CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF IMPELLING VESSELS, BOATS, BARGES, AND RAFTS, WHICH MAY BE ALSO APPLIED TO THE MOVING OF WATER WHEELS AND WIND MILLS, THE RAISING OF WATER, THE DREDGING, CLEANSING, OR DEEPENING OF RIVERS AND HARBOURS, AND THE IMPELLING OF OTHER MACHINERY
Year: 1813

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERTSON
BUCHANAN, of the City of Glasgow, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty George the Third, by the Grace of
God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King, Defender
of the Faith, did, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the said
United Kingdom, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighteenth day of
October, in the fifty-third year of His reign, give and grant to me, the
said Robertson Buchanan, His especial licence, that I, the said Robertson
Buchanan, during the term of fourteen years, in manner therein mentioned,
should and lawfully might usc, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also within His Majesty's
Plantations and Colonies abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MEANS OF IMPELLING VESSELS, BOATS, BARGES, AND RAFTS, WHICH MAY BE
ALSO APPLIED TO THE MOVING OF WATER WHEELS AND WIND MILLS, THE RAISING OF
WATER, THE DREDGING, CLEANSING, OR DEEPENING OF RIVERS AND HARBOURS, AND
THE IMPELLING OF OTHER MACHINERY," as set forth in the said Letters Patent; in
which there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Robertson Buchanan,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be enrolled within His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within two calendar months after the date of the said Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at
large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that, in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robertson Buchanan, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and manner of performing the same, are particularly described and
ascertained as follows, that is to say :-
In the first place, my said invention is established upon a mathematical
theorem, which may be enumerated in the words here underlined, namely:--
If two equal rings or circular lines in the same plane, or in planes parallel to
said theorem being very easily deducible by any person acquainted with the
elementary principles of geometry, and not being needful to enable a work-
man to perform my said Invention, I have not for those reasons considered
it to be requisite that. I should enlarge upon the same in this place.
Secondly, the red circle and the black circle in Figure 1 denote the rings
or circular lines before mentioned and Y and X denote the centers thereof, and
the line 1 a parallel, and equal to X, Y; the line of distance of the centers will
continue equal and parallel to that line of distance in the positions 2 c, and 3 e,
and 4 g, and in all other positions into which the point 1 can be brought
during the uniform equal and similarly directed revolutions of the two circles.
Thirdly, if a wheel, which I shall here call the pitch wheel, be constructed,
and here denoted by the black circle Figure 1, having four or any other
number of paddles, a b, a c, fe, hg, capable of being moved or shifted in
position upon the respective axes or centers thereof, 1, 2, 3, 4, and the ex-
tremities of the said paddles, a, c, e, g, or any arms or connecting pieces equal in
lengh to X, Y, be attached (under the conditions before set forth) to another
wheel or revolving piece, which I shall here call the connection wheel or piece,
it will be a necessary consequence that if one of the said wheels be made to
revolve the other wheel will also revolve in the same direction and with
the same velocity, and the paddles will continue parallel to X, Y, and to
each other (excepting only in the casc wherein the said cases or centers may
be governed by arms or connecting pieces, and the paddles themselves be also
capable of having their positions on the said axis or centers varied, and then
each paddle will continue parallel to itself, as it may have been so first posited).

page_text: And fourthly, Figure 2, numbers 1, 2, and 3, denote, by views of the nature of
two vertical sections and one ground plan or section, the said pitch wheel and
connection wheel or piece fitted up and connected with the paddles; and in
all the Drawings the same letters and figures indicate the same parts or
things. B denotes the axis or arbor of the pitch wheel, which wheel is or
may be made double in order to support the axles of the paddles; and C
denotes a circilar fixed piece which serves as an arbor for the connecting
wheel or piece to revolve upon by its smooth and fitted socket, and the said
circular piece is by the construction eccentrio with regard to the pitch wheel,
and sufficiently large to allow the arbor B of the pitch wheel to pass through
it without interfering with the motion of the connecting wheel or piece. And
farther, at A 1, A2, A3, and A 4, are seen the arms or connecting pieces
always parallel to the line between the centers X, Y. But in such construc-
tions of machinery as do not require the arbor B, or any arbor or axis for the
pitch wheel to pass through, as here delineated, then, instead of the piece C,
may be substituted a simple pivot or any other kind of center, to govern the
circular motion of the connecting circle or piece. And moreover, in such
cases as may require that the position of all the paddles should be changed at
the same time with regard to surrounding fixed objects, by a motion equivalent
to that of weathering or changing their obliquity, I do produce such and the
said change by any well-known means of construction, by which the centre X
can be made adjustable in position around and preserving constantly the same
distance from the center Y; and I do accordingly change the position of the
said center X, and thereby also the obliquity of the said paddles, by virtue or
reason of the constant condition that the arms A 1, A 2, A 3, and A 4 will
continue parallel to the line X, Y, joining the centers of the pitch wheel and
connection wheel in what manner soever the said line X, Y, may at any time
be placed. And I, the said Robertson Buchanan, do further declare, as to the
practice of my said Invention in the impelling of vessels, boats, barges, or
rafts, I do fit up the same with one or more wheels having paddles and
other apparatus, as before described, and to cause the pitch wheels to revolve
by the action of steam or any other suitable first mover, and thereby to strike
the paddles duly into and against the water, so as by the usual reaction to
produce a progressive motion of and in the said vessels, boats, barges, or
rafts;
and I do fix or 'adjust the center X in such manner that the paddles
shall have their surfaces of action perpendicular to that of the water or nearly
so, namely, with the upper borders or edges thereof inclined forward more or
less, by trial and observations, as the velocity through the water is greater or
less, in order that the resistances from the immersion' and delivery of the

page_text: paddles may be the least, and the action from the direct impulse of the lower
paddles may be the greatest possible. And moreover, with regard to the
undershot wheels, I do adjust the paddles in like manner, so that the loss of
force by the first immersion and by the lifting of the tail-water may be the
least, and the direct impulse the greatest possible. And with regard to breast
wheels, the floats must be set at such an obliquity as may best and most
effectually subject them to the action of the water. And with regard to over-
shot or bucket wheels, I do substitute in the place of floats certain shallow
vessels or horizontal floats, with ledges on the upper side. And I do make
one of the sides or ledges thereof to turn on pivots or otherwise, in order to
discharge and empty the water at the lower situation of the revolving wheel,
by means of a tripping piece there placed for that purpose, or by other fit
means. And I do fill or charge the said vessels or horizontal floats with
water when at the upper part of the revolution in the usual manner. And
with regard to windmills with upright shafts, I do apply and use my said
improvements, taking care that the floats or sails shall be opposed at right
angles to the direction of the wind when in that position where the radius of
the pitch wheel is also in the place of the float, and also that a fit cover shall
be applied to defend the floats or sails from the action of the wind in their
returning semi-revolution. And the said last application and use of my said
improvements will be equally effectual in mills of which the principal shaft
shall be horizontal or oblique instead of being vertical, provided that in all
.such cases the said shaft shall be itself at right angles to the direction of the
wind. And farther, whensoever the strength of the wind or nature of the
work shall or may render it expedient to alter the obliquity or weathering of the
floats or sails, the same may be done by altering the situation of the centre X;
and, if required, such alteration may be made during the actual work, by means
of the centrifugal apparatus called the governor, or by any other well-known
and appropriate apparatus, operating by means of the velocity of the mill
itself. And I do further declare that the vessels or horizontal floats hercin-
before described as applicable to overshot mills may also be applied to raise
water by my said improvements, and in this case the pitch wheel must be
moved by any fit first mover, and the buckets filled below and emptied above
by the method before described, or any other well-known method. And the
dredging from the bottom of waters may also be performed by scraping buckets
attached to the wheels instead of the paddles aforesaid; and the said buckets,
after having charged themselves by acting upon the ground at bottom, are
discharged into an appropriate channel or conveyance near the top, by the
action of a metallic piece resembling a broad hoe, and placed there for that

page_text: purpose. And lastly, with regard to other machinery, and the application of
my said improvements thereto, and also the variations of a structure and
materials, and the relative position of the parts of my said improvements, the
same may be easily understood and performed by any competent workman
from what hath been already specified, and do not therefore require any
further elucidation or remark.
In witness whereof I have set my hand and seal to these Presents
at London, this Seventeenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirteen.
ROBERTSON (L.S.) BUCHANAN.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, being first
duly stamped, in the presence of
ROBERT STUART MECKLEHAM, Archi-
tect, No. 2, Staples Inn.
SAM BISHOPP,
of the Horseferry Road, Westminster.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Seventeenth day of Decem-
ber, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Robertson Buchanan came
before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor
of the Statute in that case made and provided.