IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PROPELLING AND STEERING SHIPS AND BOATS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Burnside, of No. 42, Henry Street, Sunderland,
General Traffic Manager for the Sunderland Dock Company, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PROPELLING AND STEERING
SHIPS AND BOATS."
Sealed the 20th June 1856, and dated the 11th April 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Burnside at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 11th
April 1856.
I, JAMES BURNSIDE, of No. 42, Henry Street, Sunderland, General Traffic
Manager for the Sunderland Dock Company, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PROPELLING AND
STEERING SHIPS AND BOATS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in steering and propelling vessels by means of one
or more frames or side rods, fitted with floats or paddles, and connected at each
end to a crank or cranks worked by a steam engine, and caused to rotate so as
to enable the frame or side rods, with its floats, to enter and leave the water, and
thereby produce the steerage or propelling action required. The double cranks
are carried or supported on outriggers from the sides of the ship. The frames
consist each of a single or double connecting rod, or two side rods, which carry
the floats, and are connected to double cranks at each end. These double
cranks enable two frames to be used at each side of the ship, one frame with
its floats entering the water immediately after the other frame has emerged
therefrom. As these frames always rise and fall perfectly parallel and hori-
zontal, the floats will always enter the water in a vertical position, & conse-

page_text: quently all back action or undue resistance of the floats on leaving the water
will be obviated. The propelling apparatus is made to rise or fall, so as to
be adjusted to the depth of immersion of the ship. Provision also is made for
protecting the ship's deck from spray during the working of the propellers, and
for feathering the floats or bringing them into a horizontal position after the
frames on leaving the water reach the axes or main shafts of the cranks, by
which feathering action the atmospheric resistance to the floats is almost
entirely obviated.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said James Burnside in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
11th October 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
BURNSIDE, of No. 42, Henry Street, Sunderland, General Traffic Manager for
the Sunderland Dock Company, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
James Burnside, Her special license that I, the said James Burnside, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Burnside, my executors, administrators, or 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 APPARATUS
POR PROPELLING AND STEERING SHIPS AND BOATS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said James Burnside, 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 James Burnside, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the letters
and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My said Invention consists in steering and propelling vessels by means of

page_text: one or more frames or side rods, fitted with floats or paddles on one or both
sides, and connected at each end to a crank or cranks, or wheels or eccentrics,
working by a steam engine, and caused to rotate so as to enable the frame or
side rods with its floats to enter and leave the water, and thereby produce the
steerage or propelling action required. The double cranks are carried or
supported on outriggers from the sides of the ship. The frames consist each
of a single or double connecting rod or two side rods, which carry the floats,
and are connected with double cranks at each end. These double cranks
enable two frames to be used at each side of the ship, one frame with its floats
entering the water immediately after the other frame has emerged therefrom.
As these frames always rise and fall perfectly parallel, the floats will always
enter the water in a vertical position, consequently all backwater or undue
resistance of the floats on leaving the water will be obviated.
The propelling apparatus is made so as to be adjusted to the depth of
immersion of the ship. Provision also is made for protecting the ship's deck
from spray during the working of the propellers, also for feathering the floats
or bringing them into a horizontal or vertical position, so as to present the
edge instead of the face of the float to the resistance of the atmosphere after
the frames on leaving the water reach the axes or main shafts of the cranks,
by which feathering action the atmospheric resistance to the floats will be
against their edges only, and will therefore be almost entirely obviated.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood, I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall
refer to the several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts throughout all the
corresponding Figures.
Figure 1 of my Drawings represents a side elevation of a boat fitted with
one arrangement of my improved propellers, and Figure 2 is a corresponding
plan of the same. The rest of the Figures are details and modifications, which
I shall herein-after refer to. A, A, are two crank shafts, worked by any
suitable arrangement of steam engine or other prime mover; these shafts
overhang the sides of the boat considerably, and work in bearings carried by
the two outriggers B, B, fitted one on each side of the boat. Each shaft has
a double crank C, C³, formed upon it at each end, each of such double cranks
projecting out from diametrically opposite sides of their shafts, that is, they are
made in the same plane. Two side rods D, D'; (shewn in detail, plan and
side view, at Figures 3 and 4,) connect the corresponding cranks C, C, and
C', C, of each shaft. The two sets of floats E, E!, on each side of the boat
are hinged vertically and laterally at F, F, to their respective side rods D, D',

page_text: so that the floats may be capable of feathering or turning in such a way as to
present less of their surfaces to the resistance of the atmosphere (by lying
nearly flat, or at an acute angle against the side rods,) when out of the water;
their entire surface being presented to the water in the direction of the motion
of the vessel when passing through it, by being brought out, or made to stand
at right angles to the side rods. Although the floats are shewn as being
attached to one side only of the side rods, there may obviously be two sets of
floats used, one on each side of the side rods. This feathering action of the
floats is effected by means of the eccentrics G, G¹, (Figures 5 and 6) keyed on
to the several crank pins. These eccentrics are connected to the floats by the
eccentric rods H, H, which are jointed to the eccentric straps, so as to admit
of their having a lateral play when the floats are being drawn in towards their
side rods. The floats are all connected or coupled together by the lings I, I',
so that the whole of the floats on one side rod will feather simultaneously.
If desired, more than two cranks may be used on each end of the main
shafts, but I prefer having two cranks only, as shewn in my Drawings, for the
reason, that for a certain short space of time during the revolution of the
cranks both sets of floats will be out of the water, this occurring when
the cranks are all in a horizontal position, and by making this position of the
propelling cranks correspond to the dead centre of the engine (if one engine
only be used), the absence of resistance against the floats will enable the engine
to pass its dead centre with greater facility. A suitable guard or cover K is
placed over each set of propellers, to prevent the spray from being thrown on
to the ship's deck. In cases where the cranks do not project above the
bulwarks of the ship, this guard need only be a horizontal boarding, projecting
from the ship's sides far enough to cover the propellers, so that it will not
present such a large surface to the action of the wind as is the case with the
ordinary paddle boxes.
When it is desired to accommodate the propellers to a lighter draught of
water, or when the ship has discharged her cargo, I propose to substitute a
frame L for each of the side rods (see Figures 7 and 8), which frame I attach
at M, M, to the crank pins. As the frame hangs some considerable distance
below the crank pins, it follows, that although the ship may be lightened to
such an extent as to partially raise it out of the water a distance equal to the
depth of the frame, the floats which are hinged to its lower rail will still be
immersed in the water to the same extent as those which were attached to
the side rods and employed when the ship was heavily laden.
In order to feather the floats on this frame, the motion the motion from the
escentric must be transmitted to the floats through the bell crank N, which is

page_text: worked direct from the eccentric. In place of using an eccentric for feathering
the floats, a small crank made on the crank pin may obviously be employed,
or a grooved cam O may be used, keyed to the crank pin, as shewn at
Figures 9 and 10, by which latter arrangement the floats may be made to
remain in a closed or open position during about a half revolution of the
cranks by making a corresponding length of the grooves P of the eccentrics
circular or concentric with the crank pins. Two side rods may be used for
each set of floats in place of one, the floats being fitted between the rods in
grooves made inside them. In this case, however, as the floats will be rigidly
fixed between their two side rods there can be no feathering.
The arrange-
ments of propellers herein-before described may obviously be used for
assisting in the steering of ships by working them singly on either side of
the ship.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect, I would observe, in conclusion, that I do not confine or restrict myself
to the precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion to describe or
refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without deviating from
the principles or main features of my said Invention; but what I consider
to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me
by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,―
First, the general constructions and arrangements of apparatus for propelling
and steering ships and boats, as herein-before described.
Second, the application and use of floats made to feather on leaving the water
by means of eccentrics, cams, or cranks, so as to present a less surface to
the resistance of the air, as herein-before described, and illustrated on my
Drawings.
Third, the apparatus for obtaining a better action of the propellers when the
ship or boat is only slightly immersed in the water, and the system or mode of
applying the said apparatus, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Burnside, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Ninth day of October, One thousand eight hundred
and-fifty-six.
JAMES BURNSIDE. (L.s.)