IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PROPELLING SHIPS, BOATS, AND OTHER VESSELS ON WATER, DESIGNED TO SUPERSEDE THE USE OF PADDLE WHEELS
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANTONIO
MOVILLON, of Dorset Place, Dorset Square, in the County of Middlesex, Gentle-
man, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-third day of April, in the second year of Her reign,
and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, did
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Antonio
Movillon, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said Antonio Movillon, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others
as I, the said Antonio Movillon, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the
term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
and also in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PROPELLING SHIPS, BOATS, AND OTHER VESSELS ON
WATER, DESIGNED TO SUPERSEDE THE USE OF PADDLE WHEELS;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Antonio Movillon, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Antonio Movillon, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say.):
-57
"
These Improvements in Machinery for Propelling Ships, Boats, and other
Vessels on Water, designed to súpersede the Use of Paddle Wheels, consist in a
novel construction of machinery for working a system of expanding paddles,
which paddles are intended to act in the manner of the foot of a duck or other
aquatic bird when moving in the water. The paddles and the machinery for
working them are to be applied at the stern part of the ship, or at its sides,
and may be put in motion by steam or any other suitable driving power for the
purpose of propelling the vessel, and may be constructed of any required
dimensions; one principal object being the adaptation of this construction of
propelling machinery to ships of war or other vessels of the larger class, instead
of employing paddle wheels, which are inconvenient, and occasion a consider-
able loss of power.
The accompanying Drawings represent merely the expanding paddles, and
the mechanism by which they are to be worked; for in that mechanism alone
consists the improvement which constitutes the subject of this Invention.
Figures 1 and 2 represent in elevation, and in different positions, the
machinery (detached from a vessel) by which the paddles are expanded and
contracted during their passage through the water. Fig. 3 is a plan or horizontal
view of the frame carrying the crank shaft with the rods attached thereto, by
which the improved machinery is worked; and Fig. 4 is a front view of the
paddle on the duck's foot principle, expanded, ready for giving the propelling
stroke, the similar letters of reference pointing out the same parts of the
machinery in all the Figures. A, A, is the crank shaft; B, B, the cranks
to which the rods or bars E, E, are attached, for working the expanding
paddles; C is another crank on the shaft A (see Fig. 3), to which a rod D is
connected, leading from the steam engine or other first mover, and by which
rod D the crank shaft is made to revolve; F and H are the legs or long
levers to which the duck's foot paddle is attached at bottom; I, I, are the two
flaps or broad plates constituting the paddle. They are hung upon a joint
pin K at the lower end of the leg F. Two rods or levers L, L, attached
by a joint pin M to the lower end of the other leg H are connected by
joints to the backs of the plates I, J, and consequently by the opening or
closing of the leges F and H, the broad surface of the paddle is made to

page_text: collapse, so as to pass edgewise through the water with the least possible
obstruction, or to open out and present its expanded surface to the water
in the act of propelling. The-rod or bar E is a lever working on a fulcrum
pin or stud N set in the leg F, as shewn at Figs. 1 and 2, the end of the
longer arm of the lever E-working on the crank B. The shorter arm of
the lever E marked E*-has a segment plate G, G, firmly affixed to it by rivets,
which segment. plate has a curved opening or slot formed in it; and a pin
or. stud P, fixed in the other leg, H; works in the curved opening of the
segment plate. By means of these connecting parts the action of the lever E,
driven by the crank B, causes the legs F. and H to vibrate, and work" the
paddles in the manner following:
In the positions of all the levers and the crank, as represented in Fig. 1,
the plates II of the duck's foot paddle will be expanded as shewn, and 'which
are then in the position for performing the propelling stroke through the
water. The rotary progress of the crank B in the direction indicated by
the arrow to the situation shewn by outlines at B', will cause the legs F, H,
to carry the paddle in its expanded form through the water to the situation
represented by dots at I, I... The farther rotary progress of the crank to B³ will
carry the paddles to the position shewn at I, Is, which is nearly the end of the
propelling stroke. The rotary progress of the crank to the position B*, repre-
sented in Fig. 2, will place the lever E and the legs as at F and H', where it
will be perceived that the duck's foot paddle is collapsing and about to return
through the water, the plates I, I, being now in such positions as only to
present their edges to the water. When the crank arrives in its rotary course
at the lowest point B, the levers and the propelling plates will assume the posi-
tions shewn by outlines at F³,-H³, and I, I, and the further progress of the crank
to B will put all the parts as represented by outlines at Fe, He, and I, Iº. On the
advance of the crank to B' the propeller will begin again to expand as at I, I',
having passed through the back stroke from I, I, to I, 1, edgewise, and on
the crank arriving at the point of its rotation B, as in Fig. 1, it will have
expanded wide open, and be ready to perform the propelling stroke through
the water as above described. It will be perceived that the expanding and
collapsing of the plates I, I, of the paddle, as the legs F, H, perform their
oscillating movements, will be effected by the different positions assumed by
the levers L, L, which are determined by the pening and closing of the
legs F, H, and that this will be governed by the movements of the seguent
plate G turning upon the stud N set in the leg F, the groove of which segment
plate acts upon the pin or stud P fixed in the leg H. I do not, however,
intend to confine myself to the use of the grooved segment plate G, as the same
effect may be obtained from the adaptation of compound levers, one mode of

page_text: doing which is shewn at Figs. 5 & 6. In this instance, in place of the
grooved segment plate, I bend down the shorter arm of the lever E, as at E*,
and connect its end to another lever or link J, attached by a joint to the end
of E, and also connected in a similar manner to the stud or pin P fixed in
the leg H. By the rotary movement of the crank B the lever E will give the
oscillating motion to the legs F, H, as above described, and which, by the action.
of the levers E* and J, will cause the legs to open and close as they vibrate,
and thereby to expand and collapse the paddle in the same way as in the
former construction of apparatus, the various positions of which are shewn
in the two last mentioned Figures by outlines lines. I do not intend to limit
myself to any particular number of paddles to be connected in my improved.
manner to one crank shaft, as it must be obvious that one, two, or more paddles
may be worked by the same crank shaft, if desired and found convenient, and
their situation, either at the stern or sides of the vessel, must depend upon
circumstances of cligibility. In the horizontal view of the apparatus shewn at
Fig. 3, it will be perceived that I have mounted the crank shaft upon a curved
frame or bearing R, R. This mode of mounting it may be found desirable
when the propelling apparatus is adapted to the stern of a vessel, as by means
of a segment rack S, and pinion T, the bearing frame, with the whole of the
propelling apparatus, may be turned at such an angle as to enable the vessel to
counteract the effects of strong current and leaways.
Having thus fully set out my improvements in machinery for propelling
vessels, it will be unnecessary to recapitulate its features of novelty, as that must
be fully understood by the description above written.
In witness whereof, I, the said Antonio Movillon, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Twenty-third day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.
ANTONIO (L.S.) MOVILLON.