| 摘要 |
A power unit having an endless belt immersed in a tank of water and disposed on upper and lower rotatable rollers in parallel alignment tightly enough to frictionally engage and rotate the pullies, there being transversely arranged and longitudinally spaced, relative to the belt, collapsible air buckets or air traps on the outwardly facing side of the belt. When operating, the belt has one part continually moving upwardly and an opposite part moving downwardly. The air buckets open downwardly and expand on the upwardly moving part of the belt; and those on the opposite downwardly moving part open upwardly in a collapsed condition. Air is pumped to a horizontally disposed discharge pipe adjacent the lower end of the belt, the pipe having openings for discharge of air into the succeeding lower open buckets to cause the buckets to be filled with air and expand the buckets so as to move buoyantly upwardly. The free edges of the buckets are provided with air chambers to aid in initial opening of the buckets to facilitate entrance of the air from the discharge pipe into the buckets. When the buckets reach the top of the apparatus, they collapse and expell the air and, as they move downwardly on the opposite downwardly moving side of the belt, they are held collapsed by the water so as to offer little resistance. The upper pulley has a driving connection with an air pump, the outlet of which is connected to the air discharge pipe at the lower end of the apparatus. The air buckets have panels fixed to the belt and movable panels hinged thereto. The fixed panels are flexible so that they will conform to the curvature of the rollers as the buckets pass over the rollers. The air-filled buckets or air traps have great buoyancy and produce sufficient force to operate the air pump, and also to operate auxiliary equipment such as, for example, an electric generator or the like for supplying power for various uses. While an outside supply of air under pressure is provided to start the apparatus operating (after which it will be self-operating) the apparatus will start operating when the apparatus is mounted in the tank and the tank is filled with water.
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