IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PROPELLING VESSELS
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Hamilton, junior, of Liverpool, for the In-
vention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PROPELLING VESSELS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Hamilton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 26th
January 1865.
I, JOHN HAMILTON, junior, of Liverpool, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY POR PROPELLING VESSELS,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for propelling
vessels, and is applicable for propelling vessels where stern wheels are 'used.
The Invention consists in certain arrangements of machinery, hereafter
described, for driving and for lifting and regulating the dip of the float boards,
The bearings of the stern paddle-wheel shaft of a vessel are supported in guides,
which are curved to a radius struck from the end of the connecting rods, where
they are attached to the cross heads or slides of the piston rods of two steam

page_text: cylinders which are fixed on an inclined framing, by which the paddle-wheel
shaft can be raised or lowered, and fixed in any desirable position according to
the dip it is desired to give to the float boards of the paddle wheel. The
cranks on the two ends of the paddle-wheel shaft are fixed at an angle to each
other, and they are respectively driven by connecting rods worked by the
piston rods of the two steam cylinders. The bearings of the paddle-wheel
shaft are lifted and lowered by means of screw shafts put simultaneously in
motion by bevil gearing.
In place of driving the paddle-wheel shaft by means of connecting rods, as
above explained, I in some cases use an endless band or strap, by preference
a flat endless wire rope, in which case the machinery for raising of the paddle-
wheel shaft is arranged as above described, but the steam engine or engines
gives motion to a shaft on which is a drum, or it may be drums, to actuate
the endless band or bands, which then give motion to a pulley or pulleys
on the paddle-wheel shaft. The surfaces of the pulley or pulleys on the
paddle-wheel shaft are covered with thick vulcanized india-rubber, by which
the holding of the wire band is improved. The endless band or bands are
kept to a proper state of tension by pulleys which guide and press upon them.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Hamilton, in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th July 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HAMILTON, junior, of Liverpool, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of January, 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 John Hamilton, Her special licence that I, the said John
Hamilton,, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said John Hamilton, 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

page_text: IN MACHINERY FOR PROPELLING VESSELS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said John Hamilton, 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 within six calendar months next-
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Hamilton, 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 machinery for propelling
vessels, and is applicable for propelling vessels where stern wheels are used.
The Invention consists in certain arrangements of machinery, hereafter
described, for driving and for lifting and regulating the dip of the float boards.
The bearings of the stern paddle-wheel shaft of a vessel are supported in
guides, which are curved to a radius struck from the end of the connecting
rods, where they are attached to the cross heads or slides of the piston rods of
two steam cylinders, which are fixed on an inclined framing, by which the
paddle-wheel shaft can be raised or lowered, and fixed in any desirable position
according to the dip it is desired to give to the float boards of the paddle
wheel. The cranks on the two ends of the paddle-wheel shaft are fixed at an
angle to each other, and they are respectively driven by connecting rods worked
by the piston rods of the two steam cylinders. The bearings of the paddle-
wheel shaft are lifted and lowered by means of screw shafts put simultaneously
in motion by bevil gearing.
In place of driving the paddle-wheel shaft by means of connecting rods, as.
above explained, I in some cases use an endless band or strap, by preference
a flat endless wire rope, in which case the machinery for raising of the paddle-..
wheel shaft is arranged as above described, but the steam engine or engines
gives motion to a shaft on which is a drum, or it may be drums, to actuate the
endless band or bands, which then give motion to a pulley or pulleys on the
paddle-wheel shaft. The surfaces of the pulley or pulleys on the paddle-wheel
shaft are covered with thick vulcanized india-rubber, by which the holding of
the wire band is improved. The endless band or bands are kept to a proper
state of tension by pulleys which guide and press upon them.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.

page_text: Figure 1 shews a side elevation of a stern paddle wheel of a vessel, and of
a steam engine for giving motion thereto. I have not thought it necessary in
this Figure to shew the vessel, as the position of the paddle wheel, and the form
of vessel preferred, are sufficiently indicated in the Figures of the Drawings
next to be mentioned.
Figure 2 shews a side elevation of the after parts of a vessel having a
paddle wheel at the stern; the vessel is simply indicated by blue lines.
Figure 3 shews a plan of the parts in Figure 2.
In Figures 1, 2, and 3 the same mode of raising and lowering the shaft or
axis of the paddle wheel is employed, but the manner in which the power of
the steam engine or engines employed is transmitted to the shaft or axle of the
paddle wheel in Figures 2 and 3 is different from that shewn in Figure 1. In
each of these Figures a, a, represents the stern paddle wheel, and 6 is its shaft
or axis, which turns in bearings c, c, which are capable of being raised or
lowered between curved guides d, d, carried by the upright framing e, e, and
such raising and lowering of the bearings is by means of the connecting
rods ff, which at their lower ends are pinjointed to the sliding bearings c, c.
Each of the connecting rods f is in two parts, which screw one into the other,
as is shewn, and the upper parts have rotating motion communicated to them
simultaneously by the shaft 9, on which are bevil wheels h, which take into and
drive the bevil wheels i, i, on the upper ends of the connecting rods. In
Figure 1, is a steam cylinder, or, if desired, two steam cylinders may be used
to give motion to the cross head k, the ends of which slide between guides,
and from such cross head motion is communicated to the shaft or axis of the
paddle wheel by a connecting rod and crank m at each end of the paddle-
wheel shaft or axis. In Figures 2 and 3 motion is transmitted from the
steam-engine cylinders or cylinder by means of endless bands n, n, as
shewn. It is preferred to employ two steam cylinders, and by them to give
motion to cranks at the two ends of a crank shaft o, as is shewn, on which
are two drums or pulleys p, p, which receive two endless bands n, n,
which pass round to other drums or pulleys q, q, in the paddle-wheel shaft.
The endless bands are kept in a proper state of tension by pressing pulleys
r, r, as shewn.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I would wish it to be understood that I make no claim to
of the mechanical parts separately, but what I claim is,-
any

page_text: First, the combined arrangement described in respect to Figure 1 of the
Drawings.
And, secondly, I claim the combined arrangement described in respect to
Figures 2 and 3 of the Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Hamilton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
JOHN HAMILTON, JUN. (Ls.)