A NEW INSTRUMENT OR LOG FOR ASCERTAINING A SHIP'S DISTANCE AT SEA
Year: 1800

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHESTER
GOULD, of the Town of Rome, in the County of Oneida, in the State of New
York, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of May, in the fortieth year of His
reign, give and grant unto me, the said Chester Gould, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, His especial licence that I, the said Chester
Gould, my executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term of years
therein mentioned, should and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"A NEW INSTRUMENT OR LOG FOR ASCERTAINING A SHIP'S DISTANCE AT SEA;"
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the
said Chester Gould, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
to 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 His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within one calendar month after the date of the
said recited Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the said
Chester Gould, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, are as follow (that is to say):-
I take a cylinder of brass or other materials, not liable to be injured by
salt water, of such diameter and length as the mechanic may chuse, or the
purchasor direct, but one of three inches and a half in diameter, and nine
or ten in length, is considered as the most proper. To one end of this cylinder
is firmly fixed (by screws or otherwise) a conical head piece, consisting of a
ring of brass, made to fit on one end of the cylinder, and four strong bars, one
end of which is joined to the ring, and the other meets at some distance from
the cylinder, and are confined together by a piece of brass prepared for that
purpose, and likewise to affix a ring by which the machine is towed through
the water. Between those bars, all round the cylinder, are passed a number of
fine brass wires, terminating at the same point, and secured to the same piece
of brass with the bars, the use of which are to prevent the entrance of sea
weed, or any kind of substance that might prevent or obstruct the working of
the machine. The wires should be as few as is consistent with that design, and
agreeably to the size of the cylinder. The head of the instrument will screw
off and on to the main cylinder for the purpose of taking out the fly wheel to
regulate. A fly, which may consist of two or more vanes of copper, or other
materials, is suspended within the cylinder by means of two bars which cross
the inside of it, and are affixed by screws, which pass through the cylinder
into the bars, or may be hung in a frame of any suitable materials made to
fit the inside of the cylinder to which it may be affixed by screws. This
wheel must move freely about its axis, and is usually about half the length of
the cylinder, but the length may by varied and the principle remain the same.
When this machine is towed after a ship, a column of water passes through the
cylinder with a velocity always proportioned to the velocity of the ship. This
wheel, which is fixed with it's axis nearly in the centre of the tube, presents
itself endways to the water, and takes motion from the winding or angular
position of the vanes, on the same principle as a windmill or smoak jack. The
distance this wheel will move at each revolution will be in exact proportion
to the quantity of angle by which the vanes are removed from a paralel with
the axis; increasing the wind or angle will occasion a revolution of the wheel
in passing over a shorter space, and decreasing the angle will occasion a
revolution in passing over a longer space; hence, it is evident that the
machine may be regulated by increasing or decreasing the angular or winding
position of the vanes. The angle must not be too great, for then the wheel
will have too much motion in swift sailing; nor must it be too small, for then

page_text: it will want strength in slow sailing; if the angle equals the one twentieth part
of a circle, or eighteen degrees, then the wheel will run twenty times its length
at each revolution; if it equals one thirtieth part of a circle, or twelve degrees,
then it will run thirty times its length at each revolution, let the length of
the wheel be what it may, and so of any other angle, whether greater or less.
The vanes should be strong and firmly secured to the axis to prevent their
springing or shifting in use, which would wholly disorder the calculation or
account. The vanes being firmly secured to the axis in nearly the like
position or angle intended by the artist, they may be regulated to true
distance by springing or bending their substance a little, which will be known
by experiment at any given distance. The instrument being once adjusted,
will remain accurate till it is worn out. This mode of regulating the wheel
most simple, and much more secure
is considered the best, because it is the
in practice than any mechanical method of adjusting the vanes; the angle
which would be found true in theory must be a little increased to overcomo
friction and the obstruction of such parts of the machine as break the forco
of the water. This increase can only be known by experiment. On the axis
of this wheel, and before the bar which suspends the hind part of the wheel,
is a pinion head of eight leaves; this moves a contrate wheel of ninety-six
teeth, the pinion of which stands across the cylinder; the cylinder should
extend back, so as to cover this wheel to defend it from injury. The other
wheels, five in number, are contained in a line between two narrow
plates in as small compass as can consist with strength; the under plate is
nicely fitted to sit on the cylinder. These five wheels and plates are attached
to the cylinder by two screws through the two ends of the under plates
lengthways, and in such manner as to receive the pinion of the contrate wheel
through the cylinder and under plate into the upper plate, that it may
give motion by six leaves to the first wheel of thirty-six teeth contained
between the plates. The four last wheels have sixty teeth each, and are all
moved by pinions of six leaves; these wheels each carries an index round a circle
graduated into ten equal parts; the circles should be as large as they can be
constructed without interfering with each other, and these graduations are
numbered from one to ten, and the numbers on the several circles are
reversed because the wheels move contrary ways. If the fly wheel is regulated;
which in this calculation will equal about one twenty-fourth part of a circle,
or fifteen degrees, then will the fly or first wheel take one revolution for every
cight feet, and a quarter of a foot machine moves through the water; tho
second every six rods, the third every thirty-seven rods, the fourth every
three hundred and seventy rods, or a mile sea measure, the fifth every ten

page_text: miles, the sixth every one hundred miles, and the seventh every one thousand
miles, &c. Although I have in this instance preferred a train of wheels and
pinions for the purpose of giving the requisite motion to the indexes, yet it
is obvious that wheels driven by endless screws would answer the same end.
The wheels on the outside of the cylinder are secured from violence by a case
of brass attached to the cylinder by screws, and prepared with a sliding cover
for conveniently inspecting the indexes. The machine is preserved in an
horizontal position by a plate of brass attached to the cylinder on the opposite
side from the machinery; this plate extends about two inches back of the
cylinder, and terminates in a point forward; the weight of the machinery on
one side, and the action of the plate on the other, keeps the machine always
one side up and sufficiently horizontal. This plate must be variously inclined
in practice up and down, as different velocities may require. This inclination
may be governed by a screw, or by bending the substance of the plate; any
other angle of the fly wheel, with corresponding proportions of the other
wheels, produce the same effect. The calculation may be lengthened, or
shortened, or varied, by increasing or diminishing the number of wheels, and
altering their combinations, agreeably to every person's desire. Those parts of
the machine which suffer most from friction, and therefore are most liable
to decay, should be constructed of the most durable substance or composition,
whose qualities will abide the effects of and not be injured by salt water.
As this machine always works under water, it avoids many irregularities
which would arise from the violent agitation of the sea's surface. The fly
wheel is so constructed as to be capable of being regulated to meet true
distance, and being small and portable it is easily taken in for inspection,
and cannot retard the ship's progress; it is properly guarded against choaking
with sea weed or other substances; the indexes are secured from violence
and disorder; all of which advantages were never combined in any former
attempt to measure distance by a spiral wheel. The contrate wheel may
receive its motion from either end of the fly wheel, but the bind hend is
considered as the most proper. All the parts of the machine may be made
of brass, or any other proper substance not liable to be injured by the effects of
salt water.
In witness whereof, I, the said Chester Gould, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred.
CHESTER GOULD. (L.s.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-third day of June,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Chester Gould came before our
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.