US568330A - Tidal wheel - Google Patents

Description

WV. E. BooK-ABM. lTIDAL WHEEL. Patente-d Sept. 29, v1896.

(No Mgde'l.)

Izzi/111014 gitudinal plane of the trunk.

UNITED STAT-EsI -ATENT Fries.

NVILLIAM E. BOORAEM, OF BROOKLYN, NEV YORK.

TIDAL WHEEL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 568,33, dated September 29, 1896.

Application filed December 20, 1895. Serial No. 572,748. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM E. BOORAEM, of Brooklyn, New York, have invented a certain Improvement in Tidal Vheels, 'of which the following is a specification.

This invention consists of a water-wheel, preferably of the turbine type, mounted upon a vertical shaft in the middle of a horizontal trunk open at its ends and provided on each side of the wheel with a deflecting-plate swinging upon a vertical axis which is adjacent to the periphery of the wheel in the central lonrlhe trunk is intended to be submerged in a tidal current. Each deflecting-plate has a range of swinging motion extending from one side of the trunk to a stop which arrests the plate when its free extremity has reached a point not quite half-way across the trunk, so that by a current flowing into either end of the trunk the deliecting-plate at that end is swung .over against the side of the trunk, and is thereby caused to direct the entire current against one side of the wheel. The plate in the end of the trunk from which the current flows outward is forced t-o swing away from the side of the trunk against which its free end previously bore, and is made to occupy a position in which it is substantially parallel with the outgoing current. Thus the cross-area of the space afforded for the outiiow of water from the wheel is at least twice the cross-area of the current supplied to the wheel. As the deiiecting-plate at one end of the trunk directs the nood-tidal current against one side of the wheel and the deflecting-plate at the other end of the trunk deflects the ebb-tidal current against the other side of the Wheel, the direction of rotation of the wheel is the same during both tides.

The accompanying drawings of a horizontal trunk containing a turbine Wheel and provided with deflecting-plates on either side of the wheel are as follows:

Figure l is a top 'view with portions of the cover removed to show the interior construction. Fig. 2 is a central longitudinal vertical section.

The drawings represent a horizontal trunk a, which will usually be provided with a cover l); Midway between the ends of the trunk is a water-wheel c, preferably of the turbine type and composed of the parallel horizon tal disks c c2, between which is the system cS of curved paddles. The disks c' c2 are secured to the vertical shaft d, the lower end of which is suitably stepped in a bearing d' at the bottom of the trunk, and which` is also provided with a bearing d2 in the top or cover of the trunk, or, if the trunk is not covered, in a cross-timber d3, bolted at its opposite ends to the side walls a a2 of the trunk.

On one side of the wheel is a delectingplate c, affixed to the vertical rock-shaft e', provided at its lower end with the bearing c2 at the bottom of the trunk and at its upper end with the bearing e3 inthe top of the trunk,

or in the cross-timber c4, bolted at its opposite ends to the side walls CL a2 of the trunk if the cover is omitted. The free end of the plate c may be formed with the curve c5, presenting its convex side to the current flowing into the end of the trunk in which the plate e is located, as represented in solid lines in Fig. l; or the curve c5 may be omitted if the stop e6 be so placed as to prevent the free extremity of the plate e from quite reaching the middle of the trunk. the effect of the inflowing current, the direction of which is indicated by the system e7 of arrows on Fig. 1, the free end of the plate e is swung laterally against the side wall a of the trunk.

The deecting-plate f on the other side of the wheel is aixed to the vertical rock-shaft f', provided at its lower end with the bearing f2 at the bottom of the trunk, and provided at its upper end with the bearing f3 in the top of the trunk, or otherwise in the crosstimber f4, affixed at its opposite ends to the side walls a a of the trunk. The free end of the plate f may also be formed with a curve, as represented in dotted lines in Fig. l; or, if the plate f is flat, as represented in solid lines in Fig. l, the stop f6 is so located as to prevent the free extremity of the plate f from quite reaching the middle of the trunk, so that in either case the effect of inward currents willbe to swing the free end of the plate f against the side wall a2 of the trunk.

In Fig. l the plate f is represented in the position which it is made to assume by the outflowing current from the wheel, the di- In either case, by,

IOO

rection of which is indicated by the system f7 oli' arrows. 3y the outward current the plate fis thrown against the stop f". Similarly, when the direction of the current is reversed from that shown in Fig. l, the plate e is thrown against the stop e6. lVhether the deiiecting-plates are fiat from end to end or provided with the curved portions shown, the stops e and f serve to arrest the swinging motions of the plates before their free extremities reach the middle of the trunk, so that in either case the inflowing current strikes against the whole or some part of the surface of the deiiecting-plate at an acute angle, and hence rocks the plate away from its stop and against the adjacent wall of the trunk.

The wheel is rotated by the pressure upon its paddles of the current iiowing through it. It will be seen that by the operation -of the detlecting-plates the cross-area of the space ailorded for theouti'low of water from the wheel is substantially double the cross-area oi' the current discharged into the wheel, which secures the :most efficient action of the current in eitectin g the rotation of the wheel.

In Fig. l the current is represented by the system of arrows as flowing from right to left, and it will of course be perceived thata current ilowing in the opposite direction, that is,fro1n left to right, will simply reverse the position of the deiecting-plates, and that hence the wheel will always be rotated in the same direction, irrespectively of the direction ot' the current.

It is not essentialthat the trunk shall be covered, and it is to be understood that a horizontal sluiee, open at its top and its ends and provided with the necessary cross-timbers, is the equivalent of the trunk.

That is claimed as the invention isl. A horizontal trunk open at its ends and adapted for subinergenee in a tideway; awater-wheel within the trunk mounted upon a vertical shaft extending upwardly above the top of the trunk for transmitting the power due to the rotation of the wheel, and two dei'lectingplates, one mounted upon a vertical rock-shaft midway between the sides of the trunk and in proximity to one side of the water-wheel, and extending from the said rock-shaft outwardly toward one end of the trunk, and the other mounted in like man ner upon a vertical rock-shaft midway between the sides of tlietrunk and in proximity to the other side of the wheel, and extending outwardly from the said rock-shaft toward the other end oi the trunk, substantially as described.

2. A water-wheel mounted upon a vertical.

shaft; a horizontal trunk in which said water wheel is contained; deflecting plates swinging on vertical axes-in proximity to the opposite sides of the wheel, the saidaxes lying in the central-vertical longitudinal-plane of the trunk, two stops, the one on one side of one detlecting-plate, and the other on the other side of the otherdetlecting-plate,for so limiting the range of movement of said dei'lecting-plates as to prevent either of their free extremities from reaching the central longitudinal plane of the trunk, .whereby the cross-area of the current delivered to `the wheelis approximately only 0ne-half of the cross-area of the space afforded by the outtlowin g current from the wheel irrespectively of the direction of the current tlowin through the trunk.

XV. E. BOORAEM. lVitnesses:

E. GATTERER, HELEN L. BLONDEL.

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