IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH STEERING APPARATUS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Matthew Paul and John Haythorn, both of
Dumbarton, in the County of Dumbarton, North Britain, Engineers,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH STEERING
APPARATUS."
Sealed the 24th December 1872, and dated the 27th June 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Matthew Paul and John
Haythorn at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 27th June 1872.
We, MATTHEW PAUL and JOHN HAYTHORN, both of Dumbarton, in
the County of Dumbarton, North Britain, Engineers, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH
STEERING APPARATUS," to be as follows, that is to say :—
This Invention comprises improvements in the arrangement of steering
engines to be worked by steam, and in part applicable to manual steering
mechanism and improvements in signalling appliances to be used in
connection with various kinds of steering apparatus.

page_text: In the improved steering engines, a pair of cylinders set at a right or
other angle to each other are connected to one crank or crank pin, and
the valves, which are by preference cylindrical and arranged on the
under sides of the cylinders, are actuated by a single eccentric. This
eccentric and parts in connection with it are arranged on the same
principle as the corresponding parts described in the Specification of
Letters Patent granted to Alexander Carnegie Kirk, and dated
14 November 1871 (No. 3064), but the pinion of the inner eccentric
is directly in gear with a spur wheel on the engine handing shaft,
and the motion of this pinion and eccentric relatively to the crank
shaft is limited by projections on it, arranged to work between projections
on a wheel or disc fast on the crank shaft. An eccentric or crank is
formed or fixed on the crank shaft, and has running loose on it a pinion
which gears with two internally toothed rings at the part of it which is
furthest from the centre of the shaft. One toothed ring is stationary,
being fixed to the framing or held by springs or frictional appliances
capable of yielding in cases of excessive strain. The other toothed ring
is loose on the shaft, and has attached to it a chain pulley or barrel,
around or over which the chain is passed for moving the tiller or rudder.
The two rings differ slightly in the numbers of their teeth, and for each
complete revolution of the crank shaft the rolling round of the pinion
causes the loose ring to move through only the arc measured by the
tooth or teeth it has more or fewer than the stationary ring, which
reduction of speed is accompanied by an inversely proportionate increase
of power. Instead of making the stationary ring capable of yielding,
or in addition to doing so, springs may be inserted in the chains or rods
connecting the steering engines with the tiller or rudder.
The combination of the rolling pinion and the two toothed rings may
be applied to manual steering apparatus. Thus in one modification the
stationary ring is fixed or connected to the deck, and the other ring to
the rudder stock, whilst the eccentric carrying the pinion is worked by
bevil gearing from a steering wheel and shaft placed in the ordinary
position.
Ordinary screw steering apparatus may be actuated by the improved
steering engine, herein-before described, either with or without the
differential gearing.
The signalling apparatus comprises two dials with or without provision
for being illuminated. One dial is placed in view of the steersman, and

page_text: the other in any part of the ship where the person in command or pilot
is to be stationed. The latter dial is provided with a pointer which can
be set by a handle, and which is connected to a pointer at the steersman's
dial, and the latter shows him the steering order or position into which
the rudder is to be moved. Each of the dials has an additional pointer
turning about the same centre as the first, and both these additional
pointers are connected to the rudder and indicate its position, so that
both the steersman and the person in command can see by looking at
the dials when or to what extent the orders are obeyed.
A bell or gong may be arranged in connection with the signalling
pointers to be struck whenever they are shifted, and thus call the
attention of the steersman thereto.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Matthew Paul and John Haythorn in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 27th December 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, MATTHEW
PAUL and JOHN HAYTHORN, both of Dumbarton, in the County of
Dumbarton, North Britain, Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of June, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in
the thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto us, the said Matthew Paul and John
Haythorn, Her special licence that we, the said Matthew Paul and
John Haythorn, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said Matthew Paul and John Haythorn, our exe-
cutors, 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH STEERING APPARATUS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said Matthew Paul and
John Haythorn, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in

page_text: writing under our, 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 we, the said Matthew Paul and John Haythorn,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement in writing, reference being had to
the accompanying Drawings, that is to say:-
Our said Invention comprises improvements in the arrangement of
steering engines to be worked by steam, and in part applicable to
manual steering mechanism, and improvements in signalling appliances
to be used in connection with various kinds of steering apparatus.
And in order that our said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, we hereunto append three Sheets
of explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and representing
In these Drawings
steering apparatus as made with our improvements.
the same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts
wherever they are repeated.
Figures 1 and 2 on Sheet 1 of the Drawings are a front and a side
elevation of one modification of our improved steam steering apparatus;
and Figure 3, on Sheet 2, is a vertical fore and aft section of some parts
of the apparatus. In this apparatus the framing consists principally of
a pair of transverse vertical frames 1, 2, connected by tie rods 3, and the
forward frame 1 has fixed on it a pair of steam cylinders 4 set at a right
angle to each other (or it might be at an angle differing more or less
from a right angle). The piston rods are connected to one crank or
crank pin 5 on the crank shaft 6, and the valves, which are by pre-
ference cylindrical and arranged on the lower or inner sides of the
cylinders, are actuated by a single eccentric 7 through rocking shafts 8.
This eccentric 7, and the parts in immediate connection with it, are
arranged on the same principle as the corresponding parts described in
the Specification of Letters Patent granted to Alexander Carnegie Kirk,
and dated 14 November 1871 (No. 3064). The eccentric 7 is formed
with a pin 9, which is entered into an eye in a boss or ring 10 fixed on

page_text: the shaft 6, and the middle part of the eccentric being slotted or cut
out it can swing on its pin 9, so as to move across the shaft. The
position of the working eccentric 7 (as it is herein-after termed) is
determined by an eccentric 11 fitted so as to be capable of turning on
the shaft, and within the working eccentric 7; and this inner eccentric 11
is formed in one piece with a pinion 12, which is in gear with a spur
wheel 13 fast on what is herein-after termed the engine handing shaft 14.
In the same piece with the inner eccentric 11 and pinion 12 there is a
wheel or disc 15, which faces a wheel or disc 16 that is fast on the
crank shaft 6, and projections 17, 18, are formed on these discs, as
shown in Figure 4, on Sheet 2, so as to encounter each other, and limit
the angle through which the inner eccentric 11 can be turned upon or
relatively to the cranked shaft 6. The wheels 15, 16, are formed with
spur teeth circumferentially for a purpose herein-after explained. An
eccentric 19 is fixed on the crank shaft 6 (or it might be a crank formed
or fixed thereon), and it has running loose on it a pinion 20, which gears
with two internally toothed rings 21, 22. One toothed ring 21 is
stationary, being either fixed to the frame 2, as shown in Figures 1, 2, 3,
or held by springs 23 capable of yielding in cases of excessive strain, as
shown in Figures 9 and 10, on Sheet 3. The other toothed ring 22 is
carried loosely on the shaft 6, being formed in the same piece with a
chain pulley 24 (or a barrel), round or over which the chain is passed
for moving the tiller or rudder. The two rings 21, 22, differ slightly in
the numbers of their teeth, and for each complete revolution of the
crank shaft 6 the rolling round of the pinion 20 causes the loose ring 22
to move through only the arc measured by the tooth or teeth; it has
more or fewer than the stationary ring, which alteration of speed is
accompanied by an inversely proportionate alteration of power. In the
present example the stationary ring 21 has thirty-eight teeth, and the
movable one, 22, forty teeth, so that every complete turn of the shaft 6
imparts to the movable ring 22 a retrograde movement corresponding to
two of its teeth.
The combination of the rolling pinion 20 and the two toothed
rings 21, 22, may be applied to manual steering apparatus. Thus in
one modification shown in vertical section in Figure 5, Sheet 2, in

page_text: fixed on the rudder stock 27. The rolling pinion 20 is carried on an
eccentrically placed pin 19 held by arms on a tubular piece 28 turning
on the rudder stock 27, and this piece 28 is formed in one piece with or
attached to a bevil wheel, which is in gear with a bevil wheel 29 fast
on the steering wheel shaft 30 placed in the ordinary position. The
disc 26, fast on the rudder stock 27, is formed with a socket 31 to receive
a common tiller in the event of the gearing being injured.
Ordinary screw steering apparatus may be actuated by the improved
steering engine, herein-before described with reference to Figures 1, 2, 3,
either with or without the differential gearing.
Instead of making the stationary ring 21 capable of yielding, or in
addition to doing so, springs such as the one shown in Figure 13, on
Sheet 3, may be inserted in the chains or rods connecting the steering
engine with the tiller or rudder. The spring, shown in section
in Figure 13, is represented, as are those, 23, shown in Figures 9
and 10, as made up of rings of vulcanised rubber separated by flat metal
rings, these rings being in each case contained in a casing, and being
subjected to compression between one end of the casing and a disc
fixed to a rod working through the centre. It will be. obvious however
that springs of any other suitable kind may be substituted for those
shown.
In Figures 1 and 2 the engine handing shaft 14 is shown as having
an ordinary steering wheel 32 fixed on it; but in some cases instead of
or in addition to having this steering wheel on it the shaft 14 may be
geared, as shown in Figure 8, on Sheet 3, to a vertical shaft 33 by bevil
wheels 34, this shaft 33 passing up to an upper deck or bridge, and
being geared at its upper end by bevil wheels 35 to a shaft 36 fitted
with a steering wheel 37.
When the steersman, desiring to move the rudder, turns the engine
handing shaft 14 it causes the inner eccentric 11 to set the working
eccentric 7 to one side or the other of its neutral or middle position on or
relative to the crank shaft 6 in whatever position this shaft 6 may happen
to be; and this movement of the working eccentric 7 will act on the
cylinder valves in such a way as to admit steam to start the engines in
the desired direction in whatever positions the pistons may happen to be.
If after the crank shaft 6 moves from the action of the cylinders the
inner eccentric 11 is held stationary, the working eccentric 7 in being

page_text: arrangements the shafts 45 and 47 will have the same motions relative to
each other that the crank shaft 6 and the inner eccentric 11 have. The
tube 44 can move along the shaft 45, but is made to turn with it by a
longitudinal groove and key, and it is formed with a helical groove 49,
into which there enters a pin 50 fixed in a tube 51, forming an extension
of the tubular shaft 47. Whenever the inner eccentric 11 is moved in
advance in either direction the pin 50 acting on the helical groove 49
will impart an equivalent longitudinal movement to the tube 44, and
through it and the lever 43 and rod 42 to the regulator valve 38.
It may here be remarked that the arrangement of steering engines
herein-before described, possesses a certain amount of elasticity of such a
kind that in the event of there being an excessive strain on the rudder,
from its being struck by a sea for example, it will yield to a certain extent,
and in doing so will work the engines backwardly. This will cause the
working eccentric 7 to assume such a position relatively to the crank.
shaft 6 as will admit steam to act in the opposite direction to that of
the strain, and so cushion it, whilst on the cessation of the strain the
engines will of course work in obedience to the steam until their action
restores the working eccentric to its neutral position, and on their doing
this they will have restored the rudder to the position from which the
strain forced it. In general the pressure of the steam in the cylinders
when the working eccentric 7 is in its extreme position will be ample
for resisting the strain on the rudder. The movement of the engine
handing shaft 14 in either direction is of course limited to correspond
with the extreme range of the rudder, there being a screw thread 52
formed on it which causes a nut 53 to travel on it, and to prevent
further motion in either direction on reaching stops provided for the
purpose.
Our improved signalling apparatus comprises two dials with or
without provision for being illuminated. One dial 54 is placed in view
of the steersman, and the other, 55, in any part of the ship where the
person in command or pilot is to be stationed, being represented in
Figures 1 and 2, Sheet 1 of the Drawings, as above the steering engines.
The details of the signalling apparatus are shown on an enlarged scale,
and in section in Figures 11 and 12 on Sheet 3. The upper dial 55 is
provided with a pointer 56, which can be set by a handle 57, and which
is fast on a tubular shaft 58 connected by bevil wheels 59 to a tubular
shaft 60, having fast on it a pointer 61 working over the steersman's

page_text: dial 54, and the latter shows him the steering order or position into
which the rudder is to be moved. A toothed wheel formed in one piece
with one of the bevil wheels 59 acts on the spring hammer 62 of a
bell 63 for the purpose of attracting the steersman's attention. Each of
the dials 54, 55, has an additional pointer 64, 65, turning about the
same centre as the first, and both these pointers are in connection, being
fast the one on a horizontal shaft 66, and the other on a vertical shaft 67
geared to each other by bevil wheels 68. The vertical shaft 67 is con-
tinued down to a combination of two internally toothed rings 69 with a
rolling pinion like that between the chain pulley 24 and crank shaft 6,
and through them receives a reduced motion from a lower vertical
shaft 70 driven from the engine handing shaft 14 by a pair of bevil
wheels 71. With this arrangement it will be obvious that the second
pair of pointers 64, 65, will show both to the steersman and to the
person in command when and to what extent the orders indicated by
the other pointers 56 and 61 are obeyed.
Having thus particularly described our said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, we have to state that we do not
restrict ourselves to the precise details herein described or delineated;
but that what we believe to be novel and original, and claim as the
Invention secured to us by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent is,―
1. The arranging or combining together of the parts of steam
steering apparatus, substantially in the improved manner herein-before
described.
2. The applying of the differential gearing consisting of the rolling
pinion (20) and the internally toothed rings (21, 22,) or of an equivalent
combination for transmitting a reduced speed to the chain pulley (24)
or to the rudder stock (27), substantially in the manner herein-before
described.
3. The arranging of the pinion (12) of the inner eccentric (11) directly
in gear with a spur wheel on the engine handing shaft, as herein-before
described.
4. The applying of the stops (17, 18,) for limiting the movement of
the inner eccentric (11) relatively to the crank shaft (6) in immediate
connection with that shaft, as herein-before described.

page_text: 5. The combining of a pair of cylinders acting on one crank or crank
pin with a single working eccentric (7) and its inner eccentric (11), as
herein-before described.
6. The arranging of the steam regulator valve (38) to admit steam in
proportion to the advance movement in either direction of the inner 5
eccentric (11), as herein-before described.
7. The arranging and combining of the signalling and indicating
apparatus, substantially in the improved manner herein-before
described.
substantially in
In witness whereof, I, the said Matthew Paul, on behalf of 1
myself and the said John Haythorn, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
MATTHEW PAUL. (L.S.)