IMPROVEMENTS IN APPLYING STEAM AND OTHER POWER TO SHIPS, BOATS, AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1833

page_text: DRANDL
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
WILLIAM BRANDLING, of Low Gosforth, in the County of Northumberland,
Esquire, 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 Nineteenth day of November, in the
fourth year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Robert William Brandling, His especial license,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Robert William
Brandling, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Robert William Brandling, 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, my
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPLYING STEAM AND OTHER POWER TO SHIPS,
BOATS, AND OTHER PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that I, the said Robert William Brandling, shall cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, 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 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
Robert William Brandling, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters
marked thereon (that is to say):-
By this mode stationary and locomotive engines may be employed in
dragging ships and vessels along rivers and canals, and for other purposes.
These objects are accomplished by means of resisting guides or frames,
moving upon and retained in a proper position by wheels and rollers fixdd
to strong posts at certain intervals along the sides of the river or canal, and
allowing these guides or frames, with the arms by which they are attached
to the ropes or chains from the stationery engines or to the locomotive engines,
to pass without any obstruction. These guides or frames may be of any
length, but should be at least sufficiently long to insure the point of traction
where the towing line is fixed being always between two of the points of
resistance or the points of contact where the guides or frames press against
the resisting rollers. These guides, when stationary engines are used, are
moved by single or double ropes or chains attached to the ends or arms,
or by endless ropes or chains attached to one or more of the arms projecting
from the guide or frame, and which endless ropes or chains are detached
from and attached to the guides and frames by machinery, or by the atten-
dants at those points where one stationary engine is intended to cease acting
and another to commence. Any number of locomotives may be attached
to those guides or frames at different points according to the power required;
and in addition to these retaining guides and frames, with their wheels and
rollers, these locomotive engines may be kept in their proper position, and the
power of the engine in dragging the vessel regulated or increased by means
of compression wheels or rollers forced against a rail by strong springs or
weights and levers. These wheels act horizontally or in any other direction
in opposition to the line of traction. The rails against which these wheels act
do not necessarily bear any part of the weight of the engine, the wheels
carrying which move on the towing path; sufficient play is allowed by the
arms and connecting rods, springs and wheels, so that no sudden jolt, eleva-
tion, or depression of the engine can materially disturb the guides or frames
and compression wheels, so as to prevent their producing the desired effect.
These compression wheels are worked by cogs and lanterns, which allow them
to yield freely and in the proper direction to the compressing power. The

page_text: seats supporting the axles of these wheels move in grooves, and are acted
upon by the springs or levers. These compression wheels, and the mode
of applying and moving them with the resisting rail, are parts of this Inven-
tion. The general principles and their application by which the proposed
objects are effected are shewn distinctly in the accompanying plans numbered
1, 2, and 3. The mechanical construction, and the size and proportion of the
different parts, must depend upon the strength of the materials and other
circumstances, and can only be accurately adjusted by actual experiments, which
could not be safely made till after the period had expired which is allowed
for enrolling the Specification. If the towing path or road is straight and
level, the guide or frame may be stiff and without joints; otherwise they
must be jointed, the gradual and proper adaptation of the different parts
to the curve being effected by strong levers and tooth and pinion wheels, or
by the use of the resisting rail and compression wheels, in which case the
front wheels of the locomotive engine must be allowed to move to answer
the bend, and the resisting rail at each end of the curve must have a
portion of it straight at least equal in length to the distance between the
joints of the guide or frame. The rollers also in this case which support
and retain them must be of such a length as to allow those parts of the
guide or frame which rest upon or are retained by them to move freely while
forced by the compression wheels and resisting rail to assume the proper
curvature. This Invention may be used in dragging vessels through narrow
tunnels, stationary engines being fixed at either or both ends, and the wheels
and rollers at the sides or top; and it may be employed also in moving
passage boats across rivers, or buoys in harbours, and other places where it is
desireable to retain the ropes or chains at the bottom so as not to interrupt
the navigation; but in such cases a diving bell ought to be provided to meet
any accident that may happen, notwithstanding the necessary precautions
of double ropes or chains and safety lines attached to the guides or frames,
without bearing any part of the ordinary strain. This Invention may be
applied to dragging any carriages upon common roads or railroads and up
any ascent, and whether moving along or crossing them, or passing through
pleasure grounds, or along quays where the ropes, or chains, or guides would
be a nuisance and obstruction; the guide, or frame posts, rollers, and ropes
may all be below the surface, nothing appearing but the top of the arms
moving along a narrow groove. The guides are so called in this Invention
when composed of one or more pieces joined longitudinally, and frames or
resisting frames when of two or more pieces and joined laterally by other pieces.

page_text: Plan No. 1.-Fig. 1. A, A, A, river or canal; B, B, vessel; C, C, C, strong
posts in the towing path; D, D, D, D, resisting. guides or frames;
E, E, E, wheels, or rollers; G; G, part of the arms attaching the guides
or frames to the locomotive engines or the ropes or chains of stationary
engines; H, H, axle of the locomotive engine; I, I, I, wheels of the loco-
motive engine; K, towing line; L, L, towing path. Figs. 2, 3, and 4, shew
some of the modes of attaching the guides or frames to the locomotive
engines and keeping them in their
proper position...
.
Plan No. 2.-Sections of posts, rollers, guides, or frames, and attaching
arms on a larger scale. The dotted line, Fig. 5, shows one of the forms
of: the attaching arm to which the rope is supposed to be fixed, but different
forms may be used, or the straight arm, Fig. 3. In Fig. 5 the endless rope
may travel on the top retaining rollers; in Fig. 3, on the bottom ones. In
Fig. 4 the dotted line R, R, connecting the two guides converts them into a
frame, by which the power of the retaining rollers is encreased by increasing
the breadth of such frame. The lettering of this plan corresponds with that
in plan No. 1, with the addition of F, which is a turn stile wheel, part of this
Invention. This wheel, for strength and security, may in some cases be
advantageously used.
Plan No. 3.-Fig. 1. Compression wheels, and lanterns, and cogs, by which
they are moved, which is one mode of allowing for. their necessary motion
in the groove attached to the frame which supports them. The guides and
rollers are shewn unattached at the side; in some cases two rails might be
used and one guide. M, M, compression wheels; N, N, lanterns and cogs;
0, 0, 0, resisting rail. Fig. 2, compression wheels, worked by levers and
weights. They are attached to a frame moved by the friction of those wheels
when turned by the engine; the whole is supported by the posts and rollers,
and kept in a proper position by the means above described. In these plans
the elevation of the lower and supporting rollers above the surface of the
ground is evidently unnecessarily great. The guides or frames may be
supported at any number of points by wheels travelling clear of the posts
and rollers.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert William Brandling, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand night hundred and think from
ROBT W (Ls.) BRANDLING.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of May, in
the year of our Lord 1834, the aforesaid Robert William Brandling came
before our said Lord the King in His 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 Nineteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-four.