IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPERTAINING TO PROPELLING AND STEERING VESSELS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO RAISING FLUIDS, AND FOR BLOWING AND EXHAUSTING PURPOSES
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Hale at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 30th January 1878.
WILLIAM HALE, of Handsworth, in the County of Warwick, and also of 15,
Water Street, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND
APPERTAINING TO PROPELLING AND STEERING VESSELS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE
ALSO APPLICABLE TO RAISING FLUIDS, AND FOR BLOWING AND EXHAUSTING
PURPOSES."
My Invention relates to certain improvements for propelling and steering vessels,
which improvements are also applicable to raising fluids, and for blowing and
exhausting purposes.
My Invention consists of a novel construction of propeller, which is formed of
two blades, each representing the half of a double cone. The blades are fluted, and
arranged at right angles to each other; they can be cast or built together, or they
can be cast or built on a boss.
My Invention further consists in the method of adapting and applying my pro-
peller to navigable vessels, and for other purposes.
In carrying my Invention into operation I mount the propeller upon a shaft,
which runs through the centre of the propeller, so that the blades thereof are at an
angle of forty-five degrees to such shaft. The propeller is contained and rotates in
a propeller box, which is placed low down and near the keel of the vessel to be
propelled. The front of the propeller box is open to or in communication with the
outside water, and from the propeller box I lead two pipes or waterways, one of
which discharges on the port side of the vessel, and the other on the starboard side
of the vessel.
The pipes or waterways are provided with valves or sluices, so that the discharge
may be divided for propelling purposes, or directed wholly to one side or the other
for-steering purposes.
The propeller may be arranged as just described, or it may be arranged in dupli-
cate, in which case the two propellers may be placed parallel with each other, and
discharging one on either side of the vessel; or the propellers may be placed one in

page_text: front of the other, one forward of the centre of gravity of the vessel, and the other
aft of same, each propeller having independent tubular channel ways, and dis-
charging on either side of the vessel, the discharge pipes in all cases being provided
with suitable valves or sluices.
The propeller is rotated or driven in the propeller box by means of any suitable
steam or other motive-power engine.
In lieu of the discharge pipes or waterways being led from the propeller box to
the sides of the vessel, such discharge pipes may lead to the after part of the vessel,
and the propeller box may be provided with supply channels in front of the box.
The form of the propeller box is by preference circular or cylindrical.
My Invention when used as a hydraulic propeller is intended to produce a greater
speed and a steadier motion than is attained by the systems now in use. It also
supplies a powerful steering or manoeuvering power at the same time as propelling,
having a direct action on the vessel.
The propeller constructed of two blades, each representing, when viewed from
the top, or as an end view, the half of a double cone, such blades, standing at right
angles to each other, and mounted upon a shaft, and at an angle of forty-five degrees
thereto, may be applied to vessels as an ordinary screw propeller, or when fitted in
a pipe, as a means for raising fluids, or for blowing or exhausting purposes.