An Improved Propeller for Ships and the like.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 16th May, 1895-Accepted, 6th July, 1895
An Improved Propeller for Ships and the like.
A communication by BRUNO WESSELMANN, of 45 Friedlanderweg, and
WILHELM BÖCKER, of 31 Friedlanderweg, both of Göttingen, in the
Empire of Germany, Machine Builder and Contractor, respectively.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON F.C.S., M.I.M.E., of The Agency for
Foreign Patent Solicitors, 6 Lord Street, Liverpool, and 6, Bank Street,
Manchester, both in the County of Lancaster, 118 New Street, Birmingham in
the County of Warwick and 31 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex,
Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement :-
This invention has for its object an improved propeller for ships and the like
which, on the rotation of the blades, will not merely uselessly displace the water
tangentially, but will catch the same in passages or channels and expel it to the
rear in a direction parallel, or nearly parallel, to the axis of rotation, so that a
pushing action is produced which has the effect of assisting the forward movement
of the ship, thereby increasing the useful effect of the screw. This improved ship's
screw has thus for its object to combine with the ordinary action of the screw
propeller that of a pushing current, that is to say on the one hand to act as an
ordinary ship's propeller and on the other hand as a turbine combination.
The object of the invention is shown in elevation in the accompanying
drawing.
This improved ship's propeller is constructed as follows:-
The several wings or blades A are each hollowed out or spoon-shaped and a
passage is formed running from these recessed parts in the longitudinal direction
of the blades but tangentially to the axis of rotation of the propeller, and
opening into the face of the boss B at an angle of 90° to the blades, so that said
passage runs spirally.
The mode of action of this ship's propeller is as follows:-
If such a propeller be set in rapid rotation, the ordinary screw action comes first
The water
into play, that is to say, the screw moves itself forward in the water.
pressed upon by the blades is however no longer thrown aside tangentially but is
caught in the spoon-shaped recesses of the blades and forced to flow into the
passage with a proportionate speed and to emerge from the face of the screw.
By the spiral course of the passage the separate masses of water are to a certain
extent combined into a whirling jet which exerts a powerful pushing action on the
calm or nearly calm water behind the screw, and thus produces a favourable
reaction for the forward movement of the ship.
In this way the screw acts in two directions, first as an ordinary propeller and
then as a turbine.
The novelty and patentability consists in the peculiar combination of a screw
propeller and a device for producing a pushing current.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by
my foreign correspondents, I declare that what I claim is :-
An improved propeller having recesses in its blades adapted to catch and

page_text: convey the water in such a manner, on the rotation of the propeller, that the
water is accumulated and expelled at the rear in an axial or almost axial direction
in one or more jets or streams which exert a push on the water lying behind the
screw, whereby the ordinary screw action is combined with a pushing action
capable of being utilized for propelling the ship or the like, substantially as
described and illustrated.
Dotad this 15th day of Max 1895
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Agents.