IMPROVE- MENTS IN PROPELLERS FOR SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Ernest Oswald Coe at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 31st March
1863.
I, ERNEST OSWALD COE, of Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, in the County'
of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PROPELLERS FOR SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS," to be as follows:-
My improved propeller consists of one or more corrugated wheel or wheels
made of metal, wood, or wood and metal combined, or of any other convenient
substance. The corrugations radiate from the centre to the circumference, and
the wheels may be wholly of solid metal, or may be of solid metal only to a
certain depth from the periphery, having the more central part open or perforated.
They are to be revolved by connection with machinery worked by any motivo
power, and may be applied at the sides of vessels, as paddle wheels now are, or
at the stem or stern, or both, or in any other convenient position. Each pro-
peller may consist of one wheel only, or of two or more wheels fixed upon tho
same axle, according to the degree of power required, and they may have their
planes either at a right angle with the line of the axle, or inclined outward
from centre to circumference at any required angle, and where more than one
wheel is used then all may be inclined at the same angle or at varying angles,
as circumstances may dictate. The forms of the corrugations may be various,
that is to say, they may be either angular or rhomboidal, or curved, or a
combination of any of those forms. These propellers are to be applied mainly
for the propulsion of vessels upon water, and, secondarily, for the guidance

page_text: and steerage of vessels by certain adaptations of their form, and by fixing
them transversely either at the stem or stern of the vessel, or at both, and may
be used either conjointly with an ordinary rudder or otherwise. The advan-
tages to be obtained by the use of these propellers are as follows :-
1st. An increase of speed beyond that obtainable by either paddles or
screws worked by the like amount of power.
2nd. The almost total absence of backwater, which with the ordinary paddle
wheel is excessive, and detracts from the speed of the vessel.
3rd. The absence in consequence of the continuous (in lieu of intermittent)
action of these wheels upon the water of that disagreeble concussion and
vibratory motion so much complained of with paddlo wheels, and even with
screws, and which tend so much to the injury of the vessels themselves and
the discomfort of passengers.
4th. From the diminished amount of backwater and consequently of spray
and foam thrown up, the incumbrance of paddle boxes may be wholly or
partially done away with. From this circumstance very much of the resistance
caused by head winds will be prevented, and the speed of the vessel under
adverse circumstances will thereby undoubtedly be increased.
5th. The advantages of these propellers, when used for steering, will be
that from their occasioning a more active movement of the stern itself they
will quicken the operation, and have a tendency to turn the vessel more
immediately upon its centre as on a pivot.