IMPROVED MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER, APPLICABLE FOR DRIVING MACHINERY, AND FOR VENTILATING MINES, BUILDINGS, SHIPS, AND OTHER SPACES
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Sloper at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd December
1866.
I, JOSEPH SLOPER, of Walbrook House, Walbrook, in the City of London,
Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVED MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER, APPLICABLE
FOR DRIVING MACHINERY, AND FOR VENTILATING MINES, BUILDINGS, SHIPS, AND
OTHER SPACES," to be as follows:-
My Invention of and apparatus for obtaining motive power for driving or
working machinery for ventilating mines, tunnels, buildings, and other spaces,
and for other purposes, relates to a novel mode of obtaining a motive power
by means of a current or currents of air through shafts, conduits, or lengthened
tubings, which power when obtained will, if desirable, be a perpetual motive
power, and my object is to employ it for driving or working machinery, and
particularly for ventilating of mines, tunnels, buildings, &c., raising of water
and other bodies, or may be used as an auxiliary in connexion with any
other motive power, or the prevention of the down draft of smoke and
currents of air in chimneys or shafts.

page_text: '
I propose to obtain my object as follows:-I create or produce a powerful
current or currents of air by the means of one or more shafts built in the
usual way of brick or stone, or tubings of metal or other material, that in
proportion to the height or length of the shafts, funnels, or tubings so the
currents of air are increased, provided that the inside of the shafts, funnels,
or tubings are of the proper porportions; or I propose to alter or adapt any
present shaft or flue to suit my purpose; or I propose ascending funnels or
tubes made of any suitable material, and to connect and continue from the
lower part thereof, if desirable, a continuous length of conduits or tubings in a
longitudinal position along the ground, or in any direction found most suitable,
so as to catch the air and create the most powerful current or currents of air
through the tubing and up the ascending shafts or funnels. The lower
conduits or tubings may be connected with the ascending shaft or funnel if
necessary at any part and in any way most desirable; and I propose to
construct the mouth or entrance for the admission of air into the tubing or
conduits in such manner, forn, or dimensions, and of any suitable material,
and also to adapt the upper ends or outlets of the shafts or funnels in like
manner to suit the object required.
Having got my moving power I propose to affix or attach at the upper
part or outlets of the funnels or shafts my apparatus or machinery, which
consists chiefly of revolving fans, that is, fans or vanes attached to a
central drum, main shaft, or spindle axle working on centres horizontally or
otherwise; or my apparatus may be placed within the shaft or funnel, or in
such a position as by the current of air passing up or from the shaft or
funnel the current of air will cause the fans to revolve with great velocity,
and thus communicate a rotary motion to the central main shaft, which
motion is transmitted by means of gearing to the machinery it is intended
to actuate.
I intend the vanes or fans to be of any form and attached in any way most
convenient to the drum or shaft, and to be of any material. 1 intend at the
lower part or entrance of the tubing, where the mouth or entrance is properly
constructed, to fix or attach another revolving fan of a similar kind as before
described (if necessary) working either horizontally or otherwise, for the
purpose of increasing the current of air through the tubings, with other con-
trivances inside the tubings or funnels if necessary for increasing the power,
and also apparatus for regulating the currents of air, or for the purpose of
stopping the machinery or setting it in motion; and I propose (if necessary)
to add upright or vertical apparatus, with revolving fans attached to a central

page_text: drum or shaft, and arranged or fixed in such a position that the wind shall
act freely on the fans, which fans will rotate, and this power may be trans-
mitted by means of toothed wheels and other gear as an auxiliary power to
the other machinery acted on by the currents passing through the tubing or
shafts.