IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR COUNTERBALANCING PUMP RODS, CHANGING THE LINES OR ANGLES OF RECIPRO- CATORY MOTIONS, AND TRANSFERRING POWER AND MOTION FROM ONE POINT TO ANOTHED
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William West, of Tredenham House, St. Blazey,
in the County of Cornwall, Civil Engineer, and John Darlington, of
Moorgate Street Chambers, Moorgate Street, in the City of London,
Mining Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
COUNTERBALANCING PUMP RODS, CHANGING THE LINES OR ANGLES OF RECIPRO-
CATORY MOTIONS, AND TRANSFERRING POWER AND MOTION FROM ONE POINT TO
ANOTHED
"
Sealed the 12th July 1867, and dated the 22nd February 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William West and John
Darlington at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 22nd February 1867.
We, WILLIAM WEST, of Tredenbam House, St. Blazey, in the County of
Cornwall, Civil Engineer, and JOHN DARLINGTON, of Moorgate Street Chambers,
Moorgate Street, in the City of London, Mining Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
COUNTERBALANCING PUMP RODS, CHANGING THE LINES OR ANGLES OF RECIPROCATORY.
MOTIONS, AND TRANSFERRING POWER AND MOTION FROM ONE POINT TO ANOTHER,'
to be as follows:-
. This Invention proposes to supersede the costly and defective counterpoising
apparatus at present employed in the pumping machinery of mines, and in
various other works where such an apparatus is necessary; it also proposes

page_text: to transmit, by a sure, direct, and inexpensive method, mechanical motion or
power from one point to another of works, however extensive, and however
tortuous may be the intervenient course, being directly applicable to certain
conditions of situation frequently occurring in mining operations.
The improvements consist in counterpoising, by a certain arrangement and
action of counterbalancing weights, pump or other reciprocatory rods, or other
apparatus, and are more immediately applicable to the pumping machinery of
mines, to which we shall specially allude, as best exemplifying the nature of
our Invention. We propose to employ two hydraulic cylinders, one of which
is to act as a motive cylinder, the other as a balance cylinder, and each of
them is to be fitted with a piston or ram. The upper part of the ram belonging
to the motive cylinder is to be connected directly with the main pumping rod
which is to be balanced, and the upper part of the ram belonging to the
balance cylinder is to have attached to it one or more boxes, in which is to
be placed a weight sufficient to counterbalance the pumping rod. A com-
munication between the interior of the two cylinders is maintained,either by
directly coupling the cylinders, or by means of pipes, and the internal space
between the rams is kept filled or charged with water. In addition the
apparatus is also provided with a regulating or safety valve for discharging
any excess of water that may be injected. By bringing the lower end of each
ram to bear upon either end of the bar of water between the piston or ram of
the respective cylinders it will be perceived when our apparatus is in action
that from the incompressibility of water and from its perfect freedom of action
within the limits assigned to it there must result an easy equilibrating oscilla-
tion between the pumping rod in connection with the ram of the motive
cylinder and the equivalent weight appended to the ram of the balance
cylinder.
We do not restrict ourselves to the use of a single pair or of any special
number of cylinders, and we employ rams or pistons as may be found most
desirable.
We propose also to supersede the " angle beams" used at present. in
certain mining operations by the employment of similar hydraulic cylinders
furnished as aforesaid with pistons or rams for changing the lines or angles
of reciprocatory motions; also for transferring power and motion from one
point to another, whether such points be at the surface or in underground
galleries. In this case there are to be a motive cylinder and a reciprocatory
cylinder connected either immediately or as herein-before described by means
of pipes, which are to be filled or charged with water, and any leakage is to
be repaired either by what is termed a pressure column of water, a self-acting

page_text: feed valve, or other suitable arrangement. A motion similar to that described-
in the herein-before mentioned exemplification of the first part of our Invention
will result in the present case, for as the lower end or face of each piston or
ram is in immediate contact with and bears upon the bar of water contained
in the pipes between the cylinders it follows that if the ram or piston of the
motive cylinder be up-stroke, and the ram or piston of the reciprocatory.
cylinder be down-stroke, the downward movement of the former must raiso
the latter, and conversely. These réciprocatory movements are entirely
unaffected by the position of the cylinders, which may be placed either vertically
or at any angle best suited to the special exigencies of the situation; they
are also equally unaffected by the distance between the cylinders, or by any
abrupt windings or angular directions which the passage between the cylinders
may present. The motive-cylinder may be single or double-acting, or more
than one motive cylinder, as well.as one or more reciprocatory cylinders, may
be employed in.combination..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,.filed
by the said William West and John Darlington in the Great Seal. Patent.
Office on the 17th July 1867..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we,. WILLIAM
WEST, of Tredenham House, St. Blazey, in the County of Cornwall, Civil
Engineer, and JOHN DARLINGTON, of Moorgate Street Chambers, Moorgate-
Street, in the City. of London, Mining Engineer, send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself; Her. heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said William West and John Darlington, Her special licence that we, the
said William West and John Darlington,. our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said. William West and John.
Darlington, our 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 APPARATUS FOR
COUNTERBALANCING PUMP RODS, CHANGING THE LINES OR ANGLES OF RECIPROCATORY.
MOTIONS, AND TRANSFERRING POWER AND MOTION FROM ONE POINT TO ANOTHER,"

page_text: upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said William West and John
Darlington, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
our, or one of our, 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 we, the said William West and John Darlington,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to the counterbalancing of the rods of pumps employed
in the process of mining; to the superseding of the "angle beams" used at
present in certain mining operations; to the transferring of power or motion
from one point to another, as well in tortuous mining excavations as in less
difficult communications; and to various other mechanical operations where a
counterpoising weight or reciprocatory action is needed.
In order to ensure a complete comprehension of the various improvements
to which our Invention more immediately points we shall refer in the course
of the following description of the said improvements to the Sheet of Drawings
hereunto annexed, illustrating our Invention, and to the figures and letters
marked thereon.
Figure 1 represents our counterbalancing apparatus in connection with a
mining pump rod when working in a vertical direction; Figure 2 shows a
similar apparatus in relation to a pump rod when working in an inclined
direction; Figure 3 is an example of our apparatus when applied to the
transferring of power and motion from a vertical to an inclined direction, as
in the example here given, wherein a pump rod is represented at a point
where it is constrained to change its usual vertical action and take an inclined
or "underlie" course; Figure 4 is a similar apparatus for transmitting power
or motion from one point to another, exemplified here in communicating power
from one mining shaft to another.
We will now point out the principal parts of our apparatus exhibited in
these Figures, and describe their action and efleet.
In Figure 1 the weight which is to counterbalance the pump rod marked A
is placed in a weight box B. To the side of the rod A is attached, in a manner
shown at C, a plunger D, and to the under part of the weight box B is
appended a similar plunger E, the weight box itself being adjusted between
the guides F; these two plungers work in corresponding cylinders G, which

page_text: are left open at the bottom and are connected by the pipe H. The space.
between the lower ends of the plungers D and E is to be completely filled
with water, a completeness to be maintained by means either of water supplied
by the pipe marked I or of water deposited in the small cistern marked J,
which is continuously forced to maintain the necessary complement of water
between the plungers, liable to diminution from leakage, by means of a small
self-acting pump marked K.
The action and effect of this very simple apparatus are so obvious
that to describe them appears almost superfluous. It will at once be seen
that, in the first place, the column or bar of water: between the ends of the
two plungers will sustain in a state of equilibration the equivalent burthens.
represented by the pump rod A and the weight deposited in the box B; and,
secondly, that it will maintain a certain and perfectly easy reciprocatory or
balancing movement between the said weights when the former (the pump
rod A) is in action.
Among the improvements which our apparatus promises upon the "balance
beam" at present in use it may be noticed that the vibration and lateral strain
by which, during the working of such a beam, the pump rod is inevitably
affected, will be completely remedied by the method we propose. The action
or strain of our apparatus is invariably parallel to the action of the pump rod,
thus avoiding, to an extent amply sufficient, the disadvantages we have
mentioned. To equalize absolutely, however, the action of our apparatus
on the pump rod two plunger apparatus uniting a power or weight equivalent
to the one already deseribed may be employed on opposite sides of the pump
rod.
The features of our Invention, as shown in Figure 2, are in most respects
identical with those already described, but this Figure, which represents the
pump rod A when in an inclined position, exemplifies, the facility of adaptation
and the uniform operation of our apparatus, the change in the direction of
power making no change in its effectiveness.
Our Invention will also in many cases dispense with the use of a balance
apparatus.
In Figure 3 is exemplified the easy adaptation of our apparatus for changing,
without any appreciable loss of power, the action of a pump rod from its
ordinary vertical direction into an inclined course. The vertical movement
of the pump rod A ceases at a part of the mining shaft indicated by that
letter in the upper part of the Figure, but a continuous and equal movement
is communicated to another portion of the rod running in an inclined direction
by means of the two cylinders G, which are furnished, as in Figures 1 and 2,

page_text: with plungers, the upper end of one of these plungers being connected to the
lower end of the vertical portion of the pump rod, and the upper end. of the
other attached to a guide L, which is steadied by a support fixed to the sides
of the shaft, as shown at M. The parts of the cylinders. unoccupied by the
plungers, and the pipe H connecting them, are filled with water, that from its
incompressibility and mobility acts as a continuator of power from the vertical:
part of the pump rod to the small rod N and its fellow on the opposite side of
the cylinder, which are connected directly to the inclined part of the pump
rod A, as shown towards the bottom of the Figure. The diminution of the
bar of water from leakage is in the present ease repaired from water placed in
a small cistern J and forced into the cylinders by means of an induction valve,.
which is acted upon by atmospheric pressure. This method may be used in:
place of the other methods herein-before described...
Our improved method of transferring or communicating power or motion
from one point to another is instanced in Figure 4 by an example drawn, as
in the former cases, from certain operations incident to the working of mines.
Here we show the transmission (by means of a bar of water), through the
pipe H of part of the power expended on the pump rod A in the shaft P
carried to another and it may be distant shaft Q. The course which the
transmitted power may have to take in nowise affects its efficiency, for as the
power travels within the pipe H, and as this pipe may round corners and
ascend or descend shafts the facility of conveying power by a difficult route is
at once strikingly apprehended. The mechanical arrangements to effect the
object in question, such as the two cylinders G with plungers working in them,.
are precisely similar to those already described in the other Figures, the
transmission of power or movement being from the pump rod A to a part of
the mine situated at some point below that portion of the shaft Q which is
shown on the Drawing. The two shafts P and Q are represented close.
together, but their distance and relative position are indefinite, as indicated
by the breaking of the pipe of communication H.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner in
which the same may be carried into effect, we wish it to be understood that
we do not intend to restrict ourselves to the precise details of the apparatus
herein-before described, as variations may easily be made therefrom without
departing from the chief features or principles of our Invention; but what we
consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim is,-
Firstly, the application of a column or bar of water as a means or medium
for balancing the rods of pumps used in mines, and generally wherever a
counterpoising appliance is needed in mechanical operations.

page_text: Secondly, the application of a column or bar of water as a means or medium
of transmitting mechanical motion or power from one point or locality to
another in mines, and generally wherever the transferring of mechanical
motion or power in manufacturing or engineering operations is needed.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Darlington, on behalf of myself and
the said William West, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Fourteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-seven.
JOHN DARLINGTON. (L.S.)