IMPROVEMENTS IN RUDDERS FOR SCREW-PROPELLED VESSELS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical
Draughtsman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN RUDDERS FOR
SCREW-PROPELLED VESSELS."-A communication from abroad by Otto
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 27th May 1874.
ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
Lanc, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
RUDDERS FOR SCREW-PROPELLED VESSELS," to be as follows:-
-
The object of this Invention is so to construct the rudders of screw-
propelled vessels that the water driven rearwards by the propeller at
right angles or nearly so to the face of the propelling blade shall not

page_text: strike against the sides of the rudder, but have a free course rearwards.
As these propellers are submerged and the blades in all positions of their
rotation serve to propel, it follows that the water driven rearwards by
the raised blade or blades will cross the course of the water impelled by
the depressed blade or blades. Thus the rudder as ordinarily constructed
receives the propelled water on its opposite sides, and it has to resist the
full force of the propelled water when, as is often the case, it is turned
by the steersman broadside to the current.
Instead of using a flat-bladed rudder as heretofore it is proposed to
give it a twisted shape, partaking somewhat of the form of the thread of
a quick screw. This will allow of the rudder when in its intermediate
position presenting its upper part in line with the mean course of the
upper level of propelled water, and at its lower part in line with the
mean course of the lower level of propelled water. Or in lieu of, thus
forming the rudder it may be divided transversely into two parts, which
parts may be worked together, the two being set in different vertical
planes corresponding respectively to the mean courses of the upper and
lower strata of the propelled water.
In this arrangement the spindle carrying that portion of the rudder
which lics below the level of the propeller shaft will pass upwards
through a hollow spindle with which the upper part of the rudder is
fitted.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 27th November 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the.
County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
.
2
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of May, in the a
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special
licence that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, admi-

page_text: nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alfred Vincent
Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time.
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
3 make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Inven-
tion for "IMPROvements in RuddERS FOR SCREW-PROPELLED VESSELS," being a
communication to me from abroad by Otto Schlick, of Fiume, Dalmatia,
in the Empire of Austria, upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of 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 I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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, reference being had to the Drawing
hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is
to say) :-
The object of this Invention is so to construct the rudders of screw-
propelled vessels that the water driven rearwards by the propeller at
right angles or nearly so to the face of the propelling blade shall not
strike against the sides of the rudder, but have a free course rearwards.
As these propellers are submerged and the blades in all positions of their
rotation serve to propel, it follows that the water driven rearwards by the
raised blade or blades will cross the course of the water impelled by the
depressed blade or blades. Thus the rudder as ordinarily constructed
receives the propelled water on its opposite sides, and it has to resist the
full force of the propelled water when, as is often the case, it is turned
by the steersman broadside to the current.
Instead of using a flat-bladed rudder as heretofore it is proposed to
give it a twisted shape partaking somewhat of the form of the thread of
a quick screw. This will allow of the rudder when in its intermediate
position presenting its upper part in line with the mean course of the

page_text: upper level of propelled water, and at its lower part in line with the
mean course of the lower level of propelled water. Or in lieu of thus
forming the rudder it may be divided transversely into two parts, which.
parts may be worked together, the two being set in different vertical
planes corresponding respectively to the mean courses of the upper and
lower strata of the propelled water.
5 This Invention is illustrated in several views in the accompanying
Drawing. Fig. 1 shews in elevation the stern end of a ship with a three-
bladed screw propeller of an ordinary construction fitted thereto. Sup-
posing this screw to be rotating to the right, as indicated by the arrow,
the lowermost blade a will drive the tail water not in a line parallel with
the keel but in an oblique direction, as indicated by the blue lines in the
diagram, Fig. 2 (which diagram may be taken to represent a section
plan of the screw and rudder in the line 1, 2, of Fig. 1). Hence the
mean position of the rudder in this plane of action of the blade a should:
be that represented by the dotted lines e, g, whereas the mean position
of the orninary rudder is that represented by the drawn lines e, f.
Referring now to Figures 3 and 4, which illustrate the action of the
blade which is elevated above the propeller shaft, it will be seen that the
rudder should have the position of h, 1, in Fig. 4, in order to escape
the shock of the water propelled rearwards by the blade 6 in the direction
of the drawn blue lines, Fig. 4.
To provide for this requirement a twisted shape is imparted to the
rudder blade corresponding to half a turn of the thread of a quick screw.
This is illustrated at Figures 5, 6, and 7, Fig. 5 being a side elevation of:
the stern end of a screw-propelled vessel fitted with the improved rudder;
Fig. 6, a back or edge view of the rudder detached from the rudder post ;
and Fig. 7, a sectional plan of the rudder taken in the plane 1, 1, of
Figures 5 and 6, and showing also by the dotted lines 2 and 3 sections
taken in the correspondingly numbered planes in Figures 5 and 6.
In the plane 2, 2, which corresponds with the axis of the propeller,
the normal position of the rudder blade is in line with the keel, but at,
the planes 1, 1, and 3, 3, the normal positions of the rudder blade sections
will be at equal distances on opposite sides thereof. This construction
of rudder is mainly adapted for vessels that are propelled at a compara-
tively uniform speed, and having a draught of water that does not
materially vary, such for instance as mail steamers. With an alteration.

page_text: parallel, or nearly so, to the streams of water driven rearward by the
propeller blades.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, the Twenty-seventh day of November,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.