A MACHINE OR APPARATUS, OR A NEW METHOD OR METHODS OF PROPELLING VESSELS, BOATS, BARGES, AND RAFTS OF ALL KINDS, AND ALSO OTHER MACHINERY, AS MILL WHEELS AND OTHER REVOLVING POWERS
Year: 1816

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BENJAMIN
SMYTHE, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Schoolmaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the First day of November, in the fifty-seventh year of His
reign, did give and grant unto me, the said Benjamin Smythe, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Benjamin Smythe, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"A MACHINE OR APPARATUS, OR A NEW METHOD OR METHODS OF PROPELLING
VESSELS, BOATS, BARGES, AND RAFTS OF ALL KINDS, AND ALSO OTHER MACHINERY,
AS MILL WHEELS AND OTHER REVOLVING POWERS;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Benjamin Smythe, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description
of the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of performing the same,
to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large annear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Benjamin Smythe, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in
manner following, and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the reference
thereto (that is to say) :—
In the first place my said Invention is established upon a mathematical
theorun, which may be comprehended in the following words, videlicet:-
If three equal cranks in the same horizontal plane, or in planes parallel to
each other, be conceived to revolve each upon its respective centre in the same
plane with one and the same uniform velocity, and in the same direction with
regard to the parts of the cranks alike situated, and any part being taken on
the outer bend or extremity of the middle crank, and a right line drawn from
that point parallel to a line supposed to join the centres of the cranks until it
meets the outer extremity or bend of the other two cranks, then, I say, the
right line so drawn will be equal and continue equal to the line of distance
during the whole of every revolution so made. This line in the machine I call
the connecting rod. The demonstrative principles of the foregoing theorem
is sufficiently explained by the annexed Drawings, and the reference thereto,
to enable any inteligent engineer, shipwright, or mechanic to construct my
apparatus for propelling vessels, and to adopt the said apparatus or others on
the same principles to mill wheels and other revolving powers.
In the annexed Drawing, Fig. 1, a, a, d, d, are the middle impelling cranks,
which are put in motion by the spur wheel A. When these middle impelling
cranks are put in motion or turned by the wheel A, so as to bring the part of
the cranks represented at a, a, into a vertical position, the other end of the
same cranks as at d, d, will be down in the water, each crank carrying with it
at the same time, by means of the connecting rods 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, the other
two cranks e, e, e, e, and c, c, c, c, on both the sides of the vessel, preserving at
the same time, by means of the connecting rods, a regular rotatory parallel
motion, which dips into the water alternately the paddles i, i, i, i, on each
connecting rod, by which motion the vessel is impelled through the water
either by steam engines or any other impelling force.
Fig. 2 is intended to shew two different methods of using two cranks on the
outside of the vessel instead of three, which are calculated to produce the same
effect without taking up so much length on the outside of the vessel, a con-
venience which will be of peculiar advantage in short vessels, which the three
connected cranks in Fig. 1 could not possess when they are in one horizontal
plane; yet by raising or lowering the middle crank in Figure 1, above or
below the same plane of the other two cranks, the distance taken up on the
outside may be considerably less. In Figure 2, as above mentioned, there are

page_text: two different methods of using or connecting the two outer cranks with the
three small inner or outer cranks. The one on the inside of the vessel
which cannot be so conveniently put to practice or so safe at sea (on account
of having both the sides of the vessel to perforate in two different places to
connect the three inner cranks with the two outer); the three outside short
cranks connected with the two outside ones is on that account preferable, as
there is no need for more than the middle shaft or connecting part of the crank
going across the vessel and through the sides, on account of the other two
cranks being made to pedestal on the outside, as at n, n, Figure 2. Although
there are two different plans or methods of arranging the cranks in this
Figure, it is still to be understood that only one method is to be used at one
and the same time, viz', when the outside small cranks n, n, n, n, are used, the
inside cranks in the frame a must be taken away and the middle part or wheel
shaft A continued through both sides and across the middle of the vessel to the
small cranks on the outside. When the inside cranks in the frame a are used,
the cranks n, n, n, n, on the outside must also be taken away in like manner,
and the two cranks continued athwart the vessel, as at c, c, Figure 2. As
both these sets were not intended to be used together, but merely to shew the
different ways of constructing them, the above explanation will be sufficient.
Fig. 3 is an elevation of a single connecting rod, with the small rods
a, a, a, a, a, which are fastened to each paddle with an hinge, so as to turn up
all the paddles into an horizontal position when the vessel is under sail, and
thereby raise the paddles more effectually out of the water, provided they are
not sufficiently so when both the cranks and connecting rods on each side of
the vessel are put in an horizontal position. In Fig. 1 I have shewn the way
the double connecting rods 2 on each of the cranks may be fixed with
the paddles i, between each of the connecting rods upon the same crank. I
have drawn this merely to shew that two connecting rods upon one crank may
be used; but I by no means consider them equal to the single one, unless in
low vessels where it is impossible to do without dipping the rods in the water
with the paddles. In all other respects I prefer the connecting rod, Fig. 3,
or some other upon a similar plan and principle.
Figures 4 and 5 are the side and back view of the circular paddles, with
their bolts upon the top to fix them to the connecting rod and hinges e, c, c, u,
on the back and inside, to which the stays a, a, a, a, a, are fixed for the purpose
of turning up the paddles. d, d, are the two screws and their nuts for holding
the stays in the proper place. These paddles, cranks, connecting rods, pedestals,
caps, and bushes, and all other things thereto belonging, may be made of wood,
iron, brass, or any other material used for machinery of a similar nature.

page_text: With regard to mill wheels and other revolving powers, I construct my
apparatus in the following manner, viz:-Instead of two cranks, both bent in an
horizontal plane with regard to each other, which are used to propel small
vessels as above mentioned in Fig. 2, I have three cranks, as represented in
Fig. 1, propelled or carried round by the paddles and connecting rod, so as to
turn any wheel, crank, or other machinery that can be fixed upon the middle
crank or shaft, and thereby giving such wheel, crank, &c. &c. a revolution same
as the common water wheel. These cranks have four bends on each; these
bends or cranks are at right angles with each other, so as to form a set of
connecting rods that will answer the purpose of a water wheel with four arms
or paddles. Each of those connecting rods is fixed upon the cranks in the
same way as they are in Fig. 1 of the boat, with only this difference, viz., the
mill wheel has four connecting rods which revolve parallel to each other upon
each crank, and each remaining during every such revolution in its own
course or channel, turning such machinery as may be attached to it by the
water running against the hollow side of the paddles upon each connecting
rod in regular rotation. Wheels and the paddles of the boat are carried
round by steam or any other mechanical agent so as to propel the vessel
through the water. Two cranks in the same horizontal plane with each other,
or four cranks at right angles with each other, or more cranks at any other
angle, may be used for propelling large vessels or driving heavy machinery.
The principle of this Invention consists in the parallel rotation of a connecting
rod or rods, which may be impelled either by steam or other power acting upon
the cranks, so as to force the paddle upon the cranks and connecting rods into
and against the water in propelling vessels, or by the water running.against
the hollow or inside of the paddles, so as to turn the cranks and other machinerý
when used as mill wheels, &c. &c.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Smythe, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixteen.
BENJAMIN SMYTHE. (L.B.)
Sealed and delivered by the said Benjamin
Smythe in the presence of
WILL. STANISTREET, Attorney at Law,

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Nineteenth day of December,
in the fifty-seventh year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third,
the said Benjamin Smythe came before our said Lord the King in His
Chancery, and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every
thing therein contained and specified, in form above written. And also the
Instrument aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made
in the fifty-fifth year of His said Majesty's reign.