AN ENGINE FOR RAISING AND LOWERING OF WEIGHTS OF ALL KINDS, AND FOR WORKING MILLS, AND FOR OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES
Year: 1802

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, Joun
HARRIOTT, of Wapping, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire, and THOMAS
STRODE, of Wapping aforesaid, Smith, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, by His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Thirteenth day of April, in the forty-second year of His said Majesty's
reign, did give and grant unto us, the said John Harriott and Thomas
Strode, our executors, administrators, and assigns, especial licence, full power,
sole privilege, and authority, to make, use, exercise, and vend, our Invention
of "AN ENGINE FOR RAISING AND LOWERING OF WEIGHTS OF ALL KINDS, AND FOR
WORKING MILLS, AND FOR OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES," within that part of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion
of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, for the term of fourteen years;
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging us, the
said John Harriott and Thomas Strode, particularly to describe and ascertain
the nature of our said Invention, and the manner in in which the same is to
be performed, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, and to
cause the same to be inrolled in the High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent, as by the said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, will
more fully appear..
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
John Harriott and Thomas Strode, do hereby declare that our said. Invention

page_text: is described and set forth in the Drawings hereto annexed, and the following
description; that is to say:-
First, the engine is to be so constructed that a descending column of water
inclosed in a pipe is made to act or press upon a piston properly fitted in a
cylinder of metal or other fit material, at the same time that another column
of water, continued and inclosed from beneath the piston downwards to a lower
level than and actually beneath the surface of water exposed to the atmo-
sphere in a drain or other receptacle, whence the same may be conveyed away,
and, by preventing the atmosphere from pressing upwards with it's usual force
against the said piston, encreases the tendency of the said piston to descend
in the same manner, and with the same effect, as if the said last-mentioned
inferior column were actually bearing upon the upper surface of the said
piston, and in consequence whereof the said piston is acted upon by a force
equal to or expressed by the weight of a column of water of which the base
is taken to be equal to that of the interior space or bore of the said cylinder,
and of which last-mentioned column the height is taken to be equal to the
whole height of the water measured perpendicularly from the surface in a
reservoir above, by which the descending column is to be supplied to the
surface of the water in the before-mentioned drain or receptacle beneath.
Secondly, the said piston should be properly disposed and fixed so as to be
moveable forwards and backwards in the said cylinder without any external
communication, excepting a communication by the piston rod which passes
through a stuffing box, and is employed to raise weights, or to perform any
other work, and excepting two other communications or waterways through
which the water is admitted into or suffered to pass out of the cavities or
interior spaces of the said cylinder on each side of the said piston.
Thirdly, certain pipes, channels, or close waterways should be so constructed
as to communicate from the said upper and lower columns of water, that by
the turning of certain cocks the upper column shall press by it's gravity upon
any one of the sides of the said piston, at the same time that the said lower
column shall be made to act against the pressure of the atmosphere, which
might otherwise have operated against-the-other-side-of-the-said-piston; and
by these means we can, as before mentioned, cause the said piston to be moved
by the force of the column of water answering to the whole height or fall of
the water as aforesaid, and we can also reverse the motion of the said piston
at pleasure, with an equal power in both cases.
Fourthly, a communication is to be made between the upper and lower
interior spaces of the said cylinder by means of a pipe, in which there is a
cock, in order that, whenever the said cock is gradually or partly opened, the

page_text: said piston shall be at liberty to move by any reaction upon the rod thereof,
as in lowering weights, or otherwise, with any degree of slowness or speed
which the attendant who governs the engine may think proper.
Fifthly, in order that these Presents may be more perfectly understood, we
do, in the annexed Drawings, exhibit and explain one of the methods of con-
structing our said engine. A, A, Figure 1, is a cylinder having a piston
moveable therein, of which D is the piston rod; B and C are waterways
through which the water is admitted to communicate with both sides of the
piston; E, F, a pipe through which water descends from a reservoir above
into a three-way cock M; C, H, is a pipe communicating from the three-way
cock to the upper part of the cylinder; K is a pipe communicating from the
said cock to the lower part of the cylinder; I is a pipe communicateing
between the said two last-mentioned pipes, and consequently between the
upper and lower spaces of the cylinder; and the said communication can be
either cut off or opened to any requisite degree, by means of the cock L. N
is a pipe in which the lower column of water is suspended by the reaction of
the atmosphere, and which therefore diminishes the pressure of the air that
might also have operated upwards through that pipe. Figure 2 shews the
plan or horizontal section of the three-way pipe and its appendages. The
letters H, F, and K, denote the pipes communicating with the top of the
cylinder and with the main descending column and the bottom of the cylinder
respectively, as in Figure 1. The space e, f, g, between the two circles, repre-
sents the shell or exterior part of the cock through which the pipes K, F, and
H, have openings, as are shewn. The interior circle m, m, m, represents the
plug of the cock, having therein a perpendicular opening N closed at the top,
but communicating beneath with the pipe N (Figure 1), and on each side
(return to Figure 2) with the ducts or channels a and d. b, c, represents an
oblique or side channel, communicating in the present position between F
and H; and in this position of the cock, therefore, the upper column through
F is conveyed through H and C (Figure 1) to the upper part of the cylinder,
while the lower opening K communicates through the duet a, (Figure 2,) with
the column N (Figure 1); but when, by means of the handle G, (Figure 1,)
the attendant moves the cock to the position represented, Figure 3, the upper
space of the cylinder H is made to communicate with N, the lower pipe,
while the upper column F operates through c, b, and K, upon the lower part
of the piston, and produces a contrary pressure; and since this pressure may
be reversed as gradually as the operator pleases, the contrary motion so
produced may be employed in lowering goods, or in any other process where a
regulated speed is required, and so likewise will the speed of hoisting be

page_text: entirely under the command: of the attendant; and again, in case the operator
shall place the cock in the position Figure 4, all the ducts or channels will be
closed, and the mechanical process will cease: But in this case, if the cock L
(Figure 1) be opened, the water in the cylinder will be át liberty to run from
one space to the other on each side of the piston, and will, therefore permit
the same to be moved by the the reaction of lowering goods or otherwise; and
more or less freely 'accordingly.to the greater or less. opening of the 'said cock L.
And lastly, we do hereby declare that the force communicated, as aforesaid
may be applied by means of the usual gear, apparatus, or machinery, not only
to the raising and lowering of goods, but also to the working of pumps, the
rotation of mill work; and a great variety of obvious and highly important
purposes; and that the described 'apparatus should be constructed with such
materials as are commonly used or may be found applicable to the several
respectively described parts: and purposes; and the' several parts will admit of
some variety of arrangement and disposition, answering, in various degrees of
'perfection; the purposes described to be hereby intended, as will be sufficiently
obvious to engineers or workmen of ordinary skill in works of a similar nature.
In witness whereof, 'we, the said John Harriott and Thomas Strode, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, the Fifth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and two.