IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1854

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Plato Oulton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th
August 1854.
I, PLATO OULTON, of the City of Dublin, Gentleman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER"
to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in the construction of a machine or apparatus in
which a stream of leaden or other suitable balls are made to supply the place of
water in actuating two or more main wheels, and in which provision is made
for keeping up a constant supply or stream of balls to these wheels by means
of a peculiar arrangement of worm shafts.
The machine for this purpose consists of two main wheels, above which is an
inclined plane, by way of head race, down which the balls roll on to the wheels,
each ball entering one of the buckets of the wheels. When the balls have
carried the wheels round, they fall on to and roll down another short inclined
plane, by way of tail race, and are carried on to screws or worn shafts. These
worm shafts are placed in inclined positions near the inner framing of the

page_text: machine. The balls enter the grooves of the worm shafts, and are also supported
by the framing. These shafts are kept constantly revolving by means of inter-
mediate gear from the two main wheels, and by their revolution carry up the
balls to the first inclined plane, whence they again roll on to the main wheels,
a constant supply or stream of balls being thus maintained.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Plato Oulton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 7th
February 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PLATO
OULTON, of the City of Dublin, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Plato
Oulton, Her special licence that I, the said Plato Oulton, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Plato Oulton, 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 OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Plato Oulton, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Plato Oulton, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement,
reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and
figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
My Invention of "Improvements in Obtaining Motive Power" consists in
the construction of a machine or apparatus in which a stream of leaden or
other suitable balls are made to supply the place of water in actuating two or

page_text: more main wheels, and in which provision is made for keeping up a constant
supply or stream of balls to these wheels, by means of a peculiar arrangement
of worm shafts.
The machine for this purpose consists of the two main wheels, above which
is an inclined plane, by way of head race, down which the balls roll on to the
wheels, each ball entering one of the buckets of the wheels. When the balls
have carried the wheels round, they fall on to and roll down another short
inclined plane, by way of tail race, and are carried on to screws or worm shafts.
These worm shafts are placed in an inclined position near the inner framing
of the machine. The balls enter the grooves of the worm shafts, and are
also supported by the framing. These shafts are kept constantly revolving by
means of intermediate gear from the two main wheels, and by their revolution
carry up the balls to the first inclined plane, whence they again roll on to the
main wheels, a constant supply or stream of balls being thus maintained.
In case it should be found desirable, the worm shafts may be dispensed
with, the main wheels in such case being modified in form, so as to adapt
them for carrying round the balls in the manner herein-after described.
In order, however, that my Invention may be fully understood, I will pro-
ceed to describe it more particularly by the aid of the accompanying Drawing;
in which Fig. 1 is a side elevation, and Fig. 2 a plan or horizontal view, of
the machine or apparatus in which the worm shafts are used. In both these
Figures the same letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.
A, A, is the framework or standards of the machine; B, B, the two main
wheels, mounted in plummer blocks secured to the framing; C, C, are a series
of recesses or buckets, set round the peripheries of these wheels B, at suitable
distances apart; D, D, are balls or weights, which, by passing in succession
into the buckets or recesses in the upper part of the wheels B, set them
in motion. These balls or weights are introduced on to the wheels from
an inclined plane or head race E, and after leaving the wheels pass into an
inclined tail race F. G, G, are the worm shafts, set in an inclined position, as
shewn at Fig. 1, and turning in suitable bearings in the frame. These worm
shafts receive motion from the shaft H of the wheels B, through the bevil
wheels I, I, and spur wheels K, K, and they are intended to convey the balls
or weights up from the tail race F on to the head race E. L is an additional
wheel, furnished with a break or check apparatus M, M, which is applied by
means of the handle O.
The action of the machine is as follows:-On a number of the balls or
weights D being supplied to the inclined plane or head race E, they will roll
down it, and pass into the buckets or recesses C, on the circumference of the

page_text: ..
wheels B, at a part just past the dead centre. The wheels will thus be urged
forward and set in motion, carrying the balls as they enter the buckets; the
weight of which balls, while they remain in the buckets, will tend to keep up
the motion of the wheels. After the balls have gone round with the wheels,
for about a quarter of a revolution of the latter, they pass out of the recesses or
buckets C, and are delivered on to the tail race F, whence they enter the
spirals of the worm shafts G, which, receiving motion from the shaft II through
the bevil and spur gear I, K, convey the balls or weights D back to the head
race. In this manner the motion of the wheels B is kept up by the succession
of balls or weights acting upon their periphery, within an arc of about or less
than a quarter thereof.
:
The mechanism above described may be modified, so as to dispense with the
worm shafts, by constructing the main wheels with deep recesses round their
periphery, and arranging the parts of the mechanism in such a manner, that
after the wheels have been set in motion, by the balls or weights acting against
the sides of the recesses as they pass from an inclined plane, they may take
the balls or weights successively up thence, and after carrying them round,
drop them in succession upon the inclined plane. In this case the wheels are
kept in motion by the combined action of the balls or weights at the lower
part of their periphery as they pass from the inclined plane, and of those at
other points in the periphery beyond the dead centre, before they drop from the
wheels on to the inclined plane.
In the construction of these wheels, it is necessary to fix stops in the
recesses, in order to prevent the balls or weights from rolling or falling there-
from, before the side of the recess, against which the ball or weight acts, shall
have arrived at its suitable position for depositing the ball or weight upon the
inclined plane. It is also necessary that the wheel should be made of sufficient
breadth to enclose the portion of the inclined plane on which the balls or
weights are supported, in order to prevent their running off the same; also
that the inclined plane should be curved at or near the part from which the
balls or weights leave it, and enter the wheel inwards.
I would here remark that the size and number of the wheels to be acted
upon by the balls or weights in either of the above-described modifications of
my Invention may be considerably varied; also, that the speed of their motion
may be regulated, by means of any of the ordinary contrivances usually
applied to cranes, such as the clamp break, or other similar means of control;
.also, that the size and number of the balls or weights may be varied.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I would have it understood that I do not

page_text: mean or intend to confine myself to the precise forms and arrangements of
the parts shewn and described; but what I claim as of my Invention is,
the mode described of constructing and combining mechanism so as to be
capable of being kept in motion by the combined action of balls or weights
upon the periphery of driving wheels, such balls or weights being successively
returned to their position for acting upon the wheels by means of worm shafts,
or their mechanical equivalents.
In witness whereof, I, the said Plato Oulton, have hereunto subscribed
my name and affixed my seal, the Second day of February, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of
MATHEW L. GODKIN,
Dublin.
P. OULTON. (L.S.)