IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING AND WORKING SHIPS AND VESSELS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Chapman March, of Alwalton Mills, in the County
of Huntingdon, Miller, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING
AND WORKING SHIPS AND VESSELS."
Sealed the 10th October 1856, and dated the 9th August 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Chapman March at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th August 1856.
I, CHAPMAN MARCH, of Alwalton Mills, in the County of Huntingdon,
Miller, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PROPELLING AND WORKING SHIPS AND VESSELS," to be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to the employment and use of wind power for pro-
pelling and working ships and vessels by the agency of a horizontal wind
wheel placed on the ship's deck. This wheel is fast on the upper end of a
vertical shaft passing down into the hold, and communicating by means of
gearing with a screw propeller placed at the stern of the ship or elsewhere.
The wheel is large. enough to overhang the deck on each side, and it has a
series of inclined or curved wind vanes, so contrived that a rotatory action
will arise whenever the wind blows from any quarter. Instead of fixed vanes,
moveable ones may be used to open out on the acting wind side, and close.
up on the other side; or a shifting cover may be adopted for covering up one'

page_text: side of the wheel, with a similar view. The screw propeller may either be of
the common kind, or it may be composed of four separate vanes or sections
of a screw disposed one before the other in the length of the screw shaft. In
addition to propelling the ship, the wind wheel may be employed for hoisting
sails and effecting other arduous operations on board ship.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Chapman March in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
7th February 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHAPMAN
MARCH, of Alwalton Mills, in the County of Huntingdon, Miller, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give. and grant unto me, the said Chapman
March, Her special license that I, the said Chapman March, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Chapman March, my
executors, administrators, or 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 PROPELLING AND WORKING SHIPS
AND VESSELS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Chapman
March, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should par-
ticularly 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 Chapman March, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement in writing, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and
to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
My said Invention relates to the employment and use of wind. power for
propelling and working ships and vessels by the agency of a horizontal wind
wheel placed on the ship's deck. This wheel is fast on the upper end of a

page_text: vertical shaft passing down into the hold, and communicating by means of
gearing with a screw propeller placed at the stern of the ship or elsewhere.
The wheel is large enough to overhang the deck on each side, and it has a
series of inclined or curved wind vanes, so contrived that a rotatory action will
arise whenever the wind blows from any quarter. Instead of fixed vanes,
moveable ones may be used to open out on the acting wind side, and close up
on the other side, or a shifting cover may be adopted for covering up one side
of the wheel with a similar view. The screw propeller may either be of the
common kind, or it may be composed of four separate vanes or sections of a
screw disposed one before the other in the length of the shaft. In addition
to propelling the ship, the wind wheel may be employed for hoisting sails and
effecting other arduous operations on board ship.
And in order that my said Invention may be properly understood, I shall
now proceed to describe the illustrative Figures on the Sheet of explanatory
Drawings which I have hereunto appended, for the purpose of showing how
my improvements may be judiciously carried into practical effect.
Figure 1 on my Sheet of Drawings is a longitudinal or sheer-draught
section of the after part of a ship as fitted up with one modification of my
improved propelling and working machinery, and Figure 2 is a plan of the
same part corresponding. In these two views A is the horizontal wind vane
wheel, consisting, in this instance, of an open iron frame, made double, some-
what like the arms and rims of a steam ship paddle-wheel. This wind wheel
is fitted up with a series of inclined vanes or wind-boards B, working on end
centres C, between the inner rings or rims D of the wheel. Each vane is.
fitted with a crank lever E on its inner end, and to each of these levers there
is jointed a radial connecting rod F, connected at its inner end to an eccentric
ring on the main vertical shaft G. This shaft G is disposed directly in the
keel line of the ship, being supported on the ship's bottom by a footstep H,
and up above by a collar bearing in the arched bracket support I, carried by
the ship's deck. The wind wheel thus fitted up, when acted upon by any
wind, revolves in the direction indicated by the arrow, as the eccentric
action of the vanes causes them to be "feathered" or opened out, and closed
up to give full effect to wind pressure on the acting side for the time being,
and correspondingly destroy the reaction or back resistance on the opposite
side. The half of the wheel represented in the Drawing, Figure 2, shows a
portion of those vanes which are inactive. The wind is supposed to be on the
starboard quarter, where it goes direct upon the vanes, which are fully exposed
to its effect. The rotatory action of the wind wheel shaft is conveyed to the
propeller by a bevil gear arrangement, consisting of a bevil wheel J fast on

page_text: the lower end of the shaft G, and gearing with a bevil pinion K fast on the
forward end of the horizontal propeller shaft L.. This shaft is supported in
bearings carried by the ship's bottom, and it has a screw propeller M on its
extreme aft end. A revolving light. N is carried by the top of the wind wheel
shaft as an excellent. signal mark at sea.. It will be clearly obvious to the
practical engineer that various modifications upon these details may be adopted
in working out my Invention, and that various arrangements may be adopted
for connecting the wind wheel gearing with other gearing or movements con-
cerned in the working of the ship, so as to reduce the labour of the sailors,
and economise the general working costs.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
-Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I may observe, in conclusion, that I do not confine or restrict
myself to the precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion to
describe or refer. to, as many variations may be made therefrom without
deviating from the principles or main features of my Invention; but what I
consider to be novel and original; and therefrom claim as the Invention secured
to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is, the lierein-before
described arrangements, apparatus, and means for propelling and working
ships and vessels.
In witness whereof, I, the said Chapman March, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this. Sixth day of February, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-seven.
CHAPMAN MARCH. (L.S.)