CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE RAISING, LOWERING, OR CONVEYING OF FLUIDS OR SOLID BODIES BY ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE, AND IN THE MANNER OF CREATING AND ADAPTING A VACUUM TO EFFECT SUCH PURPOSES
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Ellicott Holmes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd May 1864.
I, JOSEPH ELLICOTT HOLMES, late of the United States of America, at
present residing at Canningtown, in the County of Essex, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE RAISING,
LOWERING, OR CONVEYING OF FLUIDS OR SOLID BODIES BY ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE,
AND IN THE MANNER OF CREATING AND ADAPTING A VACUUM TO EFFECT SUCH
PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
The main features of this Invention are in creating a vacuum in a
chamber by the exploding of any of the well-known compounds, such as
gun cotton, gun powder, or the mixtures of any of the explosive gasses with
air, such as sulphurated hydrogen or hydrocarbon, with their proper equiva-
lents of atmospheric air to render them explosive or combustible, or by par-
tially consuming hydrocarbonaceous fluids, and then exploding the residue to
expel the air from such chambers. The process of exploding or igniting such
gasses or fluids is either by the direct action of flame, or by the passing of a
current of electric fluid through such explosive gasses, so that when the
explosion takes place it expels the air through suitable valves from such

page_text: receivers, which valves are immediately closed by any known mechanical
means and the vacuum maintained, which can be used for the raising or
lowering heavy bodies or fluids, or the conveying of letters, parcels, goods, or
passengers through pneumatic dispatch tubes in either a vertical, inclined, or
horizontal direction.
The annexed Drawing, Fig. 1, represents a vertical section of an exploding
chamber, valves, and lift tube for the raising of or conveying of dispatches.
A, A, the chamber made in any suitable form, preference being given to
cylindrical or spherical; B, B, the combustion tube inserted into the
chamber A, with a bell mouth at the bottom; C, C, C, C, the valves for letting
out the products of combustion, and also the air that is in the receiver at the
time the explosion takes place; D, the valve intervening between the dispatch
tube E and the vacuum chamber A.
It will be readily seen that any of the explosive compounds are placed at
the top end of the inverted tube B¹ in a suitable chamber, and gasses are
evolved from them by the application of heat, that if an electric spark be
passed through after it has been charged with its equivalent of air, explosion
must take place, the contents of which would be thrown down through the
tube B and into the vacuum chamber in the direction of the arrows, the
valves C, C, C, C, would be opened, letting the air and products of combustion
out, when they would be instantly closed by any mechanical means, and a vacuum
formed, which can be used through the medium of the valve D communi-
cating to the dispatch tube E for the lifting or conveying of bodies or fluids ; or I
construct a spherical chamber as in Fig. 2. A¹, the vacuum chamber; B³, the
passage leading from a combustion chamber as previously described; C¹, C¹, a
lift or standing pipe which communicates with a shaft or well; D', D', the
foot valve and grating for the admission of the water or other fluid; E', E',
E¹, E', egress valves for the fluid to pass out. It will here be also seen
that if a vacuum be formed either in the spherical chamber A¹ or in a sepa-
rate combustion chamber attached to the passage B2, and a vacuum created
by the means before described, that the ingress valves D' will lift and let the
fluid into the standing pipe or lift C', raising the fluid into the spherical
receiver and above the egress valves E', E', when by the admission of air
above the fluid the egress valves will open and the fluid pass off at that level
by its own gravity, thus raising water or any other fluid by the means before
described in forming a vacuum.
I do not confine myself to the precise form of the apparatus herein
shewn or described, as they may be materially modified, my Invention

page_text: being substantially confined to the adaptation and use of explosive com-
pounds as herein specified for the formation of a vacuum to be used in
the raising, lowering, or conveying of fluid or solid bodies by atmospheric
pressure.