A METHOD OF PROPELLING VESSELS
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, STEPHEN
R. PARKHURST, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Machinist, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Seventeenth day of November, in the ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Stephen R. Parkhurst, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Stephen R.
Parkhurst, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Stephen R. Parkhurst, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, shonld 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, my
Invention of "A METHOD OF PROPELLING VESSELS;" in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso that I, the said Stephen R. Parkhurst, 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

page_text: 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Stephen R. Parkhurst, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to
the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say
The Invention consists of a mode of applying a series of upright propelling
wheels at the sides or any other parts of ships or vessels, so that they may be
immersed in the water, in consequence of each propelling wheel being so
encased as only to allow of part of the wheel to protrude beyond its casing.
The number of fluted or propelling wheels applied to a ship or vessel may be
varied. The arrangement shewn in the Drawing consists of seven wheels for
each side of a vessel.
Figure 1 shows a side view, and Figure 2 a plan, of the arrangement of
wheels and casing for one side of a ship or vessel; the upper cover of the
casing of one of the wheels being. removed in order that the arrangement of
the wheel within the case may be better seen. A, A, are a series of wheels
placed upright, the axes B of which turn in suitable bearings and steps, as
shewn. c, c, are drums or pulleys affixed on the axes B, which are to be
driven by straps from the engines on board the vessel; or other means of
giving motion to the propelling wheels may be resorted to. D is a projection
of timber to prevent injury to the machinery in case of coming alongside of
another vessel. I prefer that the edges of the propellers E should come as
near as may be to the surface of the interior of the casing. F, F, is the
external framing of metal, applied and fixed to the side of the ship or vessel,
the nature of which will be seen by examining the same.
I would remark that in place of using a framing of such a description as
that shewn, containing the recesses for the propelling wheels, in constructing
a new vessel, the sides of the vessel may be built with recesses suitable for
receiving the upright propelling wheels in place of the framing F.
In witness whereof, I,. the said Stephen R. Parkhurst, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-six.
STEPHEN R. (Ls.) PARKHURST.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirteenth day of May, in the
year of our Lord 1846, the aforesaid Stephen R. Parkhurst came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purrose.
Enrolled the Sixteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand