MENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVE
MENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER."-A communication.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald Brooman
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th August 1854.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Strect, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER," (communicated to me by a
foreigner residing abroad,) to be as follows:-
The Inventor states the Invention to consist in obtaining power from two
wheels, which are made to act alternately upon each other, so as to keep up a
continuous motion. The wheels are constructed of any desired material, such
as wood, and with single radii, but the felloc for a certain portion of its
circumference is of iron or other heavy material. The wheel is made heavier
at that part where the iron is situated, so that by gravity that part will always
cause the wheel to move after such part has passed the centre. The Inventor
states, that by placing two such wheels vertically and side by side upon a
separate axis, with the heavy parts of the wheels placed in a reverse position.

page_text: that is to say, in such manner that if the heavy part of one wheel be at top,
the heavy part of the other will be at bottom. When one wheel has performed
half of its revolution by gravity, a projecting arm takes into a corresponding
projection or other suitable mechanical contrivance in the other wheel, and is
carried up by the descent of the first, and so on, until the apparatus is stopped.
In order to regulate and to quicken or slacken the speed of the wheels, the
Inventor places over one of the wheels, or both, a set of semicircular electro-
magnets, which, being held nearer to or further from it, and acting by attraction
and repulsion, increases or diminishes the 'speed' thereof.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 26th February 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, should at any 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 OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER," (con-
municated to me by a foreigner residing abroad), upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, 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, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say:-
The Inventor states that this Invention consists in obtaining motive power
by means of the following arrangement:-Two wheels, of about 9 or 10 feet
diameter, (or more, if more power is required,) are constructed of any desired
material, such as wood, with single spokes or radii. One felloe or part of the
periphery of the wheel for a certain portion (say, one-sixth,) of its circumference
is of soft iron, or any heavy material covered with soft iron. The wheels, being
thus made heavier at that part where the iron is situated, will, when once
raised past the upper centre or upper pole of their vertical axis, cause them
to move or rotate downwards by gravity towards and past the lower pole of
their vertical axis. By placing two such wheels vertically side by side, each
upon a separate axis, with the heavy parts of one raised at top, the fall or
descent of the weighted part of that wheel will place them in a reversed
position, that is to say, the heavy part of one wheel at top, and the heavy part
of the other wheel at bottom. When one wheel has thus performed half of its
revolution by gravity, a projecting arm thereon presses upon or takes into a
corresponding projection (as an iron arm in a ratchet at the exterior circum-
ference of the wheels) or other suitable mechanical contrivance on the other
wheel, and thereby causes it to rotate, so as to carry up its heavy part to the
top, from which position it descends likewise by gravity, and acts upon the
first wheel in the same manner as that wheel had previously acted upon it,
and so on, until the apparatus is stopped, or the wheels are disconnected from
each other. This disconnection can be effected by turning aside one of the
projecting arms (they being jointed), as a door would turn on its hinges. In
order to regulate, and to quicken or slacken, the speed of the wheels, one
broad or two narrower semicircles of electro-magnets are placed over them,
which being brought nearer to or raised farther from the wheels, increase or
diminish the speed thereof. Each of these narrow semicircles may contain at
least thirty rows of 6 or 7 electro-magnets in depth, making an armature of
180 or 210 electro-magnets over one wheel, or a total of 360 or 420 electro-
magnets over both wheels. Any competent electrician will know that the current.
from a galvanic battery progressing upwards must of course be turned off the
lower rows of magnets by a proportionate number of breaks and springs, to be
determined (according to the weight of the iron felloe to be raised) as soon as
sufficient power has been obtained to carry the said felloe past the upper

page_text: centre. Or, the Inventor ncts on the exterior circumference of the wheels by
two jointed levers, mounted on a double-cranked axis, revolving either by
electricity or any other agency. When by electricity, the two jointed levers
and their double-cranked axis are actuated by the alternate polarity of two
series of electro-magnets, produced at every half revolution by the alternate
contact of one spring above and one spring below a semi-wheel or break,
mounted on one end of the said axis, and the fly wheel on the other end.
This system of apparatus would be well suited to give to the two weighted
wheels the additional impetus of their action; but both (the semicircles of
electro-magnets to raise the wheels, or the two jointed levers, last described, to
quicken their descent,) may also be replaced by a small steam engine (or any
prime motor), bearing on the two projecting arms or "buffers" at the exterior
circumference of the wheels.
Figure 1 of the Drawings annexed is a front elevation of an apparatus for
obtaining motive power from two weighted wheels mutually acting on each
other. A and B are the two wheels, and C, C, are the weighted portions of
their peripheries. D, D, are the standards or frame in which the wheels are
supported, each of them boing mounted on a separate axis. E, E, are pro-
jecting arms on the wheels, which, by coming in contact as the wheels revolve,
transfer the motion of one wheel to the other, as hercin-before mentioned.
F
is a bevil wheel on the prolonged axis of the wheel B; and G is a pinion in
gear therewith, by means of which the rotary motion of the wheels is com-
municated to the upright shaft H, and from thence is taken off and applied for
working machinery, as may be required.
Figure 2 is a side elevation, and Figure 3 is a front elevation, of an appa-
ratus for obtaining motive power from a single weighted wheel, in connection
with the use of electro-magnets, for regulating the power obtained. A is the
wheel, and B, the axis on which it is mounted. C is the weighted portion of
the wheel, and D, D, are the standards or frame in which the wheel is sup-
ported. E, E, are a series of electro-magnets, fixed to the semicircular belt F,
and capable of being raised from or lowered to the periphery of the wheel by
means of the cord or chain G, which runs on tackle blocks H, II. I is a
lifting rack, worked by a pinion and winch handle J, by means of which the
weighted part of the wheel is raised, so as to bring it within the range of action
of the lower rows of electro-magnets when the apparatus is started. The
hooked end of the rack works against a pin projecting from the side of the
wheel, and it is jointed to the main part of the rack, so as to turn back out of
the way when the apparatus is in operation. K is a bevil pinion on the axis
B, which gears into a bevil wheel L, on the upright shaft M, to which it

page_text: communicates the motion derived from the rotation of the wheel. N is a
friction break (shewn separately in plan in Figure 4), by which the motion of
the apparatus is stopped when required. At starting, the weighted part of tho
wheel which is at bottom is raised by the rack, as before mentioned, until it is
brought within the range of action of the lower rows of electro-magnets. The
current is then turned on, and the soft iron, being attracted by the electro-
magnets, is raised further up, until it comes within the range of the next
succeeding electro-magnets, to which the current is now turned on, while it is
cut off from the first section of electro-magnets, thereby throwing them out of
action. The second section of electro-magnets having by this time raised
the soft iron part of the wheel, the successive action on the remaining electro-
magnets is continued in a similar manner until the heavy part of the wheel
has passed the upper centre, when the rotation of the wheel is continued by
action of gravity through so much of a revolution as will bring the soft iron
within the range of the first section of electro-magnets without having recourse
to the rack, as at starting. On the soft iron part of the wheel arriving at this
position, the preceding effects are repeated, so as to keep the wheel in con-
tinuous revolution. The arrangements of breaks and springs necessary for
turning on the current to the electro-magnets successively, and for cutting it
off from those which are not required to act, are not shewn in the Drawings,
but can be readily applied by any competent person accustomed to the working
and management of electro-magnetic apparatus.
The manner of applying electro-magnetism to regulate and increase or
diminish the motion of an apparatus constructed as in Figure 1, will be readily
understood from the foregoing description in reference to Figures 2 and 3.
The electro-magnets may be made to act on both of the wheels, or on one only
of them, as may be desired.
It will be understood from the foregoing description that the peculiar
features of this Invention consist,-
First, in obtaining motive power from a pair of wheels of equal weight,
each weighted for about one-sixth of its circumference, and mounted on
independent axes, and so placed with respect to each other, that the weighted
part of one wheel shall, when in a vertical line, be opposite to the weighted
part of the other, such wheels being made to act and react on each other by
means of jointed projecting arms, in the manner herein-before described.
And, second, in obtaining motive power from one or more wheels, weighted
as herein-before described, the rotation of which is effected partly by electro-
magnetism and partly by gravity, in the manner herein-before described.

page_text: And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what is claimed is,-
The arrangements herein-before described for obtaining motive power from
the force of gravity, and from the combined forces of gravity and electro-
magnetism.
In witness whereof, I, the suid Richard Archibald Brooman, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of February, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
R. A. BROOMAN. (L.8.)