IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM STEERING APPARATUS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Edward Blackett Beaumont, of No. 2,
D
Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, in the City of West-
minster, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM STEERING
APPARATUS."
t
Sealed the 15th December 1874, and dated the 10th July 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Edward
+
Blackett Beaumont at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with his Petition, on the 10th July 1874.
I, FREDERICK EDWARD BLACKETT BEAUMONT, of No. 2, Westminster
Chambers, Victoria Street, in the City of Westminster, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM
STEERING APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
.
This Invention relates to apparatus for effecting the steering of vessels
by steam power, such apparatus being capable of being readily applied
to existing gear used for steering by hand,

page_text: Upon the shaft of the ordinary steering gear, on which is fixed the
barrel for winding the tiller ropes or chains, I fix also a chain wheel,
and over this wheel I pass a pitch chain which is led by guide rollers
along the vessel to any convenient position, as in the engine room,
where I place a pair of steam cylinders side by side. Each of these
cylinders is fitted with a piston, the rod of which passes through a
stuffing box in the cylinder cover, and is attached to one end of the
pitch chain mentioned above. I provide for the two cylinders a slide
within a jacket which is supplied with steam from the boilers and has
two ports, onc, communicating with each of the cylinders and also an
eduction port from which a pipe may be led to the chimney or to the
condenser. The slide is made so that when in its middle position -it
leaves both the cylinder ports slightly open, permitting the steam to
press on both the pistons, whereby the pitch chain is kept in tension.
When the slide is moved in one direction it farther opens the steam port
of the one cylinder and opens the other cylinder to the eduction. The
chain being then drawn in the one direction by the excess of pressure on
the one piston causes the shaft of the steering gear to turn so as to pull
the rudder over towards the one side. When the slide is moved in the
opposite direction the rudder is moved towards the other side.
The slide may be worked by a rod led up to the deck or bridge or
other convenient position for the steersman, or by chains or rods guided
by pullies or bell cranks in any required direction along the vessel, so
that the steering may be effected by working the slide as above.
described.
°
The chain wheel worked by the pistons may be mounted on the
barrel shaft with a clutch, so that it can be thrown out of gear when
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Frederick Edward Blackett Beaumont in the 30
Great Seal Patent Office on the 6th January 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Frederick Edward Blackett Beaumont in the 30
Great Seal Patent Office on the 6th January 1875.
·TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
EDWARD BLACK ETT BEAUMONT, of No. 2, Westminster Chambers,
Victoria Street, in the City of Westminster, send greeting.

page_text: ..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Frederick Edward Blackett Beaumont,
Her special license, that I, the said Frederick Edward Blackett
Beaumont, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Frederick Edward Blackett Beaumont, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
STEAM STEERING APPARATUS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Frederick Edward Blackett Beaumont, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one
of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW. YE, that I, the said Frederick Edward Blackett
Beaumont, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference
being had to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, and to the figures
and letters marked thereon, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to apparatus for effecting the steering of vessels
by steam power, such apparatus being capable of being readily applied
to existing gear used for steering by hand.
:
Upon the shaft of the ordinary steering gear, on which is fixed the
barrel for winding the tiller ropes or chains, I fix also a chain wheel,
and over this wheel I pass a pitch chain which is led by guide rollers:
along the vessel to any convenient position, as in the engine room, where
I place a pair of steam cylinders side by side. Each of these cylinders.
is fitted with a piston, the rod of which passes through a stuffing box in
the cylinder. cover, and is attached to one. end of the pitch chain.

page_text: Fig. I represents a side view, and Fig. 2 an end view of steam steer-
ing apparatus constructed according to my Invention.
.
A is the ordinary steering wheel working by gearing a wheel on the
shaft B, on which is fixed the barrel or chain wheel C whence the tiller
lines or chains are led to the tiller. On the shaft B is mounted a chain-
wheel D, to revolve freely thercon, and a clutch E sliding on a feather
is provided, so that the chain wheel D can be engaged with the shaft B
when the steering is to be effected by steam power, in which case I
prefer to disengage the steering wheel A from the steering barrel by.
means of a clutch F which can be withdrawn from the pinion on the:
hand wheel shaft. Below the steering frame are two cylinders G, G,.
cach fitted with a piston, and a chain H attached to the two piston rods
passes over the chain wheel D. Within a jacket I supplied with steam,
a slide K (which may be a cylindrical one, as shewn in Fig..1, or might

page_text: be an ordinary D slide working against a facing) commands a pair of
ports, one leading to the upper end of each of the cylinders G, and an
eduction port between them; so that as the slide is raised or lowered
steam is admitted to one or other of the cylinders G, while from the
other of them steam escapes by the eduction port. The slide is worked
by a spindle Lextending upwards, with a screwed end passing through
a nut on a hand wheel M which is provided with an index pointing to
marks on a fixed plate N. According as the hand wheel M is turned in
the one direction or the other the slide K is raised or lowered, and
thus the piston in the one or the other of the two cylinders G, G, is
pressed downwards by the steam admitted to it, while the piston in the
other cylinder is relieved of pressure.. By this movement of the pistons
the chain wheel D and with it the shaft B and steering barrel C is
turned in either direction, and the helm connected by tiller lines to the
barrel C is moved to either side.
Although I have shewn the cylinders G, G, arranged vertically imme-
diately under the steering shaft, it is obvious that they might be placed
in any other convenient position or attitude, chains or rods being led
from their piston rods by guide pullies or bell cranks to the chain H
which works the steering barrel. Also the movement of the slide rod L
might in a similar manner be communicated to the slide K in a different
position or direction, as when the tiller lines or chains from the barrel C
are led to a simple tiller lever, their power to move the helm when near
the end of its stroke in either direction is diminished, owing to the
obliquity of their action on the lever; and as when the helm has to be
moved hard over, the resistance to its movement becomes increased, I
prefer to make the tiller lever of the kind, shewn diagrammatically in
Fig. 3, where O is the shaft of the rudder, and P is a lever fixed on it
having an arched end, to which the two tiller lines or chains Q, Q, aro
fixed, each to the farther extremity of the arch. By striking the arch
from a centre behind the centre of the shaft O, so as to make the arch a
segment of greater radius than it would have if struck from O, the
effect of either of the lines or chains Q, Q, to turn the rudder
becomes greater as the rudder is moved from its middle position.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I claim, the use for steering vessels
hy stoom newer of five aulindons the nistons of which wouß the stu

page_text: barrel by a chain passing over a wheel on the shaft of the said barrel,
the admission of steam to either of the cylinders and its emission there-
from being governed by a single slide worked by hand, substantially as
herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Edward Blackett 5
Beaumont, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Second
day of January, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-five.