AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STEAM VESSELS AND MODE OF PROPELLING SUCH VESSELS BY THE APPLICATION OF STEAM OR OTHER POWER
Year: 1821

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
GLADSTONE, Engineer and Millwright, of Castle Douglas, in the Stewartry of
Kircudbright and County of Galloway, in North Britain, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at Westminster,
the Twentieth day of December 1821, in the second year of His reign, give
and grant unto me, the said John Gladstone, my exors, admors, and assigns,
His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
John Gladstone, my exors, admors, and assigns, during the term of years
therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in
all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "AN
IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STEAM VESSELS AND
MODE OF PROPELLING SUCH VESSELS BY THE APPLICATION OF STEAM OR OTHER
POWER;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if
I, the said John Gladstone, shall not particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause
the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent,
that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever
thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and
by the same, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Gladstone, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in
the Drawing hereunto annexed, and following description thereof, that is to
say
1st. My Invention consists in axels or shafts passing through the sides of
the vessel; to those axels or shafts motion may be communicated in the usual
way by steam or other moving powers. 2d. That upon each of these axels or
shafts on the outside of the vessel there be fixed one or more male or female
stud wheels, drums, or cylinders adapted for one or more endless chains, which
chains are to pass over wheels or cylinders near the other end of the vessel,
and are so constructed as to form a considerable curve on the side applying in
the water, and to be completely kept from sliding on the wheels. 3d. Across
those chains, floats or paddles of wood, or any other suitable materials, are fixed
at such distances as will freely permit the application of the chains to the
surface of the wheels or cylinders, and in.such a manner as to retain the floats
or paddles in a position nearly perpendicular to the portion of the chains to
which they are attacned. 4th. The progressive motion is given to the vessel
by the action of the floats or paddles on the water during the revolution of the
chains on the wheels or cylinders.
1 claim as my Invention the application of floats or paddles fixed to chains,
and applying them either on the outsides of single vessels, or between double
vessels, for the purpose of navigation, as circumstances may permit; the
endless chains put in motion by the rotation of the wheels or cylinders round
which they pass; the mode of fixing the floats or paddles so that the greatest
number of them in contact with the water shall be perpendicular to the horizon,
a circumstance which entirely obviates that loss or waste of power arising from
the oblique position of the paddles on the common paddle wheel, both as it
enters and leaves the water; and also the method by which the chains steadily
maintain their position, notwithstanding the resistance of the water and the
curvature of the chains and paddles between the wheels.
Among various ways which may be adapted for applying the principle on
which I found my claim to Invention or improvement, the following Drawing
and description shews that which I at present think best adapted for the
purpose A are the stud wheels, which are fixed on an axle passing quite
through the vessel, and which axle receives the motion from the engine.
Bare wheels fixed on an axle turning on the outside of the vessel, but not
passing through it, and placed at such distance from the wheels A as to admit
a sufficient number of paddles to be in contact with the water in proportion
to the size of the vessel. C, C, shows the chains and paddles as they revolve

page_text: Inrolled the Thirteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-two.