AN IMPROVED METHOD OF DRIVING CENTRIFUGAL MACHINES
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to David Graham, of the Firm of Graham, West, and
Company, of Wapping, in the County of Middlesex, Millwrights and
Engineers, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF DRIVING
CENTRIFUGAL MACHINES."-A communication from T. Hanning, residing
in the Mauritius
Sealed the 22nd July 1859, and dated the 26th January 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said David Graham at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th January 1859.
J, DAVID GRAHAM, of the Firm of Graham, West, and Company, of Wapping,
in the County of Middlesex, Millwrights and Engineers, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF DRIVING CENTRIFUGAL
MACHINES," (communicated to me by T. Hanning, residing in the Mauritius,)
to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in making the vertical shaft that supports the
centrifugal drum, hollow at the lower end, with one or more horizontal arms or
jets, and connected by pipes and a regulating cock, with a vessel or head of
water, in which a sufficient pressure of water is maintained to bear the weight
of the shaft and drum with its charge of sugar or whatever else may be put
into it to be operated upon.

page_text: The water will issue from the jets with a force due to the pressure required
to buoy up the machine, and make it revolve at any required velocity, the
velocity being regulated by the distance of the jets from the centre, and by the
size of the orifices.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said David Graham in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
26th July 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DAVID
GRAHAM, of the Firm of Graham, West, and Company, of Wapping, in the
County of Middlesex, Millwrights and Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said David Graham, Her special licence that I, the said David Graham, my
executors; administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said David
Graham, 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 "AN IMPROVED METHOD
OF DRIVING CENTRIFUGAL MACHINES," (communicated to me by T. Hanning,
residing in the Mauritius,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said David Graham, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 David Graham, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is
to say:-
This Invention consists in making the vertical shaft that supports the
centrifrugal drum hollow at the lower end, with one or more horizontal arms

page_text: or jets, and connected by pipes and a regulating cock with a vessel or head of
water, in which a sufficient pressure of water is maintained to bear the weight
of the shaft and drum with its charge of sugar, or whatever else may be put
into it to be operated upon.
The water will issue from the jets with a force due to the pressure required
to buoy up the machine, and make it revolve at any required velocity, the
velocity being regulated by the distance of the jets from the centre, and by
the size of the orifices.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a vertical section through the
centre of the machine; Figure 2 is a plan and horizontal section through that
part of the outer casing which contains the centrifugal drum. A is the shaft
on which the centrifugal drum is fixed; B, B, are hollow arms fixed on the
hollow part of the vertical shaft A, and communicating with the interior
thereof; C is a metal socket or footstep, in which the lower end of the shaft
is fitted and made to turn freely therein. To the under side of the bottom
plate D, and in communication with the socket C, the elbow pipe E is fixed,
and a cock F joining a branch on the main pipe G, from which in like manner
a pipe may be taken to as many machines as may be required. In localities
where a sufficient fall of water is available to give the required pressure, the
main pipe G has only to be laid into the reservoir, from whence the water is
supplied; but where this is not the case, water must be pumped up into a
cistern sufficiently elevated for that purpose, or into a close vessel against
compressed air, to give it the required pressure. This will not require more
power than that which is usually employed in driving the same number of
centrifugal machines by straps, friction cones, &c., so that in cases where a
steam engine has been employed for that purpose, the engine will be able to
drive the pumps required for the same number of machines by the method
now proposed. The water after passing through the machine will be run off*
by the pipe H, and returned into the cistern or close vessel by the pump, as in
the latter case, in absence of a natural fall; the drum, shaft, and everything
attached to it being constantly, when in motion, held up by the pressure of
water, and the part within the socket surrounded by water sufficiently to keep
it cool, and prevent the surfaces of the shaft and socket from coming into too.
close contact, consequently there will be very little friction in that part, and
no oil or other lubricating substance required. The only other rubbing part is
within the bush at the upper end of the shaft and the point of the set screw I,
for which very little oil will be needed, as when nicely balanced it will scarcely
touch.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what

page_text: manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not claim any part of
the centrifugal machine itself, nor, yet the power by which it is driven; but
what I do claim is, the making of water to serve as a direct motive power, or
the medium by which that power is produced, as the case may be, for giving
motion to centrifugal machines, thereby doing away with the use of inter-
mediate machinery, straps, friction wheels, &c., as herein-before described and
illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said David Graham, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of July, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-nine.
DAVID GRAHAM. (L.S.)