A NEW METHOD OR METHODS OF PROPELLING BOATS OR VESSELS WITH THE AID OF STEAM OR ANY OTHER POWER
Year: 1812

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
HIGGINSON, of Wilson Street, in the Parish of Saint Luke, and 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 Ninth day of May, in the
fifty-second year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Henry
Higginson, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said Henry Higginson, my exors, admors,
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, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies
and Plantations abroad, an Invention communicated to me by a certain
foreigner of "A NEW METHOD OR METHODS OF PROPELLING BOATS OR VESSELS WITH
THE AID OF STEAM OR ANY OTHER POWER;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso that if I, the said Henry Higginson, 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
Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advan-
tages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become

page_text: void, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Higginson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly de-
scribed and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the
following description thereof,-wherein the use and application of my propelling
apparatus are delineated and shewn as follows:-
Fig. 1, A, B, represents a boat or vessel, and C, D, are wheels or rotatory
pieces or parts, moved by steam or by manual strength or any other convenient
first mover or power, and e, e, c, &c. are float boards or pieces or paddles of wood
or iron or other fit material, properly attached to chains or ropes or bands or
other jointed or flexible pieces, which pass round the said wheels or rotatory
pieces or parts, and are by studs or projections or otherwise so connected with
the said wheels or rotatory pieces or parts as to be forced round thereby and
therewith by an endless revolution, and the said float boards or pieces or paddles
do, in the lower part of the said revolution, enter into and pass along, in, and
through the water, and do act in a more direct manner and against a longer
column of water than could have been done by float boards, pieces, or paddles
attached to or forming parts of wheels in the common way, and do thereby
propel the said boat or vessel. And Fig. 2 represents a double set of the
like float boards or picces or paddles, carried round as aforesaid on the outside
and on each side of the said boat or vessel, and acting in the same manner; or
otherwise a single set may in like manner be externally attached to and worked
or used in propelling the said boat or vessel. And farther, I do, when pre-
ferred or required, in order to diminish the resistance of the water against the
float boards, pieces, or paddles while entering or leaving it, and of the air against
the same, attach, fasten, or connect the same to the said chains or ropes or
bands or other jointed or flexible pieces, by means of pivots or hinges or other
similar constructions, so that each of the said float boards, pieces, or paddles
shall be allowed to apply itself to and lie flat or nearly flat against or upon the
said chains or ropes or bands, or other jointed or flexible pieces, during the
return thereof from the water abaft to the wheel or wheels, or rotatory pieces
or parts, in or at the fore or more advanced part of the said boat or vessel, and
shall stand up or out at right angles or nearly so to the course of its motion
while immersed in and intended to act against the water. And I do set or
place the said wheels or rotatory pieces or parts nearer to or farther asunder
with regard to each other; or I do vary in other respects their relative position
or number accordingly as the size of the vessel or the intended number of float

page_text: boards, pieces, or paddles, or other circumstances or motives of choice, conve-
nience, or advantage, shall or may require or demand. And I do farther
declare, that altho' in the Drawings hereunto annexed I have given the
figures of boats or vessels more particularly adapted to the use of my said
propelling apparatus in canals or still waters, my said Invention is never-
theless applicable to boats or vessels of all such other constructions, make,
or figure as may be capable of being propelled, and that the application thereof
may without difficulty be made by any workman acquainted with works of the
like nature, without farther instructions or any scale of dimensions other than
may with facility be deduced from the size and dimensions of the boat or vessel
intended to be so propelled.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Higginson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of November, in the year of our