AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR FACI- LITATING THE STEERING OF VESSELS OF CERTAIN DESCRIPTIONS
Year: 1834

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Jons
RAPSON, of Penryn, in the County of Cornwall, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-third day of August, in the fifth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Rapson, His especial licence, that I, the said John Rapson, my exors,
adiñors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Rapson, my exors,
admors, 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 also in all His said Majesty's Colonies
and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR FACI-
LITATING THE STEERING OF VESSELS OF CERTAIN DESCRIPTIONS;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said John Rapson, 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, and to cause the same to be enrolled in His said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within four calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by
the saine, reference being thereunto had, will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Rapson, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to consist
in the application of the power of an endless screw, or, what is in effect the
same thing, a wheel with cogs placed diagonally upon it, for the purpose of
turning the shaft of the pulley or drum round which the tiller ropes pass,

page_text: such screw or wheel being acted upon by the motion given by the helinsman
to the steering wheel.
And also in another application of endless screws to act on arms projecting
from the rudder head, through the medium of connecting rods and traversing
burrs or nuts.
And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said John Rapson,
do hereby describe the manner in which my said Invention is to be per-
formed, by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
Drawings annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is
to say :-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
In the Drawing marked A, Figure 1 represents a plan of my said appa-
ratus shewing the application of an endless screw. A is the ordinary steering
wheel; B, B, are the two standards or supports for the apparatus secured by
bolts firmly to the deck; C, C, C, is the worm of the endless screw which, it
will be seen, works into the pinion D. This pinion is fixed on the shaft of
the tiller rope drum E, and when turned turns the said drum with it.
Figure 2 is a front elevation, and Figure 3 a side elevation of the same appa-
ratus; and as similar letters are used to denote similar parts in all the Figures,
no further explanation of them will here be required.
Figure 4 is another plan of my said apparatus shewing the application of a
wheel with diagonal cogs instead of an endless screw. F, F, is the said
wheel with diagonal cogs which works into another wheel with diagonal cogs
G, and which wheel G is substituted for the pinion D used with the endless
screw. His the drum for the tiller ropes, and may be much smaller here
than when the endless screw is used. Figure 5 is a front elevation of
Figure 4, and Figure 6 is a side elevation of the same. The wheels F
and G should be of the same diameter, and have an equal number of teeth.
In the Drawing marked B, Figure 1 is a plan of my said other application
of endless screws for facilitating the steering of vessels. A is the steering
wheel; B, an endless screw forming the shaft or axis of the said steering
wheel; C is a pinion fixed on the end of the said shaft, and working into
another pinion D, fixed on the end of a similar shaft E, having another end-
less screw worked upon it; F, F, are the bearings for the shafts; G and II
are two burrs or traversing nuts working on their respective screwed shafts;
I and J are two connecting rods jointed at K and L, hinged to the burrs at
M and N, and to two tiller arms 0, 0, at P, P. These tiller arms are fixed
on to the square of the rudder head Q, at R is one of the rudder pins.
Now by this arrangement of apparatus it is evident, that when the steering

page_text: wheel A is turned in the direction of the arrow, the burr G will progress
towards the pinion C, while that pinion turns the pinion D, and causes the
other burr H to progress along its shaft towards the steering wheel until the
burrs, connecting rods, tiller arms, and rudder head assume the position shewn
by the red dotted lines in this Figure; and it is hardly necessary to add that,
by reversing the motion of the steering wheel, the rudder head may be turned
to an opposite or any other required angle for steering the vessel. Figure 2
is a side view, and Figure 3 an end view of the said apparatus with the
connecting rods and tiller arms removed.
Now whereas I claim as my Invention the application of the endless screws
and of the wheels with diagonal cogs, in manner aforesaid, for the purpose of
facilitating the steering of vessels of such descriptions as require or use steering
wheels.
And such my Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
entirely new, and never before used within that part of His said Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His said
Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, nor in any of His
said Majesty's Colonies or 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 John Rapson, have hereunto set my
band and seal, this Twelfth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty lone