AN IMPROVEMENT IN OB ADDITION TO TILLERS OR YOKES
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Skelton, of Plaistow, in the County of Essex,
Draughtsman, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN OB ADDITION TO
TILLERS OR YOKES."
Sealed the 12th December 1854, and dated the 24th June 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Skelton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th
June 1854.
I, THOMAS SKELTON, of Plaistow, in the County of Essex, Draughtsman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT
IN OR ADDITION TO TILLERS OR YOKES " to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in fitting two blocks or sheaves on the tiller or yoke,
between those on the free end and the rudder head, one on each side. The
object of these blocks is to take up the slack of the steering rope or chain,
which is inade to work through the two sheaves on each side of the tiller,
before passing to the drum of the steering wheel.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Skelton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
23rd December 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
SKELTON, of Plaistow, in the County of Essex, Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Skelton. Her special licence that I, the said Thomas Skelton, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thonias
Skelton, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT IN OR ADDITION
TO TILLERS OR YOKES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Thomas Skelton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to bo filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Skelton, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to bo particularly described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that
is to say:
My Invention consists in fitting two blocks or sheaves on the tiller or yoke,
between those on the free end or ends and the rudder head. The object
of these blocks is to take up the slack of the steering rope or chain, which
is made to work through them before passing to the drum of the steering
wheel.
Figure 1 of the Drawings annexed is a plan of a single-purchase fore and
aft yoke, and Figure 2 is a plan of a double-purchase fore and aft yoke, having
my Invention applied thereto; Figures 3 and 4 are an elevation and plan of
the yoke detached; Figure 5 is a plan of a single-purchase thwartship yoke;
and Figure 6 is a plan of a double-purchase thwartship yoke, having my Inven-

page_text: tion applied thereto. Figures 7 and 8 are an elevation and plan of the yoke
detached. A is the tiller or yoke, and B an aperture or eye therein, by
which it is fitted to the rudder head. C is the steering rope or chain, and
D, D, are eye-bolts, to which the ends of it are made fast. E, E, are two
pulleys or sheaves on the free end of the tiller or ends of the yoke, and F, F,
are two fixed inclined pulleys or sheaves, round which the steering rope-or
chain passes to the drum of the steering wheel. G, G, are two additional
pulleys or sheaves, which take up the slack of the steering rope or chain, and
H, H, (in Figures 2 and 6) are two fixed pulleys or sheaves, by which the
double purchase is obtained. The central part of the steering rope or chain,
and the drum of the steering wheel round which it passes, are not shewn, the
rope or chain being broken away at I, I, in order to shew the other parts of
the arrangements more distinctly.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim as of my
Invention is, the addition to tillers or yokes of blocks or sheaves between
those on the free end or ends thereof and the rudder head, for the purpose of
taking up the slack of the steering rope or chain.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Skelton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of December, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-four.
THOMAS SKELTON. (L.S.)