
ON THE VORTEX WATER-WHEEL. 317 
On the Vortex Water-Wheel. By James Tuomson, 4.M., Ciwwil 
Engineer, Belfast. 
[A Communication ordered to be printed among the Reports. | 
NuMBERLEsS are the varieties, both of principle and of construction, in the 
mechanisms by which motive power may be obtained from falls of water. 
The chief modes of action of the water are, however, reducible to three, as 
follows :—First, The water may act directly by its weight on a part of the 
mechanism which descends while loaded with water, and ascends while free 
from load. The most prominent example of the application of this mode is 
afforded by the ordinary bucket water-wheel. Secondly, The water may act 
by fluid pressure, and drive before it some yielding part of a vessel by which 
it is confined. This is the mode in which the water acts in the water-pressure 
engine, analogous to the ordinary high-pressure steam-engine. Thirdly, The 
water, having been brought to its-place of action subject to the pressure due 
to the height of fall, may be allowed to issue through small orifices with a 
high velocity, its inertia being one of the forces essentially involved in the 
communication of the power to the moving part of the mechanism. Through- 
out the general class of water-wheels called Turbines, which is of wide extent, 
the water acts according to some of the variations of which this third mode 
is susceptible. The name Turbine is derived from the Latin word turbo, a 
top, because the wheels to which it is applied almost all spin round a vertical 
axis, and so bear some considerable resemblance to the top. In our own 
country, and more especially on the Continent, turbines have attracted much 
attention, and many forms of them have been made known by published 
descriptions. The subject of the present communication is a new water- 
wheel, which belongs to the same general class, and which has recently been 
invented and brought successfully into use by the author. 
In this machine the moving wheel is placed within a chamber of a nearly 
circular form. The water is injected into the chamber tangentially at the 
circumference, and thus it receives a rapid motion of rotation. Retaining 
this motion it passes onwards towards the centre, where alone it is free to 
make its exit. The wheel, which is placed within the chamber, and which 
almost entirely fills it, is divided by thin partitions into a great number of 
radiating passages. Through these passages the water must flow on its 
course towards the centre; and in doing so it imparts its own rotatory mo- 
tion to the wheel. The whirlpool of water acting within the wheel chamber, 
4 being one principal feature of this turbine, leads to the name Vortex as a 
suitable designation for the machine as a whole. 
The vortex admits of several modes of construction, but the two principal 
forms are the one adapted for high falls and the one for low falls. The 
former may be called the High-pressure Vortex, and the latter the Low-pres- 
sure Vortex*. Examples of these two kinds, in operation at two mills near 
Belfast, are delineated in Plates 1 and 2, with merely a few unimportant 
deviations from the actual constructions. 
Plates | and 2 are respectively a vertical section, and a plan of a vortex 
of the high-pressure kind in use at the Low Lodge Mill near Belfast, for 
grinding Indian cornf. In these figures AA is the water-wheel. It is fixed 
* These terms correspond to Hochdruckturbine, and Niederdruckturbine, used in ‘Germany 
to express the like distinction in turbines. 
fT This vortex was only in course of erection at the time of the meeting of the British 
Association in Belfast. The water-wheel itself, removed from its case, being light and of small 
dimensions, was exhibited in Section G, It is composed chiefly of thick-tinned iron plates 
united by soft solder. 
