IMPROVEMENTS IN PADDLE WHEELS FOR PROPELLING VESSELS IN WATER
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, of 32, Essex
Street, Strand, London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN PADDLE WHEELS FOR PROPELLING VESSELS IN WATER." -A communication,
from John Upham Wallis, of Dansville, in the United States of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux
Bellford at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 20th January 1855.
I, AUGUSTE EDOUARD, LORADOUX BELLFORD, of 32, Essex Street, Strand,
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN PADDLE WHEELS FOR PROPELLING VESSELS IN WATER" to be as
follows; and consists in the improved manner of applying the paddle floats to
the wheel, being attached by one side only to the side of the wheel, and are of
trapeziform or trapezoidal shape, the end furthest from the wheel being wider
than the end attached thereto. They are oblique to the plane of the wheel,
and are arranged in pairs, one opposite another on opposite sides of the wheel,
each pair presenting the form of the letter V, the apex or angle of the letter V
being arranged to enter and leave the.water first. They are attached to the
wheel by hinged joints, so that their obliquity, may be varied, if required, and
also that their positions may be exactly reversed when the direction of the

page_text: revolution of the wheel is reversed. The set screws are screwed into the wheel
not far from the hinge joints, and two sets are provided, one on either side of
the hinge joints, so that the paddles may be supported in going ahead or
reversing.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 18th July 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AUGUSTE
EDOUARD LORADOUX BELLFORD, of 32, Essex Street, Strand, London, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, Her special licence that I, the
said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bell-
ford, 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, excrcise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PADDLE WHEELS FOR PROPELLING VESSELS IN WATER," a communication from
John Upham Wallis, of Dansville, in the United States of America, upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux
Bellford, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should par-
ticularly 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 Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford,
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, that is to say :-
This Invention consists in the improved manner of applying the paddle floats
to the wheel, as herein-after described.

page_text: Fig. 1 in the accompanying Drawing is a side view of a paddle wheel
constructed according to this Invention; and Fig. 2 is a transverse section of
a vessel having a pair of such wheels applied, the section being taken in front
of the wheels. Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in
both Figures.
A is a wheel to which the paddle floats are attached. This wheel may be
entirely of cast iron, partly of cast and partly of wrought iron, or partly of
wood and partly of iron, and I propose to make it of such weight as to
serve for a fly to the engine or paddle shaft C. To this wheel the paddles
B, B, are attached. The paddles B, B, may be of wood or metal, but I
propose to make them of sheet iron. They are attached by one side only
to the side of the wheel A, and are to be of trapeziform or trapezoidal
shape, the end farthest from the wheel being wider than the end which is
attached thereto. They are oblique to the plane of the wheel, and are
arranged in pairs, one opposite another, on opposite sides of the wheel, each
pair presenting the form of the letter V, the apex or angle of the V being
arranged to enter and leave the water first. Their attachment to the wheel is
by hinge joints b, b. This mode of attaching them serves a double purpose;
viz., 1st, it allows their obliquity to be varied, if desired, by the screwing in or
out of screws a, a, against the heads or points of which they are held by the
resistance of the water when in operation; and, 2d, it allows their positions to
be exactly reversed when the direction of the revolution of the wheel is
reversed. The screws a, a, are screwed into the wheel not far from the hinge
joints b, b, and two sets are provided, one on either side of the hinge joints, so
that the paddles may be supported in going ahead or reversing.
The paddles are always brought to their own proper position by the resistance
of the water; so soon as the direction of the revolution of the wheel is reversed,
the paddles are reversed by its action. In Figs. 1 & 2, the direction of the
supposed revolution of the wheel is indicated by black arrows; but one pair
of the paddles is also represented in red outline in Fig. 1, in the position it
would occupy if the wheel were revolving in the opposite direction. The
paddles may be rigidly attached and stayed, instead of being hinged, as before
mentioned, provided the apex of the V floats enter the water first; or the floats
may be hinged and rigid to the wheel by having them screwed to the said
wheel to allow of their obliquity being altered.
The action of the paddles is such that they enter and leave the water nearly
edgewise, and meet with but little resistance, except when they are below the
axis of the wheel, and moving nearly horizontally, at which time all the power
exerted is effective in propelling the vessel. The attachment of the paddles by

page_text: hinges, and supporting them near the, hinges, gives them such a degree of
flexibility, or elasticity, that when the resistance met with is very great, they
will, in some measure, relieve the engine of strain by being drawn towards,
each other. These wheels. are intended to be applied at the sides of the
vessel, as represented in Fig. 2, in the same way as the wheels heretofore
used, have been most commonly employed, or at the stern- or centre thereof,
as may be desirable.
CLAIMS.
I do not claim the employment of oblique paddle floats, nor arranging the
oblique paddle floats in pairs, in the form of the letter V, otherwise than as
described;, but I claim,
First, the attachment of the oblique paddle floats each by one edge only
to opposite sides of a ring or wheel A, or its equivalent, substantially as
described.
Second, I claim attaching the paddle floats to the ring or wheel A, or its
equivalent, by hinge joints, for the purpose of enabling them.to be adjusted at
various. degrees of obliquity by screws a, a, or their equivalents, and to adapt
their position to the direction of the revolution of the wheel, as herein set
forth..
Third, I claim the attachment of the paddle. floats to a single rim or ring of
a wheel, whether hinged thereto, as shewn in the Drawings, or rigidly attached
and stayed, provided it is so arranged that while the vessel is going forward,
the apex of the paddle floats enter the water; first; but I recommend, the
paddle floats to be hinged to the ring of a wheel, so that, whether in a forward
or backward motion of the vessel, the apex of the V floats enter the water
first.
.
"In witness whercof, I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, have
hereunto' set my hand & seal, this 10th day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
A. E. LORADOUX BELLFORD. (L.S.)"
A. E. LORADOUX BELLFORD: (L.S.)