A NEW METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION FOR THE PRO- PULSION OF VESSELS THROUGH THE WATER
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Scott Phillips, Major, H.M.'s I. R. List;
of No. 10, College Crescent, Finchley Road, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, for the Invention of "A NEW METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Scott Phillips at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
19th April 1862.
I, JOSEPH SCOTT PHILLIPS, Major, H.M.'s I. R. List, of. No. 10, College
Crescent, Finchley Road, in the County of Middlesex, do .hereby declare the
nature of the Invention for "A NEW METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE PRO-
PULSION OF VESSELS THROUGH THE WATER," to be as follows:
.
The new method and apparatus for.. the. propulsion of vessels through the
water, for which I seek a Patent under the term or. name of a "hoof screw
paddle," is that of the hoof of a calf of any age, to which, in point of working
fact, the foot of the cormorant tribe answers, and it will be used after the
following manner: -Take a wheel, say, of twenty feet diameter, and divide
its circumference into six parts; draw lines from the points of division to the
centre of the wheel, and on them construct six spokes radiating from. a boss
or centre, and secure these spokes by a ring at their circumferential ends, and

page_text: another ring passing round at the middle of each spoke; then take the outside
curved shape of a calf's half hoof, and also the inside somewhat triangular
shape, and on the perpendicular of this last, taking it as a hoof naturally
stands, construct the shape of a half hoof, omitting the sole. Let the per-
pendicular be made equal to the external half spoke or radius on the above.
scale five feet, and then affixing six such shapes, or as many as may be found
most convenient, altering the perpendicular accordingly, you will have a
propeller for naval vessels of all sorts, the dip in the water being regulated at
pleasure. The opposing or second wheel for any vessel carrying the other
half hoof, both wheels together shew the whole hoof. The outer curve of the
half hoof is formed by a portion of an ellipse from centres, one at the top of
the perpendicular, one found by taking double the length of the toe or front
line in its prolongation upward, and this line drawn at the angle of 35°, or
any other angle as may be required for slow or fast vessels, will be made
three-sevenths larger than the perpendicular, or varied at pleasure. The
rear line of the nearly flat and triangular inner surface is to be made equal or
nearly so to the toe line, and the curve at the base of this surface is to be
made from the tip of the toe line up to the lower end of the perpendicular,
and then down to the end of the above-mentioned rear line.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by, the said Joseph Scott Phillips in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 17th October 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
SCOTT PHILLIPS, Major, H.M.'s I. R. List, of No. 10, College Crescent,
Finchley Road, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Joseph Scott Phillips, Her special licence that I, the said Joseph
Scott Phillips, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Joseph Scott Phillips, 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

page_text: for "A NEW METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE PROPULSION OF VESSELS THROUGH
THE WATER," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Joseph
Scott Phillips, 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 Joseph Scott Phillips, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, reference being had to. the Drawings hereunto
annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say:-
My Invention consists in constructing wheels for the propulsion of vessels
through the water with floats or propellers of a form resembling the hoof of
a calf, or the foot of a cormorant when that bird is propelling itself through
the water. The number of propellers or floats applied to each wheel may
be varied, but I believe that ordinarily seven will be found a very convenient

page_text: pressing against the water. The side I of each propeller or float is the one
which is fixed on each of the spokes, as is, shown at N, O, in No: 1, and also
to the two rings, as is also shown in No. 1. In Figures No. 1ª and No. 2b,
C, D, represents the outer curved side of the propeller or float corresponding
with the outer curved side of half of the hoof of a calf; S, T, shows the flat
side of half a calf's hoof at Q. A portion of the flat side I of each of the
propellers is cut away to facilitate the free exit of the hoof-formed float or
propeller out of the water.
In Figures No. III. and No. IV. another propeller wheel is shown con-
structed according to my Invention, and is intended for a rear or stern
propeller wheel. No. III. shows the outside view, and No. IV. shows the
inside view. In this arrangement the position in which the hoof-shaped
propellers or floats are fixed in respect to the spokes and the two rings of the
wheel is varied from what is shown in Figures No. 1 and No.. 2, in other
respects the letters of reference, and the description above given with reference
thereto, will apply to the Figures No. III. and No. IV.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that what I claim is,. the
construction of propeller wheels with floats or propellers of the forms herein
described.
In witness whereof, I; the said Joseph Scott Phillips, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
JOSEPH SCOTT PHILLIPS. (L.B.)
Major, H.M.'s I. R. List.