CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PROPELLING VESSELS
Year: 1829

page_text: "TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JACOB
PERKINS, of Fleet Street, in the City of London, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Second day of July, in the tenth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
Jacob Perkins, His special licence that I, the said Jacob Perkins, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Jacob Perkins, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exer-
cise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, and also in all His said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad,
my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PROPELLING
VESSELS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me,
the said Jacob Perkins, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to
be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Jacob
Perkins, do declare that my improvements do consist in the peculiar arrangement,
use, and application of the paddle wheels of vessels, and of the shafts or.axles for
carrying and moving the same. The shafts or axles are placed as nearly as may
be in an horizontal plane, and are so inclined towards each other, and towards &
perpendicular plane passing through the keel of the vessel, that, if produced
backwards, they would meet in such perpendicular plane, and form with it an
angle of forty-five degrees, and with each other an angle of ninety degrees,
pointing towards the stern of the vessel; the shafts or angles, being so inclined
as aforesaid, passed obliquely forwards through the sides of the vessel, and the
wheels, being fixed with their planes at right angles to the shafts, look or stand
obliquely forwards and outwards, and, as a consequence of the position of the
axles before mentioned, stand inclined from the sides of the vessel at the
places near which they are applied. The floats or paddles of the wheels must
be so set or fixed as that each of them shall stand at an angle of about forty-
five degrees to the plane of the wheel's motion, to the end and intent that
_each_float or paddle, when in the lowest part of its rotation, may make a
right angle with the keel of the vessel, or act directly in a line of the vessel's
way, and the uppermost paddle to be parellel to that way or to the keel:
To effect these ends it will be necessarily that all the paddles of the
upper
halves of both the wheels shall have their inner edges pointing backwards or
towards the stern of the vessel, and their outer or external edges in the
direction of the vessel's way or towards its head; the floats or paddles are fixed
in the nave or boss of the wheel, and radiate from its centre. The practical
effect of the above construction will be, that the paddles will enter and leave
the water in an oblique direction, and that the lowest paddle will always movė
in the most advantageous manner, for propelling or backing the vessel, and
the uppermost one being the precise direction of the vessel's way, or parallel
to the keel, and will meet with little impediment in its passage through the
air, whilst the oblique position of the wheels with reference to the side of the
vessel will give room for the water to escape. The oblique position of the
wheels will increase the width of way required for the vessel; but this incon
venience may be diminished, if not wholly removed, by making the paddles
of less width than in common paddle wheels, and by letting parts of the wheels
into hollows made for the purpose in the sides of the vessels, as at A and B in
the annexed Drawing, which exhibits the form of wheel which I adopt, and
à plan of the several positions of the axles as herein described. In my
arrangement as above described the wheels may be much more deeply
immersed in the water than in the ordinary arrangement of paddle wheels,

page_text: which more than compensates for the loss of power occasioned by narrowing
the paddles. In letting the wheels into hollows in the side of the vessel
the only thing to be attended to is, that the inner edge of the paddles at the
lowest point of rotation must not be within the line of the ship's side at that
part, but must be without and clear of the sides of the vessel. The above
description applies to wheels and vessels for sea use, in which case I apply
the shafts and wheels, one on each side of the vessel, placing them so that a
line joining the centres of the wheels would be in a perpendicular plane,
passing through, or, as nearly as may be, through or over the centre of motion
of the vessel, in order that the wheels may be removed from the water or sink
into it as little as possible by its pitching. For river and coasting navigation
I use a single wheel formed as above, and fixed upon an oblique shaft passing
out from the centre of the stern, at an horizontal angle of about forty-five
degrees, with the keel in the manner shewn at C in the annexed Drawings,
the paddles being oblique as above described, or placed at angles of about
forty-five degrees to the plane of the wheel's motion, and in such manner that
the lowest paddle may always move into a position at right angles with the
keel, and consequently in that direction which will produce the most p. wer-.
ful action upon the water in the direction of the keel, either for propelling or
backing the vessel, while the uppermost paddle will always be parellel to or
in a right line with the direction of the keel. The wheel may be made larger
when placed in this position than in any other, and may extend so as to cover
nearly the whole of the stern, and reach downwards nearly to the bottom of
the keel. The position of the shafts or axles, and the construction of the
wheels as above described, are such as I consider the most perfect, but a
trifling variation ftom such position, if rendered necessary by circumstances,
will not affect the principle or utility of my said Invention.
I am aware that paddles placed obliquely, or at different angles to the
plane of the wheel's motion, have been before used, and I therefore lay no
claim to them, except only so far as they are necessarily used in conjunction
with my aforesaid oblique or angular shafts or axles at the two sides of any
vessel as aforesaid, or with a single large wheel fixed astern, and I then only
claim them when the said oblique paddles bind or incline in the direction before
specified, (that is to say,) with that side of the lowest paddle at right angles, or
directly opposed to the way of the vessel, or nearly so, and with the edge of
the uppermost paddle in the direction of that way, or nearly so. When the
oblique shaft and large wheel are used at the stern as aforesaid two rudders
may be adopted, one on each side, or a single rudder at one side only. The
best mode and construction of the paddles known to me at this time for

page_text: applying my said Invention is as follows:-In. consequence of this wheel
revolving at an angle of about forty-five degrees from the line of the vessel's
way, the paddles or blades should be the reverse of the common paddle, that is
to say, instead of being broad with a shallow dip they should be narrow, and
have a deep dip; say, if the wheel is twenty feet diameter, the paddle may
he twelve inches wide, continuing of that width at least one fourth of the
Cameter of the wheel, which would be about the avarege, dip of the paddle.
In witness whercof, I, the said Jacob Perkins, have hereunto-set. my
hand and seal, this Second day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty.<
JACOB (LS.) PERKINS:
AND BE IT REMEMBERED,. that on the Second day of January, in, the
year of our Lord 1850, the aforesaid Jacob Perkins came before our said:
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and' specified, in form above.
written. And also' the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to: the
tenor of the Statute made for-purpose..
-Jet
Inrolled the Second day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty.