AN IMPROVEMENT IN PROPELLING SHIPS AND VESSELS."
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander John Paterson, of Edinburgh, Esquire,
for the Invention of " AN IMPROVEMENT IN PROPELLING SHIPS AND VESSELS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander John Paterson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
12th August 1858.
I, ALEXANDER JOHN PATERSON, of Edinburgh, Esquire, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN PROPELLING SHIPS
AND VESSELS," to be as follows:-
This Invention is an improvement upon an Invention for which former
Letters Patent for Great Britain were granted to me the 2nd May 1857.
Instead of having conical cylinders or drums of about the same diameter at their
base as that of the beam of the vessels carrying the screw blades therewith, I
build the ship fore and aft, or either fore or aft, with one or more cones or
frustums of cones instead of the ordinary bows or sterns, as the case may be.
I mount screw blades upon a conical frame corresponding to the shape of the
bows or stern, and cause this frame and screws to revolve round the fixed
cones. The difference between the present Invention and that first patented
by me is that the blades revolve round the conical bow or bows, or stern,
instead of the conical bow or stern revolving with the screw blades.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander John Paterson in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 12th February 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
JOHN PATERSON, of Edinburgh, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alexander John Paterson, Her special licence that I, the said Alexander
John Paterson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Alexander John Paterson, 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 "AN IM-
PROVEMENT IN PROPELLING SHIPS AND VESSELS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Alexander John Paterson, my executors or admini-
strators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their
hands and seals, should particularly 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 Scal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alexander John Paterson do hereby
declare the nature of my 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, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say:-
This Invention is an improvement upon an Invention for which former
Letters Patent for Great Britain-were-granted_to_me_the_2nd May 1857.
Instead of having conical cylinders or drums carrying the screw blades of about
the same diameter at their base as that of the beam of the vessel, I build the
ship fore and aft, or either fore or aft, with one or more cones or frustums of
cones instead of the ordinary bows or stern, as the case may be. I mount
screw blades upon a conical frame corresponding to the shape of the bows or
stern, and cause this frame and screws to revolve round the fixed cones. The
difference between the present Invention and that first patented by me is that

page_text: the blades revolve round the conical bow or bows, or stern, instead of the
conical bow or stern revolving with the screw blades.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a side elevation of a vessel
having a propeller at each end, and with my improvement applied thereto. A
is the hull; B is the stern propeller; C is the bow propeller; D, D, are
conical frames, to which the propeller blades B & C are attached. These
propeller blades extend beyond the frames D, D, and revolve round the
frustums of the cone, as shewn; E is the rudder. The propellers may be
driven by any suitable steam or other engine or engines, and either together
or separately. Figure 2 is a side elevation of the bows of a ship having the
conical frame formed in two parts a and b. Figure 3 is a side elevation; and
Figure 4 a plan view of a vessel constructed with a double set of propellers at
the bow; F is a frame at the fore part of the vessel, forming a bow, as in
vessels of the ordinary construction. The vessel shewn at Figures 3 and 4
may be two vessels placed side by side, as described in the Specification of the
Patent granted to me the 2nd May 1857, or she may be built as a single ship,
as shewn in the cross section Figure 5, which is taken through the line c, d,
of Figure 3; in this case the parts marked e, e, e, e, Figure 5, would gradually
slope off towards the stern till from the bases of the cones they merge into the
ordinary cross section of a vessel.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not limit myself to
the exact method indicated in the Drawings for carrying my Invention into
effect; but what I claim is, the propelling ships and vessels, by causing the
blades or propellers to revolve round a conical bow or stern, essentially in the
manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander John Paterson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of February, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-nine.
ALEX. J. PATERSON. (L.S.)