AN IMPROVED MODE OR SYSTEM OF CONSTRUCTING AND PROPELLING VESSELS.”
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Edwards Wilson, of Bromley, in the
County of Kent, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
MODE OR SYSTEM OF CONSTRUCTING AND PROPELLING VESSELS.”
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Edwards Wilson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 8th April 1873.
I, JAMES EDWARDS WILSON, of Bromley, in the County of Kent,
Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"AN IMPROVED MODE OR SYSTEM OF CONSTRUCTING AND PROPELLING VESSELS," to
be as follows:-
:-
My Invention has for object to improve steam navigation by increasing
the speed and insuring greater safety and certainty. For these purposes
I arrange at the surface or at any suitable distance below the surface of
the sea one or more lines of bars or rails extending from shore to shore,
which lines are connected with and supported by buoys, these buoys

page_text: being moored as may be found necessary. I construct the vessels which
are to travel in a line with these bars with wheels to grip the bars. I
drive these wheels or some of them in any ordinary manner by motive
power within the vessels, and the revolution of the wheels causes the
vessels to travel.
In carrying out the Invention I prefer to employ a pair of driving
wheels similar to those of a locomotive engine. These wheels revolve
upon the top of the lines of bars or rails, which are kept up to these
wheels by other wheels or rollers running underneath the bars or rails,
the bars or rails being thus gripped between the driving wheels and
these under wheels, while the weight of the vessel being borne by the
water does not come upon the bars; and for the purpose of guiding and
steadying the vessel horizontally and vertically I attach guide rollers to
the vessel at suitable positions fore and aft.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Edwards Wilson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 8th October 1878.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
EDWARDS WILSON, of Bromley, in the County of Kent, Civil Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said James Edwards Wilson, Her special
licence that I, the said James Edwards Wilson, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Edwards
Wilson, 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
"AN IMPROVED MODE OR SYSTEM OF CONSTRUCTING AND PROPELLING VESSELS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Edwards

page_text: Wilson, my executors or administrators, by an instrument 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
5 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 Edwards Wilson, 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, that is to say :—
The object of this Invention is for cases where it may be found
expedient (as for example the crossing of the "Channel" between
England and the Continent of Europe) to obtain a greater speed than
hitherto realised, together with a reduction of the oscillation due to the
5 action of the waves. This object is attained by adapting to vessels,
instead of paddle wheels, driving wheels with tyres like those of loco-
motives, providing for these driving wheels to work along continuous
bars extending from one end of the transit to the other, maintained by
buoys at a certain distance below the surface of the water and fixing to
the vessels on both sides vertical and horizontal rollers, which also work
along the same continuous bars.
The vessels may be of the ordinary construction of paddle wheel
steamers for the separate conveyance of passengers, baggage, and goods,
or of the ferry boat construction, by which the vehicles also, whether
common road or railway, are conveyed without the removal of the
passengers, luggage, &c.
The engines may be of any construction applicable to paddle wheel
steamers, but it is preferred for the purposes of this Invention to make
use of engines of the locomotive system, as this system is lighter, takes
up less room, and requires a much smaller driving wheel, while as the
lines of transit to which these improvements are more particularly
applicable are comparatively short there would be no drawback as
regards supply of water to the boiler.
The driving wheels, whatever may be the system of engine employed,
must of course have their diameter directly corresponding to the speed
required to be run, and the width of the tyres must be amply pro-

page_text: portioned to the amount of adhesion which the calibre of the vessel and
the rate of speed necessitate.
The adhesion required is obtained by pressing the tyres of the driving
wheels down upon the upper surface of the continuous bars by means
of vertical rollers attached to the sides of the vessel, running along the
under surface or part thereof of the continuous bars and adjustable
there against with the necessary pressure. These vertical pressure rollers
may be four, two, or one in number to each driving wheel. It is pre-
ferred however to use two, both inside (i.e., next the vessel) of the
continuous bar, and symmetrically placed on each side of the centre of
the driving wheel; and it is preferred to support these rollers by a
spring similar to the bearing spring of a railway carriage, one roller
attached to each end of the spring, the clip or buckle of the spring
moving in a vertical groove duly fixed to the side of the vessel and
brought to and maintained in the due position necessary to produce the
required adhesion by screw, hydraulic, or other gearing worked from the
engine room.
The construction of the driving wheels does not require to differ from
that of locomotive wheels, excepting that where the tyre is maintained
by spokes instead of discs the spaces must be filled up flush between the
spokes to prevent disturbance of the water.
The pressure rollers although conveniently called vertical are really
not quite so. They must be slightly inclined to allow them to clear
thoroughly the continuous bar, as will be immediately understood from
the description of the continuous bars. There is nothing particular to
dwell upon in the construction of the pressure rollers, excepting that
they should be of as large a diameter and of as great a width on the
rolling surface as the circumstances of each case permit, and they
should preferably have their axles fixed and not revolving in the
rollers.
The continuous bars are supported by buoys at such a depth as can
practically be permitted in each case, so as to be as much as possible
beyond the influence of the action of the waves, which it is believed
diminishes very rapidly with the distance below the surface. As the
effect of the adhesion is parallel to the surface of the bars these would
only by the action of the driving wheels be subjected to a tractive force
in the direction of their length; but they (the continuous bars) being

page_text: supported only at intervals by the buoys, also act between the successive
points of support as girders, and must provide in their form and dimen-
sions for the two actions. It is found preferable however to construct
the continuous bars of two parts; the lower of which acts as the girder,
and the upper, which is laid upon and affixed to the top of the lower
part, as the rolling surface for the driving wheels and the pressure rollers
to work against.
It is preferred to have the lower or girder member of the continuous
bar composed of an ordinary rolled I beam, of the length which is found
suitable in each particular case for the distance between the supporting
buoys, each beam being attached to the succeeding by the most solid
description of fish plates. The form of upper member preferred is that
of an ordinary railway rail, of the section known as the "Vignoles,"
having of course the bearing surface for the driving wheels on the top
and underneath the head for the pressure rollers of due dimensions, the
the depth of course being in proportion to these other dimensions. By
this means the most solid and rigid transversely as well as vertically
construction is obtained, with the advantage that the rolling surfaces
portion can be changed side for side and replaced when required without
the removal of the girder portion.
The supporting buoys are preferred to be constructed of a cylindrical
portion surmounted by a conical portion, the bottom closing in the
buoy being placed at a certain distance up the cylinder to allow of a
quantity of water to be contained within the buoy so as to increase the
vis inertiae thereof. All the buoys or such number thereof as may be
found requisite, according to each particular case, are to be moored
to the bottom by suitable chains and anchors, the chains to extend
at as great an angle as practicable from the buoys so as to insure
the utmost amount of solidity and to render the effect of the rise and
fall of the tide as small as possible. The girders are secured upon
the top of the buoys by brackets in the usual way in which girders
are fastened upon pillars. And to secure the parallelism of the one
continuous bar on the one side of the vessel to the other, one on the
other side transverse vertical girders will be fastened to each corre
sponding pair of buoys, and strengthened in their attachment thereto by
brackets. Diagonal ties will also be placed from each buoy over to the
one immediately succeeding on the other side, and these diagonals where
they cross will be duly connected together. The transverse girdres

page_text: brackets thereto, and diagonal ties are to be as high up as possible with
due regard to properly clearing the vessel in its passage. The continuous
bars must end at a little before the 'point at which the vessels have
to lie for landing and shipping, and must have their ends free so as to
present no obstacle to their entrance in between the vertical and hori-
zontal guide rollers at the forward end of the vessel. To enable the
vessel to run in easily between the two lines of bars guides are attached
to the front part of the vessel on each side for the purpose of leading
the ends of the bars in between the vertical and horizontal rollers, and
thence in between the driving wheels and the pressure rollers, which
latter would of course be slackened down until the bars should have
passed through. The mooring of the ends of the lines of bars offers no
peculiarity. This, so far, is for the obtaining the increased speed by
affording a better resistance to drive against than that of the water.
But for the purpose of checking the vertical and horizontal disturbance
of the vessel vertical rollers running along the top surface of the con-
tinuous bars, or nearly vertical rollers, similar to the pressure rollers,
running along underneath, together with horizontal rollers running the
outside or inside or both of the upper portion of the continuous bars are
attached to the sides of the vessels. It is clear that the farther from
the centre of the vessels that these rollers are placed the greater will be
their effect in opposing the disturbance of the waves, and they would
therefore be always placed as much towards the ends of the vessels as
their solidity of fixing will permit. They may either be placed, the
vertical and horizontal rollers, together in one bracket, or each in a
separate bracket, as may best in each particular case insure the greatest
solidity.
In addition to the methods of construction herein-before described the
continuous bars may be made wholly of wood, or of wood with a metal
rolling surface piece fastened thereon. They may also be constructed
as a closed air-tight metal tubular girder, either in detached portions or
the portions fastened end to end and forming one long girder extending
the whole length of the line of transit. By either of these modes of
construction the buoys would be dispensed with and the mooring
probably much reduced.
Whatever be the construction in every particular case care must be
taken to proportion the various parts, the dimensions of which may be
taken somewhat arbitrarily so as to involve the minimum of material

page_text: and workmanship; and with this view the adoption of steel as the
material for the whole construction is strongly preferred.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, the
mode or system of constructing and propelling vessels herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Edwards Wilson, have here-
J. EDWARDS WILSON. (L.S.)