NEW INVENTION OR IMPROVEMENT. IN NAVAL ARCHITECTURE, WHEREBY VESSELS OF ALL BURTHENS MAY BE ENABLED TO SAIL FASTER THAN THEY NOW DO, PARTICULARLY IN A HEAVY SEA
Year: 1800

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
PLAYFAIR, of Great Brook Street, Fitzroy Square, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting:
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third hath been
graciously pleased, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great
Britain, bearing date.at Westminster, the. Twelfth day of December, in the
forty-first year of His said Majesty's reign, to give and grant unto me, the
said William Playfair, and Nicholas Le Favre, of Still Organ, near Dublin, in
Ireland, but now of George, Yard, Lombard Street, in the City of London,
Esquire, our executors, administrators, and assigns, His special. licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William Playfair, and the
said Nicholas La Favre, our executors, administrators, and assigns, and every
of them, by ourselves or themselves, or by our or their deputy or deputies,
servants or agents, or such others as I, the said William Playfair, and the said
Nicholas Le Fayre, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
time agree with, and no others, should and lawfully might, from time to time
and at all times. hereafter, during the term of years therein expressed, make,
use, exercise and vend, within that part of Great Britain called England, the
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my "NEW INVENTION
OR IMPROVEMENT. IN NAVAL ARCHITECTURE, WHEREBY VESSELS OF ALL BURTHENS
MAY BE ENABLED TO SAIL FASTER THAN THEY NOW DO, PARTICULARLY IN A HEAVY
SEA," in such manner. as to me, and the the said Nicholas Le Fayre, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, should in our or their discretions seem
"
any

page_text: meet, and that I, the said William Playfair, and the said Nicholas Le Favre,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, should and lawfully might have and
enjoy the whole profit, benefit, commodity, and advantage from time to time
coming, growing, accruing, and arising by reason of the said Invention, to have,
hold, exercise, and enjoy the said licence, powers, privileges, and advantages
therein granted unto me, the said William Playfair, and the said Nicholas
Le Favre, our executors, administrators, and assigns, for and during and unto
the full end and term of fourteen years from the date of the said Letters
Patent next and immediately ensuing, and fully to be compleat and ended,
according to the Statute in such case made and provided; and whereas in the
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that I, the said William
Playfair, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is performed, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in the
High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next after the date of the
said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large'
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that, in obedience to the said Letters Patent, and
the proviso therein contained, I, the said William Playfair, do hereby
declare my said new invented method and improvement, whereby vessels
of all burthens may sail faster than they do at present, especially in a
heavy sea, is made and performed in manner following, (that is to say):-
By preventing or warding off from the bow or other part of the ship or
vessel those waves which by their sudden shock or resistance tend to impede
its progress and do impede the same, which I effect by interposing between
the side of the ship or vessel and the wave a shield on springs or some elastic
substance, in such a manner as to admit of the interposed substance or water
shield yielding to the first impulse of the wave, by which means the full force
of the shock will not act upon the body of the vessel to retard its progress.
The said water shield may be either made of a solid body itself, on or with
springs interposed, or perforated, or made otherwise, so as to allow water to
pass, thereby dispersing the wave, at the same time that it yields to its
diminished impulse. But the Invention I do hereby specify to consist in the
elasticity either of the body opposed to the water, or the elasticity of the
materials, springs, or other substances by which it is held off from the vessel,
and any latticed or perforated substance through which the shock or pressure
given is diminished in its progress to the ship or vessel, in a manner similar
to that in which the roughness of a street, road, or highway is broken or
softened to the body of a carriage that is hung on springs, which does not feel

page_text: the sudden shock that the wheels receive in passing over those inequalities so
violently as it would do if it were not for the intervention of the springs. The
said shield or wave breakers may either be fixed to the ship in a permanent
manner, always having elasticity or the capacity of yielding to the stroke of
the wave; or they may be made to take off and on or shift at pleasure, or as
occasion requires; by being fixed wherever the wave, according to the course of
the ship and movement of the sea, requires, and the form may be made such
as is found most applicable to the vessel. The wave skreen should be fixed so
as not to touch the water in a calm sea, or at any time except when the wave
comes, and it should be so placed as to receive the wave as nearly at right
angles as possible..
Figure 1st represents the horizontal section of a ship, about two feet
above the water mark when loaded. The line A, B, shews the direction in
which the ship advances in the water; C, D, represents that surface of the
wave the shock of which is intended to be resisted, broken, or dispersed;
E, F, is a line shewing the direction in which the said wave advances or
approaches the ship (for sometimes it is the ship that advances upon or
overtakes the wave); G, H, will then represent the water shield or wave
skreen at some distance from the side of the ship, the intermediate space being
occupied by some elastic substance or substances, spring or springs, in such
manner as to admit of G, H, retiring on receiving the shock, and lessening the
distance between it and the side of the vessel..
Figure 2 is another horizontal -section, in which the references to all
the lines and letters are the same as in Figure 1; the only difference being,
that on it the wave is supposed to approach in a different angle, thereby
shewing wherein such case the skreen would be fixed to oppose it.
Figure 8 represents a ship sideways, in which J, K, and L, M, are two
horizontal lines. L, M, the ordinary water line, below which the shield
or skreen must never be placed; and I, K, the height to which the waves
intended to be resisted are supposed to strike upon the ship; for it
is not pretended that in case of a very violent storm, when the waves
rise very nearly to the deck, that these skreens will compleatly serve the
purpose of breaking the force of the waves. G. H, in this Figure likewise
represents the skreen which must be fixed higher or lower according as the
line L. M, varies with the loading of the ship.
Figure 4 is a transverse section of a ship. In order to give an example and view
of the manner I propose the shields to be fixed to the ship. N, O, in this view
shews a shield fixed parallel or nearly parallel to the side of the ship, from which
it is kept at a certain distance by springs or some elastic substance or substances;

page_text: is held from falling off by ropes, expressed by the dotted lines; which pass through
holes or rings in the side of the ship and bind it on. The said ropes, if
carried through the side of the vessel; come through a tube or pipe of copper
or other metal, till they are entirely above the height or level of the water, so
that none can thereby enter the vessel. P, Q, is another manner: When the
lower side of the skreen touches the side of the vessel; from which the upper
edge is kept at a considerable distance by springs or elastic substances; so as to
work from a centre, something in the manner of a valve of a pump of
the bellows of an organ, the yielding motion being greatest where the wave strikes
with most velocity; tliat is, towards the top or higher edge. It may in some
cases be expedient to have a moveable shield at a greater distance from the
vessel, and which is continually let down and lifted up to each wave; "of this,
Figure 3 is intended as an example on the part drawn in red. In this, R, S,
represents a shield kept at a considerable distance from the ship by a number
of spiral, twisted, or other springs, which all touch in one horizontal line, so' thät
when the rope, represented by the dotted line T, T, moving over a pulley U; U;
is moved, the shield can be raised or lowered instantly at pleasurè, so as. to
resist the approaching wave in the very centre; and as in this case it is best to
have the shield perforated, or to consist of a number of bars fixed together, or
lattice work, the wave is broken and nearly dispered before it comes up to
the ship. A seaman is necessary to attend a skreen or shield of this sort; but
it is chiefly necessary when a ship rises and plunges so much that the part of
the side or bow where the wave will break is liable to vary from one moment
to another. In this case also there may be a variety of forms and manners of
putting this in practice; but like those already described, the principle consists
in the opposing a yielding power to resist or a perforated body to disperse the
action of the wave, so as to lessen the violence of the impulsé on the body of
the vessel.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Nineteenth day of December, in the forty-first year of the reign
of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the grace of God;
of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith,
&c., and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-third day of Decem-
ber, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid William Playfair came
before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Speci-
fication aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above
5 written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided.
T
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