IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLERS FOR VESSELS, WHICH ARE DENOMINATED THE CONICAL PROPELLERS
Year: 1855

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Jane Ann Herbert at the Qffice
of the Commissioners of Patents, with her Petition, on the 14th April
1855. A communication.
I, JANE ANN HERBERT, of No. 5, Waterden Place, Guildford, Surry, Widow,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PROPELLERS FOR VESSELS, WHICH ARE DENOMINATED THE CONICAL PROPELLERS,"
(being communication from William D. Jones, of Pokeepsie, and Henry
Whinfield, of New York, both in the State of New York, United States of
America,) to be as follows:-
Two wheels or disks, or their equivalents, with or without arms, are so con-
structed and set that their axes stand at about 120° from each other, more or
less, and that the peripheries of said disk or wheels, or their equivalents, touch
each other or nearly so at one point, while the faces of said wheels diverge
from each other at about 60° (more or less) in consequence of the inclination
of their axes, and between and to these said disks or wheels, or their equivalents,
propellers, or buckets, or their equivalents, are attached radially, and of a length
sufficient to extend to half the distance between the said disks or wheels, or
their equivalents, and there connected and acting as hereafter detailed.
These propelling disks or wheels are driven in the same direction and at a
uniform speed by means of bevel gears on the inner ends of their shafts or
axes, or by universal joints connecting said shafts, or by means of cogs on the
edges or on the sides or faces of said wheels or disks matching into each other
at the point where the disks or wheels meet, or else by double pinions between

page_text: the said disks or wheels gearing into teeth on the faces of said wheels near
their edges, or any other suitable means. On to the faces of these wheels
or disks one or more buckets or paddles, or their equivalents, are attached
by means of any suitable hinge, or joint, or equivalent device, so that
the edge of each bucket thus attached stands radially on the face of each
of the wheels or disks, or their equivalents, and the shape of each of these
buckets or paddles is such as to occupy and extend to one-half the distance
between the disks or wheels when farthest apart, and meeting each other are
connected or joined in the centre, and occupy the whole space between the
said disks or wheels, or their equivalents, and pairs of these buckets thus
formed, connected, and attached to these wheels or disks by radial hinges or
joints extend across between the said disks, and are connected at their outer
or moving ends by means of a ring, or suitable joint, or its equivalent. The
operation of these buckets or paddles as they revolve with and between these
inclined wheels or disks is, that when any of the buckets or paddles have reached
the point where the wheels or disks are nearest together, they are closed or
folded down flat or nearly so on to the face of said wheels or disks, and pass
through the water without offering any resistance; but as said buckets or
paddles are moved on by the rotation of the wheels or disks, the buckets
or paddles will evolve and extend from the faces of the wheels or disks until
said pair of buckets stand at right angles to the faces of the wheels or disks at
the point where said wheels are the farthest apart from cach other, thereby
producing continual and direct propulsion against the water at one point, and
no resistance at the other point; and the continued rotation of the wheels or
disks turn upon or close said buckets, and extend or evolve the same, as the
case may be, as the hinges in their rotation with the disks approach to or recede
from each other, until they lie flat against or at right angles with the face or
plane of the said disks or wheels, or their equivalents, before detailed.
One or more pairs of buckets, or their equivalents, may be used between the
pair of wheels or disks, or their equivalents, and one or more of the propellers
thus formed may be applied at the stearn, sides, or bottom of the ship in any
convenient or suitable manner.