AN IMPROVED COUPLING FOR REPAIRING PROPELLER SHAFTS AT SEA
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James King, James Maxwell King, and Thomas
Dundas Maxwell King, all of 5, Moscow Terrace, Victoria Park,
in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James King, James
Maxwell King, and Thomas Dundas Maxwell King at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 8th
February 1873.
We, JAMES KING, JAMES MAXWELL KING, and THOMAS DUNDAS
MAXWELL KING, all of 5, Moscow Terrace, Victoria Park, in the County
of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention for
"AN IMPROVED COUPLING FOR REPAIRING PROPELLER SHAFTS AT SEA," to be as
follows:-

page_text: Screw steamers are at the present time not unfrequently disabled by
the fracture of the propellor shaft. Such fractures cannot usually be
repaired by the ship's engineers, and the vessel consequently is often in
considerable danger. Now according to our Invention we construct a
coupling which may be carried by the ship, and which is applicable
easily and in a short time to any fracture which can occur, whether the
break occurs in a coupling or at any intermediate part of the shaft, and
whether it be straight or oblique. The coupling is in two halves, each
of which is again divided into two parts. These parts can be put over
the broken shaft near to the break, and then firmly bolted together.
Around each of the parts of the coupling, which is thus made firmly to
grip the shaft, there is a flange of a diameter greater than the butts or
permanent couplings of the shafts, and on the flange there is a projecting
ring or lip of such a depth that when the coupling is applied over a
fracture which has occurred at a joint or to one of the butts the coupling
entirely encloses the damaged joint.
In repairing a broken shaft the first operation is to cut keyways in it,
and then to put on to each end its part of the coupling, as already
described, the lips or projecting rings of the portions of the couplings
being brought into contact. Strong bolts are then inserted to bind the
halves of the coupling together, and keys are driven in to prevent the
coupling turning upon the shaft. The break is thus enclosed within the
coupling, the parts of which take a hold upon the shaft at some distance
back from the end, so that an oblique break does not interfere with a
sound repair being effected.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James King, James Maxwell King, and Thomas
Dundas Maxwell King in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
8th August 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, JAMES &
KING, JAMES MAXWELL KING, and THOMAS DUNDAS MAXWELL KING,
all of 5, Moscow Terrace, Victoria Park, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of February, in the year a

page_text: of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said James King, James Maxwell
King, and Thomas Dundas Maxwell King, Her special license that we,
the said James King, James Maxwell King, and Thomas Dundas
Maxwell King, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as we, the said James King, James Maxwell King, and Thomas Dundas
Maxwell King, 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 IMPROVED COUPLING FOR REPARING PROPELLER SHAFTS AT SEA," upon
the condition (amongst others) that we, the said James King, James
Maxwell King, and Thomas Dundas Maxwell King, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands
and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 I, the said James King, on behalf of myself and
the said James Maxwell King and Thomas Dundas Maxwell King, do
hereby declare the nature of the 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, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object an improved coupling for repairing
propeller shafts at sea.
Screw steamers are at the present time not unfrequently disabled by
the fracture of the propeller shaft. Such fractures cannot usually be
repaired by the ship's engineers, and the vessel consequently is often in
considerable danger. Now according to our Invention we construct a
coupling which may be carried by the ship, and which is applicable
easily and in a short time to any fracture which can occur, whether the
break occur in a coupling or at an intermediate part of the shaft, and
whether it be straight or oblique. The coupling is in two halves, each of
which is again divided into two parts. These parts can be put over the

page_text: flanges on the parts of the coupling which are secured to the shaft.
Keys are shewn in this Figure. Key grooves or ways are not provided
for them. The keys are concave on their inner faces, and are somewhat
more curved than the face of the shaft, so that they bear on their two
edges only, and there are pinching screws behind the keys.
Figure 4 shews in section a coupling in all respects similar to that of
Figure 1. It is here applied in a case where the fracture of the shaft is
at a joint. The parts of the coupling are secured to the shaft by keys in
recessed key ways, and this is the method which on the whole we prefer.
Couplings of small size may be made without the bolts d, d, the parts
which they connect being cast together, but this is not generally
advisable.
What we claim is the improved coupling for repairing propeller shafts
at sea, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James King, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
TATA ZINA