IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MANŒUVRING SHIPS
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jacob Scott Matthews, of Penarth, near Cardiff, in the
County of Glamorgan, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR MANŒUVRING SHIPS."
Sealed the 30th July 1878, and dated the 18th February 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jacob Scott Matthews at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 18th February 1878.
JACOB SCOTT MATTHEWS, of Penarth, near Cardiff, in the County of Glamorgan,
Gentleman. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MANOEUVRING SHIPS."
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for manoeuvring
ships.
In order to facilitate the turning or manoeuvring of steam ships I employ a trans-
verse propeller at the bow of the vessel, which can at pleasure be rotated in either
direction by means of the main engines and without reversing.
I arrange two bevilled pinions to turn loosely on the screw shaft and to gear
with a third pinion on a vertical shaft carrying a large sheave or pulley adapted to
receive an endless steel wire rope or chain. This rope or chain is led along below
the upper deck to the fore part of the vessel, where it passes over guide pulleys and
down through hause holes to the periphery of the propellor. This propellor is set in
a propellor opening formed in the bow of the vessel, its axis being carried in bearings
mounted upon beams provided on either side of the opening. The propeller I prefer
to employ is a screw with a ring or hoop fixed to the outer ends of the blades. The
endless driving rope or chain is received on to this ring or hoop, and passes around
the propellor.
Clutches are provided by which either of the pinions on the main shaft can be
made fast with it at pleasure, and when this is done the transverse propellor is
rotated by the main engines in one direction or the other, according as the clutch is
applied to the one or other of the pinions. By means of a third clutch the main-
propellor can be thrown in and out of gear.

page_text: The Drawing represents a longitudinal vertical section of a steam ship fitted with
a manoeuvring screw in the bow in accordance with my Invention.
A is the ordinary screw propellor in the stern, and B is the screw shaft.
C, C, are bevilled pinions mounted on the screw shaft, so as to be able to turn
upon it.
D is a clutch capable of sliding upon the shaft, but held from rotating indepen-
dently of the shaft by a feather. By means of the clutch D eithor of the pinions Ć
can be made fast to the shaft, or both may be left free.
I also prefer to provide another clutch, not represented in the Drawing, by means
of which the propellor A can at pleasure be released from the shaft, so that the shaft
may be able to turn, when desired, without propelling the vessel ahead or astern.
E is a transverse propellor set in an aperature formed to receive it in the bows of
the vessel. The axis of this propellor is carried in bearings upon two beams F
passing from side to side of the bow aperature.
E' is a hoop carried upon the outer ends of the propellor blades; and Ġ is a steel
wire rope passing around the hoop E' and into the ship through hawse holes; it is
led by guide pulleys to the drum H which it passes around and from which it receives
motion.
Upon the vertical axis I of the drum H there is a bevilled pinion which gears
into the pinions C, C, and when either of these is clutched fast to the propellor
shaft B, the drum H is rotated, and motion is transmitted by the steel wire rope to
the transverse propellor E.
Whilst the transverse propellor is in use, the main propellor may be unclutched,
or it may be kept in action, as the circumstances may require.

page_text: Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I would have it understood that I claim,—
First. The application to steam ships of transverse propellors in the bow driven
by the main engines, and which without reversing the engines can be made to operate
in either direction.
Second. The means of transmitting motion from the main shaft to such transverse
propellor by bevilled gear, and an endless rope or its equivalent, substantially as
described, and represented in the annexed Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jacob Scott Matthews, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
JACOB SCOTT MATTHEWS. (L.S.)