A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD OF APPLYING POWER TO THE WORKING OF MILLS AND OTHER MACHINERY WHERE POWER IS REQUIRED
Year: 1799

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
KENT, of the Town and County of the Town of Southampton, Architect and
Builder, send greeting..
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster the Fifth day of January, in the thirty-ninth year of His
reign, give and grant unto me, the said John Kent, His especial licence,
that I, the said John Kent, during the term of years therein mentioned, should
and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD
OF APPLYING POWER TO THE WORKING OF MILLS AND OTHER MACHINERY WHERE
POWER IS REQUIRED;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said John Kent, 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 thereunto
had) may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Kent, do declare that the nature of my said Invention is as follows,
vizt:
My said Invention I call a new or improved method of applying power, in
which I substitute weight or pressure in the room of animal strength, and which
is applicable to all and every kind of machinery whatever where power is

page_text: required, and which said power acts on the principle of an inverted lever,
whereby I apply the power nearest to and the weight to be raised farthest
from the fulcrum or center of gravity by means of rolling or otherwise moving
a heavy weight or pressure to act on the inclined plane, or on the periphery of
a wheel, either internally or externally, the former to produce a direct and the
letter a rotative motion, which, for the better description thereof, I have
annexed the Drawings No. 1, 2, 3. No. 1 sheweth the geometrical definition or
principle of my said Invention. A, A, a double lever divided into twelve parts.
B, the fulcrum. C, the power, (which, for illustration sake,) I will suppose to
weigh something more than six tons. D, the weight to be raised, which I also
suppose to weigh one ton. Now, it is evident that if the power C be rolled or
otherwise moved from E to F it will raise the weight D, and if rolled or other-
wise moved back again from F to E it will alternately produce the same effect at
the extremity of the lever A, A, No. 2 and 3 are the sections shewing the same
principle applied to rotative motion. A, A, A, a wheel suspended on its axis
or centre, which I call the sustaining wheel. B, B, B, B, a fly wheel, arms, or fly
vanes, &c. &c. &c. (as occasion may require), fastened at each or either end, or any
other part of the roller B b, Bb, by means of a square spindle passing through
the centre of each fly wheel, arms, or vanes, &c. &c. &c., in order that when
occasion may require a larger or smaller roller may be introduced. The said fly
wheel or wheels, arms, vanes, &c. &c. &c., when so affixed to the roller and square
spindle, I call the moving power, which may be put and kept in motion either
by a winch wheel, vanes, &c. &c. &c.) or any other method, as situation and
circumstances may require). Being fixed to the square spindle Z, Z, and which
said moving power (for illustration sake) I will (as before) suppose to weigh
something more than six tons, I will also suppose it placed perpendicular to
one sixth part of the length of half the diameter from the centre of the
sustaining wheel A, A, A, either on the internal or external periphery of the
said wheel, as at C, C; D, D, the weight to be raised, which I also suppose to
weigh one ton, and to be suspended at the extremity of the sustaining wheel
A, A, A; now, it is plain that if the said moving power, weighing something
more than six tons, be rolled either by the winch wheel or vanes, &c. &c. &c.,
more-than
as occasion may require, toward the centre if on the external, and from the
centre if on the internal, periphery of the sustaining wheel A, A, A, on which
its whole weight or pressure bears, it will raise the weight D weighing one ton,
and the rolling power when in motion will cause the sustaining wheel to move
also with the same degree of celerity towards each other; and the reason is
evident, as the proportion of weight or pressure of the power is something
greater than the proportion of its distance from the centre of gravity, which is

page_text: the centre of the sustaining wheel A, A, A. It is also evident that the roller
and the sustaining wheel on which its whole weight or pressure bears, moving
with the same quantity of motion toward each other, that the great difficulty
in mechanicks of gaining power without losing time is overcome by the means
of supplying weight or pressure at or near the centre of gravity, in the room of
animal strength, in the usual way applied. It also more fully appears by
applying the strength of one horse (only) to the top of the roller Bb, and the
horse moving at the rate of three miles per hour, the power will raise more
than eight hundred tons of water twenty feet high in the space of one hour,
which is more water than is required to be raised to work an overshot water
wheel for a corn mill, and the overplus water is also more than sufficient to
keep up the motion of the said power when set going; so that by means
of raising water into a cistern placed above, in order to supply an overshot
wheel, and that water, when so raised, is turned on an overshot wheel, it
becomes a perpetual motion, without any moving agent but the water, as the
upper cistern will be always full, and the overplus water will, with the water
from the overshot wheel, run into a cistern placed below the bottom of the
overshot wheel to receive it, and by this means a certain quantity of water
used over again will answer the same purpose as a large pond or head of water,
so that a mill may be erected in any situation required. E, E, E, E, E, E, E, a
frame of wood, iron, or any other metal or composition of metal, to keep the
moving power steady on the sustaining wheel A; A, A, when in motion, and
also to raise it off from the sustaining wheel A, A, A, by pulling down the
lever F, in order to increase or diminish its power by moving its situation on
the sustaining wheel A, A, A, farther from or nearer to the perpendicular of the
centre of quantity by means of the lever G turning the rollers II, I, which
movesthe suspended power to any situation on the sustaining wheel A, A, A, at
pleasure. The lever G, pointing to the graduated limb of a circle, shews by
marks thereon what the weight or pressure of the power is at or at any situa-
tion from the perpendicular of the centre of gravity, which is the centre of
the sustaining wheel A, A, A.
As this my said power is applicable to every situation, either on the sea or
the land, I cannot say, till I know to what purpose my said Invention is to be
applied, what kind of materials will be most proper for its construction, as it
may be made of wood and iron, of stone and iron, of iron alone, or any other
kind of metals or composition of metals whatsoever, and also must be made
larger or smaller, as situation and circumstances may require. I shall only add,
for general information, and for the general good, that in a ship my said Inven-
tion may be applied to any machine for raising water for heaving purchases by

page_text: a windlass or otherwise, also to force a ship along through a calm, or in an
engagement at sen, when the ship may be ungovernable from the loss of masts,
sails, or rigging, &c. &c. &c., and on the land to corn and other mills of every
description whatever where power is required, either as a moving power, or to
take off friction in the construction of any machinery that is already made or
to be erected, also for raising great quantities of water from deep mines, for
emptying ponds, basons, docks, &c. &c., and for making ropes and cables, also
for making iron and all kind of heavy iron works, and to work engines for
extinguishing fires, for boring of cannon, and for moving barges up the inclined'
plane, also for all kinds of carriages, particularly for road waggons and other
carriages carrying heavy burthens, as the weight in the carriage becomes the
moving power, by being placed on a sustaining wheel at a small distance from
the perpendicular of the centre of gravity.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Kent, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Fourth day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine.
JN° KENT. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourth day of February, in the
thirty-ninth year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third, the said
John Kent came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknow-
ledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained.
and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument aforesaid
was stamped according to the tenor of the several Statutes made in the sixth
year of the late King and Queen William and Mary of England, and so forth,
and in the seventeenth, twenty-third, and thirty-seventh years of the reign of
His present Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Fourth day of February, in the year above written.