CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PADDLES FOR PROPELLING SHIPS, BOATS, OR VESSELS ON WATER
Year: 1829

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ARCHI-
BALD ROBERTSON, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Ship Carver, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventh day
of January, in the ninth year of His reign, and in the year of our Lord One
thousand ciglt hundred and twenty-nine, did, for Himself, His heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Archibald Robertson, His especial
licence that I, the said Archibald Robertson, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Archibald Robertson, my exors, adñiors, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to tinie and
at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England and Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His said Majesty's Colonies and Planta-
tions abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
PADDLES FOR PROPELLING SHIPS, BOATS, OR VESSELS ON WATER;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Archibald
Robertson, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly
to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, used, and carried into effect, and to cause the
same to be enrolled in His 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
Archibald Robertson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be produced, used, and carried
into effect, is herein-after set forth and described, that is to say :—
My Invention consists in the formation and use of paddle wheels with
paddles in an oblique direction, on which account I call them diagonal paddles;
and in the means which I make use of for lifting the the said wheels out of the
water, and altering their form and disposition, as will be hereafter described.
The said diagonal paddles, from the peculiar nature of their construction, are
capable of being used at any immersion, even below the center of the paddle
wheel, without producing backwater, or that disagreeable noise, concussion, and
vibration so much and so justly complained of in the paddle wheels heretoforc
used, and they are likewise not attended with that splashing and agitation of
the water which attends other wheels. The mode of construction which I
adopt is to describe a circle corresponding to any required diameter of the
paddle wheel, and then to divide that circle into as many equal spaces as I
intend to have floats or paddles; eight, for example, will be found a convenient
number, but more or less may be made use of; then drawing diameters or
lines through these divisions and the center of the wheel, the space between
one line and another will give the breadth of the paddles which are to fill up
from one line to another. The external circle of the wheel marks their external
boundary, and their internal one is determined by another circle from the same
center, which I usually make about from one third to one fourth of the diameter
of the wheel or first circle, and the space of this small circle is left without vanes
or paddles, and is for the central boss or nave and arms for supporting the
said vanes or paddles; the outer external corners are then either left square or
rounded off, but the latter is thought preferable, when the vanes or paddles
will be ready for fixing. The above may be considered as a general rule for
setting out the forms and proportions of the vanes or paddles; but I do not
confine myself to the width thus obtained, as that may be increased or
diminished as circumstances may require. I form the said vanes or paddles of
iron or other metal plates, or of timber plank, in either caso stiffened and
strengthened, when and where necessary, by iron bars or plates fixed across
them; aud for general purposes I fix the said vanes or paddles upon the
central boss or bosses, nave or naves, at an angle of from forty to seventy
degrees to the plane of the wheels motion, but forty-five degrees is the angle
at which I generally use them for the purpose of so fixing and holding them.
Iron arms or starts proceed from the central boss or nave, and they must be so
crooked or bent between the boss or nave and the vane or paddle as to give

page_text: the proper angle to the vanes or paddles, which should be parallel to each
other; or the said vanes or paddles may be secured in the usual manner by side
rims or rings, and may proceed in straight radiating lines from the center at
their inner sides, provided the external boundary of the said paddles be so
twisted as to bring them into the angular positions before named, and parallel
to each other; or the said vanes or paddles may be held and retained in this
position by iron straps, braces, or stays proceeding from one to the other, or by
an iron rim or rims surrounding the whole, or in any other good, secure, and
effectual manner. Rotory motion is to be communicated to my aforesaid
wheels by manual labor, steam engines, or any of the prime movers of
machinery, in the usual and accustomed manner, consequently this forms no
part of my said Invention, which I confine exclusively to the form, construction,
and mode of setting my aforesaid diagonal paddles, and to the means of placing
the wheel or wheels formed by thein at different depths and positions in the
water, as herein-after described. In fixing and placing my aforesaid wheels for
propelling, that for the starboard side of the vessel should have the uppermost
vane or paddle with its inner edge next to the side of the vessel to stand forward,
and the other or outer edge to stand aft in the required angle. The larboard
wheel must correspond, but the vanes or paddles must have their angles reversed,
in order that the two wheels may oppose each other. This oblique position of
the paddles may be supposed to abstract from their power as compared with
ordinary paddles, which pass the water at right angles to their axis of rotation,
when they are in their most favorable position for working, or directly under
that axis. But when the resistance which a direct paddle meets with both on
entering into and coming out of the water is taken into account, and compared
with the much smaller resistance these diagonal paddles mcct with under
similar circumstances, it has been found that the advantage in point of speed
to the vessel is in their favor. If the vanes or paddles in the wheels on both
sides of the vessel were inclined in the same direction, their oblique action
would have a tendency to drive the vessel to one side or the other, but that is
prevented by placing such vanes or paddles on the opposite sides, at opposite
angles to each other, as before mentioned, so that when passing the water
directly under the axis of rotation the resistance will be applied at a like angle
outwards from the vessel on both sides. From the deep form of the vanes
or paddles they are effectually adapted for stopping or backing a vessel, as the
water cannot readily escape over them, but being confined between the outer
edges of the paddles and the sides of the vessel they hold much more water
than paddles constructed in any of the ordinary ways, which circumstance is of

page_text: considerable importance in steam navigation. One great advantage that
attends the use of diagonal vanes or paddles is, the facility they afford of being
fixed to any intermediate angle between forty and seventy degrees with the
plane of the wheel, so as to be made, under particular circumstances in a head
sea, to regulate the speed of the engine, by affording more or less resistance at
pleasure to its motion. For this purpose the said vanes or paddles must not
be permanently fixed, but be so constructed by applying proper axles with iron
straps or braces, and bolts and nuts of different lengths, or by other expedients
or contrivances, that their angular position to the plane of the wheel can be
altered or varied at pleasure, and in this way the whole of the said vanes or
paddles can be laid flat to the ship's side, or parallel to each other, so as to be
inactive as paddle wheels, and to permit the vessel, when circumstances require
it, to go under sail only, and thus render the vessel more independent of her
steam or other power, which is a great desideratum in long voyages; and in
this case the paddle wheels, instead of being an obstruction, would be service-
able, and would act as lec boards, and a vessel thus trimmed and prepared
would ride at anchor in a tide way, without holding more water than a sailing
vessel, and consequently without holding more water than a sailing vessel, and
consequently with comparative ease and safety. Another advantage that the
diagonal vanes or paddles possess is the small projection which the wheels
formed of them require from the sides of the vessel compared with other paddle
wheels, which, being usually four feet wide, will of course require a paddle box
or case of that width; but by placing paddles four feet wide in a diagonal
direction, or at an angle of forty-five degrees to the plane of the wheel, they will
occupy but two fect and eight-tenths in width, and consequently will save
nearly a foot and two-tenths of the necessary breadth of the vessel on both its
sides, or nearly two feet and a half in the entire breadth; and by obviating the
disadvantages of the paddle wheels now generally in use, the surface of the
paddles can be increased to double the width of the common straight paddles,
without any detriment whatever to their action. Diagonal vanes or paddles
are likewise particularly well adapted for canal navigation, on account of the
little disturbance they occasion in the water; and if the wheels formed of them
are applied to the quarters of vessels built either in the present form of canal
boats, or in the skiff shape, they would do still better, because the paddles in
this case would project very little more than the width of the boat, and as the
shafts or axles of the wheels would then stand in an oblique or diagonal
direction in respect of the keel of the vessel, the effect of the diagonal position
of the paddles would be nearly if not entirely counteracted, because each paddle

page_text: in succession in its lowest position, or directly under the axis of rotation, would
have a direct action upon the water, like the ordinary form of paddle and with
all its advantages, but without its defects in entering and passing out of the
water. For canals the wheels may be made similar to sca-going vessels, but
on a smaller and simpler construction, for, by not being exposed to boisterous
weather, a single boss or central piece, with single iron arms or starts to support
and carry the vanes or paddles, will in general be sufficient, and if the rim and
stays from one paddle to the other can be dispensed with, it will be all the better,
as thereby less motion will be produced in the water, and the banks will be
less liable to injury.
Lastly, I claim the Invention of lifting the paddle wheels with greater facility
than has heretofore been done, by means of a counterpoise weight and a chain
applied separately to each of them. For this purpose I apply a loose metal pulley
on to the main shaft of each wheel, near to the side of the vessel, and so that
the said shaft may run or turn through the center of the same; a chain is fixed
by one of its ends to a point in the side of the vessel, rather above the highest
point to which it is ever desirable to raise the center of the wheel; that chain
passes under the pulley, rises up again on the opposite side, and is then con-
ducted over other pullies to a counterpoise weight working in a wooden well
(to prevent its swinging) within the vessel, so that by applying a rack and
pinion tackle or other power to the said counterpoise weight, to raise or depress
it, the wheels can be set to any required depth in the water, or can be wholly
withdrawn from it whenever the vessel is under sail, or when the said wheels
require repair, or to have the angular position of their vanes or paddles altered,
which circumstances will be found most important and useful to vessels per-
forming long voyages. In order to keep the said vessels always in gear with
the shaft that is to work and drive them, it will be necessary to hang a spur
cogged wheel upon that shaft, to work into another spur cogged wheel upon the
axis of the paddle wheel, which must not rise vertically, but in a circular direction
round the driving wheel, by being fixed upon a strong arm or rod on the out-
side of the vessel, of a proper radius with respect to such pair of driving wheels,
and turning round upon the main shaft, to the end and intent that the said
pair of wheels may always be kept in geer with each other.
And this mode of so raising the said paddle wheels, and the use and appli-
cation of diagonal vanes or paddles placed as aforesaid in an angular position,
between forty and seventy degrees to the plane of the said wheels motion, and
capable of alteration as aforesaid, I claim as my Invention, because, although
oblique paddles have been before used for propelling, yet they have been used
in different forms and at much less angles than I propose, and in such

page_text: manner as to be productive of disadvantage rather than advantage to the vessels
to which they have been applied.
In witness whereof, I; the said Archibald Robertson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Thirtieth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine.