William Deverell
William Deverell of Charles Street, Blackfriars Road, Christ Church, Surrey
He was granted patents in connection with steam boilers and steam hammers.
1805 Reference to a patent covering an improved boiler setting, improved pump, and a compound steam engine. Date 2 August. Address: Blackwall. [1]
Steam Hammer
Deverell's steam hammer patent (1806) is particularly interesting, but it is not known whether it was developed for practical use.
'Patent dated 6th June 1806 granted for certain Improvements in the Mode of giving Motion to Hammers, Stampers, Knives, Sheers, and other Things, without the application of Wheel, Pinion, or any other Rotative Motion, by Means of various powers now in common Use.'
Various mechanisms are described in the specification, one application being a steam hammer. 'I have a steam cylinder with a piston and rod in it ; at the end of the rod that comes out of the steam cylinder is a hammer, either made fast to the rod by welding or any other common way. The steam from the boiler or steam vessel is let in underneath the piston by means of opening a cock or valve, or cocks or valves ; the air at the top of the piston will then be compressed by means of the superior pressure of the steam underneath the piston. After the piston has been raised to a given height, there will be an opening made in the underside of the piston to a vacuum formed as in the common way, or otherwise the steam may be let out into the common air. The compressed air on the top of the piston will then drive down the hammer with a velocity equal to what it may be compressed. There may be a vessel partly full of water, the top of which is made to communicate with the cylinder. At the upper side of the piston there should be valves or cocks, or some other proper contrivance, to adjust the water, so as the air may be compressed as the velocity of the hammer may require. The hammer may be worked by steam, or some other spring that may answer the intended purpose, or by steam alone. The weight of the hammer may be made equal to the pressure of the steam, so as to work without springs. The weight of the hammer may be regulated as necessity requires, by taking one hammer off, and putting on another of a different size ;…..'[2]
The question of James Nasmyth having been granted a patent for something which had been patented by Deverell in 1806 was discussed at some length in The Practical Mechanic's Journal in 1862[3]
It has not been established whether this is the same person as William Deverell (Bath). Deverell (with Henry Murrell of Bath) advertised as a millwright and pump maker in 1798-9, and Deverell advertised as an erector of Street's Vapour Engines (internal combustion engines for pumping, patented by Robert Street).