EFFECTING CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF SETTING IN MOTION AND PROPELLING SHIP3, VESSELS, AND BOATS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION UPON SEAS, RIVERS, CANALS, AND INLAND WATERS."
Year: 1853

page_text: THE
'88
05, Kmg
nam
Street, London Bridge, in the City of London, Esquire, for the
Invention of "EFFECTING CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF
SETTING IN MOTION AND PROPELLING SHIP3, VESSELS, AND BOATS OF
EVERY DESCRIPTION UPON SEAS, RIVERS, CANALS, AND INLAND WATERS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Francis Higginson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 16th September 1853.
I, FRANCIS HIGGINSON, of No. 65, King William Street, London
Bridge, in the City of London, Esquire, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "EFFECTING CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
MEANS OF SETTING IN MOTION AND PROPELLING SHIPS, VESSELS, AND BOATS
OF EVERY DESCRIPTION UPON SEAS, RIVERS, CANALS, AND INLAND WATERS,"
to be as follows:-
To bore holes or orifices of any required size abaft and forward
through the hull or bottom of any ship, vessel, or boat in any part o
the run abaft the midship section towards or near the stern, or in the
foremost parts or bows before the midship section towards or near the

page_text: stem or forefoot of any such ship, vessel, or boat, and into such holes
or orifices to securely fit and adapt strong metal pipes, tubes, or
cylinders (to be designated or distinguished by the name of propulsion
pipes) of any required size or length, each propulsion pipe or tube to
be fitted with a plug, piston, or embolus, worked by means of a metal
piston rod or handle in the manner of a syringe. The piston rod of
such propulsion pipe or tube is then to be attached or joined to the
piston rod of the cylinder of either a high pressure or condensing steam
engine, the cylinder of any such engine to be placed and work hori-
zontally in a line with the keel of the ship, vessel, or boat so fitted
with propulsion pipes or tubes abaft and forward; and any amount of
steam power may thus be applied to work the piston of the propulsion
pipes or tubes, which in different sized vessels and from experience may
be found desirable or necessary, whether one or more such propulsion
pipes or tubes be fitted or used abaft and forward in any such ship,
vessel, or boat to be hereafter completely specified. The propulsion
pipes or tubes abaft and forward at their external orifices to be fitted
with stop-cocks or valves to shut off the ingress of the water when not
required for propulsion (or other necessary occasion), which ingress of
water the plug, piston, or embolus contained in the propulsion pipes
or tubes will prevent during the time they are-at work, except the
ingress of such quantity or body of water as is necessary for propelling
the ship, vessel, or boat, which propulsion will be effected by the
pressure of the piston contained in the propulsion pipes or tubes on the
column or pipe full of water, that will always rush in and fill such pro-
pulsion pipes or tubes from their being placed below the level of the
ordinary surface of the water outside the ship, vessel, or boat, when-
ever the propulsion plug, piston, or embolus is drawn in within such
pipe towards the centre of the vessel from abaft or forward by the
action of the steam piston in the cylinder of any steam engine adapted
or fitted for that purpose in the ordinary manner of the working of
steam engines.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Francis Higginson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 15th March 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
FRANCIS HIGGINSON, of No. 65, King William Street, London Bridge,
in the City of London, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and succes-
sors, give and grant unto me, the said Francis Higginson, Her special
licence that I, the said Francis Higginson, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Francis Higginson,
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
"EFFECTING CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF SETTING IN MOTION
AND PROPELLING SHIPS, VESSELS, AND BOATS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION UPON
SEAS, RIVERS, CANALS, AND INLAND WATERS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Francis Higginson, 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 be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Francis Higginson, 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:
Near the stern of the vessel aft in the run on each side beneath the
line of the flotation I place two steam engine cylinders M, M, of
about eight feet stroke in a horizontal position, having pistons working

page_text: therein connected by suitable apparatus with pistons working in two other
cylinders or propulsion tubes, also placed horizontally, and constituting
the propellers or propulsion apparatus, as shewn in Figure 1, of the
annexed Drawing, or, instead of two cylinders one above the other, as
represented in Figure 1, one cylinder may be employed on each side
aft in the run, as represented in Figure 2, when a smaller amount of
speed is required.
In Figure 2, of the annexed Drawing N, N, are slide bars, between
which traverse the slide blocks O, O, of the cross head B, B. The end
of the steam piston rod D, D, is let into the cross head B, and attached
to it by rings A, A, and by screw bolts that penetrate likewise through
the end of the propelling piston rod C, C, which in like manner is let
into, fixed, and secured to the opposite side of the cross head B, by the
rings and bolts described.
The propelling piston C, is fitted into a cylinder, pipe, or tube T,
denominated a propulsion pipe, the outer end of which propulsion pipe
is inserted and secured in an orifice bored through the vessel's bottom
as close down to the keel as possible, and consequently the water finds
its way freely into the pipe from without. The propelling piston C,
within the propulsion pipe T, is set in motion by the steam piston D,
which acts in the same horizontal line, in consequence of the ends of
both the steam and propulsion piston rods D, and C, being firmly
attached and secured opposite cach other to the cross head B, when
two sets of apparatus are used on each side, one above the other, as
represented in Fig. 1; the pistons in the upper set of apparatus move
in opposite directions to those below, their reciprocating action being
so regulated that one set of steam and propulsion pistons shall always
be at the end of their stroke when the others are at the beginning, the
object of which arrangement is, like that of cranks placed at right
angles, to equalize the work of the engine at the different points of
its stroke.
The opening and vacuum presented under water by the orifice and
bore of the propulsion pipe T, when the piston C, is drawn in towards
the centre of the vessel by the action of the steam piston D, is imme-
diately filled by a column of water equal to the contents of such pipe,

page_text: which, from being always below the line of flotation, is necessarily
kept full. The column of water so admitted within the pipe T,
presents a resisting surface or medium to the backstroke of the
propelling piston C, when made sternward.
The steam engine cylinders are supplied with steam in the usual
way, the valve gear being arranged in connection with the steam
cylinder, and the slide bars N, N, and the slide blocks O, O, in various
ways, well understood by practical engineers, so as to ensure the alternate
reciprocating stroke of the piston in the steam cylinders. When repairs,
restuffing, or other circumstances render it necessary that the open
extremities (under water) of the propulsion pipe T, should be closed,
they may be shut either by the stop-cocks R, R, placed horizontally to
be accessible to a spanner or by such a slide or sluice scuttle as that
shewn by Figures 3, 4, 5, which scuttle works in a frame E, inserted
into the iron or wood work of any vessel, and may be raised or lowered
by the rack F, and the pinions P, P, adapted to that purpose either on
deck or in the hold.
The bows of a vessel may also be perforated on both sides low down
near the forefoot, and a propulsion pipe placed in each orifice with
steam cylinders attached working horizontally in a plane parallel to the
ship's course. These propellers will be employed when it is necessary
to make a stern board, care being taken to stop the engines abaft
before those forward are thrown into gear.
In vessels, however, intended only for short passages or river pur-
poses, where the size of the boiler is of less consequence, the propulsion
piston C, of this Invention can be set in motion by high pressure
steam supplied direct from the boilers without using a condensing
engine at all, in which case (high pressure) a double piston or plunger
C, C, C, will be required in the propulsion pipe T, as if the external
water is allowed to fill the entire length of the pipe at every stroke,
such propulsion pipe must thereby be rendered so cold as to instantly
condense any quantity of steam admitted therein.
The pistons employed for propulsion may be perforated and fitted
with valves so as to allow of their action being altered or reversed.

page_text: The buoyancy of vessels may be increased by air-tight cases of
galvanized iron or other material placed against the sides, the air
being displaced from such cases by steam, thereby procuring practically
a vacuum therein as an additional means of floatation.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I hereby declare that I claim
the propelling ships, vessels, and boats of every description by piston
pressure upon columns of water admitted into pipes, tubes, or cylinders
within such vessels, and acted on therein by pistons, as above described
and represented.
In witness whereof, I, the said Francis Higginson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
FRANCIS HIGGINSON. (L.S.)