IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY USED IN GIVING MOTION TO A SHAFT OR AXIS USED IN PROPELLING VESSELS, PLOUGHS, AND MACHINERY
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Harratt, of Hornsey Lane, Highgate, in the
County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
USED IN GIVING MOTION TO A SHAFT OR AXIS USED IN PROPELLING VESSELS,
PLOUGHS, AND MACHINERY."
Sealed the 15th January 1861, and dated the 1st November 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Harratt at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st
November 1860.
I, CHARLES HARRATT, of Hornsey Lane, Highgate, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY USED IN GIVING MOTION TO A SHAFT OR AXIS USED IN PROPELLING
VESSELS, PLOUGHS, AND MACHINERY," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery used in giving
motion to a shaft or axis used in propelling vessels, ploughs, and machinery.
For these purposes, in order more advantageously to combine the use of
manual power with steam power, the manual power is arranged to act con-
tinuously whilst the steam power is caused to come into action at the points of
time only when the greatest effort is required. It is preferred that the men.

page_text: employed should sit as in the act of rowing, and that they should pull and push
together, so that their power may be constantly communicated to a cranked
axis or shaft in a manner to cause it to rotate, which, however, is not in itself
new, but the peculiarity of my Invention consists in combining steam power
with such shaft or axis in such manner that the steam power shall only come
into action during parts of the revolution of the axis, and at such parts of the
revolution only as require to have a greater effort applied thereto, and trans-
mitted thereby. The steam engine by its piston rod is caused in its upward
stroke to move a frame or cross head, so as to act or press on the end of a
crank or arm fixed on the shaft or axis, and thus to aid in moving it for a
portion of its rotation, the cross head or frame on the piston rod simply pressing
against the arm or crank, or on a roller or wheel thereon, so soon as the piston
has come to the end of its stroke, the piston, and consequently the cross head
or frame moved thereby will stop, whilst the crank or arm on the shaft or axis
will be caused to continue its motion by the manual power, then when a greater
effort is again required, the arm or crank will have arrived into a position to be
drawn downwards by a suitable projection on the cross head or frame, as the
same descends by reason of steam being allowed again to flow into the cylinder,
but on the other side of the piston. When propelling vessels by the combined
power above described, in place of using paddle wheels as heretofore, there are
two paddles only on each end of the shaft or axis, one paddle above and the
other paddle below the axis, so that when one paddle is in the water, the
other is out of the water, and the steam engine is brought to act when the
greatest effort is required to the two paddles as they come into the water in
succession.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Harratt in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 1st
May 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
HARRATT, of Hornsey Lane, Highgate, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,

page_text: the said Charles Harratt, Her special licence that I, the said Charles
Harratt, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I;
the said Charles Harratt,. 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 MACHINERY USED IN GIVING MOTION TO A SHAFT OR. AXIS USED
IN PROPELLING VESSELS,. PLOUGHS, AND MACHINERY," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Charles Harratt, 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 Charles Harratt, 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 follow-
ing statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery used in giving
motion to a shaft or axis used in propelling vessels, ploughs, and machinery.
For these purposes in order more advantageously to combine the use of
manual power with steam power, the manual power is arranged. to act con-
tinuously, whilst the steam power is caused to come into action at the points of
time only when the greatest effort is required. It is preferred that the men
employed should sit as in the act of rowing, and that they should pull and
push together so that their power may be constantly communicated to a
eranked axis or shaft in a manner to cause it to rotate, which, however, is not
in itself new, but the peculiarity of my Invention consists in combining steam
power with such shaft or axis in such manner that the steam power shall only
come into action during parts of the revolution of the axis and at such parts of
the revolution only as require to have a greater effort applied thereto and
transmitted thereby. The steam engine by its piston rod is caused in its
upward stroke to move a frame or crosshead so as to act or press on the end of
a crank or arm fixed on the shaft or axis, and thus to aid in moving it for a
portion of its rotation, the crosshead or frame on the piston rod simply pressing
against the arm or crank or on a roller or wheel thereon. So soon as the
piston has come to the end of its stroke, the piston and consequently the cross-

page_text: head or frame moved thereby will stop, whilst the crank or arm on the shaft
or axis will be caused to continue its motion by the manual power; then when
a greater effort is again required the arm or crank will have arrived into a
position to be drawn downwards by a suitable projection on the cross head
or frame, as the same descends by reason of steam being allowed again
to flow into the cylinder, but on the other side of the piston. When pro-
pelling vessels by the combined power above described, in place of using
paddle wheels as heretofore there are two paddles only on each end of the
shaft or axis, one paddle above and the other paddle below the axis, so that
when one paddle is in the water the other is out of the water, and the steam
engine is brought to act when the greatest effort is required to the two paddles
as they come into the water in succession.
It is proposed to disencumber the steam engine of all those parts which are
necessary to produce the continuous motion, leaving a fire-box and boiler to
generate steam and a cylinder and piston to receive and discharge it in the
manner common to non-condensing engines. The valves are to be opened by
hand, and manual power is to be used in aid of steam power to a greater or less
extent. The power to be obtained from a given quantity of fuel depends
chiefly upon the absence of leakage, as in artillery the absence of windage gives
full effect to the charge of powder. To prevent leakage it is necessary to get
rid of the momentum created by the motion of heavy weights at high speed,
the piston must only. be affected with the momentum of its own weight moving
at a slow speed. There will be a pause at every stroke, therefore, if a con-
tinuous motion be required the function of this steam engine is to pump up
.water for a water wheel, but in. some cases the effort required is discontinuous
as in rowing, or may be made so as in ploughing, when its action will be
direct.
The proposed engine is delineated in Figure 3*; the fire-box and boiler are
circular. The former has a funnel which may be made to revolve upon a ledge
round the inside. a is its mouth which receives the hot air and flame; b, its
exit into the chimney; c, a handle to move it with. In feeding the fire this
handle must be brought into a position over one of the six or eight openings so
that the smoke from fresh fuel must pass nearly all round the fire-box over the
live coal before it can enter the funnel.
The following is a method of combining steam power with manual power
in propelling ships.
It is stated in Charnock's History of Naval Architecture, that the
Mediterranean gallies of the fifteenth century were often rowed from Naples to

page_text: Palermo in seventeen hours, and from Genoa to Marseilles in twenty-four
hours, so they must have gone at the rate of nine or ten miles an hour. But
the oar is a very inefficient instrument, seeing that half the rower's time and
strength is wasted in lifting and bringing it back for every stroke; indeed,
Euler, who is a great authority, assumes that only one-third of the rower's
effort is effective in propelling the vessel, therefore in any plan for employing
manual power the object is to save a part at least of this loss, and at the same
time to retain the action of rowing as the most convenient way of exerting
muscular strength.
It is proposed to have a shaft or axis crossing the vessel amidship about
eighteen inches above the deck and extending beyond the bulwarks far enough
to admit a paddle wheel or rather so much of one as may be found necessary
to secure two paddles at its opposite extremities, that is to say, 180° apart.
The shaft or axis is to be made to rotate by means of two cranks (not in the
same plane) and two long beams stretching foro and aft the deck with cross-
bars at proper distances. At each of these is a bench of rowers who are to sit
as usual, but their action is to pull and push alternately so that the momentum
of their bodies' motion both backwards and forwards, will tell upon the rotation
of the shaft and paddles.
The Drawing, Figure 1, shews the arrangement on deck and the position of
several benches of rowers. The shaft is here supposed to be at rest and the
paddles out of the water; their position is so far above the water line as not to
impede the vessel's progress when sailing upon a wind; indeed the shaft and
paddles may be taken in pieces and removed in a short time when the weather
is very bad. There will be some devices of the nature of springs to soften the
jar upon the men's arms. which it needs not to dwell upon here.
It is so arranged that each paddle sweeps out a volume of water the vertical
section, of which is a segment of 60° of a circle (A, B, D, Figure 2), and it is
only during its passage through the water that steam power is wanted to aid
the manual power. For this purpose there is a short lever S, Figure 1, fixed
upon the shaft or axis upon which the piston rod of a steam engine acts to
drive it upwards through a corresponding segment of 60°, a, b, d, Figure 2;
this done the steam is shut off, the piston rod stops, and both paddles being
now out of the water the manual power alone causes the shaft to continue its
rotation until the other paddle comes down into the water and the short lever
comes round into the position of the dotted lines, Figure 2, then the steami
power again comes in aid to drive it downward through an arc of 60°; then
the steam is again shut off, the piston rod stops, and both paddles being again

page_text: out of the water the manual power alone causes the shaft to continue its
rotation until the short lever comes round into its first position, and so on
continually.
It remains to say a few words upon the kind of steam engine to be used.
This will be merely a cylinder and piston with the addition of a contrivance
to ensure combined action (shown at Figure 3 and herein-after described), the
whole occupying.a small space and making only a small addition to the weight
on board. Of more importance will be the saving of fuel for steam of very
high pressure may be used with full effect, since there is nothing to disturb or
shake the piston during its motion up or down the eylinder, and so cause a
leakage from the chamber that is full, of steam into that which is empty, the
almost necessary consequence of a continuous motion; in this case the piston
has no inertia to overcome except the inertia of its own weight, because the
shaft is kept always in motion by the manual power; neither is it affected by
.the momentum which is generated by the motion of the shaft, because it is not
attached to the small lever which it acts upon. The perfection of the steam
engine lies in the absence of leakage, just as the perfection of a gun lies in the
absence of windage, a given charge of steam in one case and powder in the
other will produce their maximum effect in presence of this quality.
With regard to speed, it is assumed that a man-of-war's crew in rowing
makes thirty strokes a minute, and each stroke will cause one rotation of the
shaft; in a ship of 800 tons displacement, the diameter of the paddle wheel
will be about 15 feet, therefore the speed of the paddles through the water will
be about 15 miles an hour if the speed be uniform during the rotation; but in
rowing, the motion is quicker whilst the oars have hold of the water, so like-
wise the paddles, whilst the steain power is in action, may be made to double
their speed through the water, making 30 miles an hour.
To conclude, the arrangement proposed will give to small vessels particu
larly a greater speed without much additional weight on board, for the manual
power is always there, and the steam engine is reduced within a small
compass, it will, therefore, be possible to extend to smaller classes of ships
the protection of iron defences without any considerable diminution of their
armament.
The contrivance above mentioned is shewn in Figure 2*, the sliding frame
moves upon points within the fixed frame a distance equal to twice the
tangent of 37° of a circle, whose radius is CS.
C is the centre of the shaft.
CS lover fixed to the shaft the extremity of which is an awe of 60°

page_text: 5
a is a notch projecting from the inside of the sliding frame, which drives
round the lever CS when the frame moves upward impelled by the steam.
E is also a lever fixed to the shaft, the Drawing shews the upper eilge
only.
b, a notch outside the sliding frame.
The lever E revolving with the shaft causes the valves to open and shut at
the proper time by the usual means, it also holds the sliding frame in its
proper position whilst the steam is shut off by pressing against the notchies b; b.
There will be two engines working contrarywise on opposite sides of the
O shaft.
で
..
. I will now proceed to describe that portion of my Invention which applies
to the actuating a steam plough or spade..
:
Figure 3 is a plan of the carriage, steam engine, and spade S, with gridiron.
Figure 4 is an elevation of the same with addition of a hod H. The dotted
5 lines underlie a portion of earth which the spade is about to dig out by a cir-
cular motion, and then by a vertical motion to raise up and press against the
hod, whereby it is forced through the gridiron or grating and falls upon the seed
just sown; this operation is performed by the up-stroke of the engine, the down-
stroke brings back the spade into its first position, and at the same time causes
the waggon to move forward about 12 inches when the operation is repeated.
Figure 5 shews in perspective the moveable parts. a is the fulcrum of a
lever b, b, b, which communicates motion from the piston rod to a lever c, whose
fulcrum d is a circular hook or holdfast which slips one way and holds the
other, like a windlass or ratchet drill; this hook encircles the axis of the hind
wheels. There are two other levers e, e, at right angles with c, having the same
fulcrum d, to which manual power may be applied; these communicate motion
to the spades by the chain f acting upon the wheel g, which encircles the axis
round which the spade moves. h, h, are vertical grooves, allowing this axis to
rise and fall; this last motion is effected by two levers i, i, whose fulcra are
at k, k, and these being suspended, are free to move horizontally within short
limits.
The position of the moveable parts in Figure 5 is that of the half stroke
when the spade has dug out the portion of earth lying above the dotted lines;
at this point of time the cross bar m, m, presses down the two levers i, i,
which raise the spade during the remainder of its circular motion up to
the hod.
If the radius of the waggon wheels be 3 feet, and if the waggon be made to
move forward 12.3 inches at every stroke, the arc described on the circum-

page_text: ference of the wheels will be an arc of twenty degrees or one revolution in
eighteen strokes, it will be convenient to arrange the principal levers so that
their extremities may describe the same are of 20°, and to make the length of
stroke of the piston conformable thereto, the spade will sweep over an arc of
70° to 75°, and the diameter of the wheel upon its axis must be regulated
accordingly.
Figure 6 is the hook or holdfast before mentioned, which slips one way but
holds the other.
Figure 7 is part of a frog to be put round the bind wheels of the waggon
when needful, to prevent them from slipping.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Harratt, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
CHARLES HARRATT. (L.S.)