AN IMPROVEMENT IN STEAM BOATS, AND IN THE MACHINERY FOR PROPELLING THE SAME,
Year: 1818

page_text: WHEREAS His Majesty, by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great
Britain, bearing date the Twenty-third day of January One thousand eight
hundred and eighteen, did give and grant unto me, JOHN SCOTT, of Penge
Place, in the County of Surry, Esquire, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, his
special licence, full power, and privilege, in such manner as is therein contained,
during the term of fourteen years from the date of the said Letters, to
make, use, exercise, and vend my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN STEAM
BOATS, AND IN THE MACHINERY FOR PROPELLING THE SAME," in that part of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, the Principality
of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, provided that if I should not
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, by an instrument in writing, under
my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled within two calendar months
from the date of the said Letters the same should become void.
NOW THEREFORE, I, the said John Scott, in compliance with the said
proviso, do, by this instrument in writing, under my hand and seal, describe
and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and the manner the same is to
be performed, as follows:-
In rapid rivers out of the reach of tides, having many shallows and running
upon
hard beds of gravel, stone, or chalk, the barge is proposed to be navigated
with poles, and in its construction, instead of the floor or bottom being entire,

page_text: as in common barges, it is to be bisected or divided from stem to stern; instead
of ono there must be two keelsons placed from ten to twenty inches apart,
nccording to the size of the barge, extending the whole length of the floor or
bottom; there will therefore be a chasm or waterway, which is hereafter
termed the channel, in the centre of the barge of the whole length of the floor
or bottom, except that it may be more adviseable for the security of the union
of the parts of construction and to preserve the vessel staunch, to continue tho
stem to the bottom of the keelsons, or nearly so, and close the waterway at the
head of the barge to the bottom of tho keelsons, or nearly so, which will also
tend to keep the vessel better in her course against a powerful stream; but this
will not be requisite at the stern, there the waterway may be left free by the
stern post towards the bottom being of crooked timber, and either in two
pieces firmly bolted together at the top, each piece diverging to join to tho
keelsons, or if ono piece of a fork like shape, both branches of the fork being
secured to the keelsons, viz, one to each, or by any other good practical modo
of construction of effecting the channel or waterway; the bisection or channel
tending to weaken the barge, care must be taken by knees and braces, and
other means, to prevent the sides from collapsing and receding from each other;
the koelsons should be of one piece each if to be had, and caro taken to make
the barge as strong as is consistent with the object and use; upon and paralel
with the keelsons, the whole length thereof, are placed and firmly secured pieces
of timber called the beams and surbeams, each of which to be of one piece,
if to be obtained, and the whole to rise when fixed to a level with the sides of
the barge, thus forming the channel complete of uniform width from end to
end, in which it is obvious the water will rise without entering into any
other internal part of the vessel as high as on the outsides. On the keelsons,
beams, and surbeams aro firmly fixed at intervals of distance three strong
supports, which might be found most advantageous if made of iron or other
strong inctal, cach in the form of two uprights, and a cross piece furnished with
angular iron or other braces to keep them firm; the cross pieces must stand
over and across the channell, to serve as axises for three strong wheels turning
on those, or with those axises in the direction of the length of the channel, as
is described in the plan, Figure 1, 2, 3, and marked A, B, and C; the height of
the cross piece or axis must be governed by the diameter of the wheels, but
should be such as will rise the wheels high enough to keep the lower rim from
touching the surface of the water. The pooles may be six in number, viz', two
for each wheel, and made of oak, fir, iron, or any strong wood or metal, having
a strong wide metal fork fixed to a strong metal socket at the end, having also
a strong metal socket at the head with a strong eye, or collar, gudgeon, or pivot

page_text: to attach to corresponding gudgeons, pivots, collars, or eyes in or upon the
wheels, or they may be attached by a common hinge, knuckle, or other joint.
To admit of a reciprocal motion, at the point of junction the poles are to be
attached to the wheels nearly in opposite direction of the diameter of the
wheel, viz, at the situations of the wheel marked O and U, in the plan, with
the ends directed to the bed of the river, and tending towards the stern of the
barge; the poles must be of different lengths to suit the varying depth of the
river, and those which are attached to the lowest part of cach wheel, or at U,
will be necessarily, by their position, shorter than those at O of each respectivo
wheel, the respective poles of wheel C will be longer than the corresponding
poles of wheel B, and the poles of wheel B longer than the corresponding poles
of wheel A, and the distance from the stern to wheel C is greater than
from wheel C to wheel B, and from C to wheel B is greater than from
wheel B to A, to allow of the corresponding difference of length in the
poles. The steam engine should be placed at the stern, leaving room for the
tiller of the helm, but may be placed at the head by reversing the action, but
with less advantage. To the moving power is attached a connecting rod, which
is also connected by its other end to wheel Cat letter R in the plan, from whence
passes another connecting rod, which is connected to wheel B also at R, from
whence passes another connecting rod, also connected to wheel A at R. This
connection is by the same means or joint as is already described. The stroke
of the piston or range of the moving power must be such as will cause the wheels
which all act at once by the same impulse to describe a quadrant or fourth
part of a revolution by the direct motion of the piston or moving power, and
the same in returning by the retrograde motion of the piston or moving
power. The arch line of the quadrant will therefore correspond with the
length of the stroke. From three to five feet, according to the draft of water
of the barge, will be found a convenient diameter for the wheels, as the axis
should be as near to the surface of the water as may be, so as that the lower
part of the wheel may work out of or as little in the water of the channel as
may be. No positive rule can be assigned for the length of the poles, as the
variations in depth of the river and strength of the stream may oppose any
theory of that nature, but a good practical rule will be to proportion their
length to six different states of the depth of the river, making the gradation
nearer to each other of the lengths of the corresponding poles of wheels A
and B than those of wheels B and C, not only because in rivers of this nature
the shallow parts are most rapid, but they contain a greater proportion of
shallow places than deep, and the barge in the deeps will require less force
and may be occasionally assisted by the crew with oars; a spare pole may

page_text: also be suspended by slings or other means in the channel under the guide
wheels hereafter mentioned for the deep places, if found necessary, and, as
occasioned serves, hitched on and off to a spare gudgeon, pivot, or eye of the
wheel A, the poles of which in such a depth will be inert. By a rope or slings,
or other means, the fork ends of the poles, inactive from being two short to reach
the depth, may be lifted out of the water from time to time, and thus their
interposition will not impede the motion of the barge, and be again let down
as required. The following is the mode of putting the machinery in action:
the piston being about to be launched from the cylinder, the barge at rest,
the position of the wheels must be as described in the plan.
Figure 1, the three poles, placed at U of the three wheels, are beginning
their action, that of wheel A touching the bed of the river by its fork, at its
shallowest place, the other two also touching the bed of the river, but at the
augles their length compels them to describe, the three poles of the three wheels
placed at O in the position they assume at the time of finishing their actions. The
piston is now launched from the cylinder, and acting on the connecting rods
and those on the wheels, they are impelled forwards to make a quadrant of a
revolution on their axis, the tendency of which is to thrust the three poles
attached to the wheels at U against the bed of the river, which resisting their
action, the fork opposing a penetration, a reaction is created on the axle of the
wheels, or in other words the vis inertia of the barge is overcome by the force
exerted at the axles of the wheels, and the barge is propelled forwards. By
the same stroke of the piston the polos attached to O of the three wheels are
drawn back and placed in their position to act as shewn by Figure 2, and at the
reverse motion of the piston are acted upon in the same manner, the poles at
U in their turn being drawn back, and so alternately. The length of the pole
at O of wheel A is calculated for the second state of the depth of the river
in its best position for acting as in Figure 2, the two other poles at U of whoels
13 and C for the third and fifth, and the two poles at O of wheels B and C
for the fourth and sixth gradations of the depth, the intention being that, as
well as can be divided, one of the poles should be always at a favourable angle
or position as regards the depth, the others in a less advantageous position
from the difference in length, but still aiding to prevent the poles in their
return from passing the point of that angle; small guide wheels are fixed in
the channel, the axis being in a direction across it, against which the pole on
its return in deep water rests, and is retained from taking n direction nearer
to a perpendicular. The angles at which the poles are described to be set in
the favourable position, although advantageous for general practical use, will
require to be acted upon with care by the moving power at such times as the

page_text: state of the barge is to be changed from that of rest to motion. In such cases
the power should be exerted by degrees and slowly; but when the barge has
acquired a momentum, or as is termed "on-way," less caution is requisite. If
the burden of the barge or state of the river requires it, the poles may be
prevented going to the extent of the guide wheel, or it may be made to slide
in a grove in the channel backwards and forwards, and retained where thought
proper by a stiff spring or other means without difficulty, as the action on them
will be very slight; and to prevent the fork of the pole penetrating too deep
into the bed of the river, a strong stop, resembling the lid of a tankard, may be
fixed by a hinge or other joint, hanging nearly perpendicularly downwards
from the head of the fork, so as to stand when pressed upwards at right angle
with the fork, and be retained at that angle by a return or projection of the
back of the stop, or by a set off or projection in the socket of the fork, or other
means. Instead of wheels sectors of wheels may be used with advantage, the
sector not being less than half a circle, or a crank with three radii or arms, a
wheel being only an universal crank. To very large vessels four or more wheels
may be used to advantage, longitudinally or two abreast, which will allow of
greater variety of length to the poles for tide rivers or rivers not too shallow
to prevent the use of the machinery about to be described. The barge is
worked by two oars or propellers, hereafter called oars, consisting each of a
shaft and a lateral blade, called the obdolite, fixed at the end, and on one side
of the oar at right angle or nearly so with the shaft. The nature of the con-
struction of the barge for this purpose is the same as already described, except
that the bisection or division of the floor or bottom need not extend from the
stern further than the place of action of the oars therein, and free inlet for the
water into the channel to enable them to act with effect. The channel
made by the bisection may be from one foot to four foot or more in
width, according to the size and intended burden of the barge, the power
to be employed, and velocity required. The part of the channel where
the action of the blade or obdolite takes place must be raised by boards
or other means sufficiently high to prevent the water which will be displaced
by the percussion from entering the barge, or the whole range of the
action of the obdolite may may be enclosed at the sides and top. On the
beams and surbeams there must be strongly fixed and secured one strong
support as before described; but instead of one cross piece there must
be two, one over the other, both standing transversely over the channel,
to serve as axles to four strong metallic pulley or groved wheels, two of
such wheels revolving on the lower cross piece or axle, viz', one close to
each end thereof acting over the edges of the channel, the other two wheels

page_text: on the upper cross piece or axle perpendicularly over the first-mentioned two
wheels, viz', one over cach, the distance between the grooves of the two wheels
so placed perpendicularly to each other to bo such as will admit of the shaft
of the oar passing between them resting on the upper part of the groove of the
lower wheel, the intent of the upper whool being to confine the shaft to that
line of motion hereafter called the pulley track. The two pulley tracks will
therefore have nearly the width of the channel between them. The central
point of the pulley track between the wheels should not be higher than the
centre of the axis of the great wheels or crank hereafter described, but may
be a little lower; the shaft of the oar should be of iron or other hard metal,
as flexibility would impede or counteract the direct line of motion essential for
its nction. The blade or obdolite should be also of iron or other metal, as
giving the greatest strength and surface with least bulk, and as thin as will be
sufficient to overcome the resistence of the water opposed to it; it is to be fixed
by a socket, rib, or other means on the shaft at the extremity, and secured by
braces so as to project or extend its whole breadth on the inside only of each
shaft at right angle or nearly so; or, in other words, the shaft being each in its
respective pulley track, with the head towards the stem of the vessel, the
blades or obdolites stand in a direction to intersect tho channel of the barge
from side to side in opposite directions; the breadth of the obdolites may be as
nearly of the diameter of the whole width of the channel as will allow them to
pass and repass freely therein. The height and depth of the obdolite above
and below the shaft must not be so great as the diameter of the elliptical
circuit made by the extremity of the shafts in their action hereafter described,
in the place when they pass each other, which will be at or near the central
point of the transverse diameter or equal division in length of that circuit,
otherwise they would be driven against each other. The heights, also, of cach
obdolite should be equal, and the depth the same, as they alternately pass over
and under each other; the height and depth of the part under and above the
same shaft may be unequal. The steam engine for this barge should be placed
towards the stem, or not nearer the stern than the centre, and should com-
municato a constant rotatory motion to two large wheels upon one fixed axis,
called hereafter the great wheels, and which will answer the purpose of the
fly-wheel of the engine, or to two sectors of wheels, or to a crank with double
radii or arms in opposite directions. We shall describe the machinery as used
to wheels which will be applicable to the crank, a wheel being no more than
an universal crank. The rims of the wheels must be placed so far apart that
when attached one to the outside of each rim tho shafts should stand in a
direct line, each with its respective pulley track.
The shafts being placed in

page_text: the pulley track, the head end must be attached by pivot, pin, gudgeon, socket,
eye, or other joint to the great wheels in opposite points of their diameter,
regarding them for that purpose as one wheel. The length of the oar must be
such that in all cases there must be a greater distance between the head end
of the oar as attached to the rim of the great wheels in any period of the
revolution of those wheels and the axis of the pulley wheels, than between the
other extremity of the oar to which the obdolite is fixed, and the axis of the
pulley wheels at any such period. The action then takes place thus: the
great wheels being urged forward in the direction of the arrow in the plan,
Figure 4, by the moving power affixed to a crank in the centre between the
wheels, (which crank is shewn in Figure 5,) the oar A is impelled through
the pulley crank forwards and downwards, thrusting its blade or obdolite
against the body of water it meets in the channel, which resisting the action of
the stroke, the effect of that resistance is a reaction at the fixed axle of the
great wheels, or in other words, the greatest part of the force impelled on the
great wheels exerts itself on the axle, by which the barge is impelled to move
forwards. The oar B being placed in the opposite diameter of the great
wheels, is, during the time the oar A is advancing, in the action of returning,
and by the time half of a revolution of the great wheels has taken place, assumes
the position the oar A is first described to be in, and is in its turn impelled
in the same course, the oar A at the same time returning, and so alternately
the two oars jointly making two strokes each revolution. It being requisite that
a greater portion of the length of the shaft should be between the great wheels
and the pulley wheels than between the pulley wheels and the other extremity
of the shaft, it follows that whilst the head end of the shaft is describing &
circle, which it must do, being attached to the rim of the great wheels and
revolving with them, the shaft, urged through a fulcrum point, viz, the pulley
track, from which the two pulley wheels prevent its deviation, must describe an
egg-like elliptical circuit, more or less approaching to a circle as the dispropor-
tion between the two described lengths of the oar on cach side the pulley
wheels is greater or less. In this circuit the obdolites pass each other twice in
a revolution, the upper part of one under the bottom part of the other recipro-
cally; the distance from the axis of the pulley wheels to the axis of the great
wheels must therefore be determined by the intended length of the oar, and
that length must bear relation to the diameter of the great wheels, and to the
intended elliptical circuit. No theory of universal practical proportions would
be perfect;-the difference in force of tides or currents, of barges for carrying
burdens or passengers, required velocity, the width of the channels and area of

page_text: the obdolite all present the materials of difficult combination. It appears only
necessary to observe that if the circuit made by the extremity of the shaft
approach too nearly to a circle, which it will obviously do by lessening the
inequality of the different lengths of the shaft on each side the pulley wheels,
the obdolite will have a less direct action, and be urged deeper, and if on the
contrary too great an inequality be observed, the action of the obdolite, though
more direct, must be limited in its height and depth as the diameter of the
elliptical circuit at the point where the obdolites pass each other will be pro-
portionally small, and it would be disadvantageous if the obdolite in returning
encounters any material bulk of the water in the channel, and therefore varin-
tions in length of the oar and distance of the fulcrum within the rule laid
down is adviseable according to circumstances, and may be adopted. Figure 4
is a section of part of the harge, showing the machinery. A represents one of
the oars dipping into the water, and B the oar at the opposito diameter of the
great wheels, returning. C, the great wheels; D, the dotted elliptical circuit,
which the extremity of the shaft of the oar describes in each revolution; E, that
part of the diameter in which the obdolites pass each other. Figure 5 ro-
presents the machinery viowed as on a ground plan; F, the channel of the
barge; A & B the two oars with their obdolites on the horizontal line, or as
is termed the dead point.
The advantages of these Inventions are, first, as to the bargo propelled
with poles, that by means of the arrangement of the machinery and of the
mutual adaptation of the barge and the poles to each other to the different
depths of the river and to practical effect, the rivers described can be navi-
gated by means of machinery, without making action on the water the medium
of resistance whereby to gain power.
Secondly, that by this arrangement of machinery, if sufficient power be
employed, the barge is impelled against the stream, however strong, and will
advance, when the depth of the river admits any one of the six poles at its best
position for action, nearly double the length of the stroke of the piston, or
nearly double the arch line of the quadrant of a circle the wheel or crank
passes through.
Thirdly, with respect to to the barge with oars by the means of the machinery
described, the obdolites thrust with their broad surfaces and with prodegious
power against the water, and in immerging into and emerging from it, present
their thin clges in a most simple method with little retarding effect.
And lastly, that in both barges, the action being in the centre, they avoid the
risk of encountering other vessels and obstacles, and can pass through locks,

page_text: which side machinery is an impediment to, and in these modes they are also
better disposed to answer the helm.
In witness whercof, I, the said John Scott, have hereunto set my hand
& seal, the Twenty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighteen.