CERTAIN IMPROVE- MENTS IN PROPELLING VESSELS
Year: 1820

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SIMEON
TEISSIER, of Paris, in the Kingdom of France, but at present residing in
Bucklersbury, in the City of London, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Third day of June, in the first year of His reign, did, for
Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Simeon
Teissier, his especial licence, that I, the said Simeon Teissier, my exors, admors,
or assigns, or such others as I the said Simeon Teissier, 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, and also within all His Majes-
ty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, an Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PROPELLING VESSELS;" which said Invention and improvements were
communicated to me by a certain Foreigner residing abroad, and were imported
and brought by me into His said Majesty's aforesaid Dominions, and in which
the same have not, to the best of my knowledge, been before used or exercised';
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said
Simeon Teissier, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, par-
ticularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the aforesaid Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be
inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent,

page_text: 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
Simeon Teissier, do hereby declare that the nature of the aforesaid Invention, and
the manner in which it is to be used and carried into effect, is as follows, viz*:-
The ordinary paddle or water wheel or wheels is to be made use of, but,
instead of being placed at the sides of the vessel as hitherto practised, by which
its width is so much increased as to render its passage impracticable in many
places, and by which such wheels are subject to the resistance of adverse tides
or currents, they are to be placed at the stern of the vessel to be moved or
propelled, while the vessel itself is to be built with a sharp head and cutwater,
but with a flat or nearly flat bottom as well as with a flat or perpendicular
stern. Immediately behind or, in the rear of this stern a paddle or float-board
wheel is to be placed, moving on a shaft or axle parallel to the beams and bottom
of the vessel, which shaft together with the said impelling wheels upon it, must
be supported upon proper. bearings fixed upon a' framé or framework projecting
from behind the vessel. Motion is to. bé given to the impelling wheel or wheels
by the power of men, horses, or other animals, or a steam engine employed
within' the vessel according to its magnitude and the velocity with which it may
be required to move; and although this power may be communicated to either
end of the propelling wheel shaft, yet I prefer communicating it to the center
of that shaft in the manner shewn in the annexed Drawings, in which
<Figures l'and 2 are a plan and elevation of a boat on my construction; A
"being the projecting frame for carrying the impelling wheel B, B, which, as I
have before observed, I prefer dividing into two parts in order to admit the
driving shaft C to pass directly from the moving power to the central part of
the impelling wheel shaft D, which is turned round by the two bevil wheels E
and F; although these might (if desired) be. placed at either or both ends of
such wheel shaft, when the water wheel may be continued without division
from one end to the other. G, G, are two rudders, which are applied one on
either side of the stern for steering the vessel, and they likewise answer the
purpose of preventing the entry of the disturbed water into the place where the
'water wheel works, as well as check the operation of a contrary tide or current.
The two sides of the wheel frame may, however, be permanently cased or
boarded up, and rudders as before described may be used on the outside of such
casing, or the steerage may be conducted by a single rudder as usual, placed
in the center of and astern of the wheel frame, as at H in Fige 3, which shews
the plan of another vessel in which the two sides are not parallel, nor is the
wheel frame as wide as the central part of the vessel, for in many cases

page_text: sufficient speed will be obtained without making the impelling wheel of such
width. From the particular situation in which I place the wheel,' and 'the
form of stern "essential to this invention, it possesses another important
advantage which cannot be obtained in other vessels with paddle wheels,
namely, that the part of the vessel containing the machinery, and which, for
distinction sake, I call the aft vessel, may be detached and separated from that
which is to contain the goods or passengers, and which, for a similar distinction, I
call the fore vessel; and thus one set of machinery may be applied in succession
to several vessels, and need never lie idle while such vessel is loading, unloading,
or undergoing, repairs. Thus. the line. I, I, in all the said Figures represents
such division as aforesaid between the fore and aft vessels, the steam engine,
horse machinery; or other first moving power being contained in the square
chamber K. The ends of the fore and aft vessels which come together must be
square and flat, so that they may admit of close contact with each other, in order
that they may be affixed together by bolts, hooks, ropes, or other sufficient
means; and the aft vessel must be so balanced or ballasted in the water that it
may be detached from one vessel, and floated and joined to any other of
suitable dimensions and form.
It will be needless to enter into further details of the nature and particular
construction of this Invention, since the above description and the Drawing
hereunto annexed will make it sufficiently clear to any competent mechanic;
but, because it may appear that I have appropriated several things which are
old and in present use, I hereby enumerate the several particulars and matters
in which my aforesaid Invention consists, and of which I claim the exclusive
right and enjoyment under my herein-before in part recited Patent; that is
to say, the Invention consists, in the first place, in applying the paddle or water
wheels astern or in the rear of the vessel, instead of using them at the sides or
in other situations where they have heretofore been applied; secondly, in the
form of stern which I adopt, and the manner of casing up the sides of the
wheel case, or protecting the wheel or wheels, if not so cased up, by the adoption
of two rudders as aforesaid, by which means the wheel or wheels are cut off
from the resistance of adverse or contrary currents, and are permitted to work
in comparatively still water; and, lastly, in dividing the vessel into two parts,
so as to remove the aft vessel as before described.
In witness whereof, the said Simeon Teissier has hereunto set his hand
and seal, this Second day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty.
SIMEON (L.S.) TEISSIER.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Second day of August, in the
year of our Lord 1820, the aforesaid Simeon Teissier (through the interpreta-
tion of James Bourdillon, he being first sworn,) 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 Third day of August, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and twenty.