IMPROVEMENTS IN STEERING APPARATUS
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Humphrys, of Deptford, in the County of
Kent, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEERING
APPARATUS."
Sealed the 13th April 1863, and dated the 16th October 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Humphrys at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th
October 1862.
I, EDWARD HUMPHRYS, of Deptford, in the County of Kent, Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN, STEERING
APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in steering apparatus, and
consists in so combining apparatus for acting by hydraulic power on the rudder
of a ship or vessel that the hydraulic cylinder and other apparatus inter-
mediate of it and the rudder may be all below the line of floatation, and
consequently out of the way of shot. For this purpose an arm or projection
is fixed to the rudder sufficiently below the water line to protect it from shot.
The arm is suitably connected. to the piston rod of the hydraulic cylinder,
which is also situated below the water line of the ship or vessel. A stuffing
box is formed through the stern of the ship or vessel for the passage of the

page_text: piston rod or of a connecting rod, so that the communication between the
piston of the hydraulic cylinder and the rudder may be water-tight. The
arrangement for working the bydraulic pumps and apparatus may be according
to the means at present in practice or otherwise.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said. Edward Humphrys in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 16th April 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
HUMPHRYS, of Deptford, in the County of Kent, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of October, in the year of our
of
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Edward Humphrys, Her special licence that I, the said Edward
Humphrys, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Edward Humphrys, my executors, 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 STEERING APPARATUS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Edward Humphrys, 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 Edward Humphrys, 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 thereof, that is to say:-:
.
This Invention has for its object improvements in steering apparatus, and
consists in so combining apparatus for acting by hydraulic power on the rudder
of a ship or vessel that the hydraulic cylinder and other apparatus intermediate
of it and the rudder may be all below the line of floatation, and consequently

page_text: out of the way of shot. For this purpose an arm or projection is fixed to the
rudder sufficiently below the water line to protect it from shot. This arm is
suitably connected to the piston rod of the hydraulic cylinder, which is also
situated below the water line of the ship or vessel. A stuffing box is formed
through the stern of the ship or vessel for the passage of the piston rod or of a
connecting rod, so that the communication between the piston of the hydraulic
cylinder and the rudder may be water-tight. The arrangement for working
the bydraulic pumps and apparatus may be according to the means at present
in practice or otherwise.
And in order that my Invention may be most fully understood, I will pro-
ceed to describe the Drawings hereunto annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shows a side view of the rudder and part of the stern post of a
vessel, the rudder being combined with hydraulic apparatus and arranged in
the manner I prefer for carrying out my Invention; the hydraulic apparatus
in this Figure is shewn in section. Figure 2 shows a horizontal section of the
same, the section being taken through the centre of the hydraulic cylinder.
In the arrangement shown in the Drawing, the rudder a has fixed to it an
arm b, the arm being sufficiently below the water line to be protected from
shot; this arm is pin-jointed to one end of a connecting rod, which at its
other end is pin-jointed to a cylindrical slide c; this slide can traverse to
and fro in a guide tube d, lined with brass; the cylindrical slide c is also pin-
jointed to the end of the piston rode of a hydraulic cylinder f. The piston
rod e passes out of the end of the guide tube d through a stuffing box g; one
end of the guide tube d passes through the skin of the vessel, and the flange of
the guide tube is bolted thereto; its other end is supported from the deck h,
upon which the steersman who works the hydraulic apparatus stands. In the
arrangement of bydraulic apparatus shewn in the Drawing, water under
pressure can be admitted to either side of the piston by moving the slide.
valve i by means of the lever k. This is an arrangement now well understood,
and it is that which I prefer, but other arrangements of hydraulic apparatus
may be employed in place of it.
In ships built with very low overhanging "counters," in place of passing
the piston rod of the hydraulic cylinder through a stuffing box, as above
described, the spindle of the rudder may be passed through a stuffing box
packed in the usual manner to make it water-tight, and the hydraulic cylinder
together with the parts connected with it is then placed above this stuffing box,
but still below the line of floatation of the vessel, the piston rod of the hydraulic

page_text: cylinder being by preference connected by a connecting rod directly with an
arm on the rudder spindle.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Humphrys, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
EDW. HUMPHRYS. (L.S.)