INVENTION OR DISCOVERY TO BE ACTED UPON BY THE IMPULSE CP THE WIED, IN ORDER TO WORK MILLS, PUMPS, AND OTHER MACHINERY SUITABLE TO ITS APPLI- CATION;
Year: 1806

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
SAMPSON, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Wheelwright, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventh day of October,
in the forty-sixth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said William
Sampson, my exors, aditiors, and assigns, His especial licence that I, the said
William Sampson, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, during the termn of years
therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England and Wales and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
"INVENTION OR DISCOVERY TO BE ACTED UPON BY THE IMPULSE CP THE WIED, IN
ORDER TO WORK MILLS, PUMPS, AND OTHER MACHINERY SUITABLE TO ITS APPLI-
CATION;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said William Sampson, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month after the date
of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation being there-
unto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said William Sampson, do hereby declare that my said Invention or Dis-
covery to be acted upon by the Impulse of the Wind, in order to work

page_text: Mills, Pumps, and other Machinery suitable to its Application, is particularly
described and ascertained by the following description thereof, together with
the Drawings adjoining the same, and the references to the same thereunder
written :-
This Invention consists, first, in disposing any sail or sails, or other instrument
employed to receive and transmit the impulso of the wind, in such a manner,
with relation to an upright shaft, that each such sail or instrument shall move
round horizontally and turn the shaft, having its surface vertical during one
half the revolution and horizontal during the other. It is hereby calculated, in
the first instance, when moving along the wind to receive its utmost impulse, and
in the second, when coming against the wind, to oppose the least resistance pos-
sible. By successive impulses on each of such sails or instruments the shaft is
turned continually, and works the machinery which may be attached to it. The
operation is effected in the following manner :-Two or more opposite arms
are fastened transversely to the neck or top of an upright shaft, and which
neck may either form a part of the arms or of the upright shaft, but in either
case to be properly secured within a collar, each arm being turned up at the
further end so as to form a crutch or hollow semicircular socket lined with
wood or iron or other metal, which lining is secured by bolts, rivets, or screws, to
pass through holes prepared in the crutches or sockets for that purpose; in the
neck there are holes for iron or other metal rods to slide in, and also other
holes sufficiently large to admit small ropes, cords, or lines, or wires instead
thereof, for the purposes hereafter mentioned. Two, four, or more transverse
arms being prepared and secured in the manner above mentioned, a shaft
of iron, having a fan or sails or other instrument at each extremity, is placed
horizontally upon the crutches or sockets of cach pair of opposite transverse
arms, the sails at the one extremity of such shaft being fixed in a direction con-
trary to that of the sail of its other end, so as that when the one of such two
sails is in an horizontal, the other sail shall be in a vertical position. Each
of these shafts being moveable upon its crutches, is furnished with three
stays; two of these are to prevent the shaft from moving more than one fourth
of a circle when turning upon its crutches, which is effected by the stays
butting alternately against the transverse arms; and the third stay, which is
the center one, is for the purposo of suspending the action of the sail shaft
within its crutches or sockets when requisite, in the manner herein-after
described. When the said shaft is at liberty, the wind operating upon one
or other of the sails in the first place presses it until its adjacent stay butts
against the transverse arm below; this sail then becomes vertical whilst the
other takes its horizontal position; the vertical sail continues to receive the

page_text: wind's impulse until it arrives at the point directly opposite to the wind, but
by the momentum which the arms, &c. have acquired, it comes round in
face of the wind, beginning immediately to assume the horizontal position
from the wind's action, as well upon the lower part of its own surface as upon
the surface of the opposite sail now becoming vertical, so that both sails assist
in turning the shaft upon its crutches. The second sail is now acted upon as
the first was before. Each is acted upon alternately, and alternately impels a
uniform revolution in one direction of the sail shaft, the arms and the upright
shaft to which they are fastened, the sail shaft in every semi-revolution turning
one fourth of a circle, or its crutches or sockets. Iron or other metal rods,
being in form at the top like a square staple or an hook, are to be placed to
slide through the holes prepared in the neck of the upright shaft, in order
to catch upon the crutch stay before mentioned, for the purpose of suspend-
ing the action of the horizontal sail shafts by prevening their turning in their
crutches or sockets, so that when thus stopped they will act merely as vanes,
presenting only their edges to the point of the wind.
The second part of this Invention consists in a method of cloathing and
uncloathing mill sails by means of smaller sails, which is applicable as well
to horizontal as to vertical sails, but may be best described with reference to
the vertical. It is effected in the following manner :-The main shaft is made
hollow, and sufficiently capacious to receive within it another shaft, which is
also hollow; on the large shaft are placed two, four, or more sails, for the
usual purposes of the mill. The said shaft may be from twelve to fifteen or
more feet long, according to the size of the mill, and the werle intended to
be performed. Across the ends of such sail shaft are fastened pieces of timber
so as to form a T, and the length of these cross pieces of timber will be the
width of the sail, and in each of them are to be fixed four pair of roris of
iron or other materials, lying parallel to each other in two rows four inches
asunder, and in equal distances, as to the width of the sail, about nine feet
long, or more or less according to the power required. In the middle and
extremity of these rods similar cross pieces to that already described are to be
fixed; one end of a cloth is fastened to the first of these cross pieces, which
we have called a T, and the other end to a cross bar paralled to the cross piece,
and which slides backwards and forwards between the rods by means of a shaft,
which itself slides through a loop or staple fixed on the sail shaft. One end
of another cloth is fastened to the middle cross pieces, and the other end to
similar sliding cross bars, which are connected to the former sliding bars by
shafts as before described; these sliding shafts are worked backward and
forward, either by cords, chains, or racks, and a wheel fixed on the shaft on

page_text: the smaller sails before. mentioned, or by various other modes that may be
found convenient. On the end of the inner hollow shaft, and inside the mill,
is fixed a brake wheel, which is acted upon by centrifugal balls or by hand
in such a manner that by stopping the velocity of the smaller sails the cloth
will be furled, and when set at liberty they will clothe the sails and tho mill
will have its full power again. The number of tho cloths, &c. on the
sails, &c., may be increased or diminished at pleasure. The small shaft being
hollow, a small screw rod passing through it may be made to turn two, four,
or more small sails obliquely, either way to the wind, by which operation
they will act the contrary way, and will not only clothe and furl the large
sails, but in time of storms will, by checking their progress, givo additional
security.
The Drawings and letters of reference accompanying this Specification will
clearly explain every particular-of-the Invention that can be requisite. The
excellence and utility of this Invention will be apparent, when it is considered
how much it will contribute to the safety of millers and other persons em-
ployed in such useful occupations, to the reduction of labour and the saving
of expenco in a variety of ways. Let it bo observed, that that part of this
Invention which relates to furling sails, is applicable to vertical and other
mills now in use, which may be altered without much expence, and to this
application of the Invention, as well as to every other, the Patentee claims the
full benefit and exclusive privilege.
In witness, whereof, I, the said William Sampson, have hereunto set and
aflixed my hand and seal; this Third day of November, in the year of