AN APPARATUS FOR MOVING OR CONDUCTING BARGES AND OTHER VESSELS ALONG NAVIGABLE CANALS, AND IN OTHER WATERS USED FOR PURPOSES OF NAVIGATION, TO BE WORKED BY A STEAM ENGINE OR OTHER FIRST-MOVING POWER
Year: 1794

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
FITZ GERALD, of the Temple, London, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, by His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Sixteenth day of July now last past, hath given and granted unto me, the
said William Fitz Gerald, my executors, administrators, and assigns, special
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, to make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, during
the term of years therein expressod, my Invention of "AN APPARATUS FOR MOVING
OR CONDUCTING BARGES AND OTHER VESSELS ALONG NAVIGABLE CANALS, AND IN OTHER
WATERS USED FOR PURPOSES OF NAVIGATION, TO BE WORKED BY A STEAM ENGINE OR
OTHER FIRST-MOVING POWER;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said William Fitz Gerald, by an instrument in writing
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 four calendar months
next 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 I, the said William Fitz Gerald, in compliance with
the said proviso, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in the plans hereunto annexed, and the following description
thereof, viz' :-

page_text: Plate 1. In this is exhibited the first small model made (but not put
together) some years ago, and which is specified without any of the subsequent
improvements, in order to shew the original principle with which I commenced.
That principle is an analogous to and partly imitative of the locomotive faculty
of animals or insects on land, or of acquatic animals on or in the water, in which
a progression motion is obtained by the resistance of the surface or medium
moved in or upon, impressed by the feet, fins, or wings, and communicating
by reaction on the moving thing, that motion which is the difference of the
power of resistance and the power of impression. Figure 1 is a verticle view
of the model of a barge, furnished with one system of apparatus, being the first
alluded to; Figure 2, a side view of the same. A and Aa are wheels of wood
or other material, with bars of iron or other material across; B is a system of
fins or paddles, of tin or other material, the same in side view in Figure 2; C
is a crank of iron or other material; D, sliders of iron or other material, for
the purpose of extending or contracting the system B, according to the eleva-
tion or depression of the axis of the wheel A a, in the groove or frame H (of
wood, iron, or other material), to take the water water at E, F, G, according
to the draft of water of the barge or vessel; Bis composed of planes of tin or
other material, jointed together to apply themselves to the bars of the wheels,
and the square piece which stands at an angle with the plane of cach joint is
what in travelling through the water gives the motion. The operation is as
follows: The crank C gives motion to the wheels A, which are fixed on their
axes; they move two sets of apparatus to each pair of wheels, and the two
opposite wheels A a, moving upon their own axes, and the fins, paddles, or
feet, as seen in Figure 2, at G, moving in the water, and those at E moving
out of the water, it is evident that the vessel must receive a degree of motion
from the action of a first-moving power upon the crank or axes of the two oppo-
site front wheels A.
Plate 2 exhibits the same principle as Plate 1, with a variation of tho
mechanism. Figure 1 is a small sloop-built vessel, scen vertically; and A
and A a are wheels of wood, iron, or other material, commonly called spracket
wheels, or such as are used in chain pumps for the revolution of the pistons;
and indeed a chain pump laid horizontally along each side of the vessel is a
correct illustration of the effect of the revolving motion, provided the lower line
of the pistons shall be allowed to travel through the water, and the upper
through the air. But in considering the motion of the wheels, and supposing
that one only of the bars stood out to a sufficient prominence from the internal
surface of the wheels (rejecting entirely the external part of the wheel), it may
then be considered as a crank so terminating, and that if a movement shall bọ

page_text: made by consentaneous mechanism, one line would be alone necessary, because
the paddles, fins, or feet would dip into the water and quit it as the arm of the
crank should rise or fall; but for this see Plate 3. To return more particularly
to Plate 2; having sufficiently seen that the effect differs in nowise, so far as
respects Figure 1 of Plate 2, from Fig. 1 of Plato 1, that effect is illustrated
by Fig. 2, which shews a side view of Fig. 1, and the wheels and apparatus in
which, if we consider line Las the water mark, it will easily be seen that the
vessel must be propelled by the effect of the lower fins or paddles, the upper
being out of the water. Q, guards to prevent the injury which might happen to
the paddles, &c. by means of any collision with another vessel or floating body;
P, a bar of iron or other material, on which a pulley may be made to slide, fór
the purpose of raising or sinking the fore wheels to or from the water, when the
situation of the vessel makes it practicable and necessary; B is a system
of fins or paddles of wood or other material, upon ropes or chains revolving
round the wheels before described, from which, by means of the crank C (of
iron or other material), they take their motion; I are frames of iron or other
material for sustaining the axes of the front wheels A. Figures 3 and 4 shew
a different application of the system of apparatus. The wheel A and its oppo-
site retain their places on the crank, the fore wheels are transferred to their
axes N in Figure 4. The wheels A a, Figures 3 and 4, are in the water;
the axes N is secured upon the mast or beam K; the fins or paddles move
round the wheels A and A a, and thus the vessel is pushed forwards; of course
the beam and axis must be made steady for proper braces and ropes, with
proper pullies, secured according to the nature of the vessel. The place M, in
Figure 3 and 4, shew that the beam K in each is secured by a bolt (on which
it moves) to any convenient part of the stern of the vessel; F, I, a frame
of iron or other material, for sustaining the axis of the front wheel.
Plate 3. The movements delineated in this Plato are directly analogous to
the action of the legs and feet of a four-footed animal when moving; the prin-
ciple of the apparatus precisely the same as described in the two former, the
mechanism very different; the rototary motion produced in the former by the
wheels acted upon the crank, being here produced by the crank only, and
the spades or paddles here described acting upon the water, and by that means
producing the motion of the vessel, instead of the fins, paddles, or feet before
delineated. Figure 1 is a vertical view of the model of a barge; Figure 2 'a
side view of the same. C, a crank of iron or other material; P, pins of iron
or other material, which binding on the plate of copper or other material K, in
which, by means of an eye for that purpose, the cranks C (of iron or other
material) are fixed; upon the drawing of these pins the whole apparatus

page_text: unships at once, and may be taken on board during the passing through locks,
or by other vessels. The upwrights U, seen in profile in Figure 2 and 3, (of
wood, iron, or other material,) are let down into the side of the barge for the
purpose of strength and steadiness. Figure 8 shews the fore and aft section
of the barge; S, spades or paddles of wood or other material; B (of iron
or other material) are what workmen called steadiments or strengtheners,
and they are to keep the spades or paddles S, and their shafts I, (of wood
and some kind of metal, or one or both,) from shaking or giving way; H, bolts
passing through the uprights U, and moving on their own axes; O, holes made
through the bolts H, through which tho levers or rods I traverse by the action
of the crank, and the circumstance of the bolt I moving on its own axis
enables the said bolts to follow and comply with the different angles made
during the shifting of the rods or levers I in the holes 0; and the great advan-
tage which this motion will probably have over all others, consists in this,-
that by using parelel rods and angular cranks, so as to give a dipping motion
upon the principle of turning the spracket wheels into cranks, the sweep of tho
spades, paddles, or fins never can exceed the diameter of the circle made by
the crank at its extremity, as seen in the dotted lines Y in Figure 2. But in
the present specified movement an elipsis is gained in cach movement, the
conjugate diameter of which is terminated by lines drawn from the centers II,
touching the circumference of the circles formed by the motion of the extremity
of the crank, and terminating in the lines L at R. which formed by circles drawn
from their respective centers H, Figure 2, and hence a sweep is gained through
the water in an eliptical line, mado longer or shorter according as is the pro-
portion of the distance of the spades or paddles from the extremities of the
crank marked V, in Figure 3. This movement is varied to many usefull
purposes by placing the moveable centers on the sides of the vessel, and by
turning the spades or paddles to make any convenient angle with the line
of the traversing rod or lever; and this may be on some occasions a great
convenience to ships becalmed, because the place of that side of the elipsis
which is now supposed to move, as in Figure 2, in the water, will then move
with the conjugate diameter of the clipsis, perpendicular, or nearly so, to the
sliding lever or rod, and will enable even a lofty vessell, by a proper adjustment
of the crank, to reach the water even at many feet below the line of the lever's
motion. In cutters and sloops carrying a square sail, and in square-rigged
vessels, it will be easy to apply the upwright movement by squaring the yard
or yards at a proper height and bracing them tort, then having a thimble or
eye bolt lashed to the yard at a convenient place above the crank through
which the lever or rod may traverse, and by placing the crank or crauks so as

page_text: that the lever may be under the yard, and the spade or paddle clear of
the vessell's side, the sails being lowered, the ships or cutters may be
worked against the wind, and in calms, and under ice, as in the situation of
Lieutenant Riou in the Guardian, the ship, cargo, and lives may by the
labour of the crew, with this simple contrivance, be easily saved. See
Plate 5. As many of the apparatus may be fixed as may be thought neces-
sary, according to the length of the vessell or the force required, and may be
worked by one or more cranks, connecting the movements by means of
governing rods; and if the cranks on which such rods are placed shall
be made to act at right angles, then, as the governing rods drag after them
those, or the cranks containing the paddles, that consentaneous motion is
produced before mentioned, & the effect of the resolving motion of the cranks
is thereby uninterruptedly preserved.
Plate 4, Figure 1, is a different mode of using the apparatus delineated in
the last Plate, by laying the rods or levers I in an oblique or horizontal
direction, along the side of the vessel into the eye W (of copper or other
material), to be fixed upon the side of the barge or vessell for that purpose,
instead of working perpendicularly through the eye H upon the upright U,
described in last Plate. The same seen in another point of view, in Figure 2,
marked with the same letters as in Figure 1. Figure 2 on the left side, &
Figs. 3 and 4, 5, 6, & 7, shew mode of using the apparatus at the stern of the
barge or vessel, or at either or both ends, according to the direction and the
velocity required. The projection d (of wood or other material) fixed to the
stern of the barge or vessell by the screws or pins P, and may be taken
off, or turned into a different situation, as may be convenient; e, a pin or screw
of iron or other material for keeping the apparatus steady and firm, in Figure 2*
and 7; 9 is an upwright of wood or other material, to be raised upon the
projection d; h a spur or strengthener; C, the crank; I, rods or levers,
described in last Plate, passing through the windlass f (of wood or other
material) when used perpendicularly, as in Fig. 4, or through the eye W,
when working obliquely, as in Fig. 5; S, spades or paddles. Figures 5 and 6
are modes of using the apparatus, as described in Figures 3 and 4, with the
same variation as between that of Plate 3 and Figure 1 in Plate 4, by turning
the rods or levers into an oblique or horizontal position, instead of the perpen-
dicular described in Plate 3, and in Figure 3 and 4 of Plate 4, the same letters
denoting the same parts as in those before specified. Figure 7, by turning
upon the bolt or pivot e, fixed in the center, and being an axis for the whole
apparatus to turn upon, so that, by working to the one side or the other, it will
operate as a powerful ruder; by working in a direct line it will accelerate the

page_text: motion of the vessel in that line, as in Figure 2; t, a handle of wood or other
material, to govern the apparatus, as the tiller of other rudders; y, a nut, with
a handle of wood or other material, by which the whole may be fixed.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Tenth day
of November, in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord
Georgo the Third, and in the year of our Lord One thousand seven
hundred and ninety-four.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Tenth day of November
in the year above written, the aforesaid William Fitz Gerald 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.
Inrolled the Tenth day of November, in the year above written.