is no obstruction, to prevent the whole column ascending
spur

page_text: the shaft with the full force of the atmosphere, allowance being made for
friction in the shaft by an increase of the diameter. The axis of the barrel
and cylinder being 61.5 inches, the extreme diameter of the barrel being to
that of the shaft in the ratio of 3 to 1, the diameter of the head equal to that
of the cylinder, that is as 2 to 1, the capacity of both is therefore 50212.5
cubic inches. The mean velocity between the greatest and least pressure or
force of the atmosphere with which the rising column of water is driven at
the height of 25 feet, is at the rate of 16-5 feet per second, which is the influx
into the barrel; therefore, according to the principles of this engine, the
reflux must be at least equal to any assigned quantity of the influx in the
same time that the velocity of the descending column of water falling from
the barrel head into the cylinder round the ascending column, or that of the
influx, may not be diminished. The centrifugal reflux of the engine being
therefore equal in quantity to the central influx or column of ascending water
by the force of the atmosphere, the line of equilibration, or point of extreme
altitude to which the water will ascend, will be in the crown or plane of the
barrel head, at which point the fluid diverging from the center towards the
circumference of the barrel, and falling into the form of a ring column into
the cylinder, is from this vessel thrown into the cistern by the centri-
fugal force, which is the first principle or desideratum in the construction
of the engine. This quantity being, therefore, by the given velocity and
area of the shaft at the rate of 16.5 cubic feet per second, the same
quantity must be discharged through the sluice or penstock in the bottom
of the cistern upon the pitch of the water wheel, that the surface of the
water may be preserved or kept at the height of 4 feet from the bottom
of the cistern. Now, the velocity of falling water being as the square root
of the depth multiplied into the mean velocity of a column of water falling
from the depth of one foot through any given aperture, will make the velocity
of the depth of 4 feet = 10.8 feet per second, and the area of the penstock
= 220 square inches, or 40 inches in length and 5.5 inches wide. The pitch
line or periphery of the water wheel being 16.5 feet diameter, its circum-
ference will be = 51.857 feet, and the velocity with which it moves being
1/3d of the stream, that is at the rate of 3.6 feet per second, the time of one
revolution will be = 14.40472 seconds; the whole quantity discharged
during one revolution will therefore be 237.6 cubic feet, the one half of which
is 118 8 cubic feet, being the quantity continually driving the water wheel
and falling with the semi-circumference, which gives the breadth and depth of
the bucket rim 5.5 feet by 10.5 inches deep; the weight of this sheet of
water will therefore be 118.8×62.5 lb. = 7425 lb. avoirdupois; but this
51.857
3.6

page_text: ما
quantity or weight being equally contained in the buckets through the whole
altitude of a circular arch above and below the horizontal diameter, the effective
power of the wheel will be less, for the center of percussion being only 2/3 of
the radius from the center of motion or axis of the wheel, makes the gravitating
force 7425lb. x 6666=4949.5 lb. This force considered as the power
of the water wheel, the force acting at the pitch of the cog wheel will be
inversely as their diameters, that is as 8:16. 5:: 4949 5 lb.: 10208 34 lb.
avoirdupois, which is the power of the cog wheel; the diameter of the lower
plane, wheel being 1/4th of the diameter of the cog wheel, the number of
revolutions in the same time will be to those of the great wheel as 4 to 1;
but the upper plane wheel being on the same axis with the lower, and its
diameter, to that of the cog, wheel as 1 to 2, the force acting on the pitch of
the shaft trundle will therefore, be as 8:4:,: 10208 34:51,04-17 lb. This
force being the power of the upper plane wheel driving the barrel engine by
the shaft trundle, the diameter of which is to that of the plane, wheel as 1 to 2,
gives the velocity of the engine, to that of the great wheel as 8 to 1, and,
consequently, the periods of their respective revolutions will be the same ratio,
for as 8:1::14 4:1-8 second, being the period of one revolution of the
barrel engine. The engine being double armed of 6 feet radius from the
center of the shaft to the center of each aperture in the extremity of each
arm, makes the diameter of the circle of revolution 12 feet, and the circle
itself 37 7 feet, the velocity of the extreme aperture will therefore be as
18:377: 1:20.944 feet per second. Therefore, with this velocity and a
radius, of 6 feet, the area of each aperture must be equal to the discharge of 1/4th
of the whole quantity, of centrifugal reflux, that is, = 4.125 cubic feet
:
1
16-5
7128 cubic inches, which gives the area of each aperture
7.12
28.42 inches,
and consequently the diameter, = 6.014 inches, for the momentum. of the whole
centrifugal reflux; add the contents of the barrel and .cylinder and that of the
arms 60609. 12 cubic inches, from which deduct..the cylinder., of influx,
gives the contents of the reflux
51753-12
1728
=29 949 cubic feet, multiplied
into 62.5 lb. gives the weight of the whole contents of the engine 1871.875 lb.
avoirdupois; conceiving therefore this quantity to be continully falling into
4 cylinders ===== 28:42 inches area in the extreme apertures; the line of mean
motion or point of percussive force being 6666 of the axis from the center of
the shaft, and consequently its velocity will be .13 93 feet per second, multi-
plied into 1871875 lb., gives the momentum of the engine, per second
= 26075:2 lb. avoirdupois. The pressure of the atmosphere upon each of
the extreme apertures being 28 42 × 15 = 4263 lb. The centrifugal

page_text: force opposed to that pressure will be equal to the weight of a cylinder of
water, the section of which is as the area of the extreme aperture, and its
altitude that of the barrel and cylinder multipled into the mean velocity of
13.93 feet per second, therefore 63 213 lb. x 13.93 = 880 56 lb., the
momentum of the reflux in the engine arms, from which deduct the pressure
of the atmosphere, gives the centrifugal force of the reflux at the point of
inflection in the engine arms = 454 25 lb. avoirdupois.
Having thus explained the power and effect of the centrifugal barrel engine
as applied to large works, the combination of different or several engines with
one water wheel, or several wheels with one engine, is therefore self-evident
to every experienced millwright or mechanic; and the same principles of con-
struction and plan of action I apply to clockwork, by means of mercury or
quicksilver, and to all inferior systems of machinery by means of other fluids
of different densities or specific gravities.
In witness whereof, I, the said Michael Logan, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine.
MICHAEL (L.S.) LOGAN.
Sealed and delivered (being first duly
stampt) in the presence of
JAS MORGAN,
Castle Court, Birchin Lane.
NATHAN RAHN, his Clerk.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighth day of April, in the
thirty-ninth year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third, the
said Michael Logan came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the several Statutes made in
the sixth year of the reign of the late King and Queen William and Mary of
England, and so forth, and in the seventeenth, twenty-third, and thirty-seventh
years of the reign of His present Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Eighth day of April, in the year above written.