IMPROVEMENTS IN PADDLE WHEELS
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Ranken, of Bathurst, Sydney, New South
Wales, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PADDLE WHEELS."
Scaled the 24th August 1860, and dated the 29th February 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Ranken at the
Office of the Commissioners. of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th February 1860.
I, GEORGE RANKEN, of Bathurst, Sydney, New South Wales, do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PADDLE WHEELS,"
to bo as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in paddle wheels. For
these purposes each of the floatboards or paddles is formed with flanches at
its two side edges and also at its inner edge, such flanches protruding beyond
the front and back surfaces of each floatboard or paddle. In place of the
floatboards or paddles being fixed to the framing, each of them is mounted on
an axis, so as to be capable of a short extent of movement thereon, so that
when the front end or edge of a float board or paddle strikes the water, such
front end gives way till the inner edge or end comes against a stop, and is
thereby retained from moving further, and it then acts as a fixed paddle or
floatboard, but with flanches at the sides and inner end. I would state that
it is not new separately to apply flanches to the sides of floatboards or paddles,
nor is it new separately to mount floatboards on axes so that they may move
freely thereon till they come to their stops; but the peculiarity of my Invention.
consists in combining these two properties in paddle wheels, and also. in the
applying flanches to the inner ends of the floatboards or paddles.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Ranken in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
29th August 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
RANKEN, of Bathurst, Sydney, New South Wales, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said George Ranken, Her special licence that I, the said George
Ranken, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said George Ranken, 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PADDLE WHEELS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said George Ranken, 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 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 George Ranken, 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, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in paddle wheels. For
these purposes each of the floatboards or paddles is formed with flanches at
its two side edges and also at its inner edge, such flanches protruding beyond
the front and back surfaces of each floatboard or paddle. In place of the
floatboards or paddles being fixed to the framing, each of them is mounted on
an axis so as to be capable of a short extent of movement thereon, so that
when the front end or edge of a floatboard or paddle strikes the water, such
front end gives way till the inner edge or end comes against a stop, and is
thereby retained from moving further, and it then acts as a fixed paddle or
floatboard, but with flanches at the sides and inner end. I would state that
it is not new separately to apply flanches to the sides of floatboards or paddles,

page_text: nor is it new separately to mount floatboards on axes so that they may move
freely thereon till they come to their stops; but the peculiarity of my Invention
consists in combining these two properties in paddle wheels, and also the
applying flanches to the inner ends of the floatboards or paddles.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shows a side view of a paddle wheel constructed according to my
Invention, and Figure 2 a transverse section thereof; a, a, are the floatboards,
each of which is mounted on an axis b, which however is not new, and
each floatboard is arranged so as to be capable of a short movement on its
axis b, so that when the outer edge of a floatboard strikes the water, the float-
board may give way till the inner edge thereof comes against its stop c, which
prevents further movement of the floatboard, when the floatboard acts as a
fixed floatboard. Each floatboard is made with a flanch a' at its inner edge,
and also a flanch a² at each of its sides.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that what I claim is,―
First, the mounting of floatboards having flanches on the sides on axes as
herein described.
And, secondly, I claim the application of flanches to the inner edges or ends
of floatboards of paddle wheels as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Ranken, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
GEO. KANKEN.
(L.8.)