Richard Varley's Device
In 1797 Richard Varley, of Damside, Lancashire, England, a merchant, applied for and obtained a British patent on
"A New Perpetual Moving Power."
His device is explained by the following excerpt from his application:
"My invention consists of a method of applying the weight of the atmosphere upon a wheel in any other fluid, and by that means destroying its spring or reaction, the manner of doing which I describe as follows, agreeable to the drawing (Fig. 6) annexed:
"A is a circular vessel, made of copper or any other substance, capable of containing water, and covered with a top part so as to be perfectly air-tight. B is a wheel placed in the inside of the vessel, with its axle perpendicular, the uppermost part of which comes through the top of the vessel, and is made to work air-tight; the lower end runs in a step within the vessel, and no part of the wheel is to touch the vessel but its axis. C is a cylinder placed firmly upon the wheel. D is the piston, suspended by a chain to a strong spring fixed on the wheel. This spring is to be made of such strength as that when the whole weight of the atmosphere is upon the piston the air will only move it about one inch down. E is the tube leading from the axle, which is hollow from the top to the level of the wheel, so as to admit the external air by this tube to the piston D, which piston is a circular vessel, made air-tight, and exactly fits the cylinder. There is a joint in the tube E at F, which is made air-tight by leathers, so that when the piston descends the tube may give way to it. G is a small tube leading from the bottom of the cylinder to the center of the axle, and from thence brought out at the end of it, and by which the air is extracted from the cylinder by means of an air pump and a vacuum formed in it. On the top part or any other convenient place of the vessel, are fixed two cylinders or tubes of a proportional size to the cylinders on the wheel, one of which is a condensing cylinder, by means of a screw and piston, and by which the water in the vessel may be compressed; the other has its piston suspended at the bottom, and the top part of the cylinder being filled with air as the other piston is screwed down this rises, and condenses the air in the cylinder, the spring of which keeps the water in the vessel pressed to all parts alike; and when the air is extracted from the cylinder C and the piston D is forced down by the external atmosphere into the cylinder, this pressure is continued, and the condensed air expands in proportion and prevents any tendency to a vacuum being formed, which would cause a cohesion of all the parts. By this means the external air is suspended upon the wheel by the chain, the same as a weight, and the spring of the atmosphere being taken from the cylinder there is nothing to oppose this weight, there being no spring in water; and this power may be increased in proportion to the size and number of cylinders on the wheel and its diameter."
