Lamb Hancock Brothers

The brothers James Hancock, Frederick Augustus Hancock and William Hancock collectively and separately were prolific inventors.

For several years William and James worked in partnership as cabinet makers in Welshpool.

Frederick became a 'worm doctor', who at the age of 26 in 1839 married a wealthy woman, Winifred Foulkes, aged 83. Winifred was a member of the Foulkes family of Trelydan Hall. Many newspapers reported the event withe relish, noting that '... it was thought advisable to send for the attorney who prepared Miss Foulkes’s marriage settlements in which she had endowed Mr Augustus Lamb with about thirty thousand pounds!!'. . Winifred died in 1841.

Frederick continued his interest in intestinal worms, but also engaged in engineering. He could easily afford to take out patents, and in 1845, when residing in Guildsfield, Montgomeryshire, Frederick and his brothers took out a patent (No. 10,599) in 1845 for a rotary steam engine. Patent specification here.

1846 Advert: 'By Her Majesty's Royal Letters Patent.
J. F. & W. LAMB HANCOCK, (brothers)
BEG to inform the public that they are the SOLE INVENTORS AND PATENTEES of the "Rotary Steam Engine."
The Patentees wish particularly to draw the attention of Gentlemen who are about to purchase steam-engines to the nature their Invention ; by which the cost of a steam-engine will be reduced to one-third the present price. This great desideratum is but one of the many advantages which the public will derive from this truly great invention. The ROTARY STEAM ENGINE will save one-third of the fuel of the best steam engine made; and will save two-thirds of fuel of the common steam-engine; and they are by far the most numerous class. The next great advantage rests in the ease and facility with which the Rotary steam-engine may be placed in any factory or works,— there being no necessity for building the expensive and extraordinary foundation of masonry which is required for the engine house of the present steam-engine, altogether, generally amounts to one-fourth of the price of engine. This fact is but too well known by all who have ever bought a steam engine of any considerable power. The Rotary steam-engine works so steadily in its frame — there being not tbe least shake or concussion while working at almost any velocity — that it might fixed on a common boarded floor.
The Patentees have the satisfaction of informing the Landed Interest that their Rotary Steam-Engine will enable the Farmer to avail himself of the advantages of steam as well as the manufacturer, by which alone he may hope to keep pace with the almost hourly advances in every branch of the arts.
The enormous weight and expense a Locomotive Steam-engine, coupled with the difficulties of managing it, places the advantages of the steam power beyond the pale of agricultural utility. The Rotary Steam-engine is the only one that is applicable to the plough being light, cheap, powerful, and durable. Rotary Steam-engines will soon produce a new feature in agriculture.
The Patentees need hardly inform the Public that their Steam Engine is equally applicable to all purposes, whether for factories, coal mines, flour mills, saw mills, bone mills, mills, and for any purpose to which steam power is applied, either for light or low pressure. But for the navy, and for steam navigation, it is as far superior to the steam-engine now in use, as it is for purposes of agriculture. The Rotary Steam-engine will not weigh more than from one-tenth to one-twentieth the weight of the present steam-engine. Another of the great advantages of the Rotary Steam-engine for marine purposes dwells in its principle, viz., an engine of 100 horse power is capable, by increased supply of steam, of giving out 200 horse power without incurring the least risk to the engine, which, in cases of storms, leakage, or any other emergency, (there are many on the seas,} become of incalculable value.
The peculiar adaptation of the Rotary Steam-engine for the Screw Propeller is likely to produce as great a revolution on the sea as upon the land.
Truly may the steam-engine now be said to be matured. A Rotary Steam-engine of upwards of 200 horse power will work freely in a case 8 feet by 4. [High pressure, steam at 45 lbs. and 120 revolutions per minute.] This engine is capable of working at double that velocity without the slightest danger or risk.
The ease with which the Rotary Steam-engine effects velocity, will cause it to be universally adopted on Railways.
The Patentees invite the scientific and landed interest of the neighbourhood, to witness a SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS, which is intended to take place on FRIDAY 7th May, 1846, at the Works of C. TIMBRELL, Esq., Bradford, Wilts, when the power of the Engine will be tested. Parties wishing to be present, can only be admitted by ticket, which may be had of the Patentee, and W. Coles, Engineer, Bradford, on personal application: or by letter, not transferable, to J. L. Hancock, Trowbridge Road, Bradford, Wilts.

1846 'HANCOCK'S ROTARY STEAM-ENGINE.
A numerous and respectable party, comprising some of the leading mechanicians and agriculturists of the neighbourhood, assembled on Friday the works of C. Timbrell, esq., Bradford, to witness a series of experiments with a steam-engine on a new principle, which has been just constructed by Messrs. Lamb Hancock, and for which a patent has been obtained by them.
One of the Messrs Hancock explained the leading peculiarities, as well asit s peculiarities. He stated that the engine was 28 inches in diameter, had upwards of 80 superficial inches of piston, and would work at almost any velocity, at once giving out the power of steam, whatever pressure there might be in the boiler, in direct rotations from the shaft of the engine, doing away with valves, crank, fly-wheel, and working without waste, shock, or concussion. The rotary steam engine (continued Mr. Hancock) is peculiarly adapted for steam navigation. The advantages are both numerous and manifest, to say nothing of the saving in weight and first cost. On long voyages a ship could take a reserve engine, which, in case of accident, might be fitted for work in an hour. The rotary engine could work with double power without danger, in case that should be required; for this invention was not confined to a limited velocity, like the present steam-engine. Mr. Hancock expressed confident trust that the engine would immediately effect a revolution: for, if used in such a vessel as the Great Britain, it would save upwards of four hundred tons weight of machinery. For railways the invention was stated to be peculiarly adapted.The ease with which it would produce velocity would enable a train to travel at almost any speed, and an hundred miles an hour could be accomplished with greater ease and safety than fifty could now be done; while to common roads it could be applied with great ease and simplicity. The engine was likewise adapted for agricultural purposes. By a most simple contrivance the land could now be ploughed, furrowed, rolled, cleaned and sown by the power of steam. It further appeared, from the patentee's statement, that the engine, when in work, saved sometimes half the fuel, always one-third, when compared with those now in use.
Mr Hancock having concluded, some experiments, intended to demonstrate the power of the engine, were next made, and several weights were lifted - 12cwt., with a pressure if 21lbs. to the inch. The drum on which the rope was wound being equal to the mean leverage of the engine, having a radius of 7 1/2 inches. The length of the rope was so short, however, that no very accurate idea of the power can be hence deduced. It had previously been shewn that a pressure of 5lbs. to the inch, would the put the engine in motion; and 2 lbs. to the inch on the Piston kept the engine revolving at upwards of 50 revolutions a minute. The rope was lifted 15 feet with great ease and immense velocity.'

Without a high resolution copy of the 1845 patent drawing, it is difficult to understand how it worked. However, it appears that it was a displacement engine, and definitely not a steam turbine, with steam pressure acting on radial vanes to make the shaft rotate. This implies that there would be corresponding reciprocating vanes which would have to slide out of the way. Steam admission was via a reciprocating slide valve. As with many similar rotary engine proposals, the problems which would arise with sealing, wear, etc., were probably insurmountable, and the claims regarding cost and fuel economy were clearly nonsense.

1851 Partnership dissolved: 'Hancock James Lamb and William Lamb Hancock, of Welchpool, wholesale cabinet makers, 3d June.'

1854 Patent sealed: 'James Lamb Hancock, of Neath, in the county of Glamorgan, for an improvement in cutting hay, straw, and other fibrous articles and substances. Dated ?th June, 1854.'

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