On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
A water wheel of an improved description, by which the whole effective force of the water is obtained, has been invented by Simeon W. Draper, Granville Draper, and Reuben M. Draper, of Boxborough, Mass., who have taken measures to secure a patent. The improvement refers to horizontal water wheels, and consists in having two wheels, one encompassing the other, which are so arranged that while one wheel is operated by the reaction, the other is driven by the direct action * of the water, the power being communicated to a driving shaft by bevel geared wheels. In this arrangement the former, or re-action wheel, is encompassed by the other, the space between the two being filled upwith the buckets of the outer one, and the shaft of the first-named wheel works inside the shaft of the other, which is made purposely hollow. There is a shoulder or projection on both of these shafts, that of the hollow shaft resting on the other, and the outer wheel likewise has a bearing on the interior one. The water is admitted into the inner wheel, through a supply-pipe, and rushes out of the arms that project from its periphery upon the buckets of the outer one, the two wheels being propelled in a contrary direction.
