A NEW FLYING MACHINE
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Kinnersley Smythies, of 57, Belsize Park,
in the Parish of Hampstead, and County of Middlesex, for the
Invention of "A NEW FLYING MACHINE."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Kinnersley
Smythies at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 1st December 1875.
I, JOHN KINNERSLEY SMYTHIES, of 57, Belsize Park, in the Parish
of Hampstead, and County of Middlesex, declare the nature of my said
Invention of "A NEW FLYING MACHINE," to be as follows:
I construct a vertical boiler with tubes eight inches long and a
quarter of inch in diameter, weighing fifty to the pound, this being
the form of boiler and these the dimensions and weight of tubes that I
prefer, though others may be used, and I keep the water in the boiler
at a height between six and eight times the diameter of the tube by
using as a condenser a tight bag of waterproof silk or linen spread out
by bamboo rods, flat and horizontal, behind the machine like the tail of a
bird, and pumping the condensed water into the boiler as fast as it is
formed, and I reduce the weight of fuel for the fire by using liquid

page_text: hydrocarbons, though alcohol or ether might be used. A few inches
above the centre of the boiler in the chimney a vertical cylinder is fixed
with a piston, slide, and other appurtenances like a steam hammer to
work without a fly wheel, having two guide rods fixed into its cover
rising above the highest point reached by the head of the piston rod.
A structure like the wing of a bird or bat (herein-after called a wing) is
then pinjointed to the top of each guide rod so as to turn round, one
end corresponding to the shoulder joint of a bird, and connecting rods
are pinjointed on each side to the head of the piston rod at one end, and
at the other end to a point in the arm of the wing between the point,
round which it turns, and the tip at such a distance from the said end
that each stroke of the piston may flap the wing through the required
arc varying from sixty to one hundred degrees, according to the desired
proportion of speed to carrying power.
The boiler may be fitted with any furnace suitable for the combustion
of liquid fuel. One or any number of these boilers with its furnace,
cylinder, pump, chimney, and wings attached is then to be fixed to any
convenient form of light carriage with wheels for conveying passengers,
or any number of cylinders may be fixed to the carriage and supplied
with steam from one boiler, or the cylinders may be worked without
boilers or furnaces as gas engines by the explosion within them of a
mixture of air with ether or an inflammable vapour.
The novelty of the Invention consists in making a steam engine or
songina filx
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Kinnersley Smythies in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 30th May 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
KINNERSLEY SMYTHIES, of 57, Belsize Park, in the Parish of Hampstead,
and County of Middlesex, Barrister-at-Law, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give

page_text: and grant unto me, the said John Kinnersley Smythies, Her special license
that I, the said John Kinnersley Smythies, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Kinnersley Smythies, my
executors, administrators, 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 "A NEW FLYING
MACHINE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John
Kinnersley Smythies, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Kinnersley Smythies, 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:-
My Invention consists in greatly increasing the power of a steam
engine compared with the weight of itself, its boiler, and the water
required to give it full steaming power by the means herein-after
described, and working the engine without a fly wheel to flap a pair of
structures resembling and herein-after called wings, and connecting
them with the engine in such a manner that the action of the wings
alone shall raise, sustain, and drive the engine with the carriage and
load attached to it. The best boiler for this purpose (though others
may be used) is a vertical multitubular boiler (A) with solid drawn
brass tubes, whose internal diameter is about a quarter of an inch, and
length about eight inches, and weight one-third of an ounce, fixed at each
end in plates of copper one-eighth of an inch thick, with a distance of
about three-eighths of an inch from the centre of each tube to the
centre of the next, filling all the boiler except the space occupied by the
central steam pipe (B), the tubes and tube plates being inclosed in a
steel cylinder, whose thickness is about one five-hundredth of its
diameter, and length about three feet, so that its upper part for eight
inches forms the barrel of the boiler, and the remaining part forms the
furnace (C). The boiler requires no more water than will, when cold,

page_text: cover the tubes to a depth of six times their diameter, and this is kept
constant by pumping in the condensed water with a pump capable of
injecting at each stroke rather more than the water condensed.
The steam may be condensed by a light bag of silk or linen made
.steam-tight with india-rubber, or otherwise spread out nearly flat and
horizontal by bamboo rods (E, E,) fixed into sockets at the back of the
boiler which serves also to steady the flight like the tail of a bird, a
small india-rubber tube connecting the suction pipe (S) of the pump
with the lowest point of the bag where the water collects. Or it may
be condensed in a vessel like the boiler with longer tubes and lighter
case placed at the lower part of the furnace so that all the air entering
the furnace passes through its tubes, and if this is used the tail should
be only a single thickness of silk or linen instead of a bag. Charcoal or
coke may be used as fuel, but not coal, for which the tubes are too
small, and it may be burnt on a grate of sheet iron perforated with
circular holes about three-eighths of an inch in diameter, weighing less
than a pound a square foot. The furnace has a door for the supply of
fuel and a damper to regulate the draft. Petroleum and other liquid
hydrocarbons may be used as fuel in the usual way with more effect but
less safety. A steam reservoir (F) is fixed a few inches above the centre
of the boiler by eight steel rods passing tightly through and fixed into
the boiler tubes, and by the steam pipe (B) fixed at its lower end into
the tube plate of the boiler passing through the centre of the boiler and
fixed at its upper end into the centre of the steam reservoir. This
'steam pipe is closed below and has a number of small holes close under
the upper tube plate through which the steam passes into the reservoir,
to the top of which the cylinder (G) is bolted, and thence into the steam
chest (H) containing the common three port slide valve. This valve is
worked by the small cylinder (g) on the top of the steam chest, the
piston rod of this small cylinder passing through a stuffing box into the
steam chest and fixed to the slide. The small steam chest (h) receives its
steam through a small passage from the steam chest (H) and transmits
it through its upper port to the lower port of the small cylinder, and
through its lower port to the upper port of the small cylinder. The rod
of the slide valve in the small steam chest (h) is a screw on which two
small nuts (a, a,) may be adjusted to any required height, and the slide
is moved by the small arm (b) attached to the top of the piston rod of
*the cylinder (G) striking these nuts near the end of each stroke, so that

page_text: near the end of its up stroke the nut (a) and the valve attached to it is
raised, the lower port in the steam chest (h) is opened and steam passes
through it to the upper port of the small cylinder (g), depressing its
piston and opening the upper port in the steam chest (H), admitting
steam through the upper port of the cylinder (G). Near the end of the
down stroke the arm (b) depresses the lower nut (a) and the action is
reversed.
To prevent the fracture of the wings by the too sudden reversal of
their motion the steam enters the cylinder (G) through circular ports in
the centre of the top and bottom, the piston rod passing concentrically
through the upper one and the nut fastening it to the piston through
the lower one, and the nuts or tappets (a, a,) are so adjusted that when
the steam is admitted through the lower port the nut below the piston
enters and nearly fills the port, and when the steam is admitted through
the upper port a small ring round the lower part of the piston rod enters
and nearly fills the port. This contraction of the steam way should be
regulated by the strength of the wings and only just enough to prevent
their fracture. The cylinder (G) is bolted to the reservoir and stands
vertically over the centre of the boiler and within the chimney which is
removed in the plates to shew what it covers. The guide rods are joined
by a cross bar (I) a few inches above the highest point reached by the
piston rod, and to this the steel arms (O, O,) forming the ends of the
wings are pin jointed, and connecting rods (K, K,) are pin jointed at
the lower end to the cross head of the piston (L), and at the upper end
to the steel arms of the wings between the tip of the wing and the end
round which it turns at such a distance from that end that the stroke of
the engine will move the wing through the required angle, which when
the wing rises above and sinks below the horizontal line equally is that
included between the two sides of a triangle each equal to the length of
the wing's arm between its two joints when the base of the triangle
equals the stroke of the engine. To diminish the strain on the con-
necting rods and friction of their joints their length should be diminished
and the distance between their lower joints increased by lengthening the
cross head of the piston rod as the angle through which the wings sweep
increases, but in all cases their upper joints must be between the joint
round which the wing turns as a fulcrum and its tip.
Wings may have a great variety of form, size, structure and position,
hat the conditions are that the wine is void in its funnt

page_text: flexible in its hinder margin, and free during its ascent to yield to
pressure on either surface, so that at every distance from its fulcrum
or centre of motion the resultant of its horizontal and upward velocity
at that point produced backwards shall lie in the surface of the web
of the wing, which then cuts the air without resistance, and free during
its descent to yield only to a less extent, so that at every distance from
the centre of motion the resultant of its horizontal and downward
velocity produced backwards shall lie above the surface of the wing.
When the wing consists of several overlapping parts (as shewn in
Plate 3), which may be called feathers, each feather is subject to
these conditions. The joints round which the wings turn must be
above the centre of gravity, not behind it, nor much before it. The
wing of a bird, bat, or butterfly may be taken as a model for imitation,
the larger vultures and eagles being good models for carrying weight,
and the swift and fregate bird for speed; but that shewn in Plate 3
seems the easiest to construct; it consists of any number of feathers
each made of a long, tapering, flexible, and elastic rod (M) of steel
or wood, of which ash seems the best, the vertical depth being about
three times the horizontal thickness, diminishing in depth and thickness
towards the tip of the wing, and slightly bent backwards by a light cord
joining its ends, the interval between the rod and cord being covered
with a close, strong, and light silk or linen. Each feather, except the
first in front, partly overlaps the next before it, the rods being above
and on the cords, and yields to the pressure of the air by turning
obliquely downwards when the wing ascends. The rods are kept at
equal distances by wooden wedges at their thicker and inner ends, and
are bolted to steel arms (o, o,) by steel pins passing through the wedges
and rods, and screwed up tight with nuts. Fine strings (c, c,) are
stretched across the top of the rods about four inches apart to prevent the
webs from being driven up through the rods, and other strings (d, d,)
stretch from the end of the arm (P) underneath the wing to the cords
N loose enough to permit the feathers to open during their ascent, but
keeping the cords under the rods during their descent.
Having constructed a wing of any convenient size from any model
chosen the force that will drive this with any given velocity must be
found by experiment; or if the material is impervious to air may be
calculated from a table of the force of the wind, and then the force that
will drive any larger wing of the same form and material may be found

page_text: from the rule that the force is proportional to the product of the fourth
power of the linear dimension by the square of the angular velocity.
For example, if the required wing of the same shape is to be ten times
as long and broad, and is to move with a third of the velocity, the
5 force required will be that found by the experiment multiplied by ten
thousand and divided by nine. That the wings should lift the machine
it is necessary and sufficient that the pressure on the piston depressing
them shall exceed the total weight lifted, and the pressure required to
overcome the friction; but as the ascent during the down stroke, added
to that due to the velocity acquired at the end of the stroke, must be
more than the fall during the up stroke, to rise easily the pressure
should be to the weight raised, as about three to two. Thus, if the
steam in the cylinder has a pressure of one hundred and twenty pounds
on the square inch, a piston nine inches in diameter will raise and drive
a weight of two tons. The furnace being fastened to the floor of a light
carriage supported on springs by four wheels, the whole will be raised
and driven, if the boiler supplies steam enough, and any number of engines,
cach driving a pair of wings, may be attached to the same carriage, one
furnace and boiler supplying steam to all the engines, as in Plate 4.
A safety valve, water guage, and regulator are to be put in any con-
venient positions, but these being the same as in ordinary steam engines
need no description.
The machine may be guided in many ways. By shifting the centre
of gravity backwards the machine ascends, by shifting it forward
descends, and if to one side turns towards that side, and in machines
carrying one or two persons this may be sufficiently done by the incli-
nation of the driver's body.
In larger machines the ascent will be more conveniently effected by
pulling at the strings (d, d,) tied to the cords of the posterior half of the
feathers on both sides, which will increase their resistance to the air
during the up stroke; the descent will be similarly effected by pulling
at the strings tied to the anterior feathers on both sides, and a turn
to the right will be caused by a similar pull at all the feathers of the
left wing, and a turn to the left by a similar pull at the right wing;
pulling the tail on one side will make it act as a rudder, and pulling it
up or down will raise or depress the machine like the tail of a bird, but
this seems less convenient than either of the other methods.

page_text: To alight, the front of the machine is to be turned to the wind, the
speed reduced by closing the damper, the steam nearly shut off by the
regulator, and the front elevated by the methods described for ascending,
and as the flaps become too feeble fully to support the machine it will
gently descend in a slanting position, so that the hind wheels first touch
the ground, then the fore wheels, and the machine runs on till gradually
stopped by friction. The strings (d, d,) are then to be loosened that the
machine may not be blown over by a gust of wind.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
of performing it, I declare that I make no claim to any separate part
of the mechanism described, nor do I confine my claim to the details,
which may be varied; but I claim, the combination of the whole into a
flying machine raised and driven by wings flapped by the action of a
steam engine.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Thirtieth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-six.