IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING AND APPLYING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1846

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HENRY FOX TALBOT, of Lacock Abbey, in the County of Wilts, Esquire, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventh day of December
(One thousand eight hundred and forty-six,) in the tenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Henry Fox Talbot, my exors, adñors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William
Henry Fox Talbot, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said William Henry Fox Talbot, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING AND APPLYING MOTIVE
POWER;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said
William Henry Fox Talbot, shall cause a particular description of the nature
of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Henry Fox Talbot, do hereby declare that the nature of my said

page_text: Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are
fully described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof
(that is to say)-
In order to make my present Invention clearly intelligible, I must, in the
first place, refer to the former Letters Patent which were granted to me on
the First day of October, in the year One thousand eight hundred and forty,
for "Certain Improvements in Obtaining Motive Power," among which I
described a method of obtaining motive power by heating expansible liquids
or inflammable gases, the heat being communicated to them internally by a
metallic wire heated by a galvanic battery; and in the Specification of that
Patent I fully described the construction and action of the commutator employed
for cutting off the galvanic current, and restoring it again at the proper times.
The present Invention is in its general features identical with that formerly
described, but with this difference, that, instead of liquids or gases, I now
prefer to use solid substances, which explode when heated with considerable
force. The use of gunpowder for this purpose is precluded by the difficulty
of managing it with safety, but less explosive powders may be successfully
employed; the substance, however, of most convenient application is that
now commonly known by the name of gun cotton, prepared with nitric and
sulphuric acids; and I shall proceed to explain the method of employing it
to produce a regular motive power.
Figure 1, A, B, is a strong upright hollow cylinder of metal, closed at the
lower end. P is a piston moving in the cylinder, whose rod communicates
motion to a crank and fly wheel. O, O, are two circular apertures in the
sides of the cylinder, placed very near to the bottom of it, and just large
enough to admit the cylindrical metal rod R, R.
Figure 2 is a section of this rod. C, C¹, C, are a series of small cavities
or chambers in it, which are charged with the gun cotton or other combustible
material. These cavities should be equidistant, and their mutual distance
should be somewhat greater than the semi-diameter of the piston cylinder.
A sufficient length of these rods should be prepared and kept in store ready
charged with the combustible material Z, Z. Figure 1 is fine platinum wire
which passes through the piston cylinder just above the rod R, R. The
action of the machine is as follows:-The motion of the piston in its cylinder
is so adjusted that at its lowest point it nearly touches the rod R, R; as it
begins to rise again from this lowest depression, the action of the commutator
causes the galvanic current to pass and ignite the wire Z, Z, which is in con-
tact with the combustible in one of the cavities C, of the rod R, R; to insure
the contact, a small portion of the combustible is allowed to protrude from
the cavity. The combustible being fired, the explosive force causes the piston

page_text: to rise and communicate motion to the crank and fly wheel; during the
piston's descent the rod R, R, is drawn forward by the action of the machi-
nery through a given space, equal to the interval between the cavities in
the rod R, R, so that by this movement the last exploded cavity C is drawn
out of the cylinder, and the next cavity C¹ is drawn exactly into the point in
the centre of the cylinder which C occupied in the former instance. The
distance between C, C¹, C", &c., being greater than the semi-diameter of the
cylinder, and one of them being in the centre, it is obvious that two of them
cannot be within the cylinder at the same time; this is a necessary precaution
against the irregular explosion of the combustible. When the last of the
cavities has been fired, the rod is drawn out and falls into a receptacle, and
the next rod begins to enter the cylinder. The different rods R, R, R, R, &c.
are hooked or otherwise fastened together, so that one of them draws on the
next, and whenever one of them, as R, R, is exchausted and drawn out, its
weight detaches it, and it falls off from the hook which connected it with the
following rod. Aqueous vapour is often generated by the explosion of the
gun cotton, and this is apt to diminish the explosibility of a subsequent
portion, but the cotton is in great measure protected from the vapour by being
well packed in the cavities of the metallic rod.
What I claim as my Invention herein is,―
First, the employment of any solid explosive substance to produce motive
power for machinery, by means of heat causing explosion, and communicated
internally by a galvanic battery.
Secondly, the employing separated portions of such explosive substances
enclosed in cavities of rods or bars.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Henry Fox Talbot, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Third day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.
W. H. F. (L.S.) TALBOT.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Third day of June, in the
year of our Lord 1847, the aforesaid William Henry Fox Talbot came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifi-
cation aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in
form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped accord-
ing to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Seventh day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and forty-seven.