IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING OR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1858

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Bartolommeo Predavalle at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 15th
November 1858.
I, BARTOLOMMEO PREDAVALLE, of Hart Street, in the County of Middlesex,
Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING OR OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER," to be as
follows:-
My Invention relates to the combination of certain mechanical means in
connection with a peculiar property of fluids observable in the "hydrostatic
paradox" for the purpose of producing or obtaining motive power. According
to this Invention motive power is produced by the vertical pressure of a
column of fluid alternately cut off and restored. For this purpose a column
of fluid is caused to exert vertical pressure on a body of fluid contained in a
vessel of larger base than the diameter of the column, means being provided
for alternately and instantaneously cutting off and restoring such pressure for
neutralizing the pressure on the side opposite to that on which motion is to be
primarily produced, and for returning the vessel after having been acted on
to its original position to receive a fresh impulse. I include in the term
"fluid," and propose to use as the fluid agent, water or other liquid, mercury,
or other substance kept naturally or artificially in a state of sufficient fluidity,
vapours, gaseous or aeriform fluids. In one arrangement I employ a vessel,
consisting of two separate parts (kept in contact), and fix vertically thereto a

page_text: pipe or tube which communicates with the interior of the vessel, and which I
fill with fluid so as to obtain a pressure in the vessel equal to the weight of a
column having the diameter of the vessel's interior and the height of the pipe.
The bottom of the vessel is connected by a shaft or otherwise to one end of a
beam or lever, to the other end of which and at an equal distance from the centre
is connected another apparatus (or pipe and vessel) in every respect similar to
the preceding. To each pipe near its junction with its respective vessel is fitted
a cock or valve, which cocks or valves may be acted on by the motion of the
machine itself, and are so arranged as to open and shut alternately, so that
when one is open the column of fluid will instantly act on the vessel in con-
nection with it, and by its pressure force it-down and with it the end of the
beam, while the other vessel having its cock or valve shut has no other
pressure than its own absolute weight, and is consequently raised by the
leverage of the balance, i.e., the depression of the descending vessel. The
action is then reversed, and thus a reciprocating motion is produced by the
vertical pressure of the column of fluid alternately cut off and restored.
Motion thus obtained may be applied directly or transmitted vertically,
horizontally, or obliquely, or converted into rotary or other motion by suitable
appliances. The power so obtained may also be caused to compress liquids
or steam, or other aeriform or gaseous fluid, in a separate vessel, in order to
drive pistons or communicate motion to an archimedian screw, wheels or
other contrivances, and may be adopted in substitution of steam, water power,
or other agent for working any known arrangement of engine.