IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR UTILIZING STREAMS, SUBTERRANEAN AND OTHER SPRINGS, LAKES, PONDS, AND OTHER SURFACE WATERS AS MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Denton Abel, of No. 20, Southampton
Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent
Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND
APPARATUS FOR UTILIZING STREAMS, SUBTERRANEAN AND OTHER SPRINGS,
LAKES, PONDS, AND OTHER SURFACE WATERS AS MOTIVE POWER." - A
communication from abroad by Jules Gabriel Hanriau, of Meaux,
Seine-et-Marne, France.
Sealed the 6th May 1870, and dated the 20th November 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Denton Abel
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 20th November 1869.
I, CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR UTILIZING STREAMS, SUBTERRANEAN AND OTHER
SPRINGS, LAKES, PONDS, AND OTHER SURFACE WATERS AS MOTIVE POWEB," to be
as follows:-
This Invention consists in utilizing streams, springs, or surface waters
as motive power by providing for the same an artificial fall or head at
the bottom of which the water after doing duty in acting upon a suitable

page_text: bydraulic engine is carried off by establishing a communication between
it and an absorbant substratum of earth.
Various arrangements may be employed for carrying this system into
practice. Thus in one arrangement where water flows from springs into
a well the well is firstly deepened to obtain the desired fall and the
bottom thereof is put in communication by boring with an absorbant
substratum. The water of the spring is intercepted and made to flow
from an annular trough in the well down a pipe to a hydraulic ram,
where one portion of the water escapes and flows off to the absorbant
stratum, while the other portion is raised by the ram to the desired
height above the level of the well, where it is utilized in any suitable
known manner as a head of water.
In another arrangement where the water rises in the form of an
artesian or other spring up to or above the level of the ground it is caused
first to flow through a pipe into a reservoir level with or elevated above
the ground, whence it falls through another pipe to a suitable hydraulic
engine, such as a water wheel, turbine, or water pressure engine situated
at or near the bottom of a pit, which as before is made to communicate
by a pipe with an absorbant substratum. Two or more such artesian or
other springs may be collected in one and the same reservoir to act as
described. Or again, the water contained in a running stream or in an
elevated lake, basin, or pond may be conducted into such before mentioned
reservoir whence it is caused to flow on to the turbine, as stated, or it
may be conducted directly from such stream or basin through a pipe to
the hydraulic engine in the well. The power from such engine is trans-
mitted to above the surface of the ground either by shafting or by other
suitable driving gear. Where the connection with one single absorbant
substratum is not found sufficient to dispose of all the water flowing into
the pit or well a lateral excavation or boring may be made in the same
and connection be made with a second absorbant stratum.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Denton Abel in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 19th May 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
DENTON ABEL, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-ninc, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Charles Denton Abel, Her special licence
that I, the said Charles Denton Abel, my: executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Denton Abel,
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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR UTILIZING STREAMS SUB-
TERRANEAN AND OTHER SPRINGS, LAKES, PONDS, AND OTHER SURFACE WATERS
AS MOTIVE POWER," a communication to me from abroad by Jules
Gabriel Hanriau, of Meaux, Seine-et-Marne, France, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Charles Denton Abel, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or
one of their hands and seals, 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 Charles Denton Abel, 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 thereof, reference being had to.
the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, and to the figures and letters.
marked thereon, that is to say :-
When it is desired to use water as motive power it is not only a
question of obtaining a height of fall, it is requisite also. to obtain an
outlet or escape for the water after it has acted upon the hydraulic
motor. If a pit is sunk into the earth for placing therein a hydraulic
apparatus at a lower level than at which the water enters such pit
would under ordinary circumstances soon be filled up with the discharge
water from the apparatus, and this would cease to operate. This
circumstance hitherto prevented entirely the utilization of reservoirs of
water which had no ordinary outlet at a lower level. Now the present

page_text: Invention consists in rendering such bodies of water available as motive
power by providing an outlet for the same in absorbant subterrancan
aqueous beds or strata. It is well known that the subterranean streams
or aqueous beds are capable of absorbing or carrying with them a
quantity of water equal to that which they deliver at the point where
they issue above ground; it suffices therefore in order to provide an
outlet for the water to be utilized as motive power to direct it after it
has acted upon the motor into a pit, shaft, or well that is in com-
munication with such an absorbant stratum, bed, or stream. The water
to be utilized may be provided either by wells in which the water rises
either to above the level of the ground, or only to a lower level, as in
ordinary wells, or by springs, collections of rain water, drainage of
ground, wells at high levels, and all other collections or surface beds of
water. As motor any description of hydraulic machine, such as turbines,
water wheels, water-pressure engines, and the like, may bo employed. If
it is only required to effect the raising of water by the power produced
a hydraulic ram, syphon, or Heron's fountain may be employed.
A great variety of arrangements may be adopted for carrying this
Invention into practice according to the circumstances and localities in
which it is employed and to the results to be obtained thereby.
On the accompanying Drawing are shewn some of these arrangements.
The several Figures shew vertical sections through the axes of the wells
or shafts. The alimentary aqueous beds of the artesian wells are indi-
cated by blue lines, and the absorbant beds which are generally situated
above the former are represented by red tints.
First case, Figure 1.-The arrangement here shown represents a case
which will most frequently occur, in which it is proposed to raise to a
certain height the water of a spring rising in an ordinary well. This
well p is extended to the necessary depth for affording a fall h below
the level of the spring sufficient for actuating a hydraulic ram 6 placed
a short distance from the bottom of the well. At the bottom of the
well a boring f is effected until the absorbant bed n is reached. The
characteristic feature of this arrangement consists in intercepting the
water of the springs by means of an annular trough m communicating
with a reservoir r, from which the water descends into the hydraulic
ram 6 through a conduit c. One portion of the water escapes through
the valve of the ram, and flows away through the tubing into the bed n
which absorbs it. The other portion is raised by the action of the ram

page_text: through the pipe 6" into a reservoir k, where it is employed for any
desired purpose. The opening of the tubing is covered by a grating q
for preventing the entrance of foreign matter which might eventually
choke the tubing and also destroy the absorbant properties of the bed.
If the yield of water in the well is too small a second reservoir may
be connected to the first by means of a syphon with intermittent
action.
A
1
Second case, Figure 2.-In this case the water is provided by means
of a spring rising to above the level of the ground, the water of which is
by means of the extended tubing j conducted into a reservoir r.
conduit m directs this water into a turbine t placed inside a pit or shaft p
sunk at a certain distance from the spring over the absorbant bed n with
which it is put in communication as before by means of a tubing
covered with a grating q.
The vertical shaft a of the turbine com-
municates the power developed to a shaft c above ground, upon which
are fixed one or more pullics for actuating agricultural machinery or
which may transmit the power to the machinery of an adjacent mill or
factory.
Third case, Figure 3.-When a sufficient quantity of water is found on
the surface of the ground either as a stream, pond, swamp, &c., the
water is directed into a well p sunk at a moderate distance above the
absorbant bed 1. The water in descending into the same is made to act
upon a suitable hydraulic machine (not shewn on the Drawing), which
transforms into useful work the motive power duc to the fall. The
pond o may be replaced by a basin in which the water of several water-
courses as also the rainfall accumulate.
Fourth case, Figure 4.-When the reservoir or alimentary spring s is
too far distant from the point where the motive power is to be utilized
it is connected by means of a syphon y with a reservoir
to the absorbing well p sunk over the absorbing bed n.
fall is made to act upon a turbine t.
arranged close
The water in its
Fifth case, Figure 5.-This represents an arrangement applicable in
cases where the single absorbant bed n (not shewn in this Figure) is
insufficient to carry off all the water. In this case a gallery 7 is driven
for the purpose of finding a second bed n¹. This is pierced by means of
a tubing, which together with the tubing & forms the outlet for the water.
The gallery or cxcavation is made sufficiently large to serve as reservoir

page_text: should the two beds not be sufficient to carry off all the discharge water
flowing down during the day.
Sixth case, Figure 6.-If on the contrary a bed of great power of
absorption is available two sources of water, for instance, a rising artesian
spring p and an ordinary well p¹ may be used conjointly. The great
quantity of water thus accumulated in a reservoir r will allow of an
overshot water wheel d being used as motor.
By means of the several examples above given the nature of the
Invention and the numerous arrangements of which it is susceptible will
be readily understood.
By means of this Invention it is casily possible to establish falls of
water at all such localities which correspond with absorbing beds that
are readily accessible. In particular this system affords for the first
time means for gaining from the depth of the earth the motive power
contained in subterranean springs and in utilizing it above ground by
means of an hydraulic motor. It is particularly agriculture which will
benefit by this Invention in the production of a large quantity of water
for irrigation and other purposes.
Having thus described the nature of this Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, as communicated to me by my foreign corre-
spondent, what I claim is the before described system whereby absorbant
subterranean strata, aqueous beds or streams are rendered available for
establishing heads of water to be employed for utilizing as motive
power or for other purposes springs, subterranean waters, water-
courses, ponds, lakes, surface drainage, rainfall, and other bodies of
water.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Denton Abel, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of May,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy.