IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING MACHINERY
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HANNIS TAYLOR, of Bucklersbury, in the City of London, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Sixth day of June, in the fourth year of Her reign, did, for Her-
'self, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said William
Hannis Taylor, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said William Hannis Taylor, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said William Hannis Taylor, my exors, adiñors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might, make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and in the Isles of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man,
and also in all Her said Majesty's Colonies, and Plantations abroad, my
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING MACHINERY;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said William Hannis Taylor, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear..

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Hannis Taylor, do hereby declare that the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully
described and set forth in the following Specification thereof, having reference
to the Drawings hereunto annexed marked Figures 1 and 2, (that is to say):
In Figures 1 and 2 is a representation of so much of a locomotive engine
for either a railway or an ordinary road as is requisite to exhibit the
application of my said Improvements. A, A', are the wheels of the carriage,
and F, F, the framework; B, a main driving wheel or drum, to which motion
may be communicated by means of a steam engine, by manual labor, or by
any other adequate power; C¹, C, C, C, guide pulleys for D, D, D, D,
a messenger or propelling rope; E, E', is a grooved rail fixed firmly to the
earth in the centre of the track intended to be traversed by the locomotive,
on or a few inches above the level of the surface. Into this groove the
messenger D is pressed firmly by means of the guiding pulleys C and C
in the front and rear of the locomotive. The bearing wheels A, A, may be
either fixed on a revolving axle or not, and may either have flanges or not,
according as the machine may be intended to run on a railway or on a plain
surface. The drum B has a grooved circumference, and the messenger or
endless propelling rope is firmly pressed into this groove by means of the
pulleys C and C. In order to propel the carriage, motion is given to the
drum or driving wheel B by means of a steam engine fixed on the frame
F, F, or by any other suitable motive power. The drum, revolving in the
direction A, B, A, hauls in the messenger from behind the carriage, and as
the under part of the messenger is at the same time pressed into the groove of
the centre rail E, E', the carriage is consequently propelled forward, the
messenger, as it is delivered from the drum B, passing under the guide pulley
C", and over the guide pulley C, and being continually pressed down by the
pulley C into the guide rail E, E', in advance of the carriage. By means
of the hold thus obtained by the messenger D, D, on the grooved guide rail
E, E', for the distance CC, the whole. of the motive power made use of
may be effectively applied to the propulsion of the machine. In order to
propel a boat or other vessel through water, I propose to make use of a
similar arrangement, but with the substitution of a chain for the messenger
rope D. The drum B may in this case be toothed or hollowed, to fit the links
of the messenger chains, and the centre rail may be dispensed with by making
the messenger chain of sufficient length to rest on the bottom of the water for
the length of the boat or thereabouts.
And having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in

page_text: which the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not claim as new or of
my Invention the propelling a carriage or machine by means of an endless
rope, the same being worked by a stationary steam or other engine; but that
what I claim is the propelling of carriages, boats, and other bodies on land
and water by means of one or more messengers or endless ropes, bands, or
chains applied, carried, and worked in the manner herein-before described.
And such my Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
entirely new, and never before used within that part of Her said Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her said
Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and the Isles of Jersey
Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her said Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, I do hereby declare this to be my
Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this my said Speci-
fication doth comply in all respects fully, and without reserve or disguise, with
the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained;
wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my
said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Hannis Taylor, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Third day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-one.
W. H. (L.S.) TAYLOR.
Signed sealed and delivered by the within-named William Hannis Taylor. in