IMPROVEMENTS IN STEERING APPARATUS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Gibson, of St. Leonards Iron Works,
Gray Street, Poplar, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEERING APPARATUS."
Sealed the 14th June 1859, and dated the 23rd April 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Gibson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd April 1859.
I, WILLIAM GIBSON, of St. Leonards Road, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN STEERING APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in working the rudder of ships and other vessels by
means of an endless screw shaft, which gives motion to a nut connected to a
lever, centered on a fixed standard at one end, and connected at the other end
to an arm prejecting from the rudder head through a connecting rod. The
steering wheel is keyed on, or otherwise fixed to the endless screw shaft, and
on turning the wheel in one direction or the other, the required motion is
communicated through the nut, lever, connecting rod and arm to the rudder.
The lever is slotted to allow of the connections to the nut and the rudder arm
moving therein.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Gibson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
22nd October 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
GIBSON, of Saint Leonard's Iron Works, Gray Street, Poplar, in the County
of Middlesex, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Gibson, Her special licence that I, the said William
Gibson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said William Gibson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN STEERING APPARATUS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said William Gibson, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be
filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Gibson, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is to say-
My Invention consists in working the rudders of ships and other vessels by
means of an endless screw shaft, which gives motion to a nut connected to a
lever centred on a fixed standard, or other support at one end, and connected
at the other end to an arm projecting from the rudder head through a
connecting rod. The steering wheel is keyed on or otherwise fixed to the
endless screw shaft, and on turning the wheel in one direction or the other,
the required motion is communicated through the nut, lever, connecting rod
and arm to the rudder. The lever is slotted to allow of the connections and
the nut and the rudder arm moving therein.

page_text: Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a view of one form of my
improved apparatus taken from the side of a ship or vessel; Figure 2. is a
front view of the same. A is the deck, upon which are firmly fixed by bolts
or otherwise, two standards B, B', carrying bearings supporting a screw C;
B' may be the taffrail of the ship; D is the rudder head or post, and E an
arm or lever projecting from the side thereof; F is a vertical rod carried up
from the arm E, which rod slides in a slot in one end of the lever or bar G.
The opposite end of this bar or lever is centred in a pin or stud, supported on
a standard I. The lever G is also slotted, and in the slot a pin rising from
and connected to a nut II works; a friction roller is placed on the pin where
it moves within the slot; the screw C passes through the nut. On the
tiller wheel K, which is keyed on one end of the screw C being turned, the
nut is moved to or fro, moving with it the lever G, which through the rod F
and arm E turns the rudder. In the Drawing the lever G is shown over the
nut II, but it may be placed on the lower side of the nut H, and under the
screw C.
In Figure 3 I have shown a modification of the foregoing arrangement. In
this case instead of employing the standard I, to support the end of the bar G,
I dispense with the said standard, and support the end of the bar G by means
of an arm a projecting from a bar L, placed beneath the screw C, and
supported at its ends by the standards B, B; the arm a being like the bar
which carries it fixed, affords a fixed point of support for the end of the bar G,
and thus answers the same purpose as the standard I, in Figures 1 and 2.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the construction
of steering apparatus, essentially as herein-before described and illustrated in
the Drawings hereunto annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Gibson, have hereunto set my.
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of October, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-nine.