IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROPULSION OF SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Newton at the.
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th
June 1863.-A communication from abroad by Frederick Warren
Harris, of Montreal, in the Province of Canada East.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROPULSION OF SHIPS
AND OTHER VESSELS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the placing of one or more screw propellers in a
passage or tube extending longitudinally through a vessel below the water line.
The portions of this passage or tube next the ends of the vessel are made of a
funnel shape, so that the mouth of the passage or tube at either end of the
vessel presents an area of opening equal or approximating to the whole area of
the greatest submerged transverse section of the vessel at an average draft,
so that the propeller or propellers working in the passage or tube may draw
from the front of the vessel through the passage or tube a column of water, the
area of whose transverse section is equal or approximates to the area of the
greatest submerged transverse section of the vessel. The submerged portion
of the vessel is made with its sides and bottom straight, or nearly so, and its
sides parallel, or nearly so, so that its transverse sectional profile is of the same
form or does not vary in any considerable degree from end to end, and the
funnel mouths of the passage or tube which extends through the vessel are
made to conform to the profile and combine therewith to make the ends of
the vessel present as sharp edges as possible, so that as little resistance as

page_text: possible may be offered to the passage of the vessel through the water. The
vessel thus constructed and provided with propellers is not forced through the
water by dividing and displacing it in a lateral and downward direction, but
displaces the water from in front of it through its central passage, and discharges
it astern.
The Invention further consists in placing within the aforesaid passage or
tube a series of stationary feathers or wings, so as to prevent the whirling
motion of the water within the passage or tube, which would otherwise be pro-
duced by the revolution of the propeller or propellers. These wings will check
in a very great degree any whirling motion that might by produced, thereby
greatly aiding the propeller or propellers by causing them to draw or force the
water in or nearly in direct lines right through the passage or tube. Or, instead
of these stationary ribs, I use a screw propeller rotating in an opposite direction
to the principal propeller or propellers, and upon the same axis;. or I can use
equal numbers of propellers rotating in opposite directions about the same
axis, so that the tendency of one to whirl the water within the tube will be
counteracted by the corresponding tendency of the other.
From the above it will be understood that the essential features of the
Invention are,-
1st, the enlargement of the passage or tube which contains the propeller or
propellers in a funnel form toward the ends of the vessel, so that its mouth
at either end of the vessel will present an area of opening equal or approxi-
mating to the whole area of the greatest submerged section of the vessel.
2nd, the funnel-mouthed passage or tube in combination with the straight
and parallel sides and straight bottom of the vessel.
I
3rd, making the mouths of the tube conform to the transverse profile of the
sides and bottom of the vessel, so as to unite there with in a sharp or as nearly
as practicable a sharp edge.
4th, the wings or feathers arranged within the passage or tube, and in com-
bination with the propeller or propellers, or the use of reversed propellers, as
herein described, within the passage or tube for the same purpose.