CERTAIN MACHINERY FOR TOWING, DRIVING, OR FORCING AND DISCHARGING SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS OF THEIR CARGOES, AND APPLICABLE TO OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1808

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, RICHARD
TREVITHICK, of Rotherhithe, in the County of Surrey, Engineer, and ROBERT
DICKINSON, of Great Queen Street, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britair.
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fifth day of July, in the forty-
eighth year of His reign, give and grant unto us, the said Richard Trevithick
and Robert Dickinson, our executors, administrators, and assigns, His special
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said Richard
Trevithick and Robert Dickinson, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
should and lawfully might, during the term of years therein expressed, make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, our Invention of "CERTAIN MACHINERY FOR TOWING, DRIVING, OR
FORCING AND DISCHARGING SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS OF THEIR CARGOES, AND
APPLICABLE TO OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES;" in which Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso, obliging us, tho said Richard Trevithick and Robert
Dickinson, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the
hand seal of one of us, to cause a particular description of the nature of our
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be

page_text: inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Richard Trevithick and Robert Dickinson, do hereby declare that our said
Invention is described in manner following, that is to say:-
In a ship or vessel properly constructed for the purpose, and to which we
give the name of a nautical labourer, we place a rowing wheel shaped like an
undershot water wheel furnished with floats or pallets, but which we call our
propelling boards, and of a size proportioned to the vessel; the said rowing
wheel is placed vertically in a box or casing fitted to receive it in such a
manner that its axis shall be at right angles to the length way of the ship or
vessel, while the edge of the propelling board that is lowest shall be even with
the keel of the ship or vessel, or rather with the keels, for we prefer having
two, and placed at such a distance from each other as just to allow the pro-
pelling boards of the rowing wheel to pass freely between them. The fore-
said box or casing which contains the rowing wheel is made air-tight, and is
open only at the bottom, where the floats are intended to act in propelling the
vessel, and the water is prevented from rising in the said box or casing by an
air pump forcing air into it, so as to keep the water always down at the level
intended. The end or ends of the axle of the rowing wheel works or work
in a collar or collars of leather or any other substance fitted to prevent air
from passing out; and the said wheel, as also the fore-mentioned air pump, is
worked by means of a crank, a wheel, or any other suitable contrivance at one
or both ends of the axle, and connected with a steam engine, which is the
power we employ to move the rowing wheel, or, in other words, to give the
required movement to the vessel. In the wheel itself there is no novelty.
The novelty of this part of our Invention consists in working the wheel in
an air vessel, and by means of the contained air keeping the surface of the
water at such a lower level than the general surrounding surface as may
prevent the water from flooding the wheel. When we mean to employ
such a vessel or ship and apparatus as the above for the purpose of towing
other vessels, the propelling boards of the rowing wheel and also the steam
engine must be larger in proportion to the work intended to be performed;
the vessels are then fastened to each other by a towing rope or towing ropes,
the headmost of them being made fast to the rowing vessel, that being the
name which we have adopted for the above-described ship or vessel and appa-
ratus. When strong tides and currents oppose the progress of the rowing

page_text: vessel incumbered with those she has in tow, we facilitate the business of
towing in the following manner: To the headmost or to all of the vessels
in tow we attach a pair of long poles, or what bargemen call sets, for the
purpose of being dropt into the water from time to time, as is now the practice
in shoal stream water, to answer the purpose of an anchor. The vessels in
tow being thus secured from going along with the stream, we then propel our
rowing vessel forward alone, allowing the rope that is made fast to the head-
most of them to run off from a windlass placed near the stern of the rowing
vessel, or in any other convenient situation. When we have run off all the rope
to the end that is made fast to the windlass we then secure the rowing vessel
in her place by dropping a pair of setts or an anchor; this being done, the
vessels in tow take up their setts, the machinery of the towing vessel is then
disengaged from the rowing wheel, and thrown into gear to work the foresaid
windlass by the power of the steam engine. By this means the rope is
wound up on the windlass, and the vessels in tow are brought up to the
rowing vessel, when the same method of proceeding is again repeated till
the vessels have passed the heavy part of the stream or current, and are
able to proceed without those interruptions. We need hardly add that
anchors may be employed in place of sets, and that in deep water they must
be used; but where the water is not too deep to admit of it, the employing
of sets in place of anchors is attended with less trouble and delay. What we
have stated respecting the use of our rowing vessel and apparatus in towing
vessels against a stream or current applies also to the towing ships out of
any harbour.
If there are floating buoys outside the harbour we row our
rowing vessel to one of them, letting off from the windlass in the manner
before described the towing rope made fast to the ship that is to be towed
out; having reached the buoy, or dropt another if there is no buoy, we
then disengage the machinery from the rowing wheel, and put it into gear
with the windlass, and work the ship out of harbour by the power of the
steam engine. In many harbours this will be of immense advantage to
the public, and particularly to shipowners, for it not unfrequently happens
that the wind is fair for the voyage but foul for getting out of harbour.
Here it may be proper to mention once for all, that in every case where
we drop anchor, when it is to be taken up again we weigh it by throwing
its windlass into gear to be worked with the steam engine. The benefit to be
derived by the public from our contrivance for towing vessels or ships would
be increased if chains of proper strength moored at each end were laid in
difficult currents and mouths of harbours, to be used in the following manner,

page_text: that is to say, by giving the said chain one turn round the end of the windlass
connected with and worked by the steam engine the vessel could be worked
in either direction of the chain without making use of the rowing wheel
merely by the revolving of the windlass. The chain should have a buoy at each
end for the purpose of being laid hold of. Nor are these all the uses to which
we apply our contrivance. The apparatus or machinery which we employ to
propel the vessel or vessels in the manner before described is so contrived that
we can also employ it in loading or unloading not only the rowing vessel but
those she has towed, or any other that may want that assistance. Where a
few articles only are to be taken on board or discharged from the rowing vessel,
the common blocks and tackle may be worked by a rope attached to a wind-
lass and worked by the steam engine. When more dispatch is wanted, as in
discharging coals or grain from the rowing vessel or from others, and such like
work where economy of time and labour is an important consideration, we
facilitate the business by working a barrel in place of a windlass. This barrel,
worked by the steam engine, is kept in constant motion, while the business of
discharging is constantly going on. On this barrel is placed as many endless
belts as may be required for the business in hand. These belts pass respectively
over a pulley of two grooves centered in a lever, the lower end of which lever
is on a hinge. To the upper end of the lever, which is the longest from the
centre from the pulley, a rope is attached, which goes to the vessel then dis-
charging, where it passes through a common block in the rigging, whence the
end of it descends to a man standing on the deck at the hatchway of the ship
discharging. This rope is for the purpose of enabling the man, by pulling it,
to lighten the endless belt by means of the longest end of the lever. From
this it-is-plain-that-the_pulley will then receive motion from the revolving
barrel, and continue in motion so long as the man pulls the rope tight. By
this motion another rope, which we call the discharging rope, made fast to the
other grove of the pulley, that is, to the one not occupied by the before-
mentioned endless belt, is wound up on the said grove. The discharging rope
now mentioned is the one that brings up the bucket, sack, basket, or other
article from the hold of the vessel that is discharging, no more being necessary
for this purpose but to carry the rope first through a block in the rigging of
the vessel containing the working apparatus, and then through another in the
rigging of the vessel that is discharging, and making that end fast by a hook
or otherwise to the bucket, sack, basket, or other article that is to be raised;
while; the man who holds the other rope keeps it tight, as before mentioned,
the discharging rope keeps winding up on the fore-mentioned pulley; when the,

page_text: bucket, sack, basket, or other article has been raised to the height required, the
man who holds the tightning rope slacks his hold, and the endless belt is thereby
freed from action, so that it ceases to be carried round by the barrel before
mentioned. The bucket, basket, or other article being emptied is let go to
descend again into the hold, and the endless belt being now slack, the weight
of the descending bucket, basket, or other article makes the double-groved
pulley revolve the contrary way to what it did when winding on, so that the
rope is unwound from the pulley, and remains so until the man who holds
the tightning rope again applies a force sufficient to make the barrel give
motion again to the double-groved pulley by means of the endless belt, as
before described. Instead of the barrel and endless belt before described being
used for the above purpose, other common mechanical means may be employed
to throw the pulley, to which is attached the discharging rope, in and out
of gear, so as to wind or unwind the discharging rope.
We have before mentioned several endless belts, though in our description
we have confined ourselves to one; the other belts are for the purpose of
working any required number of discharging ropes on board one or more
vessels, for several vessels properly arranged may all be discharging at the
same time; but all these discharging ropes being worked in the same
manner by the same barrel, and by the same moving power, the description
already given of one applies to any number, each having its own proper
doubly-groved pulley and lever.
:
We must here add that we do not mean, by the description which we have
given of the barrel and double-groved pulley, and the method of working them,
to claim such contrivances as new Inventions, or to be understood as meaning
to confine ourselves to the use of these means exclusively, for any of the
common mechanical means that are now employed to communicate or suspend
motions at pleasure to apparatus connected with any maintaining power may
be used to produce the effect. The novelty of our Invention is simply this:
employing such a vessel as we have described, furnished with a steam engine
as a moving power, and with proper apparatus to enable us to employ the
said vessel and its contents as a labourer to assist in towing of vessels in the
manner before described, and in loading and unloading them, in place of
using the methods hitherto in use. Where towing of vessels and discharging
of vessels may not both be wanted, the apparatus may be releived of part
of its load and of part of the expence of construction, that is to say, where
only towing may be wanted the machinery need not be loaded with those
parts which apply to the discharging of vessels; and, on the other hand,

page_text: where towing is not wanted, but only discharging and unloading, the parts
that apply to towing may be dispensed with.
In witness whereof, we, the said Richard Trevithick and Robert Dickinson,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twelfth day of July, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eight.