A GREAT IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PADDLE WHEELS, APPLICABLE TO SHIPS, BOATS, AND VESSELS OF ALL DESCRIPTIONS PROPELLED BY STEAM OR OTHER MECHA- TICAL POWER
Year: 1837

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
JOHN CAVE, of Rodney Street, Pentonville, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Fourteenth day of September, in the first year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas
John Cave, Her especial license that I, the said Thomas John Cave, my exors,
admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas John Cave, my
exors, adñiors, 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 also within all Her
Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "A GREAT
IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PADDLE WHEELS, APPLICABLE TO SHIPS,
BOATS, AND VESSELS OF ALL DESCRIPTIONS PROPELLED BY STEAM OR OTHER MECHA-
TICAL POWER;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said Thomas John Cave, by an instrument in writing under
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 Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two
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.
my

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that, in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas John Cave, do hereby declare that my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is carried into effect, are fully shewn and explained by the
description herein contained, and by the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is
to say :-
My improvement in the construction of paddle wheels, applicable to ships,
boats, and vessels of all descriptions propelled by steam or other mechanical
power, consists in the combination of three or all of the following four points :—
1. In obtaining a firm support for the paddles by means of a cone attached
concentrically to a disc secured to a set of arms corresponding to one of the
two sets of arms of the ordinary paddle wheels, namely, that set of arms situated
next to the sides of the vessels.
2. In affixing the paddles to the disc and cone by their inner edges only,
and leaving their outer edges free for delivering laterally as well as back-
wards the water lifted by the rotation of the paddle wheels, commonly called
backwater.
3. In extending the paddles from the circumference of the wheel to the
centre shaft, and in attaching them to the plane of the disc in the line of
radius, and making their dipping ends arise from the plane of the disc in an
angle of sixty-five degrees, or a little more or less, and pass partly around the
cone in a spiral direction, by which extension and spiral direction a very firm
support to the paddle is obtained, although only held by one sido or edge,
and by which angular position of the paddle, in respect of the disc, the
paddle will enter into and come out of the water with a lateral as well as a
vertical obliquity to the path of the vessel through the water, the lateral obli-
quity of the paddle tending to throw the water partly sideways and partly back-
wards whereby the inner edges of the paddles are in every part of their path
acting against water not previously set in motion by the preceding paddle.
4. In the case of large paddle wheels, in adding a stay in the form of a ring
to the outer edge of the paddles, whereby the resistance of all the paddles are
brought to the mutual support of each other, or props may be applied behind
each paddle to stay it from the disc or cone.
The Drawings hereunto annexed represent a paddle wheel constructed
according to a combination of my first, second, and third points.
Fig. 1 represents a side view, as seen from the outside of the vessel.
Fig. 2, a side view of the boss, arms, and disc, as seen when removed from
the vessel.
Fig. 3, a plan of the disc and cone.

page_text: The letters of reference are the same in all the Figures.
a, a portion of the shaft from the engine, which may have its bearings in
any common manner. b, an iron boss fixed on the engine shaft near the side
of the vessel. c, iron arms bolted to the boss, and carrying a rim at the
extremities. d. the rim of iron. e, the disc of sheet iron riveted to the arms,
boss, and rim. f, a hollow water-tight frustrum of a cone fixed by its base
concentrically to the disc, and by its small end to the main engine shaft, near
the outer bearing. 9, strips of angle iron rivetted in pairs to the cone. h, the
paddles bolted between the pairs of strips, and to the disc.
And I do further declare, that I lay no claim to the placing of paddles
obliquely in respect to planes radiating from the axis of a paddle wheel where
the paddles are held between two sets of arms. But I do lay claim to that
obliquety when employed in combination with paddles extending spirally
along a cone and a disc from the shaft to the circumference of a wheel, and
fastened to the cone and the disc by their inner edges, leaving their outer
edges unincumbered with arms or rims, except in the case of very large
wheels, when a comparatively slight ring is attached to all the paddles near
the outer extremities, or props placed behind each paddle, as aforesaid, to
increase their firmness, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas John Cave, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of November, One thousand
eight hundred and thirty-seven.
in the presence or
FRED TALBOT, Sol", 47, Bedford Row.
HENRY JOHN PRESTON, his Clerk.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirteenth day of November,
in the year of our Lord 1887, the aforesaid Thomas John Cave came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, 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 that purpose.
Inrolled the Thirteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-sexon