IMPROVEMENT IN THE FORM, FORMA- TION, AND CONSTRUCTION OF SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS OF WAB, AND OF SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS OF COMMERCE, AND OF SLOOPS, BARGES, AND OTHER VESSELS ANY OTHERWISE EMPLOYED
Year: 1806

page_text: NEWMAN'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
NEWMAN, of Dartmouth, in the County of Devon, Ship Builder,' send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Sixth day of
September, in the forty-sixth year of His reign, upon my Petition, setting
forth that I had found out and invented an "IMPROVEMENT IN THE FORM, FORMA-
TION, AND CONSTRUCTION OF SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS OF WAB, AND OF SHIPS AND
OTHER VESSELS OF COMMERCE, AND OF SLOOPS, BARGES, AND OTHER VESSELS ANY
OTHERWISE EMPLOYED," which I conceived would be of great public utility, that
I was the first and true Inventor thereof, and that the same had not been used
or made by any other person or persons, to the best of my knowledge and
belief, give and grant unto me, the said Robert Newman, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, His especial licence that I, the said Robert Newman,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the
term of years therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend my said Inven-
tion within England and Wales and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed; in

page_text: which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said
Robert Newman, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within one calendar month next after the date of the said
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had,
may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Newman, in pursuance of the
intention of the said Letters Patent, and in compliance with the proviso
therein contained, do hereby declare and make known, that my said Invention
and Improvement consists in and extends to the following matters, collec-
tively or separately taken.
First, an apparatus or helm containing two rudders, formed and worked in
the direction of the sides, in lieu of one placed in the centre line of the vessel,
by which bodies of the greatest capacity may be governed, guided, or steered,
wore, and stayed with greater certainty, ease, and safety.
Secondly, in a concave or hollow form of side and bottom that will make
vessels of a light draught of water keep a better wind, carry more sail, and
roll less; and,
Thirdly, in an inverted reduction of capacity towards the stern, commonly
called the run, by which the resistance is lessened without the stability or
power of carrying sail being diminished by external construction. The whole
of which will, from the following description and annexed Drawings, be readily
understood and easily executed:-
Figures 1, 2, and 3 represent views of the after part of a Thames barge or
vessel of the most capacious form in general use, with an ordinary rudder R
fixed in the centre line of the vessel, in which situation it requires a magni-
tude that renders it both incommodious and dangerous, and even inadequate
to its purpose, without the loss of all that capacity contained within the
triangle A, C, B, Figure 1, B, A, C, Figure 3, and B, D, C, Figure 2;
whereas if placed at B, Figures 2 and 3, it might be reduced to one half, and
if removed to C, Figure 2, to one fourth part, of its present dimensions with
increased effect, its power being not only greater by projecting into more
active water, and meeting the current in its undiviverted course, but also
encreased by its relative distance from the centre line A, O, Figure 2, of the
vessel's progress, whereas a rudder fixed in the direction of the line A, O,
Figure 2, acts only by the obliquity of its opposing surface E, A, Figure 2, or
when placed perpendicular to the line A, O, Figure 2, or direct athwartships,
tends but to obstruct, not alter, the course of the vessel.

page_text: A, a, b, c, and C, Figure 2, shew the rudders at those places, with their
proportional reductions, and exhibit the different situations in which they may
be fixed for convenience in particular services.
Figure 8 represents an oblique view of Figures 1 and 2, with the rudder
at A, Figure 2.
Figure 4 represents a like view, with rudders placed at B and a, Figures 2
and 8 respectively, with the triangle C, D, E, Figure 8, at each side instead
of the centre.
Figure 5 represents the same view, with the rudders placed at C, Figure 2,
the extremity of the breadth without any contraction, horizontally or vertically,
of the vessel's capacity. The manner of working a helm of this description
must depend much on the nature, size, and service of the vessel. It may act
outwards only, or either way; be without or inclosed within the stern and side,
above or below the deck, and moved by one wheel, winch, or other engine
placed amidships or elsewhere, and connected by chains or ropes in the
ordinary way with a short iron lever projecting from each rudder, the length
of which not exceed a sixth part of the tiller required for the common rudder.
In this manner I found, by an experiment tried by me on a temporary form of
not less than one hundred and fifty tons burthen, constructed by me for the
purpose about four years since, that a single man or boy could not only steer
with the greatest ease, but manage at the same time the largest sail of the
vessel in an open and rough sea.
Figure 6 represents the transverse or thwartship section of a vessel whose
sides and bottom are, an inversion of the ordinary form, curving outwards and
extending down to a level with the under part of her keel, opposing by its
extent and shape the greatest resistance to a lee course, with less tendency to
roll or upset, and presenting at the same time a stronger surface to the presure
of the cargo or weight within the ship. Resistance to leeway may also be
encreased by ribbing or indenting the coat of the side with projecting or binding
planks that obstruct in a side direction only, while they strengthen the vessel
and protect the caulking, see Figures 7, 8, and 9,
Figures 10, 11, and 12 represent Figure 6 and two ordinary forms in an
inclined position, or that situation in which vessels are most impelled to
leeward, by which it may be seen that Figure 10, in this position, increases
its draught of water, and consequent resistance to leeway, by the side descending
from B to C, in addition to its concave surface.
Figure 11 represents an ordinary form of burthen, that neither increases nor
decreases its draught of water by inclination, but looses the effect of the keel;
and Figure 12 shews a common sharp form, whose draught of water

page_text: decreases from A to D, and lessens its resistance when most required; it may
also be seen that did that draught of water continue the same, Figure 10
would, moving in the direction from B to A, meet with greater resistance
than either of the other forms.
Figures 13, 14, and 15 exhibit a vessel whose sides are perpendicular and
paralel planes from the foremost to the aftermost extremity, whose horizontal
sections, A, B, C, D, Figure 14, are at every height exteriorly alike, pos-
sessing each the greatest possible expansion, and whose capacity abaft is
internally contracted to a form resembling a swallow's tail, by which the vessel
derives the accellerating impulse from the closing volume of water without
that loss of stability or power of carrying sail inseperable from external con-
traction, the stability of a vessel not depending on her length and breadth at
one particular point, but on the aggregate of their extension, and an ordinary
vessel's stability is confined nearly to her midships, see B, Figure 16, for were
the fore and after parts A and C disengaged from B, they would incapable of
maintaining their position, as must appear from a view of Figure 16, the hori-
zontal section of an ordinary vessel. The greater facility, too, with which this
form, Figure 16, must move to leeward is also apparent, as well as its tendency
to pitch and ascend from want of expansion at the fore and aftermost extremi-
ties. The form of the bow, Figure 14, may be contracted to the dotted lines
E and F, though I do not conceive the angles would retard the vessel's
progress, the power acquired by them being equal to the resistance they would
meet.
The forms which are here given are confined to such parts of the vessel as
are below the load-water line, being limited to the active or immerged
substance, and capable of being executed by ordinary modes of work-
manship. The form above or upper works may be varied and fashioned at
discretion.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Newman, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourth day of October, in the forty-sixth
year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the
grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
King, Defender of the Faith, and in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and six.
Sealed and delivered (being first duly
stamped, in the presence of
ROBERT NEWMAN. (LS.)-S
ALEX. LAMB.
JN SHERTCLIFFE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Fourth day of October,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Robert Newman came before our
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the temor of the
Statute made in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Fourth day of October, in the year above written.
And