IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STEAM BOATS.
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Louis Napoleon Langlois, of Paris, and 4, South
Street, Finsbury, London, Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STEAM BOATS.
ed the 16th January 1855, and dated the 7th November 1854
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Louis Napoleon Langlois
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 7th, November 1854.
I, LOUIS NAPOLEON LANGLOIS, of Paris, and 4, South Street, Finsbury,
London, Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STEAM BOATS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in constructing paddle wheels with paddle boards
and screw-formed paddles,, as shewn in the accompanying Drawings, and in
employing turbines on either side of the boat, for the purpose of supplying
the wheel with the water displaced by it in turning. In the annexed
Drawing, Figure 1 is a longitudinal section, Figure 2. a plan, shewing the
said arrangements.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Louis Napoleon Langlois in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 7th May 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LOUIS
NAPOLEON LANGLOIS, of Paris, and 4, South Street, Finsbury, London,
Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Louis Napoleon Langlois, Her special licence that I, the
said Louis Napoleon Langlois, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Louis Napoleon Langlois, 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, & vend, within
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
STEAM BOATS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Louis
Napoleon Langlois, by an instrument. in writing under my hand and seal,
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 Louis Napoleon Langlois, 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 Drawing hereto
annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say:―
The Invention consists in a new mode of constructing and propelling steam
oats, specially applicable to navigating canals and rivers. I employ a turbine
on either side of the boat, disposed-so-as to supply to the propeller, consisting
of a wheel with screw floats or paddles, set in motion by steam, a quantity of
water equal to that displaced during the working.
One of the great defects resulting from the use of steam boats on canals and
rivers is the agitation of the water, by which the embankments are destroyed.
This defect was sought to be remedied by the employment of a screw pro-
peller in lieu of paddles, with only partial success; but as it is evident that

page_text: led to invent a wheel with paddles and screw, exempt from 'the said defect.
The paddle wheel is set in a space hollowed out in the stern of the boat, and
in such manner as not to agitate the water. It acts on the water without
intermittance, and similarly to two Archimedian screws working in a diametri-
cally opposite direction, by which an equilibrium of power is obtained; by its
arrangement it allows the water to arrive continually under the wheel during
it is at work.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal elevation of the boat. Figure 2, plan of the
same, the deck being supposed to be raised, to shew the parts more distinctly.
A, steam engine; B, paddle wheel; C, well, for receiving the wheel; D,
turbine, for supplying the well with water; E, feed pump. By this arrange-
ment of wheel, the waves produced while it is working, even at high speed, are
received upon the lateral surfaces of the wheel, and their shocks broken.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner
of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not con-
fine myself to the precise details of construction herein laid down; but what I
claim is,
The general arrangement of turbine and wheel with screw floats or paddles
to propel boats, applicable more especially to navigation on canals & rivers, as
herein-before described and referred to in the Figures of the accompanying
Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Louis Napoleon Langlois, have hereto
set my hand and seal, this Fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
T LANGLOIS
L. LANGLOIS
(3.c.)