IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PROPELLING VESSELS
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Reginald Courtenay at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 11th Aprit
1867.
I, REGINALD COURTENAY, Bishop of Kingston, Jamaica, now resident at
19, Somerset Street, Portman Square, in the County of Middlesex, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR PROPELLING VESSELS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for propelling
vessels. The apparatus consists chiefly of a chamber intended to be immersed
in water, alternately contracting and expanding, or closing and opening,
and by its contraction or closing expelling the water contained within it in the
direction required, and also thereby propelling the vessel to which it is
attached. In the construction which I prefer the chamber consists of a
plate so supported as to remain at all times parallel to the vessel's side,
towards and from which however it is capable of being moved. At its
forward end it is jointed to the edge of another plate which at its other edge
is jointed to the vessel's side. The hinder end of the first plate is carried in a
similar manner from the vessel's side, but by rods or links in place of by a
plate. There are also fixed to the vessel's side two other plates projecting
from it horizontally or nearly so, the one above and the other below the two
moveable plates already mentioned; thus a chamber is formed enclosed at

page_text: all sides but at the back, and this chamber can be contracted and expanded
by drawing towards and thrusting from the vessel's side the plate which forms
the outer side of the chamber, and which, as already mentioned, is parallel with
the side of the vessel. This motion is given to it by linking it directly with
the piston rod of a steam cylinder which passes by a stuffing box through the
vessel's side. When in this way the chamber is expanded water enters it by
valves through the plate which forms its leading end, and on the return stroke
when the chamber is contracted these valves close and the water in the
chamber is forced out at the back of the chamber towards the stern of the
vessel and the vessel is thus propelled. Other valves may also be introduced
into the top and bottom plates to give freer admission to the water; also there
may be a valve between the vessel's side and the joint which connects it with
the front plate of the chamber.
It is an important part of this Invention that motion can be communicated
to the plates or surfaces without the intervention of any wheel or lever direct
from the piston rod of a steam engine (or other rod immediately connected
with the apparatus used instead thereof). To admit of the vessel being pro-
pelled astern a valve opening inwards may be applied at the hinder end of
the contracting and expanding chamber; this valve when the vessel is being
propelled forward is held open, but when it is desired that the vessel should
move astern it is allowed or caused to close, when the chamber contracts,
whilst the valves in the forward end of the chamber are held open.
The arrangement may also be modified as follows:-The plate forming the
moveable side of the chamber is hung on a horizontal axis and receives its
motion direct from a steam cylinder as before. There is a large valve at the
top of the chamber, and there are valves also in its closed end. The bottom
of the chamber is formed by a plate fixed to the vessel's side, and it is curved
so as to form the arc of a circle with the axis of the moving side of the
chamber for its centre. This form of the apparatus has the disadvantage of
opposing a larger resisting surface to the motion of a ship with the advantage
of equal force of propulsion both backwards and forwards. The valves should
when open present only the edges of plates to the water in the direction of
the motion.