IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JACOB
BRAZILL. Governor of Trinity Ground, Deptford, in the County of Kent, send-
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Sixteenth day of December, in the third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Jacob Brazill, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Jacob Brazill, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and
such others as I, the said Jacob Brazill, my executors, administrators, 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 mentioned, 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 MOTIVE
POWER;", in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the
said Jacob Brazill, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, parti-
cularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in
Her 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.
Jacob Brazil, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described

page_text: and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon, that is to say:-
"
My Invention of "Certain Improvements in obtaining Motive Power'
consists in a certain arrangement or combination of mechanism wherein the
atmospheric air is employed as the impelling agent, being brought to bear in
such a manner as, by exerting a constant urging pressure to produce a con-
tinuous rotary motion, and applies to all the purposes where a prime mover is
required, as, for instance, in land and water carriage it will be found desirable
as economical in the space it occupies, and in the expense of working; it will
be found peculiarly useful on rivers in towing ships or other vessels in and out
of harbour; it is also especially applicable in military affairs, either in the
transport of artillery and baggage or in its use as a means of destroying the
enemy by carrying explosives among them; it is further applicable in agricul-
ture, as it may be adapted to ploughs and other agricultural implements;
it likewise refers to the different manufactures, being capable of employment
in the driving of all sorts of machinery for such purposes; or it may be used
in all kinds of mills for grinding corn, colours, &c.
Now, in order the better to explain and set forth my improvements, I have
hereunto appended Drawings shewing an arrangement of machinery by means
of which they might be carried into effect, but, as will be seen, without refe-
rence to the peculiar use for which they may be designed, or the locality in
which they are to be fitted, as it must be obvious all these particulars will
require slight variations of arrangement to suit the different circumstances
under which it is desired to work them. Fig. 1 is a side, Fig. 2, an end, and
Fig. 3, a plan or horizontal view of the apparatus. In this latter Figure the
large drum c has been shewn only in outline, so as not to impede the view of
the other portions of the apparatus or machinery. a, a, are the bearings top
and bottom for the vertical shaft b, which bearings are to be so constructed as
to produce the least possible amount of friction. These bearings would of
course depend upon the place where, and the purpose for which, my improve-
ments were to be employed. c is a large drum furnished with any number of
radial plates or fans set round a boss, as shewn in the Drawing. It will be
observed with regard to the construction of this drum, that some of the plates
are so arranged as to slope down towards the bottom plate, thus forming, as it
were, a series of boxes decreasing in their transverse dimensions as they
approach the boss, the object of which is, that, as the drum revolves, it shall
acquire the greater degree of centrifugal force by the weight being thrown
upon the outer parts; and, moreover, there is by this means a greater space

page_text: presented to the action of the wind in proportion to the resistance to the
drum's progress arising from the friction occasioned by its weight. This drum
is to be put in motion by means of a current of air directed through the
pipes d and e, from the two pairs of double bellows and g. h is a worm
fixed on the vertical shaft by means of a tightening screw, or in any other
convenient way, taking into the worm wheel i on the horizontal crank shaft j,
supported in bearings k, k. The cranks 1, l, on this shaft work the bellows, by
means of the connecting rods m, m, attached by a joint to that lower board, as
shewn in the Drawing. n is a spur wheel on the shaft j, taking into a pinion o,
on the axle of which is a winch handle p, for the purpose of starting the
apparatus.
Now, in setting my improved arrangement of machinery into operation for
any of the above-named purposes, it is necessary first to give a few turns to
the winch handle p, which, by the connection (shewn in the Drawing) through
the cranks 1, 1, and connecting rods m, m, will bring the bellows f and g into
action, and cause a current of air to be impelled very forcibly through the pipes
d and e against the fans on opposite sides of the drum in opposite directions, thus
giving to it rotary motion, and thence through the worm h on its shaft to the
wheel i, on the horizontal shaft j; this latter shaft being furnished with the
cranks 1, 1, will (upon the motion being given to it from the connection as
above stated, work the bellows f, g, and thus supply an acting force against the
fans of the drum c to keep up its rotation; and in order to maintain as nearly
as possible a continuous blast against the fans, it will be observed, I propose
using weighted double bellows, the action of which being so well known needs
no minute description. But here I would also observe that, instead of the
bellows, the construction of an ordinary blowing machine, as used in the blast
furnace, may be adopted, if thought desirable, and produce a similar effect.
Hence, then, it appears that by the action first given to the bellows and dram
will rotary motion be produced and kept up in the manner above mentioned by
my improved arrangement of machinery.
Having now described a certain arrangement of mechanism, by means of
which atmospheric air may be usefully employed as a motive power, I need
only remark, that I do not confine myself to the precise forms of the several
parts, or of the combinations of machinery shown in the Drawing, but have
referred to them simply as a convenient method by which my Invention may
be carried into practice for the several purposes mentioned in the outset.
But what I claim as my peculiar right under the above in part recited
Letters Patent is, the impulsion of a current of air against the fans of a drum
(as that at c) through pipes, as at d and e) for the purposes of a motive power,

page_text: together with a certain arrangement of mechanism, by means of which the
action first induced shall be kept up.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jacob Brazill, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand
REMEMBERED, that on the Ninth day of June, in the third
year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said Jacob Brazill came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her 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 Statute made in the fifty-fifth year of the reign
of His late Majesty King George the Third.