Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 30th Mar., 1836
Complete Left, 30th Dec., 1886.
Complete Accepted, 30th Mar., 1887.
I GEORGE FREDERICK REDFERN, of the General Patent Office, No. 4, South Street,
Finsbury, in the county of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of
this invention, to be as follows:-
:-
This invention relates to improvements in machinery or apparatus for obtaining
motive power, and the object of the invention is to produce an economical motor
which can be employed for various useful purposes such as for driving machinery for
producing electricity for lighting purposes and for the transmission of mechanical
power. It can be operated by the currents of rivers and may serve to couple large
numbers of water-wheels so as to receive the forces of the various currents.
The total power produced by each water wheel is communicated to the extremity of
each of the large shafts connecting them together and can be applied for the production
of any kind of work.
The following may be mentioned as the most useful purposes to which this apparatus
can be applied, namely:-
1. For agricultural purposes such as for the irrigation and submersion of poor land
with the muddy water of rivers. (It has been ascertained by experience that an
inundation will supply sufficient manure to land situated in the vicinity of rivers to
last for four or five years; inundations, however, generally occur when crops are in
full growth).
2. For electric lighting, by actuating electro-magnetic machines or dynamos.
3. For the transmission of power by electricity.
4. For producing hydraulic, atmospheric and other pressures.
For the purposes of this invention the frames of the water wheels are provided
with a number of spokes varying in proportion to the diameter of the said wheels
which will be arranged accordingly nearer to or further from one another. To each
side of the said frame is fixed a six sided prism. This number of sides can however
017

page_text: be varied; when the currents of water are not very strong for example it will be
necessary to increase the same; whilst with very strong currents the number of sides
may be reduced to four. These sides consist of partitions applied upon and screwed
to the frame and serving to collect the power supplied by the currents, their edges
being provided with flat strips of iron similar to the tyres of cart wheels. The said
partitions or sides are suspended on a roller at their upper angles (not at their centre)
this being an important feature of the invention.
Cases or boxes are employed forming floats partitioned internally and of any
suitable length to which are adapted the required number of water wheels; wooden
frames are fixed upon the floats and opposite each water wheel. These frames
support shafts upon which are mounted the said rollers.
Longitudinal iron strips or bands perforated at their upper part serve to connect
the water wheels which are arranged thereon at equal distances from one another.
The weight of these iron bands or strips and of the water wheels produce when
rotating upon the rollers to the extent of one side of the prism the same traction at
the extremity of the rods as they would upon a slope having the same inclination.
This short stroke is repeated six times at each revolution of the wheel, and the
current or flow of the water pushes the rods in a reverse direction six times with the
same stroke by raising them again in order to be once more rotated in the opposite
direction.
The shafts of the prisms are screwed into the frames of the water wheels and
secured by means of nuts.
The shafts of the rollers may be fitted loosely or tightly therein, and can be caused
to rotate upon the frames on the floats when the bearings are being changed, the
latter parts being subjected to considerable wear.
The water wheels are provided with suitable paddles..
Dated this 30th day of March 1886

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Water Wheels and Mechanism relating thereto.
I, GEORGE FREDERICK REDFERN, of the General Patent Office, No. 4, South Street,
Finsbury, in the county of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of
this invention (a communication from abroad by Hippolyte Mathieu Tartas,
of Bordeaux, in the republic of France, Painter,) and in what manner the same is to
be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
The object of this invention is to produce an economical motor which can be
employed for various useful purposes such as for driving machinery for producing
electricity for lighting purposes and for the transmission of mechanical power. It can
be operated by the currents of rivers and may serve to couple large numbers of
water-wheels so as to receive the forces of the various currents.
The total power produced by each water-wheel is communicated to the extremity of
each of the large shafts connecting them together and can be applied for the produc-
tion of any kind of work.
The following may be mentioned as the most useful purposes to which this apparatus
can be applied, namely:
:-
1. For agricultural purposes such as for the irrigation and submersion of poor land
with the muddy water of rivers. (It has been ascertained by experience that an
inundation will supply sufficient manure to land situated in the vicinity of rivers to
last for four or five years; inundations however, generally occur when crops are in
full growth).
2. For electric lighting, by actuating electro-magnetic machines or dynamos.
3. For the transmission of power by electricity.
4. For producing hydraulic atmospheric and other pressures.
For the purposes of this invention the frames of the water-wheels are provided with
a number of spokes or arms varying in proportion to the diameter of the said wheels
which will be arranged accordingly nearer to or further froin one another. To each
side of the said frame is fixed a six-sided prism. This number of sides can however
be varied when the currents of water are not very strong for example it will be
necessary to increase the same; whilst with very strong currents the number of sides
may be reduced to four. These sides consist of partitions applied upon and screwed
to the frame and serving to collect the power supplied by the currents, their edges
being provided with flat strips of iron similar to the tyres of cart wheels. The said
partitions or sides are suspended on a roller at their upper angles (not at their centre)
this being an important feature of the invention.
Cases or boxes are employed forming floats partitioned internally and of any suit-
able length to which are adapted the required number of water-wheels; wooden
frames are fixed upon the floats and opposite each water-wheel. These frames support
shafts upon which are mounted the said rollers.
Longitudinal iron strips or bands perforated at their upper part serve to connect the

page_text: water-wheels which are arranged thereon at equal distances from one another. The
weight of these iron bands or strips and of the water-wheels produce when rotating
upon the rollers to the extent of one side of the prism the same traction at the
extremity of the rods as they would upon a slope having the same inclination.
This short stroke is repeated six times at each revolution of the wheel, and the
current or flow of the water pushes the rods in a reverse direction six times with the
same stroke by raising them again in order to be once more rotated in the opposite
direction.
The shafts of the prisms are screwed into the frames of the water-wheels and secured
by means of nuts.
The shafts of the rollers may be fitted loosely or tightly therein, and can be caused
to rotate upon the frames on the floats when the bearings are being changed, the latter
parts being subjected to considerable wear.
The water-wheels are provided with suitable paddles.
In the accompanying drawing figuro 1 is an elevation of an apparatus constructed
according to my invention; figure 2 a front view of the same; figure 3 is a section on
line a, b, of figure 4, and figure 4 is a section on line c, d, of figure 3.
A A are the floats on which are fixed the supports K of the shafts of the rollers I;
B are the spokes or arms of the wheels on which are fixed the paddles C, the number
of these spokes as well as of the paddles is calculated according to the speed of the
current. If the current is not very strong their number is increased; if however
the current is strong their number is reduced to a minimum of four. D represents the
eccentric prism having six sides supporting the spokes and the paddles. The number
of sides corresponds with the number of paddles; in the case of four paddles the
prism would be square and on the middle of its sides the paddles would be fixed.
These prisms of which there are two for each wheel are made of sheet iron for the
part marked E, and of cast iron for the crown F, the thickness of which would be
regulated according to the weight to be supported. The central part is bored or
hollowed to allow of the passage of the small shaft G which connects the wheels with
the connecting rod H. By the use of this shaft G, I am enabled to do away with the
central shaft of ordinary water-wheels; I, roller fixed to the shaft J, K supports of
the shaft J.
The operation is as follows:-
On the wheels being turned the crown of the eccentric prism. bears. against the
rollers; this crown continually falling the length of one side thus forms an inclined
plane which is continued by the passage of each side over the rollers. This inclined
plan communicates to the connecting rods a regular to-and-fro movement, and it is this.
to-and-fro movement obtained by the passage of the crown of the eccentric prism over
the rollers which constitutes the essential feature of my invention.
The perforated rod or lever L shewn in dotted lines in figure. 2 is for the purpose of
adjusting the connecting rod.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I claim is :-
A water wheel in which an eccentric prism D bears continuously against rollers I,
by the effect of a current of a water on paddles C, whereby a regular to-and-fro
movement is communicated to a connecting rod H by the passage of the crown F of
the eccentric prism D over the rollers I, substantially as herein before described and
illustrated in the drawing.
Dated the 30th day of December 1886