IMPROVEMENTS IN SHIPS WITH REFERENCE PRIMARILY TO SAFETY AND SECONDARILY WITH REFERENCE TO SPEED AND REDUCTION OF COST: AND IN APPARATUS AND MEANS, MODES, AND PROCESSES CONNECTED THEREWITH.
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thaddeus Hyatt at the Office of
the Commissioners of Fatents on the 14th September 1882.
THADDEUS HYATT of 21 Addison Gardens, N. Kensington, London, in the
County of Middlesex, Inventor and Manufacturer of Illuminating Gratings or
Pavement Lights.-IMPROVEMENTS IN SHIPS WITH REFERENCE PRIMARILY TO
SAFETY AND SECONDARILY WITH REFERENCE TO SPEED AND REDUCTION OF COST:
AND IN APPARATUS AND MEANS, MODES, AND PROCESSES CONNECTED THEREWITH.
The Object of my Invention is to apply the principle of Force or Mechanical
Flotation to vessels to prevent sinking: to make them safer when kept afloat by
specific gravity only to increase the speed by means of an external lubrication
continuously applied during the passage of the vessel through the water: to
economize Motive force by the employment of wind-engines, in place of, or in
connection with steam or other generated power: and to directly economize the
power of the motor, whatever it may be, by the use of a Propelling apparatus
capable of working in harmony with the applied Power, as affected or regulated
by the momentum and speed of the vessel in its passage through the waters.
FORCE OR MECHANICAL FLOTATION.
My Propelling apparatus is designed to imitate Nature.-The locomotion of
swiftly moving creatures through water, is a snake-like motion, produced by con-
volutions of the bind part of the body and tail of the creature; or by a propelling
fin attached to its back. The action of the convoluting propeller is necessarily
reciprocating as employed by the fish; and the material used for its construction
elastic or yielding. The application of the motive force to the propelling fin
converts it into a succession of inclined pressure planes, caused by the resistance
offered by the water to its motion. This propelling fin may be constructed to act
reciprocally like that of the fish-or modified in the form of a Rotary wheel armed
with pressure-blades and applied to the vessel in the manner of screw propellers;
or otherwise. When made like the fin of the fish, the propeller is a long flexible
blade which may be attached either to the bottom, or to the sides of the vessel.―
propose to make the pressure-planes or blades of india rubber combined with steel
ribbons or with coiled steel wire.
I

page_text: Employed to keep a leaky vessel afloat, I make use of a number of the Rotary
pressure-blade wheels located within the vessel at various points: boxing each
wheel and packing the shafts. I make each boxed wheel free to communicate with
the external waters of the ocean by means of valves or ports adjusted and connected
with the Motive power of the vessel, so as to be opened and closed at pleasure: the
opening and putting of them in communication with the water that floats the
vessel, enabling them on being revolved to exert against the water an amount of
pressure equal to lifting the vessel, and so keeping it afloat no matter what may
be the extent of the leak. These pressure-blade wheels or Flotation-propellers are
connected with the engine by such mechanical means as puts it in the power of the 1
engineer to bring them all into play at any moment of danger.
As the flotation of the vessel where force-flotation, is counted on, depends finally
upon the Motive power of the ship, a necessary part of my invention consists in
safe-guarding the steam boilers and engines to such an extent as to make accident
to them from external causes quite impossible. To this end I make a special
compartment in the vessel with walls so massive and strong as to be capable of
resisting even the shock of an ice-bergh: I also guard the pressure-wheels in
similar manner. Force-flotation I regard as also applicable to persons individually
through appliances or pressure planes attached to the body of the persons and
worked by them; and also by pressure-plane water bicycles, tricycles &c.
SPECIFIC GRAVITY FLOTATION.
:
It being a law of fluids that weight in the moving body is equivalent to force it
follows that the aim of construction in ships should be to displace the least possible
amount of water by the empty or flotation portion of the ship. In other words,
the immersed section should theoretically, be compact and solid, and with the whole
of the material within the path or line of propulsion-and with consequently the
least amount of material in cross-section on the other hand, the flotation or
buoyant portion of the vessel should cover superficially the largest practicable area
and lie upon the surface of the water with a minimum of immersion. In carrying
into effect this principle of construction, the aim of my invention is to put the
whole of the weight or solid below, and the whole of the light or hollow of the
vessel on the top of the water: to accomplish which I construct vessels in either of
two ways; 1st in the shape of a double wedge and 2nd: in shape that may be
compared to that of a Trail; the top of the t, being the buoyant portion, and the
body of the t, being the immersed section of the vessel.-In plan, the buoyant
portion is a long flat oval; the breadth may be one sixth of its length; and the
thickness or height one fifth of its breadth. In cross-section this portion of the
vessel is oval at all points. This buoyant part of the vessel I call the Float; and
the immersed portion I call the Pendant. The method of construction I propose is
as follows, viz-A pendant 500 feet long, I make 50 feet deep and 20 feet wide;
sides parallel bottom flat: the ends long sharp wedges.-The Float to match this
Pendant, I make as much longer and wider as may be needed to produce the least
practicable draft or sinkage of the Float into the water.-The pendant is a structure
complete in itself: and the float is a structure complete in itself. The relation
held by the pendant to the float as to its position and connexion with it, may be
compared to that of the center-board of a vessel. The float is formed with a well
at the center to take in the pendant; the mechanical connexion between the two
being such that by the exercise of the motive power of the vessel the pendant is
lowered or raised at will; the float like a "cammel" serving as a fulcrum for
elevating the pendant when entering shallow harbors or crossing shoal places.
The steam engine and boilers together with the cargo are carried in the pendant.
The rounding lines of the float on the under side permit the waves to pass smoothly
under it; while the rounding lines of the top allow them to break without
obstruction over it. This float, designed to carry the passengers, I divide into
water-tight compartments, each one fitted with a stair-way and man-hole at top for

page_text: stanchions or pillars, so that the force of any wave overflowing the top of the float,
instead of tearing away the deck, would merely lift it a few feet higher.
LUBRICATION OF THE VESSEL.
Imitating Nature, I lessen the friction of vessels moving through the water, by
means of a lubricant continuously applied during the progress of the vessel; and
for this purpose I encircle both the pendant and the float with pipes filled with oil
and pierced to let it out by a gentle outflow; the pipes of the pendant being all
connected with a reservoir of oil controlled by a pump: and the pipes of the float
being similarly connected with a reservoir of oil situated and controlled in the
float. The propellers I also lubricate by analagous means.
Imitating Nature, I lessen the friction of vessels moving through the water, by
means of a lubricant continuously applied during the progress of the vessel; and
for this purpose I encircle both the pendant and the float with pipes filled with oil
and pierced to let it out by a gentle outflow; the pipes of the pendant being all
connected with a reservoir of oil controlled by a pump: and the pipes of the float
being similarly connected with a reservoir of oil situated and controlled in the
float. The propellers I also lubricate by analagous means.
To avoid the use of sails, I employ wind-engines placed at the top of one or more
substantial towers carried up from the body of the pendant: the power of the
engines being employed the same as steam.
COMBINED FLOTATION & PROPULSION.
A feature in my invention consists in setting the Flotation-propellers at such an
angle with respect to the face of the water as will cause both flotation and pro-
pulsion simultaneously.-In carrying out this part of my invention to keep persons
from drowning or to support and propel them through the water for sport, I
attach any number of flotation-propellers to a properly made frame and this frame
is attached to the person who by proper levers actuates the propellers: or I put the
frame on wheels to run from the land into the water, and the person or persons
who man the craft whether as a life saving craft or raft or for pleasure work the
machinery and so propel and float themselves in the water; such a construction
being a sort of water bicycle or water velocipede.