IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PROPELLING VESSELS, PARTLY APPLICABLE FOR WORKING PUMPS
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Rufino Varela at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th
October 1872.
I, RUFINO VARELA, residing at the Albemarle Hotel, Albemarle
Road, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PROPELLING VESSELS,
PARTLY APPLICABLE FOR WORKING PUMPS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for
propelling vessels, partly applicable for working pumps.
For the purpose of propelling vessels I employ apparatus such as is
shewn in the annexed drawing -a is a case or tube which may be
of any shape, it is bent at b, c, d, and has openings at e¹, e³, e³, *; the
tube or case is below the level of the water in which the vessel floats
and the openings are directed towards the bow and stern; and g are
valves or shutting doors acting simultaneously, and moving in the
direction of the arrows when it is necessary to reverse the movement of
the propeller; they shut always two of the openings, preventing the
entrance of the liquid at b and d when the vessel is going forwards,
or. c and when the vessel is going backwards; h is a piston working
to-and-fro inside the case or tube a; it is moved by the rod i, and this is
worked by the jointed parallelograms of which the levers are mounted

page_text: on movable blocks m', m³, m³, sliding in the guides and upon the fixed
pin ; the parallelograms are connected at o with the motive-power
engine. I thus employ for propelling vessels the horizontal pressure of
water entering freely into a case at both sides of a piston, and I utilize
its pressure continuously and always in a forward or backward direction
whilst the piston moves to-and-fro.
By means of the valve or shutting doors ƒ and g of the apparatus
which close the entrances at b and d, or at c and, and reverse the
action of the propeller I avoid the reversing of the motive power engine,
which is always to work ahead whether the vessel be moving forwards
or backwards.
I also employ, as will be seen, articulated parallelograms (or such like
apparatus, as for example telescopic tubes) for the purpose of working
pistons (this may also be applied to pumps) permitting an indefinite
increase of the stroke of the propelling or pressing piston beyond that
of the steam piston.
I may also increase the speed of the apparatus and with it the
propelling motion by augmenting the parallelograms, or elongating
them without increasing the number of strokes or revolutions of the
motive-power engine.
Sometimes I use a block acting as a pressing ram inside or outside
a case instead of the piston.
The apparatus will be provided with taps to shut at the outside of
the four entrances b, c, d, , cither the two not working entrances to
avoid resistance, or the four entrances to clean the tube or case, or stop
any leakage; the tube or case may be fitted inside the vessel whilst
their apertures are in the hull; these taps are not shewn in the
accompanying diagram.
One, two, or more tubes or cases may be employed, according to the
force to be employed.or to the size of the vessel, and all its pistons may
be worked by a single articulated parallelogram or by more.