AN OAR QUITE NEW, AND DIFFERENT, IN CONSTRUCTION AS WELL AS IN SUBSTANCE, PROM ANY OF THOSE HITHERTO MADE USE OF, AND ALSO OF THE DIFFERENT MACHINERIES AND APPERTENENCES REQUISITE FOR ITS APPROPRIATION AND APPLICATION TO ALL SAILING AND ROWING VESSELS, WHETHER MEN-OF-WAR, MERCHANT-MEN, OR OF WHAT OTHER DENOMINATION SOEVER
Year: 1767

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, STEPHEN
BARON DE BISSY, of Princes Street, Leicester Square, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the
Eleventh day of November, in the eighth year of His reign, did give and
grant unto me, the said Stephen Baron de Bissy, His especial licence that
1, the said Baron de Bissy, during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in His Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, my Invention of "AN OAR QUITE NEW, AND DIFFERENT,
IN CONSTRUCTION AS WELL AS IN SUBSTANCE, PROM ANY OF THOSE HITHERTO MADE
USE OF, AND ALSO OF THE DIFFERENT MACHINERIES AND APPERTENENCES REQUISITE
FOR ITS APPROPRIATION AND APPLICATION TO ALL SAILING AND ROWING VESSELS,
WHETHER MEN-OF-WAR, MERCHANT-MEN, OR OF WHAT OTHER DENOMINATION SOEVER;"
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a provisoe obliging me, the
said Stephen Baron de Bissy, under my hand and seal, to cause a par-
ticular description of the nature of my said Invention, and how the same
is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within four calendar months after the date of the said recited Letters Patent,

page_text: 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, I, the said
Stephen Baron de Bissy, do hereby declare that my said Invention of an Oar
quite New, and Different in Construction, as well as in Substance, from any of
those hitherto made Use of, and also of the different Machineries and Apper-
tenances requisite for its Appropriation and Application to all Sailing and
Rowing Vessels, whether Men-of-War, Merchant-men, or of what other
Denomination soever, is described in the manner following, that is to
say:
The oar is made of iron, brass, or any other requisite metal or other sub-
stance. Its blade is composed of a frame of a quadrangular, triangular, circular,
or any other form adapted to the size and construction of the vessel it is made
for, with a surface divided into several leaves, which are suspended to the
frame, and fall one upon another in such a manner as to close together, and
resist and compel the water in its operation, and to open and give way to it in
its return. By this construction of the blade it operates perpendicularly, as
well as obliquely, and remains under the surface of the water after its opera-
tion, by losing all its resistance in its return, or at least to such a degree as to
have no effect at all in proportion to the power of its operation, which requires
less human labour, and exceeds by much the power of any other oar hitherto in
use, the other parts of the oar being no more than such machineries and appur-
tenances as are requisite; for its appropriation to all sailing as well as rowing
vessels must necessarily vary according to all their different sizes and con-
structions, of which it would consequently be impossible, as well as
unnecessary, to make as many different descriptions, since at the time of
the expiration of my privilege (wherein the sole making and vending of the
said machineries and appurtenances are included) every ingenious mechanic
possessed of the above description of the oar itself, and its manner of
performing, will be able to appropriate the same to the use of any vessel,
according to its size and construction.
In witness whereof, I, the said Stephen Baron de Bissy, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fourth day of March, One thousand seven
hundred and sixty-eight.
STEPHANO BARON DE BISSY. (L.S.)
9

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that on the same Fourth day of March,
in the year last above mentioned, the aforesaid Stephen Baron de Bissy
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
stampt according to the tenor of the Statute made in the sixth year of the
reign of the late King and Queen William and Mary of England, and
so forth.
Inrolled the Fifth day of March, in the year above written.