IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR STEERING SHIPS
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Augustus Inglefield, of No. 11, St. Alban's
Road, South Kensington, in the County of Middlesex, Captain in the
Royal Navy, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
STEERING SHIPS."
Sealed the 16th December 1864, and dated the 21st June 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Augustus Ingle-
field at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 21st June 1864.
I, EDWARD AUGUSTUS INGLEFIELD, of No. 11, St. Alban's Road, South
Kensington, in the County of Middlesex, Captain in the Royal Navy, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR STEERING SHIPS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for steering
ships. For this purpose I employ a cylinder placed at the lower part of the
ship or vessel, and having a piston within it with a piston rod passing out of
the cylinder at each end. The cylinder is connected by pipes or passages with
the water external of the vessel, and by a four-way cock, a slide valve, or
similar valve in these pipes or passages, actuated by the steering lever or
handle, water can be admitted at either end of the cylinder, whilst at the same
time the water on the other side of the piston is allowed to escape within the
vessel; thus the piston is caused to traverse within the cylinder. The piston

page_text: rods are connected with chains or ropes, which pass over pulleys, and are
connected with the tiller. In place of a cylinder and piston other equivalent
apparatus may be employed connected in a similar manner with the water
exterior of the vessel, and actuated by the pressure thereof, or rather by the
power obtained by admitting the water into the vessel. And I would remark
that whereas in hydraulic steering gear heretofore constructed the apparatus
has usually been actuated by water obtained under pressure by pumps worked
by steam power; according to my Invention the hydraulic steering gear is
actuated as above mentioned by the power obtained by admitting the outside
water into the ship.
An apparatus consisting of a cylinder and piston, with rods and chains as
above described, may be worked by high-pressure steam instead of by water
pressure.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edward Augustus Inglefield in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 20th December 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
AUGUSTUS INGLEFIELD, of No. 11, St. Alban's Road, South Kensington, in the
County of Middlesex, Captain in the Royal Navy, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Edward Augustus Inglefield, Her special licence that I, the said
Edward Augustus Inglefield, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Edward Augustus Inglefield, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR STEERING SHIPS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edward Augustus Inglefield, 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 per-
formed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office

page_text: within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edward Augustus Inglefield, do hereby
declare the nature of the 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 Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say :-
My Invention consists in employing machinery worked by hydraulic power
to give motion to a ship's rudder, and the peculiarity of the Invention is such
that the machinery is so arranged that it is actuated by water admitted to an
engine from the exterior water in which the ship is floating. The arrange-
ment of the machinery used in carrying out my Invention may be greatly
varied, but it is preferred that a fixed cylinder should be employed situated at
as low a position in the ship as may be, in order in each case to obtain as
great hydraulic depth and consequent pressure on the piston of the hydraulic
engine as possible. The length of the stroke of the piston may be equal to
that of the tiller, which is put in motion by the hydraulic engine. Or a shorter
stroke may be given to the piston of the hydraulic engine, so as to require two
or more strokes of the piston to put over the tiller, the intermediate mechanism
between the engine and the tiller being arranged accordingly. The size of
the piston will depend on the area of rudder, the greatest speed of the ship,
and the depth at which the cylinder of the hydraulic engine is fixed below
the level of the water external of the ship; these being ascertained, the
required dimensions in each case for the piston of the hydraulic engine will
readily be ascertained by an engineer.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews a section of a ship having apparatus applied thereto accord-
ing to my Invention; Figure 2 shews a plan of the form of hydraulic engine
which I prefer to employ, in which the piston rod passes through stuffing boxes
at the two ends of the cylinder; Figure 3 shews a cock suitable to be used
for admitting the water to the cylinder and for the water passing out from the
cylinder into a trough or other receiver, from which it may be continually
pumped by a small pump put in motion by an excentric on the screw shaft or
otherwise; the water so pumped away may be employed for supplying the
boilers of the engines, or for condensing the steam, or for any other use on
board ship, or it may be pumped back into the sea. In place of the cock
shewn in the Drawings slide or other valves may be used to admit water into
the cylinder, and to allow the water to flow away out of the cylinder. a is the

page_text: cylinder; b is the piston; c, c, is the piston rod; e, e, are tiller ropes, which
are conducted over and are guided by pulleys f, f, to the tiller g. In steering
a ship the steersman will simply have to act on the plug of the cock or on the
valves used for admitting the water to flow to and from the cylinder. h is a
vertical shaft having at its upper end a suitable wheel or a lever handle by
which a partial rotation may be communicated to the shaft, and consequently
to the plug of the cock or the valve or valves with which the lower end of the
shaft his connected. By thus taking advantage of the pressure of the water
in which a ship floats to act on the piston of a suitable hydraulic engine, any
desired power may be obtained for steering the ship, whilst the quantity of
water admitted and which requires to be removed will be small, and require
but comparatively little power to remove when considered with reference to
the great convenience which results from this mode of obtaining hydraulic
power, and of using it in steering a ship. In place of employing tiller ropes,
other arrangements for acting on the tiller may be resorted to when applying
my Invention, and a convenient mode of transmitting the power of an engine
worked by water, as above explained, is by causing water to be put in motion
by the hydraulic engine in such manner that the water so put in motion may
be caused to act on either side of a piston in another hydraulic engine connected
more directly to the tiller. For this purpose the hydraulic engine which
receives water from the sea may have a length of stroke equal to put over the
tiller at each stroke, or it may require two or more strokes of the piston of
the hydraulic engine to do so, in which case the valves of the hydraulic engine
should be arranged to be self-acting, and to be changed at the end of the
piston's stroke, as is well understood by engineers, and such engine would
give motion by a suitable pump or pumps of small diameter in such manner
as to cause water contained in pipes leading respectively to the two sides of a
piston of the other hydraulic engine, so that the water may be constantly
pumped towards one side of such other hydraulic engine till the tiller has been
put over to the extent desired.
When the action of the tiller is to be reversed, the small pump or pumps
used will by the gearing be caused to propel the water in the opposite direction
so as to act on the other side of the piston of the other hydraulic engine. The
pipes or apparatus containing such water is to be constantly full, and will
consequently only require to be put in motion by the pump or pumps worked
by the hydraulic engine, and when pumping the water towards one side of the
piston in the other hydraulic engine the water is to flow from the other side
of the piston towards the pump or pumps.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of

page_text: performing the same, I would have it understood that I make no claim to
any of the mechanical parts separately.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Augustus Inglefield, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
E. A. INGLEFIELD. (L.S.)