IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR EXHAUSTING AND COM- PRESSING AIR, AND PRODUCING AIR BLASTS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer,
for the Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR EXHAUSTING AND COM-
PRESSING AIR, AND PRODUCING AIR BLASTS."-A communication from
abroad by Frederick William Partz, of the City of New York, in the
United States of America.
Sealed 21st June 1861, and dated the 28th January 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 28th January 1861.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR EXHAUSTING AND COMPRESSING
AIB, AND PRODUCING Am BLASTS," to be as follows:-
This Invention of improved apparatus for exhausting and compressing
air, and producing air blasts, consists in producing a permanent current of air
by continuously subjecting volumes of air to the pressure of columns of water
or other fluid by means of a wheel or cylinder partially immersed in the fluid,
and revolving on a horizontal axis; which wheel or cylinder is divided into

page_text: convolute compartments, so arranged that with each revolution they alternately
take in through openings at the periphery volumes of air and of fluid, both of
which are forced by hydrostatic pressure to the centre of the wheel, and are
discharged through a hollow shaft into an adjacent chamber, whence the fluid
flows back to its source through an opening near the bottom thereof into the
first chamber, while the compressed air passes out under pressure through an
opening or a pipe adapted to the air chamber for the purpose. The chambers
are divided from each other by a vertical partition, which is open at bottom.
The external air is drawn into one of these chambers by the rotation of the
wheel, and is forced out of the other by the bydrostatic pressure of the water.
This machine may serve not only as a blast generator, but also as an
exhauster, and be made to remove noxious air or gases from any room simply
by attaching a pipe communicating with such room to the opening into the
chamber in which the convolute wheel rotates.
By revolving the wheel in the opposite direction the effect of the apparatus
will be reversed, exhaustion being produced in one chamber and compression
in the other chamber.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 26th July 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said William Edward Newton, Her special license that I, the said William
Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
1, the said William Edward Newton, 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 "Ix-
PROVED APPARATUS FOR EXHAUSTING AND COMPRESSING AIR, AND PRODUCING AIR
BLASTS, being a communication from abroad, upon the condition (amongst

page_text: others) that I, the said William Edward Newton, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Edward Newton, 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, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say): -
This Invention of improved apparatus for exhausting air and producing air
blasts, consists in producing a permanent current of air by continuously sub-
jecting volumes of air to the pressure of columns of water or other fluid by
means of a wheel or cylinder partially immersed in the fluid, and revolving on
a horizontal axis; which wheel or cylinder is divided into convolute compart-
ments, so arranged that with each revolution they alternately take in through
openings at the periphery volumes of air and of fluid, both of which are forced
by hydrostatic pressure to the centre of the wheel, and are discharged through
a hollow shaft into an adjacent chamber, whence the fluid flows back to its
source through an opening near the bottom thereof into the first chamber,
while the compressed air passes out under pressure through an opening or a
pipe adapted to the air chamber for the purpose.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of
the improved generator, and Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the same. a is
a cylindrical vessel divided into two chambers 1 and 2 by the vertical par-
tition b, which does not quite extend to the bottom of the vessel, thus leaving
a communication between the two chambers. At the top of the chamber 2 is
an opening wide enough for a free access of air. Fig. 1 shews a vertical
section, and Fig. 2 a front view of a wheel composed of two parallel discs c, d,
and three coiled or convolute partition plates e, e, e, that are interposed
between the discs, and are curved in the same direction from the centre to the
periphery, thus forming three coiled or convolute compartments or tubes
8, 8, 3, (Fig. 1). which communicate at the centre with the cylinder or hollow
shaft that rests in the air-tight journal g (Fig. 2). The driving shaft h
which lies in the water-tight journal i is solid.
The operation of this machine is as follows:-The vessel a being filled with
water to about the height of the shaft h, and power being applied to the pulley
k in such a manner that the wheel c, d, e, is revolved in the direction indicated

page_text: by the arrow in Fig. 1; the coiled compartments or tubes 3, 3, 3, successively
take in through their openings at the periphery portions of air and water
which are constantly moved towards the centre, whence they are discharged
through the cylinder or hollow shaft into the chamber 1, the water flowing
back through the opening 4 into the chamber 2, and the air under the
pressure of columns of water within the coiled compartments 3, 3, 3, passes out
of the opening 5, to which a pipe may be attached for conducting the current
of air to the place where it is required.
The compression of the air, and consequently the velocity of the current
issuing from the opening 5, may conveniently be determined by the depression
of the level of the water in the chamber 1, for the observation of which a glass
plate may be inserted in the casing of this chamber, or a glass tube may be
attached similar to the water gauges on steam boilers. m is a manhole, through
which the water can be drawn off by a syphon when desired.
This blowing machine or generator may effectually be driven at a very slow
speed, if its dimensions are in due proportion to the quantity and pressure of
air required. Thus a great deal of gearing and belting necessary for obtaining
the requisite speed in ordinary centrifugal blowers may be avoided, and a vast
amount of power now generally lost by the friction of a number of bearings,
gudgeons, &c., be saved. Without altering the speed of the pulley k, the
velocity of the current of air produced by this machine may be regulated to a
certain extent simply by increasing or decreasing the bulk of water contained
in the vessel a.
It is apparent that instead of the wheel above described, a pipe or pipes
coiled around a hollow shaft in a manner analogous to the partitions of the
wheel, and communicating with the shaft or a cone with spiral compartments,
or any other corresponding device may be substituted, and will produce the
same effect.
This machine may serve not only as a blast generator, but also as an
exhauster, and be made to remove noxious air or gases from any room simply
by attaching a pipe (communicating with such room) to the opening l in the
chamber in which the convolute wheel rotates.
By revolving the wheel c, d, e, in the opposite direction to that indicated by
the arrow in Fig. 1, the effect of the apparatus will be reversed, exhaustion
being produced in the chamber 1, and compression in the other chamber 2.
In hospitals, and on board of vessels infected with epidemics, the machine
may be used as an efficient disinfector, for which purpose it is only necessary
to add to the water contained therein ammonia or some other volatile dis-
infecting agent, with which the air while passing through the machine will

page_text: become impregnated, and when discharged into infected rooms it will effec-
tually purify their miasmatic atmosphere.
Having thus described the nature and operation of this improved blast
generator and exhauster, what I claim therein as new is, producing a steady
and uninterrupted blast by means of a wheel constructed as herein described,
and arranged within a cylindrical or other formed vessel, as set forth, and
containing the required quantity of water. I also claim the peculiar com-
bination and arrangement of the compartments or chambers 1, 2, and wheel
c, d, e, in relation to each other for enabling them to be either employed as a
blast generator or as an exhauster, as before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-fourth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
5 Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.B.)