IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1855

page_text: by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edmond Féau-Lefebvre at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th
July 1855.
I, EDMOND FEAU-LEFEBVRE, of Orleans, in the Empire of France, and of
32, Essex Street, Strand, London. do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER" to be as follows,
viz. :-
This Invention relates to a novel method of creating motive power, which
will be best understood from the following description of an apparatus illus-
trating the principle of the same, and represented on the annexed Sheet of
Drawings.
In Fig. 1, C is a capacity trough or vessel, filled with water or other liquid
up to the level n; B is a barometric tube, dipping at its lower extremity inte
the water contained in the capacity C; hence, if a vacuum exits in the tube,
the water will rise above the level n to the height H due to atmospheric
pressure, and the portion above said height will remain empty, and the column
of water that fills the tube from the level n to the height H adds no weight
to the capacity, as the weight of said column rests upon the tube, but not upon
the water contained in the capacity C. If the vessel C be raised with a given
speed through a certain space, then the whole column of water contained in
the tube is in the same time made to move through the same space, and this
motion of the column of water requires no part of the force that is expended
upon moving the vessel C, since the columu does not weigh upon the vessel
at all, and the entire moving power for raising it is duc to atmospheric pressure

page_text: But the weight of this column of water being greater than the sum of the
weights of the vessel and water it contains, this rising column of water thus
really contains and represents a moving power larger in amount than the power
required for lifting the vessel. This difference between the power created and
the power employed, as obtained by the aid of atmospheric pressure, may con-
siderably be increased in the following manner, by making the power apparatus
double acting, as shewn at Fig. 2. In this double-acting motive power appa-
ratus, when the vessel or trough C¹ is made to rise by a certain height, one
foot, say, the column T, will also rise by the same quantity; and the trough
C at the same time descending by one foot, the column T will also descend
through the same distance, and the sum of the forces in the descending and
in the rising column is double that created in the apparatus shewn at Fig. 1,
and also the power required to move the troughs is much less, or almost equal
to nothing, since the two troughs are in equilibrium. From this phenomenon
the following inferences may be drawn: first, that by these means, by applying
the necessary force to the vessels or troughs for raising and lowering them
alternately, a much greater force may be obtained in the interior of the tubes
than said force applied; second, this force obtained being much greater than
the force expended, a portion of it may be used for any useful purpose, and the
remaining part for actuating the troughs, by which the moving power may thus
indefinitely be reproduced.
For reproducing and taking up the motive power obtained, various contri-
vances may be usel, of which the one shown at Fig. 3 is an instance. In this
arrangement each tube contains au upright shaft A, B, mounted in suitable
bearings, and furnished with horizontal paddles or blades C, C, C, and having
at its lower end a horizontal wheel R outside the tube. The paddles are
mounted upon rods fixed in the upright shaft A, B, so that they may swivel
and be inclined at opposite angles to the upright shaft A, B, according to the
direction of the column of water, as shown at Fig. 4; or else the paddles may
be made of some flexible material, by which the same result may be obtained.
By these means it will be seen that the upright shaft A, B, is always made to
rotate in the same direction, whatever the direction of the column of water
may be. The power thus obtained may be taken up and transmitted in any
suitable manner, and the motion of the troughs may be regulated by means of
a pendulum or beam.