CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING SHIPS, BOATS, OR OTHER VESSELS OR FLOATING BODIES
Year: 1824

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
NEVILLE, of High Street, Southwark, in the County of Surrey, Engineer, and
WILLIAM BUSK, of Broad Street, in the City of London, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Sixteenth day of September, in the fifth year of His reign, did, for
Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said James
Neville and William Busk, His especial licence, that we, the said James
Neville and William Busk, our exors, admors, or assigns, or such others as
we, the said James Neville and William Busk, our exor, admors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING SHIPS,
BOATS, OR OTHER VESSELS OR FLOATING BODIES;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso, obliging us, the said James Neville and William
Busk, by an instrument in writing under our or one of our hands and seals,
particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
aud immediately after the date of the said recited Letters, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW-YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Busk, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention to consist

page_text: in a peculiar situation and form of hollow space in a boat or other vessel, by
the action against which of either water or air, in manner herein-after explained,
a forward motion of the said boat or other vessel is obtained. And in further
compliance with the said proviso, I, the said William Busk, do hereby describe
the manner in which we perform our said Invention by the following descrip-
tion thereof, reference being had to the Drawing annexed and the Figures
marked thereon (that is to say) :-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Fig. 1 represents the section of a boat in water.
A is the hollow space
before mentioned, which I call a trunk, and which should be of or as nearly
as possible of the shape and proportions here shewn. B, C, are two planes
turning on a common pivot at E, and furnished with valves on the principle
and in form similar to the valves mentioned in the Specification of a Patent
heretofore granted to me by His said Majesty, and bearing date the Twenty-
ninth day of June, One thousand eight hundred and twenty-four, and which
said Specification was inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery on
the Twenty-ninth day of December, One thousand eight hundred and twenty-
four, reference being thereunto had will more fully appear. F and Gare
shafts connected with the planes B and C for the purpose of receiving an up-
and-down motion from a steam engine or other primary power, supposed to
be in the boat, and communicating the same to the planes, which in this
situation I call the paddles. In this Figure, it being a section only, two
paddles are seen, B and C, but there are in fact three to be used, as will be
seen with reference to the plan given of them at Fig. 2, where it will be seen
the centre paddle is twice as broad as the two side paddles, in order to make
it in effect equal to the other two combined, for in order to keep the boat or
vessel steady it is necessary that the centre paddle should be depressed while
the two side paddles are raised, and vice versâ, that the two side paddles should
bo depressed while the centre paddle is raised. But to return to Fig. 1,
B and C are two planes furnished with four shutters or flaps, which I call
valves, marked r, so arranged that when the plane is raised the valves open
downwards, and when depressed they close, and offer the necessary resistance
to the water, and with two valves, marked S, S, which open in exactly the
contrary direction, (that is to say,) upwards when the planes are depressed,
and close when the planes are raised. It should be observed that the valves
should be kept from opening to a greater angle than about 45 degrees. In this
Figure, B is supposed to be in its ascending position, and C in its descending.
Now, by this arrangement it will be seen that when B is raised the valves

page_text: marked r will open downwards, and thus the plane will offer very little resistance
to the water, while that portion of the water which is forced upwards against
the top of the trunk will, from the inclination of the said top, tend to propol
the vessel forwards. The plane C being depressed at the same time, the
valves marked r are all closed, while the valves markeds open upwards, to
allow the passage of the water to fill the partial vacuum that would otherwise
be formed behind the descending planes. It will be observed, that the de-
scending planes are never depressed below their horizontal line, and thus when
in action they always present an opposing surface to the water at an angle that
will cause the boat or vessel to which they are attached to progress.
Fig. 3 is the representation of a boat in section, also in the water, and
shewing our mode of applying air in the same trunk for the purpose aforesaid.
A is a trunk similar to that shewn at Fig. 1, except that the trunk in this
Figure has a bottom to it, in order to prevent the boat or vessel from being
lifted by the elasticity of the air when applied from our cylinder as herein-after
explained; K is a cylinder with an air valve L; and P is a piston connected
by means of the shaft or rod F to a steam engine or other primary power
supposed to be in the boat, for the purpose of giving it an up-and-down
alternating motion. When this piston, which is furnished with two valves,
N and O, is first put in motion, the cylinder will be filled partly with water
and partly with air; the downward stroke of the piston will expel both this
water and air, which, rushing out into and passing through the trunk, will
cause such an action, both of the water and air, against the upper inclined
surface of the trunk as will induce a forward motion of the boat or vessel.
On the up stroke of the piston the valves L, N, and O, will open, and admit
a portion of air in place of that which has been expelled, and which will in
turn be driven out also by the next down stroke of the piston, and thus it will
be seen that if two cylinders and pistons are used a continuous forward motion
of the boat or vessel will be obtained.
Now, I do hereby claim as our Invention two particulars, namely,-
First, a trunk open at the bottom, situated and formed as herein-before de-
scribed in Fig. 1, and the application thereto of planes, with or without the Patent
valves, such Patent valves constituting no part of our said Invention: and,
Secondly, a trunk closed at the bottom, situated and formed as herein-before
described at Fig. 3, and the application thereto of an air or blowing apparatus, as
herein-before described. And these said two particulars being, to the best of my
knowledge and belief, entirely new, and never before used in that part of His
said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
His said Majesty's Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I

page_text: do hereby declare this to be our Specification of the same, and that I do verily
believe this our said Specification doth comply in all respects, fully and without
reserve or disguise with the proviso in our said herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent contained; wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive
right and privilege to our said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Busk, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-five.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of March, in
the year of our Lord 1825, the aforesaid William Busk came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Fourteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-five.