CERTAIN MECHANICAL APPARATUS BY WHICH THE RAISING OF BALLAST IS RENDERED MORE EASY, CHEAP, AND EXPEDITIOUS, AND WHICH MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1805

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
SHORTER, of New Crane, Wapping, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanic,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Sixteenth day of
January, in the forty-fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Edward Shorter, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence
that I, the said Edward Shorter, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN MECHANICAL APPARATUS BY WHICH THE
RAISING OF BALLAST IS RENDERED MORE EASY, CHEAP, AND EXPEDITIOUS, AND WHICH
MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Edward Shorter, by an
instrument in writing under by hand and seal, to cause a particular descrip-
tion of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
three 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, I, the
said Edward Shorter, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described
in manner following (that is to say) :-

page_text: I fix at the stern or after part of any ship or vessel (or, when convenience
may require it, at the fore part or stem) an arbor or axis nearly parallel to
the horizon in a fore and aft direction, so that one of its extremities may be
within board and the other extremity shall be either without board or so
placed as to admit of the fixing of the external apparatus, consisting of a fly,
such as is described in the Specification to certain Letters Patent granted
unto me, the said Edward Shorter, for an Improved Apparatus for Working of
Pumps, by His said Majesty, and bearing date on or about the Twenty-first day
of March, in the forty-third year of His reign, and of which the said Speci-
fication was inrolled in the High Court of Chancery on or before the Twenty-
first day of May, 1803, which fly, so described as aforesaid, is exposed to the
action of any stream of water in which the said vessel may be fixed, stationed,
or secured, or otherwise to the action of the wind, or otherwise to the reaction
of the water through which the said vessel may at any time be in motion, in
order that the said shaft may operate as the first mover upon other machinery
herein to be described.
In the perspective Drawing above, Figure 1, the vessel is represented,
having A to denote the fly immersed in the water which gives its rotatory
inotion, and B the spar which connects it by means of the universal joint C.
Figure 2 shows, in the manner of a ground plan, the apparatus for raising
ballast, represented as if fixed upon the deck of the opposite corresponding parts
of the vessel. L, L, L, exhibit the principal shafts or arbours in which the
rotation is produced. Its parts are connected, where necessary, by coupling
boxes I, I; and in those places where the ballast heaving apparatus is to be
connected I fix a wheel or wheels F, F, on the shaft, which drives another
wheel, and gives motion to a connecting shaft or arbour F, G, which last causes
a barrel P to revolve on its axis, carrying a chain or rope, see Fig. 8, which
passes over the crane heads O, and by which the ballast is raised as usual.
The wheels at F may be either spur wheels or beval wheels, and the motion
may be thrown out of gear by means of a clutch, well understood by mill-
wrights, or by the means represented in Figures 4 and 5, or any other well-
known means. The barrels being connected by the universal joints at G,
there is room allowed for throwing in and out of gear; and the barrels may
be set to any convenient position, provided the angle at the joint do not
exceed thirty degrees or thereabouts. And, lastly, I do make such suitable
changes in the dimensions and parts of my said mechanical apparatus as may
be best adapted to the situation and other circumstances which may offer; and
I do apply and use the same to and for various other beneficial purposes,

page_text: which will be easily deduced and understood, from the nature and structure
thereof, by any person of competent skill in mechanicall works.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Shorter, have hereunto set my
land and seal, this Fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and five.
Inrolled the Sixteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and five.