AN IMPROVEMENT IN PROPELLERS FOR PROPELLING SHIPS, BOATS, AND OTHER VESSELS IN WATER
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard and John Philp, of Norwood House,
Cheltenham, in the County of Gloucestershire, Civil Engineers, for the
Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN PROPELLERS FOR PROPELLING SHIPS,
BOATS, AND OTHER VESSELS IN WATER."
Sealed the 6th July 1858, and dated the 7th January 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard and John Philp
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on
the 7th January 1858.
We, RICHARD and JOHN PHILP, of Norwood House, Cheltenham, in the
County of Gloucestershire, Civil Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of.
the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN PROPELLERS FOR PROPELLING SHIPS,
BOATS, AND OTHER VESSELS IN WATER," to be as follows:
Our improvement in propellers for propelling ships, boats, and other vessels
in water relates to the position of the screw blades on the boss. We place
the opposite screw blades on the boss so that supposing they passed or were
continued through to the shaft the ends of their roots would meet in a point
there, instead of the roots crossing each other in the middle as in the ordinary
manner, while the crowns of each blade are at equal distances from the stern
of the vessel, and so inclined from their roots to their crowns as to allow the
plane of direction of each blade to pass as near as may be free of the plane of
Our object
direction of the opposite one during the rotation of the screw.
being by the above arrangement to prevent the opposition of the water thrown
from the surface of one blade with the water thrown from the opposite one,
whereby increased power is gained over previous screw propellers.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard and John Philp in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 7th July 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, RICHARD
PHILP and JOHN PHILP, of Norwood House, Cheltenham, in the County of
Gloucestershire, Civil Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Richard Philp and John Philp, Her special licence, that we, the said
Richard Philp and John Philp, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as we, the said Richard Philp and John Philp, our 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 IMPROVEMENT IN PROPELLERS FOR PROPELLING SHIPS,
BOATS, AND OTHER VESSELS IN WATER," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Richard Philp and John Philp, or one of us, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of our or
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 Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Richard Philp and John Philp, do
hereby declare the nature of our 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 :-
Our Invention relates to screw propellers, and consists in fixing the blades
in such positions upon the boss that let there be two, three, or more, each
blade shall constantly work in fresh in contradistinction to dead or churned
water; the outer extremities of all the blades, whether there be two, three, or
four, lie in the same plane. When there are two or four blades we place the
opposite blades in such position upon the boss that, supposing a line were
drawn along one side of each opposite blade, it would pass through the centre
of the boss, as seen at a, b, Figures 1 and 2, which are respectively views of a

page_text: two and a four-bladed propeller as seen from behind, while lines drawn along
the remaining sides would not pass through or near the centre of the boss.
Figures 3 and 4 are side views of the propellers shewn at Figures 1 and 2.
Where there are three blades we affix them to the boss, as shewn at Figures
5 a back, and 6 a side view; lines drawn along one side of each of these
blades would meet at the centre of the boss, as shown by the dotted lines.
Figure 7 is a view of a three-bladed propeller, shewn resting upon the
outer extremities of the blades. The blades are so inclined from the points at
which they spring from the boss to their outer extremities or crowns as to
alow the plane of direction of each blade to pass as nearly as may be free
of the plane of direction of the opposite blade during the rotation of the
propeller.
We do not confine ourselves to the fixing of the propellers at any particular
part of a vessel nor to any particular number of blades.
And having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we declare that we claim the fixing of
the blades of screw propellers upon the boss in the positions herein-before
described and represented in the Drawings annexed.
In witness whereof, we, the said Richard Philp and John Philp, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Seventh day of July, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
RICHARD PHILP.
JOHN PHILP.
(L.S.)
(L.B.)
RICHARD PHILP. (L.S.)
JOHN PHILP.
(L.B.)