IMPROVE- MENTS APPLICABLE TO NAVIGABLE VESSELS, AND THE PROPELLING THEREOF
Year: 1857

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Moore at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 8th July
1857.
I, ROBERT MOORE, of Isleworth, in the County of Middlesex, Naval
Architect, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS APPLICABLE TO NAVIGABLE VESSELS, AND THE PROPELLING THEREOF," to be
as follows:-
This Invention relates to the adaptation of certain improvements in naval
architecture designed by me to render any navigable vessel more safe and
efficient for the conveyance of goods and passengers than according to the
present system, and consists of certain strengthenings in the structure, and of
appliances in combination with certain machinery now used for propulsion,
and tending to the more advantageous developement and economy of steam
when used as a motive power, together with an arrangement for the detection
of local attraction, all of which are in my opinion essential to the object
above stated.
1st. For the strengthening, I employ tubular metallic keelsons of a cylin-
drical, oval, elliptical, or spheroidal section, secured longitudinally upon the
frames or floors of the ship in such number and at such distances and for such
lengths as the dimensions of the vessel, or the objects for which it is intended
may require, which tubes will be applicable to the surface condensation of

page_text: steam- when used as a motive power in propelling the ship. Also corrugated
iron and cast-iron braces, either in combination or separately, to be used for
longitudinal and transverse bulkheads (the usual materials being plate iron and
angle iron), whereby I obtain greater transverse and vertical strength for these
parts of the structure. And further, a fastening, which I call a top side
bracing, consisting of an angle iron under the knees for the whole or part of
the sheer, and some or all of the knees are secured either by being in part
formed so as to be riveted to, this angle iron, or by separate connecting pieces
for that purpose.
2nd. As to the appliances for the more advantageous developement and
economy of steam when used as a motive power. I partially lower and raise
the shaft and screw to vary the elevation of the axis of rotation for the
purpose of working in deep or shallow water, whereby in a sea-way a screw
of larger diameter can be worked than could be employed in ports, rivers, or
other shoal water. This is done by having an adequate vertical passage in
the stern post made water-tight by any suitable means; and in cases when the
screw is used abaft the rudder, I make the corresponding arrangements in
'the rudder and-after shaft bearing; I also effect the same object by partially
lowering and raising the entire of the frame in which is set the after part of
the screw shaft, rudder, and screw. I also propose to raise the screw on deck,
and lower it in connexion with a part of the shaft by means of an appropriate
frame, and in so doing, I swing forward the rudder, which is specially adapted
for that purpose; I also disconnect the screw, when employed abaft the rudder
from its shaft for the usual objects for which it is required to be unshipped
and hoisted on deck, and raise and lower it by bar links, with any suitable
mechanism for steadying and securing the screw while hoisting and lowering.
In the hoist or lift for these purposes I use any suitable mechanical power,
'whether steam or hydraulic engines of leverage, or any or all of them
combined; but I prefer a special disposition of a steam cylinder, either fixed or
moveable; with a system of pawls the power of the steam cylinder and the
arrangement of the pawls being proportioned to the weight to be raised.
3rdly. For the detection of local attraction, & consequently to facilitate the
correction of the magnetic deviation, I suspend a closed cylindrical or other
vessel of suitable dimensions and form, in a similar way to compasses, or in
any more convenient manner. The upper & lower ends may be of glass so
as-to render it transparent, and allow of its being illuminated from below. This
box or vessel is-filled or partly filled with spirits of wine or other suitable
*fluid, &. suspended on this fluid 'I place a combination of magnets, con-

page_text: sisting of three or more, secured to buoyant frames, which acting both
combinedly & in some respects independently, will, from the mean of several
simultaneous observations upon certain well-known principles of magnetic
or electro-magnetic influences, furnish a correction, or an estimate very nearly
correct, of the magnetic deviations caused by local attraction.