IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING AND APPLYING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Burrowes Willcocks Arthur Sleigh
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st April 1864.-Partly a communication from William Willcocks
Sleigh, deceased, late of Alfred Place, Bedford Square, in the County of
Middlesex.
I, BURROWES WILLCOCKS ARTHUR SLEIGH, of Alfred Place, Bedford Square,
in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING AND APPLYING MOTIVE POWER," the same is
the result partly of my own Invention and partly a communication made to
me by my father, the late William Willcocks Sleigh, resident at Alfred Place,
Bedford Square, in the County of Middlesex, aforesaid, to be as follows:
The principle upon which this Invention is based is that of rendering
nugatory one of two antagonistic forces, both of which have power of
propulsion, and by neutralizing the one by directing its force in unison with
the other, it is made subservient to the combined action of both, and the
proposed method of carrying this principle into practical effect is as follows:-
A foundation or base upon which to erect the machine and standards of metal
on either side being constructed, a shaft or axle is set thereon, resting between
both in suitable-bearings. To this shaft, which rotates on the axle, is fixed a
solid frame divided into four arms at right angles to each other, the inter-
vening spaces being hollow; two of these opposite arms serve to support two
chambers or cylinders, in which pistons and their cylinders work, the covers
of which are free or moveable, that is, the piston chambers are separated from

page_text: the inner chamber by an india-rubber partition screwed down all round.
These covers or lids are prevented from separating from the chambers by the
piston rod attached to an upper lever, which pressing on the lever and by it
on the teeth of the wheel gives motive power, and are yet allowed to travel
with the chambers parallel to their bases, by means of the above piston rods in
connection with levers, which levers press upon legs working into a ratchet
driving wheel keyed to the shaft. A force pump is applied and fixed to the
front of the machine, whereby water is forced through the shaft and arms
through tubes into the chambers, thereby causing hydraulic pressure on the
piston acting on the lever above, and thence passing on the toothed pinions
or legs which work in the ratchet wheel, as before described. The remaining
arms serve to contain the bearings of the levers and legs working in the
ratchet wheel, and are continued by branches bolted thereto at right angles
and parallel to the base of the apparatus. These branches contain each a
toothed pinion set on a shaft in bearings on each branch and arm, each shaft
also having fixed thereto near the arms a small ratchet wheel acting with the
moveable legs, and directly over the main driving wheel. The toothed
pinions or legs press into the opposite notches of the periphery of a large
toothed wheel, which is a fixture at the back of the apparatus forming a fulcrum
for the power given to the wheels by the moveable legs. The action of the
apparatus is as follows:-The chambers being full of water, the force pump is
worked by a handle which drives the water through the tubes until sufficient
hydraulic pressure is created in the chambers. This pressure acts on, the
internal surface of the chambers in all directions, and the piston or lid of each
chamber not being fixed or attached thereto, but capable of motion, although
prevented from actual separation, as before mentioned, the pressure acting on
the piston will not counteract the force prevailing in the opposite chamber,
and it will follow that such latter force. being freed from the counteracting
influence of the force or pressure acting on the lid or piston a rotatory: motion
of the chambers, the axle, and other portions of the apparatus must be
produced, which may be applied by gearing from the shaft to any machinery..