A NEW INVENTED MACHINE FOR WORKING, TOWING, EXPEDITING, AND FACILITATING THE VOYAGE OF SHIPS, SLOOPS, BARGES, AND OTHER VESSELS UPON THE WATER, WHEREBY THE CONVEYANCE OF GOODS WILL BE RENDERED MORE CERTAIN AS TO TIME UPON THE WATER
Year: 1788

page_text: FOURNESS AND ASHWORTH'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ROBERT
FOURNESS and JAMES ASHWORTH, of Elland, in the Parish of Halifax and
County of York, Gentlemen, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent, bearing date the fourth day of March, in the
year of His reign, give and grant unto us, the said Robert Fourness and
James Ashworth, during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "A NEW INVENTED MACHINE FOR WORKING,
TOWING, EXPEDITING, AND FACILITATING THE VOYAGE OF SHIPS, SLOOPS, BARGES,
AND OTHER VESSELS UPON THE WATER, WHEREBY THE CONVEYANCE OF GOODS WILL BE
RENDERED MORE CERTAIN AS TO TIME UPON THE WATER;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a provisoe obliging us, the said Robert Fourness and
James Ashworth, under our hands and seals, to cause a particular description
of the nature of our said Invention, and how the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar
month next after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by
the same, relation being thereto respectively had, more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said provisoe, we, the said
Robert Fourness and James Ashworth, do hereby declare that our said In-
vention of a new machine for expediting and facilitating the voyage of ships,
sloops, barges, and all other vessels upon the water, is described in manner
following, the steam or fire engine being the principal of power:
Fig 1, the ground plan of the steam or fire engine; A, the grate on which
the fire is lighted; B, B, the shape of the boiler bottom; C, C, the case in

page_text: which the boiler stands; D, D, flew round the boiler for the flame to pass
through; E, E, E, three steam cylinders; F, F, F, three flanges by which
the cylinders are extended to their bottoms. N.B.-A single cylinder or
any number of cylinders may be used in place of the three here specified.
G, G, two regulators, the one for steam, the other for the injection water;
H, H, H, three force pumps; I, I, a box into which the steam is received
from the boiler, and in which is placed a metal plate with three holes in,
through which the steam is admitted into each cylinder through a pipe lead-
ing from each hole, and a metal plate which regularly revolves upon the face
of the plate I, I, in the box, by a spindle passing from the wheel D, in Fig. 5,
to regulate the admission of steam alternately into the cylinders; P, another
plate, with three holes in, placed in [the box which receives the injection
water from the cistern P, as described in Fig. 2, on which revolves by a
spindle passing from the other wheel D in Fig. 5, in the same box, the plate
M with two holes in as N, N, to regulate the injection of condensing water
in the cylinders.
Fig. 2d, A, A, A, six wheels fixed upon the spindles C, C, C, between which
are fixed three round bearing studs, as B, B, B, situated as described by
B, B, B, in Fig. 3. A crank in various forms may be applied for the same
purpose as those six wheels A, A, A, are applied. D, a cog wheel fixed on
the spindle C, C, C, which gives motion by the nut upon the spindle E to
the wheel A in Fig. 5, upon the bottom of the same spindle E. F, the
crown of the boiler in which the steam is generated; G, G, the case in which
the boiler stands; H, H, H, three steam cylinders; I, a force pump that
raises water for injection into cistern P; K, a force pump for the use of
keeping the ship or vessel dry; L, another force pump by which a sufficient
quantity of hot water is raised to replenish the boiler through the pipe M; N,
the steam pipe; P, the cistern into which the injection water is forced; Q, the
rod of the piston of the injection cistern, to which is added a spiral spring which
gives force to the injection; R, R, two winches, on the lower end of which are
fixed two valves or cocks by which the steam or injection water are entirely
shut off from the cylinders at pleasure; S, S, the two boxes in which the
regulating plates described by R and M, in Fig. 1st, work; T, a valve to let
out the superfluous water from the force pump I; U, the chimney of the
furnace.
Fig. 3d, a side view of one cylinder and its apparatus; A, A, one of the
wheels in which the studs B, B, B, in Fig. 2d are fixed; B, B, B, three studs
to which the rods are connected, as described, by the rod D, and are connected
by the coupling boxes C, which rod is joined to the beam E, E, at letter H;

page_text: F, a cog-wheel as described by D in Fig. 2; G, the piston and rod, shewing
the chains by which the working beam and piston are connected; I, one of
the boxes mentioned in Fig. 1, which contains the regulators; K, one of the
wheels by which the regulators are actuated.
Fig. 4th, a side view; A, A, a semicircular rack and pinion by which the
working or driving wheel D, D, D, is raised out of or lower'd into the water,
as the burthen of the vessel may require; E, E, a cog-wheel fixed on the
end of the spindle C, C, C, in Fig. 2, which gives action to the wheel F in
Fig. 6, on whose spindle the working or driving wheel D, D, D, is fixed;
F, F, the boiler in which the steam is generated; G, G, a safety valve and
weight fix'd in the top of the boiler..
Fig. 5, a flat section of the wheels used in the regulation of the steam and
injection; A, a nut upon the bottom of the spindle E, in Fig. 2, which gives
motion to all the other regulating wheels; C, C, C, six wheels of equal
diameter; D, D, two wheels fixed on the bottom of the spindles of the
regulating plates as described by K, M, in Fig. 1; E, E, E, three wheels
fixed severally under the centre of the bottoms of the cylinders, in the centre
of each of which wheels is fixed a hollow cock pin, which lets out of the
cylinders the hot water, air, &c. after each stroke made by the piston.
N.B. Any other gear applicable to the steam engine may be used instead
of the gear here specified.
Fig. 6, a flat section of the working or driving wheel on one side of the
vessel, and its apparatus; the same sort of wheel, and apparatus to force it,
being applied on the other side of the vessel also. A, a rack and pinion
described by A, A, in Fig. 4. B, B, the floats of the working and driving
wheel. N.B.-The working, driving, or rowing wheels may be made in various
forms; one alone may be applied, or any plurality; oars also may be applied, in
lieu of the working, driving, or rowing wheels. C, C, a frame in which the
working, &c. wheels are fix'd and rides upon the axis of the spindle D, D, on
which is fixed the wheel F, which gives motion by the action of the wheel E
fixed upon the spindle H, as described by C, C, C, in Fig. 2;
bearings on which the frame of the working wheel B, B, rests;
described in Fig. 2, under C, C, C; I, I, a rail intended for the safeguard of
the working, driving, or rowing wheel or wheels.
G, G, the two
H, the spindle
In witness whereof, we, the said Robert Fourness and James Ashworth,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-ninth day of March,
One thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight.
Ков
KNESS (L.S.)
JAMES ASHWORTH (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that the said Robert Fourness and James
Ashworth came into the Court of our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and every matter and thing
therein contained and specified. And that the Specification aforesaid was
duly stamped according to the tenor of the Statute in that case made and
provided.