CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS FOR PROPELLING VESSELS ON WATER
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN LEE
STEVENS, of Kennington, in the County of Surrey, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of
November, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, in the fifteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Lee Stevens, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, Her especial license,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Lee Stevens, my
exors, adiiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Lee Stevens, my
exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time 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, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of Jersey,
Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her said Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS FOR
PROPELLING VESSELS ON WATER;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that I, the said John Lee Stevens, shall cause a particular description
of 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, to be inrolled
in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said in part 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
John Lee Stevens, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon
(that is to say) —
My Invention consists of improvements in constructing paddle wheels where
the float boards are fixed diagonally in place of parallel to the axis. I would
at the outset state that I am aware that paddle wheels have been before con-
structed with float boards fixed diagonally, or at an angle to the shafts or axes,
and Patents have been granted to secure particular modes of arranging and
fixing float boards diagonally. I mention these in order to state that I do not
claim the placing or fixing of float boards of paddle wheels diagonally.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figures I. and II. are side and end views of a paddle wheel according to
my Invention; Figure III. is an extended view of the same. a, a, a, a, is the
framing of the wheel; b, b, b, b, stays radiating from the centre, to which the
floats are fixed; c, c, c, c, the lesser, and d, d, d, d, the greater intervals between
the floats; e, the line of immersion; f, ff, f, overlapping, and 9, 9.9, 9, receding
ends of the floats.
It will be observed that the floats are so placed that every alternate end f
overlaps the receding end g of the next float board, so that when in motion
these ends marked f force the water displaced by them towards the path of the
wheel, and thereby increase the resisting medium; and it is to be observed
that the ends and g do not touch or come together, but are sufficiently apart
to admit of the free passage of water between them, whereby oscillation and
any depressing action on entering or lifting action on leaving the water are
avoided.
I would remark as regards the angles of divergence from the parallel of the
shaft or axis of the paddle wheel at which the float boards should be set or
fixed, I prefer an angle of from twenty-three degrees to thirty degrees; and
as regards the distance, between the floats, I prefer that the lesser interval c
should be in the proportion of from one fourth to one third of the greater
interval d, but I do not confine myself thereto.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that what I claim is, the
constructing of paddle wheels with diagonal float boards so fixed and arranged
that the alternate float boards overlap or project beyond the ends of the next