CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WATER WHEELS AND OF PADDLE WHEELS
Year: 1835

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
LEEMING, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Worsted Spinner, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Ninth day of February, in the fifth year of His reign, did,
for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said James
Leeming, His special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that 1,
the said James Leeming, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said James Leeming, my exors, adiñors, and 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, my
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WATER WHEELS
AND OF PADDLE WHEELS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso,
that I, the said James Leeming, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be inrolled in His 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Leeming, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to consist
in the construction and arrangement of certain mechanical apparatus by which
I am enabled to govern and regulate the position of the floats or boards of

page_text: and to keep them at that extremity as long as the water is acting with the
greatest effect or advantage, or from the point D to E; but as soon as the float
or board which has been at the lowest point of the revolution and begins to
rise towards the surface of the water, the scroll or eccentric C causes a
drawing-in action, and brings the float or board nearer and nearer towards the
centre of the water wheel, until it leaves the water at F, and thereby diminishes
the force required to raise the float or board out of the water after it has ceased
to receive any impelling motion from the stream or fall, which diminution of
force will be in exact proportion as the distance of the whole radius of the
wheel is to radius of which the float or board forms the extremity at that
period of the revolution of the wheel when the float or board is nearest the
centre of such wheel, or, in other words, as G, F, is to C, B: see Figure 1.
The advantages arising from the use of water wheels of this construction
will be most obvious in wheels of the description called breast wheels, or such.
as are represented at Figure 1, when subject to flood or rising of back water,
as, will be apparent by referring to the water line, 9.9, which may be considered
the height of the stream under ordinary circumstances, when the floats or
boards would be free of any lift of the water immediately after they had passed
the point E; but supposing the water to rise to the level h, h, the floats would
have to displace a greater amount of water after they had passed the point E,
which is greatly decreased by decreasing the radius, or withdrawing the float
towards the center of the wheel, as already described.
Having described that part of my Invention which relates to the improved
construction of water wheels, I shall proceed to describe my improved method
of constructing paddle wheels in reference to Figure 3 and 4. Figure 3
represents a side view of the paddle wheel of a steam boat, and Figure 4 a
front sectional view of the same. In these Figures the same letters are used
to indicate similar parts, as in the former description of the water wheel, so
that by tracing the effect of the scroll C, in Figure 3, and taking into con-
sideration the revolution of the paddle wheel in the direction so indicated by
the arrow on the periphery of the wheel, it will be obvious that the paddle or
float boards will be drawn in or receded towards the center of the wheel at
that period of the revolution at which the lifting action or resistance of the
water takes place, and consumes power without impelling the vessel.
Figure 5 represents another modification of my Invention, in which the
eccentric, on which the position of the floats or boards depends as regards
their distance from the center, is made of smaller dimensions, but these and
other modifications of my Invention are too obvious to need any description.
And I am well aware that the exact form, dimensions, and other particulars

page_text: of my Invention may be modified and varied, together with the materials of
which such parts are constructed, all which must depend on the nature of the
work or object to which the wheel is to be applied, and are well known to
mechanics and persons fit to be entrusted with work of this nature.
And although I have described various well-known parts of machinery in the
foregoing Specification, I do not claim any such well-known parts separate
and distinct as my Invention; but I do claim the application of the scroll
eccentric C, or any similar form of eccentric to water wheels and paddle wheels,
for the purpose of receding or drawing the floats, paddles, or boards towards
the center of such wheels at such period of the revolution as may be found
most desirable to lessen the amount of resistance on leaving the water. And
such my Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief, new and
never before used, I hereby deliver this as my true and faithful Specification
of the same.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Leeming, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twentieth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-five.
Inrolled the Twenty-seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-five.