IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING VESSELS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Hann, of Hetton Fence Houses, Durham,
for the Invention of" IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING VESSELS."
Sealed the 16th January 1855, and dated the 16th November 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Hann at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th November
1854.
I, WILLIAM HANN, of Hetton Fence Houses, Durham, do hereby declare
the nature of. the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING VESSELS" to be
as follows:
This Invention consists of employing a peculiar combination of machinery
acted on by the wind, to give motion to the shaft or axis of a screw or other
propeller. It should, however, be stated, that it has before been proposed to
use inclined surfaces or vanes acted on by the wind to obtain rotatory motion
to an axis on board ship, and from that axis to propellers. The present
improvements are as follows:-One, two, or more uprights are fixed in a ship
or vessel, and, by preference, these uprights are hollow, so that the motion
obtained, as hereafter explained, may be communicated to a vertical shaft
within the upright, and from it communicated to the propeller shaft. Each
fixed upright carries a horizontal shaft or axis, on the ends of which are

page_text: arranged vanes or inclined surfaces, which revolve within a cylinder, carried
by the upright in such manner that the cylinder and the horizontal axis may
be moved to the wind in whatever way it may be blowing; and the ends of
the cylinder are made bell-mouthed, in order to concentrate and direct the
wind into the cylinder, and consequently to the vanes revolving therein. The
horizontal axis by suitable gearing gives motion to the vertical shaft,-and-
the vertical shaft by suitable gearing gives motion-to the propeller shaft,
and this is the case whatever be the number of fixed uprights and apparatus
used in the same vessel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions. of, the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Hann in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
12th May 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HANN, of Hetton Fence Houses, Durham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Iler Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Ierself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William IIanu, Her special licence that I, the said William Hann, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Haun, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING
VESSELS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William
Hann, by an instrument in writing under my hand and scal, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent..
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Hann, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof (that is to say):-

page_text: This Invention consists of employing a peculiar combination of machinery
acted on by the wind, to give motion to the shaft or axis of a screw or other
propeller. It should, however, be stated, that it has before been proposed to
use inclined surfaces or vanes acted on by the wind to obtain rotatory motion
to an axis on board ship, and from that axis to propellers. The present improve-
ments are as follows:-One, two, or more uprights are fixed in a ship or
vessel, and, by preference, these uprights are hollow, so that the motion obtained,
as hereafter explained, may be communicated to a vertical shaft within the
upright, and from it communicated to the propeller shaft. Each fixed upright
carries a horizontal shaft or axis, on the ends of which are arranged vanes or
inclined surfaces, which revolve within a cylinder, carried by the upright.in
such manner that the cylinder and the horizontal axis may be moved to the
wind in whatever way it may be blowing; and the ends of the cylinder are
made bell-mouthed, in order to concentrate and direct the wind into the
cylinder, and consequently to the vanes revolving therein. The horizontal
axis by suitable gearing gives motion to the vertical shaft, and the vertical
shaft by suitable gearing gives motion to the propeller shaft, and this is
the case whatever be the number of fixed uprights and apparatus used
in the same vessel..
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed to
describe the manner of performing the same.
The Drawing shows an outline of a ship or vessel-having apparatus fitted
thereto arranged or combined according to my Invention. b, b, represents
the hull of the ship or vessel. The Drawing shows the application of two
windmills, to give motion to the propelling shaft k, but only one or more
than two windmills may be similarly applied on board a vessel. f, f, are
upright hollow standards fixed to the vessel, and on these standards the
cylinders d rest. The hinder or windward parts d' of these cylinders are
made bell-mouthed, as shown. ₁is an axis in the centre of each of the
cylinders d, and this axis is supported and turns in bearings at i, i, which
bearings rotate freely on the tops of the uprights f. f, so that the cylinders
may present themselves truly to the wind. e is an excentric on the
axis b', which gives motion to the connecting rod j in each upright f,
such connecting rod being controlled by guides ; and it has a swivel or
universal joint at g, and it has a friction roller or cross head on an axis
at h, which works in the guides j', and thus ensures the working of the con-
necting rod, though the axis 6' assumes different positions on the upright f.
The connecting rod j gives motion to the shaft or axes k by a crank, or it
may be by an excentric e. From the shaft or axis k motion is communicated

page_text: to the propeller n by means of cog wheels and pinions 1, 1, 1, 1, as shown.
m, m, are bearings. Each of the windmills is. composed of a series of vanes
a, a, fixed on the axis b, so that by the passage of the wind through the
cylinders d, d, the vanes a, a, will be acted on, and the axis b¹ put in motion;
or, in place of giving motion from the axis to-the-propeller shaft in the
manner above described, motion may be transmitted therefrom by gearing
to a vertical shaft, and from the vertical shaft by gearing to the propeller
shaft...
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same,. I would have it understood that I make no claim to the
mechanical parts separately, and the details may be varied without departing
from my Invention; but what I claim is, the combination of. machinery
lierein described for propelling vessels.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Hann, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
ROBERT HANN, Grocer,
Hetton le Hole.
WILLIAM HANN. (L.S.)