IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPLICABLE TO THE MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR PROPELLING SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Lockwood at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th November 1883.
WILLIAM LOCKWOOD, of Sheffield, in the County of York, " IMPROVEMENTS IN
AND APPLICABLE TO THE MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR PROPELLING SHIPS AND
OTHER VESSELS
"
This Invention relates to certain improvements in and applicable to the means of
and apparatus for propelling ships and other vessels.
The Invention is specially applicable to the screw forms of propellers, and
embraces the construction thereof irrespective of their particular form or shape in
the novel manner hereinafter described and also the novel system or method also
hereinafter described of causing the revolution of such peculiarly formed propellers,
and the consequent propulsion of the ship or vessel.
The various forms of screw propellers hitherto constructed have been made with
their blades vanes arms or other equivalent parts by the rotation of which within
the water the ship or vessel has been propelled, of a solid formation, and their
bosses or equivalent central or connecting parts have been mounted upon shafts
which are connected with and caused to revolve by powerful machinery of most
complex and costly construction, It is one of the especial objects of my present
improvements to render the use of such machinery unnecessary by the improvements
herein described, in accordance with which the blades vanes arms or other said
equivalent parts of the propellers are constructed of a hollow formation with one or
more openings from the interior to the exterior situated at their ends or any
intermediate positions between their ends and the boss or equivalent part from
which they spring or to which they are connected. The situation of these openings
and their particular shape or formation would vary with different forms or shapes of
the said blades, and in each case would be adapted to suit the particular form of
propeller to which the improvements would be applied, so as to ensure the most
effective reaction being obtained with such propeller. One or more of such hollow
blades formed with outlets are mounted in any usual or appropriate manner upon
a boss or other part also formed hollow, the interiors of the blades being in
communication with the interior of the boss or part to which they are connected.
To the face of the boss there is bolted or connected in any usual or suitable manner

page_text: a tubular shaft or its equivalent the interior of which is in communication with
the interior of the boss and entering within another part of the tubular shaft is a
conical or other. nozzle or other equivalent appliance of any suitable formation
leading from or in connection with a steam boiler or with any suitable apparatus
for generating steam. At or adjacent to the part of the tubular shaft where it is
open to the nozzle, it is also open to the water; so that upon a sufficient pressure
of steam being admitted from the boiler through the nozzle into the tubular shaft
the water is impelled at a velocity dependent principally upon the boiler pressure
along the tubular shaft and through the said tubular boss and blades of the
propeller and out at the peripheral or other outlet openings of the latter, where,
meeting with the resistance of the outer water, the reaction causes the propeller to
revolve within the outer water and cause the propulsion of the ship or vessel.
Where the tubular shaft is open to the water, it may be surrounded by another
tube leading the water thereto, or it may be otherwise protected if necessary
against the entrance of foreign matter.
In a modified arrangement I form the interior of the said hollow shaft of a
helical or screw like formation in any suitable manner for the purpose of causing
the impelled stream of water traversing it to aid in effecting its rotation and the
rotation of the propeller, but in all modifications in which I use a hollowed screw
propeller of any formation I principally rely upon the forcible exit of the water
from within the propeller and its there meeting with the resistance of the outside
water for effecting the revolution of the propeller and the propulsion of the ship or
vessel in the water.
Though I have found from the experiments which I have at present conducted
that the forcible expulsion of water by the agency of steam substantially in the
manner herein before stated to give the most advantageous results, yet I may use
the agency of compressed air or of other available means for causing the forcible
ejection of the water, or I may cause any of these means to be forcibly ejected by
the agency of others of them for effecting the revolution of the screw propeller.