A PER- PETUAL LOG OR SEA PERAMBULATOR
Year: 1816

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
RAINES BAINES, of Myton, in the County of the Town of Kingston-upon-Hull,
Glue Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His Majesty King George the Third, by by His Letters Patent
under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
bearing date at Westminster, the Sixteenth day of November, in the fifty-
seventh year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said Robert Raines
Baines, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His special licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, during the term of years therein expressed,
that I, the said Robert Raines Baines, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His
Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my new Invention of "A PER-
PETUAL LOG OR SEA PERAMBULATOR;" in which Letters Patent there is contained
a proviso obliging me, the said Robert Raines Baines, under my hand and
seal, to cause a particular description 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 six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Raines Baines, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to performed, are described and ascer-
tained by the Drawings in the margin of these Presents, and by the following
description in writing and references to the said Drawings:-
The object of this Invention being to ascertain the rate of a ship's way, or
going, at sea with a greater degree of accuracy, and with much less trouble,
than is at performed, is effected by means of a vane, composed of sales or flyers
(similar to windmill sails,) fixed on the stern post of the vessel near the keel,
so as to front the current of water made by the ship's way, which acts upon the
sails or flyers as the wind does upon the windmill sails; to this vane is con-
nected a dial, or index, by which the distance the vessel has made in a given
time is shewn or ascertained, and the time may be known by any of the usual
means.
Figure 1 represents a side view of the perambulator, as fixed on the stern
post on the starboard side of the vessel; a, a, are two slips or plates of copper,
brass, or other metal, or mixture of metals, which are to be fastened to to the
side of the stern post, from the counter to the keel, and form two grooves for
the plate or bar S, and flat chain to slide in, a section of which may be
seen at a, a, Fig. 2.
-B, Figure 1, represents a profile of the vane, consisting of six sails-or
flyers, the form of which sails or flyers is seen marked b, b, b, b, the angle of
which must be made on the same principle that windmill sails are, but
particular care must be taken that all the stocks or arms of the..sails or
flyers are perfectly straight and formn right angles with the axle c. This.axle
c is made to turn very freely, and runs with or without a bush or collar d, and
is adjusted by the regulating screw at e; at the other end, and upon it, is fixed
a worm or endless screw f, which works into and turns the wheel g, as shewn
in Figure 2.
H, Figure 2, represents the lower half of a metal box, which contains the
spindle c, and the wheel g; the upper half is similar, and is kept water-tight
by four screws, at h, h, h, h; a section is seen at H, Figure 1. This box is held
in two metal chams or cheeks, or by any other suitable means; i, Figure 1,
shew's the underneath one, and is held in its place by the screw; these chams
or cheeks are fixed firmly to the slider S, Figure 1 and 2, and permit the
apparatus or perambular to be drawn up or removed at pleasure. The upper
part of the axle of the wheel g, Figure 2, passes through a hole made in the
upper half of the metal box, and to which is fixed one half of the universal
joint L; the other half is fixed to a rod m, and is confined to the.slider S by

page_text: the bush n. On the upper end of this rod is another universal joint, to which
is fastened a chain, communicating with a dial or index constructed of clock-
work, which may be placed in the cabin or any other convenient, part of the
vessel, and so adjusted and regulated as to shew the distance the vessel has
gone through the water by the number of revolutons made by the vane or sails,
and which may be calculated to shew any number of yards, miles, knots, or
degrees, by drawing as many circles on the face of the dial and calculating the
diameter and number of teeth suitable to agree with the first moving cause,
namely, the sails or flyers, the angle of which must be ascertained the same
way as windmill sails, are, excepting that the axle of my machine must lic
truly horizontal, and, of course, the arms or stocks will be at right angles.
The sails or flyers must have as much space at least as they present angle
surface to the water, or the angle may be made at fifteen degrees from the
stock or hindermost part of the said sails or flyers, or otherwise placed upon
the same, so as to form that angle (but if this angle be varied the number of the
cogs in the wheels will require to be varied also in proportion to the variation
of the angle), and connected by the axle C to an endless screw, which moves a
wheel of sixty cogs, the axle of which wheel moves a rod connected with
another endless screw, which.mooves a wheel with sixty-two cogs, the axle of
which forms an endless screw, which moves a wheel of ninety-six, the axle of
which moves a wheel of thirty-four cogs, which moves a wheel of fifty-four cogs,
on the center of which is fixed the hand which points to the different divisions
on the dial. The number of cogs on the respective wheels may be varied so
as to mark any number of yards or miles.
Figure 3 represents the flat chain that is connected with the bush n, by
which the machine is drawn up and down, and slides in the front groove and
protects the chain that is fixed to the top of the universal joint at O. This
machinery is not confined to be fixed to the stern post alone, but may be
applied to any part of the ship, if found more advantageous or convenient.
Figure 4 represents a front view of the vane, composed of six metallic sails
or flyers, but it may be composed of any other number of sails, if found more
convenient or advantageous.
The metal, or mixture of metals, to be used in the different parts of this
apparatus should be such as will best stand the action of the sea, and be the
least subject to corrode by sea water.
And I do further declare that another machine of the same kind, being
placed below the keel, but parallel with the keel of the vessel, or by placing it
in a hole through the stern post sufficiently large to admit the vane or fly and
at an angle of fifteen degrees (the angle on both sides being alike), it will then

page_text: shew the leeway the vessel has made in any given time, adding or deducting
the tide or current, which are known or may be known by anchorage, and
seen on the dial of the index of the machine for shewing the ship's way.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Raines Baines, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of May, One thousand eight 5
hundred and seventeen.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Sixteenth day of May,
in the year above written, the aforesaid Robert Raines Baines came before
our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification.
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.
*NOSTICIO
NHOO
Inrolled the same Sixteenth day of May, in the year above written.