THE MECHANICS' MAGAZINE, MUSEUM, Register, Journal, AND GAZETTE, JANUARY 3RD-JUNE 27TH, 1846. EDITED BY J. C. ROBERTSON. VOL. XLIV. "A time will come when the science of destruction shall bend before the arts of peace,-when the genius LONDON: ROBERTSON AND CO., MECHANICS' MAGAZINE OFFICE, No. 166, FLEET-STREET. AND REGULARLY SUPPLIED BY ALL BOOKSELLERS AND NEWSMEN IN TOWN AND COUNTRY. 1846. WYLAM'S PATENT IMPROVEMENTS IN HYDRAULIC PRESSES. Ir is stated with truth in the introduction to the specification of this patent, that "hydraulic presses, as at present constructed and worked, are suitable only for producing high pressures at a slow rate of speed, and with considerable intervals of time between each charge and that next succeeding it, (the pumps requiring to be stopped for a time at every descent of the piston or follower,) and are wholly inapplicable to mechanical operations requiring a quick succession of strokes, or impulses, and as well strokes and impulses of a small or moderate, as of a high power." Mr. Wylam has applied his ingenuity to the remedy of these defects, and has succeeded in producing what will be universally admitted to be a most important improvement in this branch of mechanical science—namely, a hydraulic press which " can be worked unintermittingly at great rates of speed, and at both high and low pressures.' Fig. 1 is a plan of one of a set of six hydraulic presses, placed in a row, side by side; fig. 2, a plan of a triple set of pumps, which communicate with a reservoir or accumulator of power, shown in plan, in fig. 3, (instead of communicating, as usual, directly with the press or presses,) and from which reservoir the power is supplied to the press or presses; fig. 4 is a sectional elevation of the press on the line a b of the plan, fig. 1; fig.5 is a sectional elevation of the pumps on the line cd of the plan, fig. 2; and fig. 6 is a sectional elevation of the reservoir on the line e f of the plan, fig. 3. A, is the framework of the press, which is mounted as usual on a strong foundation of stone or brickwork; B1, is the cylinder, and B2, the piston or follower; C, the pipe for the inlet of the water under the piston; D, is a valvular governor for regulating the admission and escape of the water to and from the press, and which is of the peculiar construction separately represented in figs. 7 and 8; E, is the reservoir, which consists of a wrought iron airtight vessel, which rises considerably above the level of the press, and is of a capacity many times greater than that of the cylinder of the press, and of a strength more than sufficient to resist any pressure to which the press itself is required to be subjected; F, is a pipe by which the reservoir E communicates with the valvular governor D; G1 G2 G3, are the three pumps before-mentioned, (connected with and worked by a steamengine or any other convenient first mover,) from which water is forced up from the cistern H, through the pipe I, into the reservoir E; qq q, are air cocks attached to the suction pipes of the pumps below the lower valves; K, is a return pipe, which conveys the water employed in producing each stroke of the piston back into the cistern H, from the valvular governor D. The reservoir E is made of larger capacity than either the press cylinder B1, or the supply cistern H, because it is intended to hold not only all the water which can be pumped into it from H, but all the air which was contained in it originally, and which is forced by the water up to the top of it in highly compressed state, and also any air which may be injected into the reservoir by the pumps under the circumstances to be hereinafter explained. A reservoir bearing the proportion to the press cylinder B1, and supply cistern H, which E is represented to do in the figures, would contain water enough for about forty-two single press charges, or six charges for each set of six presses; and three pumps (as represented in the figures) would suffice to enable the reservoir to keep these presses constantly at work. The figures 7 and 8 represent the valvular governor D, as of nearly about oneeighth the full size; fig. 7 is a plan, and fig. 8 a sectional elevation of it; fig. 7 being on the line gh, of fig. 8, and fig. 8 on the line ki, of fig. 7. All the parts are represented as in the position they assume when the pumps are in the act of injecting. L, is a box divided into two vertical chambers, M1 M2, and one horizontal chamber M3, common to both the others. In the chamber M1, there is a port, R1, which gives admission to the water from the reservoir E, through the pipe F; and in the chamber M2, there is another port, R2, communicating with the pipe C, which conveys the water to the cylinder of the press; Tis a third port in the chamber M3, |