A NEW IMPROVED WHEEL OR "PURCHASE FOR THE STEERING OF SHIPS
Year: 1806

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
GLEGG GOVER, of Rotherhithe, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Gracious Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fifteenth day of October, in
the forty-sixth year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said
William Glegg Gover, my exors, admors, and assigns, during the term of
fourteen years from the date of the said Letters Patent, special licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, to make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"A NEW IMPROVED WHEEL OR "PURCHASE FOR THE STEERING OF SHIPS;" and
whereas in and by the said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that
if I, the said William Glegg Gover, should not particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and
cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
one calendar month next aud immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent, that the said Letters should be void, anything therein contained to
the contrary notwithstanding, as by the said Letters Patent, relation being
thereunto had, will appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in pursuance of and compliance with the said
proviso in the said Letters Patent contained, I, the said William Glegg Gover,
do, by means of the following description and of the Drawings hereunto
annexed and referred to by the said description, ascertain and describe the
nature of my said Invention as follows:-

page_text: In the first place I cause a frame to be made as shewn in Section 1, the
component parts of which are more particularly exposed in Section 2, A, A, A, A,
being the two sides thereof, which are fixed together by iron bolts and by rails
morticed and tenanted therein, as B, B, B, B, B, B, in the second Section.
In the center of each side of the frame is placed an upright stantion or muntin
as C, C, for the purpose of receiving the barrel and wheel, as hereafter
described, one of the stantions being fixed or morticed and tenanted into one
of the sides of the frame, the other moveable for the purpose of allowing the
barrel to be taken out at pleasure, and is half tenanted on the outside of the
frame, as D, D, and confined therein by a staff bolt on the outside fixed to the
frame, as shown in Section 4, Letters E, E. Two plates of iron or brass are let
into each of the stantions as bearings, clipping them on the sides to receive the
large metal wheel and the barrell, as hereafter described. Section 3 shews
the frame with the large metal wheel fixed by an iron bar passing through its
center, and resting at each end upon or working within the plates let into the
stantions, as before mentioned, at F, F. The teeth of this wheel act within
two pinions; the one let into the barrel, which is fixed in like manner within
the frame, having a bar or axle passing through the center of the barrel and
pinion, each end of the bar resting upon or working in the lower plates let
into the stantions, as before mentioned at G, G, this stantion G 1 having a
chase mortice sufficiently large to lift out the barrel clear of the bottom rail
when the opposite stantion is removed for the purpose. The other pinion is
fixed upon the frame working at each end within caps or or bearings, which
may be either of iron or brass fastened to the top of the frame, as II, II, by
which means the pinion works within the great wheel.
The pinion is pre-
pared either for one or two steering wheels to be fixed upon each end and
working on the outside of the frame. This pinion may consist of two, three,
or four teeth, or any greater number; but in the Drawing I have given only
three, which I consider to be by far the most preferable construction, for it is
the great advantage of this Invention that two of the teeth of the pinion in
working shall bury themselves at the same time within the teeth of the large
wheel, so as to cause the teeth of the wheel to act near to the center of the
pinion, and to rise on each side above the center of the two teeth of the pinion
so buried. Sec Section 5 I. By this means the pinion obtains a considerable
power over the wheel, upon which it acts as a paul, so as to require considerably
less power at the steering wheel in opposing the force of the sea, which con-
sequently can have much less effect upon the tiller, the rope of which coils
round the barrel. Hence it follows that considerable labour is saved and
danger avoided; but in order to gain the effect before described of the great

page_text: wheel working above the center of the pinion, the pinion is particularly con-
structed, the teeth being rivitted in the two plates of the pinion bar, as shewn,
K, K, Section 3, which plates are no otherwise connected together than by
these teeth, having no bar passing through the center, so that the teeth of the
great wheel may work or act as before described close to the center of the
pinion, and thereby gain the greater power. At L, I shew the barrel unshipped
or taken out of the frame, having the after plate of the pinion with four pro-
jecting clips let into the same. This barrel with the pinion are fixed to the
frame by an iron bolt or axle passing through their center, and acting within
the large wheel as before described at G 1. The number of teeth to this
pinion is discretionary, but I think in all cases six is the better number, as
affording the most easy and at the same time the most expeditious mode of
working the helm, as shewn in Section 5, M. In Section 4, the whole
machine is put together in its proper state for action. The plan before
described may however be varied by putting the barrel, without the pinion
attached to it, upon the bar of the large metal wheel, in which case the pinion
above by which it is worked should have a greater proportionate number of
teeth, and the bar to which it is attached passing through the two plates of the
pinion; and by this means inconvenience is avoided by the barrel being more
elevated from the deck.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Glegg Gover, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of November, in the forty-
seventh year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by
the grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
King, Defender of the Faith, and so forth, and in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and six
WILLIAM GLEGG (L.s.) GOVER.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of November,
in the year of our Lord 1806, the aforesaid William Glegg Gover 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 for that purpose.
Inrolled the Fourteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and six.