AN IMPROVED ARRANGEEMENT OF STEAM ENGINES ADAPTED TO SCREW PROPULSION
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Truscott and Thomas Palmer Baker, Engineers,
Royal Navy, and Members of the Naval Engineers Club at Portsea,
in the County of Hants, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED ARRANGE-
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Thomas Truscott and Thomas
Palmer Baker at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition and Declaration, on the 1st March 1854, pursuant to the 9th
section of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
TRUSCOTT and THOMAS PALMER BAKER, Engineers, Royal Navy, and Members
of the Naval Engineers' Club at Portsea, in the County of Hants, send
greeting.
WHEREAS we are in possession of an Invention for "AN IMPROVED
ARRANGEMENT OF STEAM ENGINES ADAPTED TO SCREW PROPULSION," and have
petitioned Her Majesty to grant to us, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn
declaration that we verily believe ourselves to be the true and first Inventors
thereof.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Thomas Truscott and Thomas Palmer
Baker, do hereby declare that the following Complete Specification, under the
hand and seal of one of us, fully describes and ascertains the nature of our
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
Our Invention consists in arranging, disposing, and combining the parts of
marine steam engines adapted for driving screw-propellers in such manner as
to admit of easy access to and removal of any part. or parts that may become
deranged, and so as to obtain connecting rods of greater length than those here-
tofore employed in such engines, by bringing the cylinders near to the central
line of the ship, and causing the pistons to work through those ends of the
cylinders which are towards the ship's side. The piston rods of each pair of
cylinders carry at their extremities a cross piece, to the middle of which is
attached one end of the connecting rod; which passes between the cylinders, and
has its other end pinned to the crank arm on the shaft in the usual manner.
By placing one pair of cylinders, and a condenser with the apparatus belonging
to them arranged as just described, on each side of the propeller: shaft, the
foremost and aftermost cylinders and condensers being respectively opposite to
each other, we are enabled-to: stow tho engines very compactly, and to place
their heaviest portions in such parts of a ship as are best adapted for pre-
serving her trim.
The accompanying Drawings represent. a pair of marine engines arranged
according to our Invention; Figure 1 being a plan; Figure 2, a transverse
elevation; Figure 3, a transverse section; and Figures 4 and 5, longitudinal
elevations. Similar letters refer to similar parts throughout: A, A, are the
steam cylinders on one side of the ship; A', A', are those on the opposite side;
B, B, B¹, B, and C, C, C¹, C', are respectively the corresponding pistons and
piston rods, the latter of which carry the cross pieces D, D¹. Attached respec-
tively to the centres. of these cross pieces D, D', are the ends of the connecting
rods E, E, the other ends of which are pinned to the crank arms F, F, on
the shaft G. H, H', are the condensers, of which the former is connected by
the pipe I to the cylinders A, A, and the latter by the pipe J to the cylinders
A', A'; K, K', are the air pump rods, of which K is directly attached to one
of the pistons B, B, and K' to one of the pistons B', B'. The slide rods L, L,
are worked by the arms M, M', attached to the axes N, N¹, which have a
rocking motion communicated to them from the link motions by means of the
rods 0, 0, and the arms P, P¹.
In the foregoing description we have pointed out the position which the

page_text: principal parts only of the engine occupy in our arrangement, as the details
may be varied according to circumstances.
And having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we declare that-what we claim is, the
arranging, disposing, and combining the parts of marine steam engines adapted
to screw propulsion in the manner herein-before described and represented in
the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Truscott, on behalf of myself
and the said Thomas Palmer Baker, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Twenty-fourth day of February, One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-four.
THOMAS TRUSCOTT. (L.S.)
THOMAS TRUSCOTT. (L.S.)