IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR STEERING SHIPS AND VESSELS
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Horatio Harfield, of No. 2, Royal Exchange
Buildings, in the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR STEERING SHIPS AND VESSELS."
'Sealed the 24th November 1865; and dated the 9th June 1865
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said. William Horatio Harfield
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th June 1865.
I, WILLIAM HORATIO HARFIELD, of No. 2, Royal Exchange Buildings,.
5.in the City of London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR STEERING SHIPS AND VESSELS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for steering
ships and vessels. I fix to the deck of the ship, or vessel an iron frame having
two standards, one in front of and the other behind the rudder post. These
standards carry in bearings the axis of the steering wheel, it passes vertically
over the centre of the rudder post, and has on it a pinion which gears with other
pinions, one on each side of it, these latter pinions being: fixed on two screws,
the one right and the other left-handed. On the screws are nuts (conveniently
made by casting metal on to the screws), they are fixed in blocks which thus,

page_text: when the steering wheel is turned, traverse along the screws, but in contrary
directions, the blocks being guided and steadied by the axis of the steering
wheel, each block having a half-round groove on its edge and fitting against
the axis. The nut and traversing block may be made together in one piece,
but this is not so convenient. On the rudder post is a cross-head, it is forked
at the ends, and in each fork is a slide or brass capable of moving radially to
and from the centre of the rudder post. At the outer end of each sliding
block a pin is fixed projecting downwards, and entering a hole formed to fit it
in the slide or brass working in the fork of the rudder cross-head beneath.
Thus the motion of the steering wheel is communicated to the rudder, and
the further the rudder is put over, the more power has the wheel over it in
consequence of the slides or brasses in the cross-head moving out further and
further from the centre of the rudder post.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Horatio Harfield in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 8th December 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HORATIO HARFIELD, of No. 2, Royal Exchange Buildings, in the City of
London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Horatio Harfield, Her special licence that I, the said William
Horatio Harfield, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said William Horatio Harfield, 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR. STEERING SHIPS AND VESSELS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Horatio Harfield, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under 'my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals, 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

page_text: within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of 'the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Horatio Harfield, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for steering
ships and vessels. I fix to the deck of the ship or vessel an iron frame having
two standards, one in front of and the other behind the rudder post. These
standards carry in bearings the axis of the steering wheel, it passes directly
over the centre of the rudder post, and has on it a pinion which gears with
other pinions, one on each side of it, these latter pinions being fixed on two
screws, the one right and the other left-handed. On the screws are nuts
(conveniently made by casting metal on to the screws), they are fixed in blocks
which thus, when the steering wheel is turned, traverse along the screws, but
in contrary directions, the blocks being guided and steadied by the axis of the
steering wheel, each block having a half-round groove on its edge and fitting
against the axis. The nut and traversing block may be made together in one
piece, but this is not so convenient. On the rudder post is a cross-head, it is
forked at the ends, and in each fork is a slide or brass capable of moving
radially to and from the centre of the rudder post. At the outer end of each
sliding, block a pin is fixed projecting downwards and entering a hole formed
to fit it in the slide or brass working in the fork of the rudder cross-head
beneath. Thus the motion of the steering wheel is communicated to the
rudder, and the further the rudder is put over the more power has. the wheel
over it in consequence of the slides or brasses in the cross-head moving out
further and further from the centre of the rudder post. And in order that my
said Invention may be most fully understood, and readily carried into effect, I
will proceed to describe the Drawings hereunto annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
a, α,
Figure 1 is a side view of steering apparatus arranged according to my
Invention; Figure 2 is a plan, and Figure 3 a back view of the same.
is the rudder post, and b is an iron cross-head firmly fixed thereon. c, c, is a
frame surrounding the rudder post, it carries in bearings the two screws, d, d,
which are respectively right and left-handed, and also the axis e, on which
the steering wheelf is carried; e¹ is a pinion on the axis e, gearing with the
pinions d', d, on the screws d, d; g, g, are sliding blocks containing nuts,
which work on the screws d, d; these blocks are each made to fit on one side

page_text: to the axis e, which thus serves as a guide, and on the other side of each block a
pin is passed vertically down through each of them into the slide h below, which
slide works in a radial slot in the cross-bead b, as is shewn. Thus by turning the
steering wheel motion is communicated to the rudder, and when the rudder
is amidships the slides h; h, are at their nearest to the centre of the rudder
post, and therefore the motion is then rapid, and it gets slower as the rudder
is put over and the strain increases. The nuts in the sliding blocks g, g, are
conveniently made in cast-iron, they are cast with a passage through them of
sufficient size for the free passage of the screw, and the thread is produced
within this passage by running in white metal or brass upon the screw, the
same having been first coated with a thin wash of loam.
What I claim is the arranging steering apparatus as herein-before set forth,
the axis of the steering wheel being geared with a right and left-handed screw,
one on either side, such screws giving motion to traversing blocks, which are
connected with slides or brasses on a cross-head on the rudder post, so that as.
the rudder is put over to a greater and greater angle the slides or brasses
recede more and more from the centre of the rudder post, and thus increase
the leverage to meet the increase in the resistance.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Horatio Harfield, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
W. H. HARFIELD. (L.S.)