IMPROVE- MENTS IN STEAM STEERING APPARATUS, AND IN PART APPLICABLE TO STARTING GEAR OF STEAM OR OTHER MOTIVE-POWER ENGINES, AND HOISTING MACHINERY
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Bow, of Paisley, in the County of
Renfrew, North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN STEAM STEERING APPARATUS, AND IN PART APPLICABLE TO
STARTING GEAR OF STEAM OR OTHER MOTIVE-POWER ENGINES, AND
HOISTING MACHINERY."
.TO
Sealed the 5th May 1876, and dated the 11th November 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Bow at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 11th November 1875.
I, WILLIAM Bow, of Paisley, in the County of Renfrew, North
Britain, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM STEERING APPARATUS, AND IN PART APPLICABLE TO
STARTING GEAR OF STEAM OR OTHER MOTIVE-POWER ENGINES, AND TO HOISTING
MACHINERY," to be as follows:-
-
This Invention comprises improvements in steam steering apparatus
of the kind described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to

page_text: William Fair and to the present applicant, and dated 24th September,
1872 (No. 2817), and the improvements are in part applicable to
starting gear of steam or other motive-power engines, and to hoisting
machinery.
In the apparatus described in the Specification herein-before referred
to the degree and direction of motion of the engines depended on the
position of plates, with peculiar passages through them interposed
between the slide valves and the cylinder ports. In carrying out the
present Invention the interposed plates are moved by levers on a rocking
shaft, and a lever on this shaft is jointed or connected to an eccentric or
crank which is carried on a crank or eccentric of a small shaft having
fast on it a toothed sector in gear with a pinion on the chain barrel
shaft or other slowly moving shaft of the apparatus. The eccentric has
fixed to it an arm, which is connected by a ball-and-socket joint to a
link having its other end connected by a ball-and-socket joint to a
lever on a vertical spindle. On the upper end of the vertical spindle
there is fixed a light hand lever or tiller, which the steersman sets just
as he would an 'ördinary tiller connected directly to a rudder head; or
the vertical spindle 'may be geared by bevil wheels to a 'horizontal shaft
with a hand wheel on it. When the vertical 'spindle is moved it causes
the eccentric 'to shift the interposed valve plate, but 'the consequent
motion of the engines moves the crank carrying 'the eccentric 'in such a
way as to neutralise the action of the eccentric by the time the rudder
is moved to the position corresponding to that in which the small tiller
or vertical spindle has been set.
In starting gear for large engines the small cylinders will act on the
large valve 'motion link as the rudder is acted on in the steering
apparatus, and the hand lever will be set to the position corresponding
to that to which it is wished to bring the large link. Similarly in
hoisting machinery the hand lever will be set to a position corresponding
to the extent of hoisting or lowering action wanted, and the engine' will
stop of itself on the point being reached.
יו
1.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Bow in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 10th May 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
Bow, of Paisley, in the County of Renfrew, North Britain, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said William Bow, Her
special licence that I, the said William Bow, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I; the said William Bow,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM STEERING APPARATUS AND IN PART APPLICABLE TO
STARTING GEAR OF STEAM OR OTHER MOTIVE-POWER ENGINES, AND TO HOISTING
MACHINERY," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
William Bow, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should parti-
cularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be
filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
3.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Bow, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement in writing, reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawings, that is to say:-
My said Invention comprises improvements in steam steering
'
P
'

page_text: granted to William Fair and myself, and dated 24 September, 1872
(No. 2817), and my improvements are in part applicable to starting
gear of steam or other motive-power engines, and to hoisting machinery.
In the apparatus described in the Specification herein-before referred
to the degree and direction of motion of the engines depended on the
position of plates with peculiar passages through them interposed
between the slide valves and the cylinder ports. In carrying out my
present Invention the said interposed plates are moved by levers on a
rocking shaft, and a lever on this shaft is jointed or connected to an
eccentric or crank which receives one movement from a tiller or
equivalent part acted on by the steersman and another from the engines
themselves, the combination being such that the engines in working
and moving the rudder into the position corresponding to that of the
tiller at the same time so act on the valve plates as to bring about their
own stoppage on accomplishing the desired movement.
And in order that my said Invention, and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, I hereunto append two Sheets of
explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and representing a
pair of steam steering engines as fitted with my present improved
details for acting on the valves. In these Drawings the same reference
numerals are used to mark the same or like parts wherever they are
repeated.
Figures 1 and 2 on Sheet 1 of the Drawings are a plan and an end
elevation of the steering engines, and Figures 3 and 4 on Sheet 2 are
sectional elevations, as at right angles to each other, of the parts to
which my present Invention more particularly relates as detached from
the rest of the machinery. The engines comprise two horizontal
cylinders 1, 2, driving a crank shaft 3, having on it a pinion in gear with
a spur wheel 4 on a second-motion shaft 5. This second-motion shaft 5
has on it a pinion in gear with a spur wheel 6 on the main shaft 7, on
which is fixed the barrel 8 for the chains, by means of which the
engines act on the rudder. The crank shaft 3 has on it single eccentrics
9 for working the ordinary slide valves, and the valve plates interposed
between these slide valves and the port faces are moved by rods 10
jointed to levers on a rocking shaft 11, onc, 12, of which levers is jointed
to the strap 13 of an eccentric 14. This eccentric 14 is loose on a

page_text: "
crank 15, which is on a shaft 16, having fixed on it a toothed sector 17
in gear with a pinion 18 on the main or barrel shaft 7. The eccentric
14 has fixed to it by forked parts an arm or lever 19 having a ball
formed at its upper end to form a ball-and-socket joint with a link 20,
which is connected by a similar ball-and-socket joint to the end of a
horizontal lever 21 fixed on a vertical shaft or spindle 22. On the
upper end of the vertical spindle 22 there is fixed a light hand lever or
tiller 23, which the steersman sets just as he would an ordinary tiller
connected directly to a rudder head; or the vertical spindle 22 may be
geared by bevil wheels to a horizontal shaft with a hand wheel on it.
When the vertical spindle 22 is turned it causes the eccentric 14 to turn
on the crank 15 of the shaft 16, and to shift the interposed valve plates
accordingly, but the consequent motion of the engines acting through
the pinion 18 and sector 17 turns the shaft 16, and by the action of its
crank 15 moves the eccentric 14 in such a way as to neutralise its action
on the valve plates by the time the rudder gets moved to the intended
position corresponding to that in which the small tiller 23 or vertical
spindle 22 has been set.
In applying the improved mechanism to starting gear for large
engines the small cylinders (1, 2,) will act on the large valve motion link
as the rudder is acted on in the steering apparatus, and the hand lever
(23) will be set to the position corresponding to that to which it is
wished to bring the large link. Similarly in hoisting machinery the
hand lever (23) will be set to a position corresponding to the extent of
hoisting or lowering action wanted, and the engine will stop of itself on
the point being reached.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to
the precise details herein described and delineated, but that what I
believe to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured to
me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the communi-
cating of the manual controlling movement in steering engines and in
starting gear for steam or other motive-power engines, and in hoisting
machinery by turning an eccentric or crank carried by a crank or
eccentric, which latter is acted on by the engines, gear, or machinery,
so as to neutralise the action due to such manual controlling movement

page_text: described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Bow, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Ninth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,.
Glasgow.
WILLIAM BOW. (L.S.)