US Patent: 5,567X
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| Current and Tide Wheel
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Patentee:
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| Asa Madison (exact or similar names) - Detroit, Wayne County, MI |
| Manufacturer: |
| Not known to have been produced |
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Patent Dates:
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| Granted: |
Jul. 10, 1829 |
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Joel Havens
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Description: |
| Most of the patents prior to 1836 were lost in the Dec. 1836 fire. Only about 2,000 of the almost 10,000 documents were recovered. Little is known about this patent. There are no patent drawings available. This patent is in the database for reference only.
“For a Current and Tide Wheel, for driving mills for grinding, and other purposes; Asa Madison, Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan Territory, July 10.
This we believe to be a new plan for a tide, or current wheel; at all events, it differs from all those with which we have been hitherto acquainted. There are numerous plans for hinging or hanging the floats or buckets, so that upon one side of the wheel they shall expose their edges, and on the other their flat surfaces to the action of the water. In the plan before us, the buckets are to slide in grooves, so that they may all be actually upon one side of the wheel.
The wheel has no axle, or shaft, passing through it, but has round ends upon which gudgeons are fixed; the ends being connected together by iron rods passing from one to the other, between the floats, and near the rims. On the inside of each end of the wheel, pieces are fixed which form grooves in which the floats are to slide from one side of the wheel to the other. A stationary semicylindrical curb, or case, is to surround that half of the wheel, which is not to be acted upon, in order to throw the current on the opposite side.
The means by which the floats are to be made to pass from side to side, are not specified, as it is said that this may be effected in various ways; it is observed, however, that “the floats on an inclined wheel may be changed by making them buoyant.” To cause them to slide with ease in the grooves, or upon the ledges by which they are kept in their places, it is proposed to furnish them with friction wheels.
The claim is to the construction of a wheel in which the buckets shall change from side to side, without regard to the number of buckets, the inclination of the wheel, or other circumstances.
Such a wheel is pretty enough in theory, and if the floats could be made to pass from side to side with the same facility with which their action can be described, they would be excellent in practice. We are extremely apprehensive that the fond hopes of the patentee will never be realized, as we believe that this shifting motion cannot, in any way, be advantageously effected; we also think that weeds, boughs, and other articles carried along by the current, would materially interfere with the regularity of the sliding action, did not any stronger objections present themselves.”
Journal of the Franklin Institute Vol. 7, Oct. 1829 pgs. 255-256
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