IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING SHIPS AND OTHER NAVIGABLE VESSELS
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Hydes, Joseph Bennett, and John Emil
Bennett, all of Sheffield, in the County of York, for the Invention
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Hydes, Joseph
Bennett, and John Emil Bennett at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with their Petition, on the 23rd October 1869.
We, THOMAS HYDES, JOSEPH BENNETT, and JOHN EMIL BENNETT, all
of Sheffield, in the County of York, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING SHIPS AND OTHER NAVIGABLE
VESSELS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in employing heated compressed air mixed
with gases as a power for propelling ships and other navigable vessels
through water.
We propose to compress air by steam or other power into a large
air-tight vessel or compartment fitted or built in the ship or other
floating body, and in this compartment we place the boilers and

page_text: furnaces employed for generating steam, and if desirable the machinery
for compressing the air; the said compartment is also intended to con-
tain fuel, and the firemen and other necessary workmen who can enter
and leave the said compartment when required by a suitable outlet or
door so constructed as to admit of as little escape of the compressed air
as possible. The air having been compressed to the required pressure is
allowed to pass either through or over the fire in the furnaces by which
it becomes expanded, at the same time the gases evolved during the
combustion of the fuel mix with the air thus expanded and form a power
which we propose to convey below the surface of the water of flotation
through suitable pipes or channels, the outer ends whereof are open to
the water in which the ship floats, and it is the aforesaid expanded air
and gases acting against the water of flotation that constitutes these
improvements in propelling ships and other navigable vessels. We
would here observe that we do not intend to limit ourselves to the
precise part or parts of a ship or other floating body at which the afore-
said channels are to be arranged for conveying the propelling power to
and against the water of flotation, it being simply necessary to so
arrange them as that the propelling power shall be exerted in an
opposite direction to that in which the ship is intended to move.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Hydes, Joseph Bennett, and John Emil
Bennett in the Great Scal Patent Office on the 23rd April 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
HYDES, JOSEPH BENNETT, and JOHN EMIL BENNETT, all of Sheffield, in
the County of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, hearing date the Twenty-third day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the
thirty-third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Thomas Hydes, Joseph Bennett and John
Emil Bennett, Her special licence, that we, the said Thomas Hydes,
Joseph Bennett, and John Emil Bennett, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas Hydes, Joseph
Bennett, and John Emil Bennett, our executors, administrators, and

page_text: 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 PROPELLING SHIPS AND OTHER
NAVIGABLE VESSELS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said Thomas Hydes, Joseph Bennett, and John Emil Bennett, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or
their, or one of their hands and scals, 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
Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Thomas Iydes, Joseph Bennett,
and John Emil Bennett, do hereby declare the nature of the said In-
vention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be par-
ticularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement,
that is to say:-
This Invention consists in employing heated compressed air mixed
with gases as a power for propelling ships and other navigable vessels
through water.
We propose to compress air by steam or other power into a large
air-tight vessel or compartment fitted or built in the ship or other
floating body, and in this compartment we place the boilers and
furnaces employed for generating steam, and if desirable the machinery
for compressing the air; the said compartment is also intended to con-
tain fuel and the fireman and other necessary workmen who can enter
and leave the said compartment when required by a suitable outlet or
door so constructed as to admit of as little escape of the compressed air
as possible. The air having been compressed to the required pressure is
allowed to pass either through or over the fire in the furnaces by which
it becomes expanded, at the same time the gases evolved during the
combustion of the fuel mix with the air thus expanded and form a power
which we propose to convey below the surface of the water of flotation
through suitable pipes or channels, the outer ends whereof are open to
the water in which the ship floats, and it is the aforesaid expanded air
and gases acting against the water of flotation that constitutes these
*Improvements in Propelling Ships and other Navigable Vessels." We

page_text: would here observe that we do not intend to limit ourselves to the
preciso part or parts of a ship or other floating body at which the afore-
said channels are to be arranged for conveying the propelling power to
and against the water of flotation, it being simply necessary to so arrange
them as that the propelling power shall be exerted in an opposito
direction to that in which the ship is intended to move.
And in order to explain our said Invention more fully we now
proceed to describe the best means we are acquainted with for carrying
the same into practical effect, reference being had to the illustrative
Sheet of Drawings accompanying these Presents and to the numeral 1
figures and letters of reference marked thereon, as follows:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 represents a longitudinal section of a vessel shewing our
propelling improvements adapted thereto; Figure 2 is a plan of
Figure 1. At cach of the above Figures we employ similar letters of 1
reference to denote corresponding parts at cach of such said Figures
respectively.
A is an air-tight compartment containing the steam boilers B
(although it is not necessary that the boilers should be quite enclosed
in the said compartment A, as shown in the Drawings, but it is necessary 2
that the front or firing end should be inside the air-tight compart-
ment A). C are the steam engine cylinders; F are the steam pipes;
D are large cylinders for pumping and compressing air through the
pipes d into the compartment A; L is an entrance with double doors,
each of which is fitted with a valve for the purpose of regulating the
compression of air between the two doors; M is the chimney or funnel
which is in use when the fire is being made, or when the vessel is
stationary. To set the vessel in motion the funnel is closed by a
valve O which causes the expanded air and gases of the fire to pass
through the channels E, E, either into the channels H, H, or G, G, (by 3
valves fixed at P, P,) the expanded air and gases passing out of either
I, I, or K, K, into the water of flotation; this has the effect of propelling
the vessel either in a backward or forward direction, and if one channel I
and one channel K bo open it will cause the vessel to turn on its centre
without the use of a rudder.
Having now fully described and set forth the nature and object of
our said Invention for "Improvements in Propelling Ships and other
3

page_text: Navigable Vessels," together with the best means we are acquainted
with for carrying the same into practical effect, we would remark in
conclusion that what we claim as our Invention is, the direct action of
expanded air in combination with the gaseous produce of the furnace firo
against the water of flotation for the purpose of propelling ships and
other navigable vessels, as above described.
We also claim the construction and application to vessels of the
air-tight compartment above described for the purposes above
stated.
In witness whereof, we, the said Thomas Hydes, Joseph Bennet,
and John Emil Bennett, have hereunto set our hands and seals,
this Twentieth day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy.
5
Witness,
(L.S.)
Tuos. MoORE,
Mayor of Sheffield.
THOMAS HYDES.
JOSEPH BENNETT.
(L.B.)
(L.B.)
JOHN EMIL BENNETT. (L.S.)