AN IMPROVED MEAN OR MEANS FOR FACILITATING THE PROPULSION AND FOR THE SAFETY OF BOATS OR OTHER VESSELS THROUGH THE WATER
Year: 1815

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
DICKINSON, of Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-
second day of June, in the fifty-fifth year of His reign, give and grant
unto me, the said Robert Dickinson, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said Robert Dickinson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
and lawfully might, during the term of years therein mentioned, make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED MEAN OR MEANS FOR FACILITATING
THE PROPULSION AND FOR THE SAFETY OF BOATS OR OTHER VESSELS THROUGH THE
WATER;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if I,
the said Robert Dickinson, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, that
then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever
thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by
the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Dickinson, do hereby declare that the nature. of any said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained as follows (that is to say):-
My Invention consists of a more efficacious method of applying the power or
strength of men to turn paddle wheels fixed on the sides or any other part of
ships boats, vessels, or craft, to row or propell them; also applicable to the turn-
ing or driving any kind of machinery requiring a rotaring motion. My method
is as follows, viz:-On the axis of the paddle wheels, which lays across the boat
I fix one or more swinging frames, so contrived that when a man or men sit
on a seat their hands may lay hold of the upper part and pull it to them, while
with their feet they push the lower part from them; the center of motion
being the axis of the wheels, a ratchet. wheel. is fixed on the spinder or axis,
and a paul on this swinging frame, so that every time the man pulls with hands
and pushes with his feet the paul catches the ratchet wheel, and turns the paddle
wheels a part of a revolution, the paul dropping over the teeth when moved in
the contrary direction to fetch another stroke, then exerting a greater power
with less fatigue than in any of the ordinary methods of rowing or turning
machinery. I modify this apparatus in various ways, according to the size of
the vessel, number of men, &c. When the vessel is large, and the wheels of
course large, the swinging frames may be fixed on the axis of the wheels as above
described, because the wheels, being large, will require to be moved but slowly.
But when the vessel is small, and the wheel required to move round faster, I
put the swinging frame on a second axis, which has a tooth wheel upon it work-
ing into a small pinnion on the paddle shaft, which gives it several revolutions
for one of the rachet wheel. The proportion of this wheel and pinnion must be
regulated by the size of the paddle wheels and the rate the vessel is intended to
move at. And further, I detach the two paddle wheels, and make a separate
apparatus to each, so that one wheel can be worked without the other, or one
quicker than the other, as occasion may require; and in small boats I employ
the right hand and right foot to work one paddle wheel, while the left hand
and foot is employed in working the other. I sometimes apply a fly-wheel in
the vessel, to equalize the motion given by the alternate impulse of the hand
and feet, and render the motion uniform. And further, with a view to the
propulsion of the vessels, where circumstances may preclude the use of such an
apparatus as I have above described, I furnish them with oars made either
entirely of iron or partly of wood and partly of iron; that is to say, having
ascertained that there is a great advantage gained by rowing with blades of
greater breadth than those which are made of wood' can possess from want

page_text: of strength, I prefer a broader blade than those in common use, and to make
my blades of iron, and also so much of the shank as lies between the rullocks
of the boat when rowing and the blade, or as is required to meet the strain
between the rullocks of the boat and the blade, such part being, for light-
ness as well as strength, composed of a hollow iron tube, which gives the oar a
buoyancy sufficient to prevent its sinking when it may accidentally fall into the
water. Lastly, to add to the security of vessels, where it is desirable that they
should possess the property of a life boat (a property which should be very
generally given to all boats and vessels), I construct them of iron, with a hollow
water-tight gunwall of sufficient capacity to give buoyancy to the vessel with
any load it may ever be required to carry; or I enclose or cover in one or both
ends in such a manner as to prevent the entrance of water, and at the same
time I put hollow water-tight seats along the side, as well as across, within the
vessel.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Dickinson, have hereunto sot my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifteen.
ROB DICKINSON. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-second day of
December, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Robert Dickinson came
before our Lord the King in His Chancery and acknowledged the Specificn