IMPROVE- MENTS IN BOATS
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Théodore Faucheux at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 3rd April
1867.
I, THEODORE FAUCHEUX, of Kentish Town, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN BOATS," to be as follows, that is to say:-
The Invention consists in an improved construction of boat for river and
sea navigation and applicable for pleasure excursions, for fishing, shooting,
jousting, and regatas, and also as a safety boat.
This improved boat or apparatus is externally of the form of a swan, or it
may be of any analogous form, and varies in dimensions according to require-
ments. The immersed part of the body is divided into two parts if the boat
is intended to carry only one or several persons, that is to say, in the centre of
the boat I leave a space for the passage of the water and for receiving the
working gear; each wing or side is of the form of a canoe. The two wings
or sides forming the external body of the swan or boat are fixed to a metallic
tube closed air-tight, but which can be filled with air by means of a tap fixed
to the back part of the tube, or at any other convenient part. By means of
this tube the boat or swan is rendered insubmersible; the diameter and length
of this tube vary according to the diameter of the boat. Each extremity of the
wings or sides forming a canoe is closed air-tight (so as to leave only about
one-third of the space for the navigator's legs); these spaces or air receivers dis-

page_text: place a volume of water much greater than the whole weight of the apparatus
including that of the passengers, and thus reuders it unsinkable.
To work the boat or apparatus I apply in the neck of the swan or boat an
arrangement of pinions and bevilled cogged wheels, and wheels over which an
endless chain passes (in lieu of an endless chain a vertical shaft for trans-
mitting motion can be used), corresponding with a longitudinal shaft fixed
under the floating line of the hull. Outside the neck and on each side at a
suitable height two handles are fixed, by means of which the motive mechanisın
is put in action. This motion is obtained by means of one or two screw pro-
pellers fixed at each extremity of the longitudinal shaft; it may also be obtained
by means of an arrangement of fixed or moveable paddles, or of a spiral screw
fixed in a tube placed in a longitudinal direction. To render the apparatus
non-capsizable, and preserve it from shocks to which it would be exposed on
shingle or in shallow water, I fit an iron keel, which serves as a part of the
general frame or hull, and serves to support the two ends of the moveable
rotary shaft; this keel is of the same form as the lower part of the swan or
boat, and by means of an additional weight, according to requirements, I
render the apparatus non-capsizable at will. This keel descends lower than the
lower level of the wings or sides of the swan or boat. To steer the boat the
navigator places himself outside the tube, his legs hanging down in the space
in each wing or side; each of his feet is placed in a stirrup fixed to a
chain, or to a cord passing in the groove of a pulley, and corresponding with
the arms of the helmi which moves and directs the apparatus to the right or
left, according as he presses his right or his left foot in the stirrups fixed in the
interior. This boat may be constructed of wood, malleable iron, or gutta
percha; it is worked by hand or by mechanical ineans.