IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLERS FOR SHIPS AND VESSELS, PARTS OF WHICH PROVISIONAL SPATION
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Lamb Hancock and Charles Lamb
Hancock, of Dudley, in the County of Worcester, for the Invention.
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLERS FOR SHIPS AND VESSELS, PARTS OF WHICH
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Lamb Hancock
and Charles Lamb Hancock at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 20th December 1865.
I, FREDERICK LAMB HANCOCK and CHARLES LAMB HANCOCK, of
Dudley, in the County of Worcester, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLERS FOR SHIPS AND VESSELS, PARTS
OF WHICH ARE APPLICABLE TO WINDMILL SAILS AND FAN BLOWERS," to be as
follows:-
Our Invention relates, firstly, to screw propellers, and consists in fitting
on the propeller shaft or on a boss thereon, at or at about the same point, at
an angle of about 45°, more or less, with the shaft, and at about right angles
with each other, two semicircular or nearly semicircular plates which as
the shaft revolves act upon the water to propel the vessel. The plates
may either be plain or they may be formed with flanges on the curved
edges of their acting faces. The flanges are at their middle of a breadth,"
by preference, about equal to the radius of the plates, and they gradually
diminish in breadth towards their ends, where they meet the straight edges
of the plates. Sometimes we employ plates with the corners of the semi-

page_text: circles removed. This arrangement of plates on a shaft is also applicable
to windmill sails and to fan blowers.
Our Invention consists, secondly, of a disc propeller made in one piece,
or in two or more pieces united so as to fit tightly or to leave a space or
spaces between them. We mount one of these discs at about an angle of
45°, more or less, on each side of the vessel on a shaft or on a boss on the
shaft so that a portion of this disc is below the water while the remainder
is above the water, as in paddle wheels. Sometimes we employ two or
more such disc propellers on each side of the vessel parallel to each other on
the same shaft. Sometimes, also, we employ flanges on the outer edge of
the discs similar to those herein-before described with reference to the first
part of this Invention, one flange being carried on one side of one half or
thereabouts of the disc, and another flange on the opposite side of the other
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Frederick Lamb Hancock and Charles Lamb
Hancock in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 20th June 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we FREDERICK
LAMB HANCOCK and CHARLES LAMB HANCOCK, of Dudley, in the County:
of Worcester, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto us, the said Frederick Lamb Hancock and Charles Lamb
Hancock, Her special licence that we, the said Frederick Lamb Hancock
and Charles Lamb Hancock, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as we, the said Frederick Lamb Hancock and Charles Lamb
Hancock, our 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 PROPELLERS FOR SHIPS AND VESSELS, PARTS OF WHICH ARE
TO WINDMILL SAILS AND FAN BLOWERS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said Frederick Lamb Hancock and Charles
Lamb Hancock, or one of us, our executors or administrators, by an instru-

page_text: ment in writing under our, or one of our, 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.
1
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Frederick Lamb Hancock and
Charles Lamb Hancock, do hereby declare the nature of our 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 :-
"
Our. Invention relates, firstly, to screw propellers, and consists in fitting.
on the propeller shaft or on a boss thereon, at or at about the same point.
at an angle of about 45°, more or less, with the shaft, and at about
right angles with each other, two or more semicircular or nearly semi-
circular plates, which as the shaft revolves act upon the water to propel the
vessel. Sometimes we employ plates with the corners of the semicircles
removed.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a face view, and Figure 2 a
plan of a screw propeller constructed according to our-Invention.. a is the
propeller shaft. and 6 is a boss upon the shaft a. c, c, are two semicircular
plates fitted on the boss 6 at an angle of about 45° with the shaft a, and at
about right angles with each other. As the shaft a is caused to revolve.
by the machinery on board, the plates c, c, act upon the water to propel
the vessel. In the arrangement represented in. Figures 1 and 2 the plates
c, c, do not cross each other, that is to say, each plate is fitted at only one
side of the shaft or boss, as shown.
Figures 3 and 4 represent in face view and plan a propeller of a some
what modified form, in which the plates c, c, cross each other, that is to
say, each plate is fitted to the boss b so as to extend partly at each side of
the boss and shaft. In this modification the plates c, c, consist of semi-
ellipses with a portion or one corner removed, as shown.
Figure 5 represents a propeller fitted with three plates c, c, c, similar to
the plates represented in Figures 3 and 4, and each placed at an angle of
about 45° with the shaft a.
Figure 6 represents a propeller consisting of two plates c, c,' each of
which is a quarter of an ellipse. These plates are fitted, by preference, at
an angle of 40° with the shaft a. Sometimes, especially in cases where the
space is limited at the stern of the vessel, we remove one of the outer
corners of each of these plates as shown by the dotted lines d, d, or by the

page_text: dotted lines e, e. The plates 'c, c, may in any of the plans before described:
be strengthened by stays if required. This arrangement of plates upon a:
shaft is also applicable to windmill sails and to fan blowers; in the case of
fan blowers the draught is created by the plates c, c, in a line with the fan
shaft instead of at about right angles thereto as in ordinary fans.
.
Our Invention consists, secondly, of a disc propeller made in one piece or
in two or more pieces. We mount one of these discs at about an angle of
45°, more or less, on each side of the vessel on a shaft or on a boss on the
shaft, so that a portion of the disc is below the water while the remainder
is above the water, as in paddle wheels. Sometimes we employ two or
more such disc propellers on each side of the vessel parallel to each other
on the same shaft.
Figure 7 is a face view, and Figure 8 a side view representing one of
our disc propellers. a is the propeller shaft or the boss on the shaft, this
shaft is fitted in a similar manner to the shaft of a paddle wheel; 6 is our
disc propeller mounted on the shaft a at an angle of about 45°. This disc
propeller may, as before stated, be made either in one piece or in two or
more pieces, and two or more of them may be mounted on the same shaft.
The disc represented in Figure 7 is circular, but any other convenient
form may be adopted, and we prefer an elliptical disc as represented in
Figure 9.
i
And having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that we claim,―
First, constructing screw propellers, windmill sails, and fan blowers of
plates, substantially of the form or forms herein-before described and re-
presented in Figures 1 to 6 of the accompaning Drawings, mounted upon
à shaft or upon a boss on a shaft, substantially as described.
Second, constructing disc propellers consisting of one or more discs
mounted at an angle of 45°, more or less, upon a shaft or upon a boss on a
shaft, substantially as herein-before described and represented in Figures 7
to 9 of the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I the said Frederick Lamb Hancock, for myself,
and on behalf of the said Charles Lamb Hancock, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of June, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-six.
F. L. HANCOCK.
(L.)