A NEW AND USEFUL IMPROVEMENT IN NAVIGABLE VESSELS
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Howe, jr., of Boston, County of Suffolk,
and State of Massachusetts, United States of America, for the
Invention of "A NEW AND USEFUL IMPROVEMENT IN NAVIGABLE
VESSELS."
Sealed the 13th April 1869, and dated the 2nd March 1869.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said John Howe, jr., at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 2nd March 1869, pursuant to the 9th Section
of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, BE IT KNOWN,
that I, JOHN HOWE, jr., of Boston, in the County of Suffolk, and State
of Massachusetts, United States of America, have invented "A NEW AND
USEFUL IMPROVEMENT IN NAVIGABLE VESSELS," and do hereby declare the
following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, due reference
being had to the accompanying Drawings making part of this Speci-
fication, and in which Figure 1 is a plan, and Figure 2 a transverso
section of the hull of a navigable vessel containing my Invention.

page_text: The object of my present Invention is to regulate and control the
position and movements of a navigable steam vessel when approaching
a wharf or landing, and when it is not practicable or possible to put her
under sufficient headway to obey her helm, or when from any cause
she may have become helpless or unmanageable, either by derangement
of her ordinary propelling or steering machinery, thus enabling a vessel
provided with my Invention to make good headway, which would
otherwise be unmanageable and crippled, and to be brought directly,
and with certainty and ease, to her berth, the employment of my
Invention enabling me not only to turn the vessel in any direction, but
to steer her course accurately without a rudder.
The Invention in question consists in an arrangement of one or more
pipes or steam conduits arranged within the body of the hull of the
vessel at any convenient or suitable part thereof, and communicating
with the steam boiler or boilers of such vessel, the outer extremity of
such steam conduits extending through the sides of the hull below the
water line and at the stem and stern thereof in such manner and at
such an angle to her keel as to enable steam when admitted to the
conduit to strike against the body of water with such force and in such a
direction as to force the vessel through the water, and in the desired
direction, the admission of steam to either or any of the conduits being
regulated by a cock or cocks suitably disposed.
In the Drawings above-mentioned as illustrating my Invention
a denotes the hull of a navigable vessel, in the interior of which a
steam generator or boiler 6 of any suitable construction is situated.
Communicating with the steam space of this boiler through a suitable
dome, and radiating therefrom are four steam conduits or pipes c, c¹,
,, these pipes being carried to the stem and stern of the vessel and
through opposite sides of its hull below its water line. The dome A,
before alluded to, or that portion of the steam boiler with which the
steam conduits c, c, c, c, are connected is to be provided with a
suitable valve or valves for permitting admission of steam to one or
more of the conduits as occasion may require, and the valve or valves
may be applied with a suitable pointer or indicator to enable the proper
person to regulate the passage of steam. If steam be admitted to the
two conduits c², c³, together, or to either of them singly, the steam
acting upon the volume of water in which the vessel's keel is will turn
her nearly or about upon her centre in the direction of the red arrow

page_text: By ad-
thereon. If steam be admitted to either or both of the conduits c, c¹,
the vessel will be turned in like manner in the opposite direction, or the
vessel may be propelled broadside or in either direction by admitting
steam simultaneously to either of the pipes c¹, c, or c, c³.
mitting steam through either the pipes c, c², or c¹, c³, the vessel may be
propelled stem or stern first, and it will be obvious that by increasing
or diminishing the amount of steam projected through these pipes,
while propelling the vessel, that her course may be accurately steered
without the aid of a rudder.
I do not of course intend to confine or limit myself to the number or
arrangement of the steam conduits, as herein shown and described, as
my Invention is intended to embrace the principle of propelling and
steering a navigable vessel by means of steam pressing against the
volume of water in which such vessel floats in. With regard to the valves
or cocks for regulating the admission of steam to the conduits I have
not in this application shown any details of construction, as my experi-
ments have not thus far been sufficiently extended to develop the most
practical and useful device for this purpose. The want of some efficient
and powerful means of moving and guiding a vessel when approaching
a wharf or landing, and when comparatively helpless and unmanagable
after stopping the revolutions of her engine, has been know and
appreciated by nautical men, as it is a matter frequently of considerable
time, and always of more or less difficulty, to bring a vessel up to her
berth.
By the employment of my Invention a vessel may be propelled broad-
side to, backwards or forward, or backwards and forward in a direct line
with or diagonally to her kccl, or be turned in a circle upon her own
centre, as the case may be, without the aid of her ordinarily propelling or
steering machinery, as before observed. As the steam to be employed
for the purpose is used when her engines are stopped, and the steam
would otherwise be "blowing off" and wasted, no loss of steam
occurs.
I claim as my Invention the employment in a navigable vessel of
steam acting against the body of water in which the vessel floats for
the purpose of propelling such vessel in any direction or of guiding her
course essentially in manner and for the purpose as herein shown and
described.

page_text: I claim the disposition and arrangement of the steam conduits c, c¹,
c, c, with respect to the hull of the vessel and the steam generator,
substantially as before explained...
In witness whereof, I, the said John Howe, jr., have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this 29th of January, in the year of our
Lord 1869.
JOHN HOWE, JR. (L.S.)