A PRACTICAL APPLICATION OR PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF KNOWN PRINCIPLES TO PRODUCE MECHANICAL POWER
Year: 1835

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THEODOR
SCHWARTZ, Technologist, formerly of Stockholm, but now of Birmingham, in
the County of Warwick, send greeting.
WHEREAS I did, by petition, represent unto His most Excellent Majesty
King William the Fourth, that I had invented "A PRACTICAL APPLICATION OR
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF KNOWN PRINCIPLES TO PRODUCE MECHANICAL POWER,"
and His said Majesty being willing to encourage all useful inventions, did
issue His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of August, in the sixth year of
Ilis reign, whereby His said Majesty did, for Himself, His heirs and suc-
cessors give and grant unto me, the said Theodor Schwartz, His especial
licence that I, the said Theodor Schwartz, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Theodor Schwartz, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise and vend, within England
and Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my said Invention; in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the
said Theodor Schwartz, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to
be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar

page_text: months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and
at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Theodor Schwartz, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are described and
ascertained in manner following (that is to say):-
The "known principles" which I propose to employ in the production of
mechanical power, are described in most of the works of chemical writers
when treating of the absorption of gases by liquids. Priestly, the discoverer
of what he termed alkaline air (in volume 2d, page 277, of his Experiments
and Observations on Different Kinds of Air, states that mariuc acid is imbibed
by water. Ure, in his Chemical Dictionary, states that water absorbs four
hundred and eighty times its bulk of muriatic acid gas, and five hundred and
five times its bulk of ammoniacal gas; and Thompson, in his System of
Chemistry, volume the third, page 58, states in treating of the gases which
are absorbable by liquids, that water of the same temperature always takes
up the same bulk of each gas whatever be its density, that by increasing the
pressure sufficiently we may cause water to absorb any quantity of gas we
please, and lastly, page 59, that the gases still retain their elasticity after they
have been absorbed by the water. The practical applications of those known
principles consist in condensing the gases which are absorbable in liquids by a
forcing pump or other convenient means, until a sufficient pressure is obtained
in a reservoir containing the liquid and the gas. If gas in the dry state be
condensed at a pressure of five atmospheres only, five cubic feet of gas could
be condensed into a reservoir of one cubic foot capacity; but if muriatic acid
gas, which is one of the gases absorbable by water, be condensed under a
pressure of five atmospheres into a reservoir containing one cubic foot of
water, then the cubic foot of water will absorb five times four hundred and
eighty, or two thousand four hundred cubic feet of muriatic gas, while the
bulk of the water is increased; and if the pressure be reduced from five
atmospheres to one, then four times four hundred and eighty, or one thousand
nine hundred and twenty cubic feet of gas, still retaining its clasticity, will be
liberated from the water, and may be usefully applied in giving motion to
machinery, either by the mode which I am now about to describe or by any
other of the well-known modes by which steam is used as the first mover or
means of giving motion to an engine. A wrought iron reservoir of suitable
strength and capacity for containing the liquid and the compressed gas must
be provided, with pipes having slide or other valves. These pipes must

page_text: connect the reservoir with the top and bottom of a cylinder which has a
piston accurately fitted in it; the end of the piston is connected with the
crank shaft, as in the common steam engine. From the reservoir containing
the compressed gas a communication with the cylinder through the pipes is
opened or closed at pleasure by means of valves. Upon opening the com-
munication between the reservoir and the bottom of the cylinder the gas
rushes in, and by its expansion raises the piston. After a sufficient quantity
of gas has passed into the cylinder, the communication between the reservoir
and the cylinder is closed. A jet of water obtained from a tank connected
with the engine is then thrown into a condenser communicating with the
cylinder; the gas which has raised the piston is rapidly absorbed by the jet of
water and a vacuum is thus formed between the bottom of the piston and the
bottom of the cylinder. The communication from the reservoir to the top of
the cylinder is then opened, and a sufficient quantity of gas is allowed to pass
into the cylinder above the piston in order to give the piston a downward
stroke. The gas after it has depressed the piston is in its turn rapidly
absorbed by the application of a jet of water, acting as before stated in the
condenser, and causing a vacuum between the top of the piston and the top
of the cylinder. A communication is then again opened, as already described,
between the reservoir and the bottom of the cylinder, and the piston is thus
alternately raised and depressed by the same mechanical motions as those of
the double acting steam engine, which are too well known by every practical
man to require further description. The jets of water, after they have acted
in the condenser and caused a vacuum by absorbing the gas, pass into a
proper receiver connected with the condenser. The gas contained in the
water of the receiver may afterwards be separated by a gentle heat or other
means and be again compressed into water in a proper reservoir. In this way
the same gas may be employed repeatedly in giving motion to the engine, or
in other words, may be used over and over again in working the engine.
The quantity of gas compressed into the reservoir must be proportioned to the
to the power which the engine is required to exert, and to the time during
which it exerts its power. When the action of the engine ceases, the reservoir
and the receiver (or their contents) must be removed and be replaced by
others which can be attached immediately.
I claim as my Invention of a Practical Application or Practical Applications
of Known Principles to produce Mechanical Power, the application for this
purpose of such gases as are rapidly absorbable by liquids. I give a preference
to the use of ammonia, or alkaline air as it was called by its great discoverer,
Priestley. First, because it is rapidly obtained; secondly, because it is

page_text: very largely and rapidly absorbable by water; thirdly, because it is easily
separated from the water of condensation by a low degree of heat; and, lastly;
because it has no injurious action upon the iron employed in the engine and
machinery.
As my new and improved engine will be constructed at the Chunk Iron
Works, at Bordesley, near Birmingham, I have given it the name of the
Chunk Engine; and I mean to apply it for locomotive and other purposes in all
cases where the ordinary locomotive engine is now employed. By the practical
application herein-before described, the great wear and tear of the steam
locomotive engine is avoided; a lighter, cheaper, and more convenient and
manageable locomotive power is produced; and all danger from explosion and
from fire is completely removed, since the Chunk engine is worked without
steam; and has no boiler. The gas may be compressed at any suitable place
by a stationary engine or by any other power, and the reservoirs of gas
compressed in water conveyed to any stations where they may be required.
The Chunk engine makes no smoke because it employs no fuel, and con-
sequently it can never expose passengers to the annoyance now caused by the
steam engine in passing through tunnels, nor to that of the heat and falling
of soot and condensed steam upon the decks of steam boats.
In witness whereof, I, the said Theodor Schwartz, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-seventh day of August, in the year of our
Land One thousand night hundred and thirty fine