X. Hick's Improvements in Steam-Engines, Hydrometers, Coupling Gear, &c.; Parkes' Improved Chains; and XI. Wood's Improvements in Increasing the Buoyancy of 4 and Roose's Machinery for Manufacturing Tubes. XIII. Hardy's Machinery for Welding Tubes; Wardroper's Improved Hooks and Eyes; Studley's Mill; and Butterworth's Improvements in Machinery for Preparing Fibrous Substances. XIV. Martin's Improvements in Slate Roofs, Tanks, and Pipes ; Troughton's Apparatus for Washing Ores; and Hill's Improvements in Axles, Shafts, and Bars. XV. Davies' Improvements in Propelling Vessels; Bostwick's Machine for Sewing; Wolcott and Johnson's Improvements in Photography; and Allaire's Apparatus for Cleansing Garments. XVI. Keely and Alliott's Machinery for Drying and Stretching Fabrics; Straker's Windlass; Hazard's Improved Shower-bath; and Mollett and Bridgman's Machinery for Treating Fatty Matters. XVII. Newton's Apparatus for Manufacturing Cyanogen; Cobbold's Improvements in Treating Peat; and Denton's Machinery for Making Drain Tiles, &c. XVIII. Grant's Apparatus for Ventilating Apartments; and Bremner's Improvements in Constructing Buildings in Water. THE LONDON JOURNAL AND REPERTORY OF Arts, Sciences, and Manufactures. CONJOINED SERIES. No. CLII. RECENT PATENTS. To JAMES NASMYTH, of Patricroft, near Manchester, in the county of Lancaster, engineer, for certain improvements in machinery or apparatus for driving piles; part or parts of which improvements are applicable also to forging and stamping metals and other substances.-[Sealed 24th July, 1843.] THESE improvements in machinery or apparatus for driving piles consist, Firstly, in a certain arrangement of apparatus, by means of which the elastic force of steam is caused to lift up or raise a block of iron or other suitable material, and allow the same to fall down again on the head of a pile, for the purpose of driving it into the ground; this lifting and falling motion of the block of iron or ram (as it is generally called) being obtained without the employment of any wheelwork or rotatory motion whatsoever, so far as the motion of the said ram or block is concerned. Secondly, in the means by which the weight of the block or ram, together with the weight of the apparatus thereunto attached, is made to assist, by its continual pressure, in predisposing the pile to sink VOL. XXV. B into the ground; thereby causing the blow from the ram to be very much more effective in driving the pile. Thirdly, in the means by which a considerable additional energy is given to the descent of the ram, by the elasticity of compressed steam or air, super-added to the force of gravity, (which is the chief blow-giving power to the ram). Fourthly, in certain means whereby the valve, which admits the steam to lift the ram or block, is caused to be itself opened, by means of the direct action of the elastic force of the said steam, and which is hereinafter more particularly described; as also certain parts of the apparatus by which the said valve is enabled to pass through its required motions, so as to make this piledriving machine self-acting, in so far as the production of a series of blows is concerned; these parts of the apparatus being also applicable to certain machinery employed in forging and stamping metals and other substances. In Plate I., fig. 1, exhibits the general arrangement of the apparatus, as employed in driving piles. It consists of a steam-cylinder a, sliding between two upright wooden guides a1, a1. This steam-cylinder A, is mounted on a suitable platform b, b, b, either resting on the ground, or on a barge or boat, (when driving piles out in a river or harbour,) as the case may require, and is supplied with high-pressure steam from a boiler B, by means of a zig-zag or other suitably-jointed pipe P, P, together with a windlass and hoisting gear, for the purpose of raising the cylinder A, and its ram, tube, and socket, R, D, E, on to the top of the pile; the windlass-chain being kept slack during the driving of the pile, so that the weight of the cylinder a, guide-tube D, and socket-tube E, may rest entirely on the pile; the pall G, G, preventing it from slipping down too far. Fig. 2, is a section, and fig. 3, a front view, on an enlarged scale, of the steam-cylinder a, in which it will be seen there is a piston c, and piston-rod D*; which latter passes out at the bottom of the cylinder, and is finally attached to the block or ram R, by a certain means of union, more particularly described hereafter. The steam-cylinder A, is fixed on the top of an iron case or tube D, which also serves as a guide to the ram R; this wrought-iron case or tube is in like manner fixed on the top of another smaller tube E, which is made of such a size as to fit easily over the body of the pile to be driven; the entire weight of the cylinder a, ram R, tube D, and socket-tube E, being supported by the catch-palls G, G, the points of which rest, for that purpose, in a rough notch cut in the pile. Thus it is that the pile has a predisposition to sink into the ground by the effect of the superincumbent weight of the above-named parts of the apparatus. In order to describe the action of the apparatus, we shall suppose the windlass-chain to be left slack, and the steam to enter freely by the steam-passage x, x, and so press upon the under side of the piston c; in this position the steam, acting with all its elastic force on the under side of the said piston, raises or lifts up the ram R, (to which, as before said, it is attached,) by the piston-rod D*, and continues to force the piston upwards, until the edge of the ram R, comes in contact with the pall o, which it raises from its horizontal position to that seen in the section, fig. 2; in doing which, it will be evident, that as the pall o, is attached to the valverod T, (which has an elastic junction at r1, for the purpose of removing the jerk from the slide-valve,) the edge of the ram forcing up the pall o, at the same time, slides the valve K, up into the situation seen at fig. 2. By this means, the shoulders, at the lower end of the valve-rod, is lifted above the point of the trigger or catch N; which, by means of the spring behind at n, causes the point of the trigger to retain the valve-rod and valve in the position in which the ram has placed it, by its coming in contact with the pall o, as before described. Now, it will be seen, on inspecting fig. 2, that the consequence of the valve being placed in this position, is not only to let the point of the trigger N, pass under the shoulders, but also to cut off the communication between the boiler and the under side of the piston, by reason of the valve-face sliding over the opening x; and further, as a consequence of the motion of the valve, there is now a free passage opened for the steam to escape from under the piston into the open air, by the passage z; the immediate result of this is the fall of the piston c, and ram R, which descends, B 2 with all due energy, on the top of the pile, thereby assuming the position shewn by dots in fig. 3. The instant consequence of this fall is a blow on the head of the pile, which is driven down in due proportion to the energy of the blow, together with, and assisted by, the predisposing action of the superincumbent weight, as before named. Immediately after the blow, the catch-palls G, G, resume their original position in the notches, as in fig. 2. Another effect of the blow or concussion is the starting down of the end of the latch L, which is placed in or on a convenient part of the body of the ram R, and being retained, before the blow was given, in the elevated position, by means of a small spring-knob resting on the pin w, the concussion of the blow jerks the end L, down into the position represented by dots; the result of which is, that the other extremity м, of the said latch is made to protrude, (by its segmental motion around the centre pin Q,) and, in so protruding, the point м, comes in contact with the bar v, which it presses back from the position seen in fig. 2; the result of this is the withdrawing of the point of the trigger N, from under the shoulder s, or lip on the valve-rod. The instant this is done, the steam presses on the top of the small piston 1, which is placed in the cylinder Y, on the upper end of the valve-rod T, and forces the valve K, down into its former position; thus instantly re-admitting the steam from the boiler through the passage x, which conducts it under the piston c: this is immediately followed by the rise of the ram, as before. The rise of the ram causes the point м, of the latch L, to come in contact with the side of the tube or case D, at D1, which causes it to be replaced on the retaining knob w, and so made ready for the next concussion to jerk it off, and unlock the trigger s, as before described. M, The patentee desires it to be understood, that the employment of the trigger, as a means of retaining the valve in that position which permits of a free escape of the steam from under the piston, in opposition to the constant opening tendency which is given to the valve by the small steam-cylinder and piston 1, and Y, is a most important feature in the means of rendering this pile-driving machine self-acting; together with the system by which the concussion (arising from the |