NEW INVENTED MACHINE, TO BE APPLIED TO BOATS OR OTHER VESSELS, FOR THE PURPOSE OF MOVING THEM ALONG WITH EASE AND 'CELERITY
Year: 1800

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME; I, EDWARD
STEERS, of the Inner Temple, London, Esquire, do send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Nineteenth day of March, in the fortieth year of His reign, did
give and grant unto me, the said Edward Steers, my executors, administrators,'
and assigns, His special licence, that I, the said Edward Steers, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Great
Britain called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my "NEW INVENTED MACHINE, TO BE APPLIED TO BOATS OR OTHER VESSELS,
FOR THE PURPOSE OF MOVING THEM ALONG WITH EASE AND 'CELERITY;" in which
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Edward
Steers, 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 and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and by
the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, in compliance with the said proviso, 'I, the said Edward
Steers, do hereby declare my Invention to consist of two or more of what I
call paddles or urgers, containing in themselves a moving property, and moving
by means of machinery in contrary and alternate directions, so that when the..
machinery is set in motion the broad or flat surface of one or more of the
paddles or urgers will press against the water, and the broad or flat surface of
the other or others of them will at the same time give way to and not press
against the water; and by the continued motion of the machinery, the paddle or

page_text: paddles or urger or urgers which at first press against the water will afterwards
give way to it, and the other or others which at first give way to it will after-
warns press against it, and so continue alternately pressing against and giving
way to the water, by which alternate pressure the boat or vessel will be moved
along. Paddles or urgers upon this principle may be variously contrived so as to
produce the same effect; for instance, they may be made in the manner herein-
after described; or they may be made to vibrate vertically; or they may be
made to open and close as an umbrella does, and in many other ways. And the
machinery to give effect to my Invention must be varied, because in some
cases it will be best that the contrary and alternate direction to be given to the
paddle or paddles or urger or urgers should be circular, as in the model herein-
after described; in others straight, which may be produced by an engine, similar
to that which works the two pistons of an air pump, and by other contrivances.
I do not, therefore, confine myself to any particular mode of construction
either for the paddles or urgers or for the machinery; but I declare that my
said Invention is, the moving property of the paddles or urgers, combined
with the contrary and alternate motion to be given to them by the machinery,
which combination occasions one or more of them to press against the body of
water, while the other or others of them give way to it. And that it may be
perfectly understood what the Invention is for which I have procured my
Patent, I give the following description of a model I have made to shew the
effect of my said Invention; but, as I have before said, I do not confine myself
to that or any other mode of constructing either the paddles or urgers or the
machinery.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PARTS OF THE MACHINE.
A, B, an upright piece of timber with a pin at the end A, on which it turns
in a hole either within the vessel or in a beam carried out from it (in this
model it turns in a beam carried out from the head of the vessel); C, D, a
bar, fixed at the end C, in the upright A, B, and projecting from it at right
angles; E, F, a semicircle (or half a hoop), fixed to the end D of the bar C, D,
which end is inserted in the middle of the semicircle or half hoop; G, H, G, H,
two cross bars, fixed to the ends of the semicircle or half hoop, and parallel to
the upright A, B; I, K, L, M, two paddles or urgers, fastened to the cross
bars G, H, G, H, by two pivots or hinges, fixed to the upper edge of each
paddle or urger, on which they move backwards and forwards, as a shutter
does; but the paddles are prevented, by impinging against the cross bars
G, H, G, H, from vibrating through more than a quarter of a circle, that
when they are moved in contrary directions by the machinery the broad sur-
face of one and the edge of the other may be pressed against the water; the

page_text: lower ends of the paddles or urgers descend into the water; N, O, a lever
inserted in the upright A, B, to turn it on the pin in its end A; P, Q, R, S,
a boat; T, U, the surface of the water in which the boat floats. If the
machinery be worked in a beam carried out from the vessel, it may be of use
to have a thin board descending from the beam into the water, for the purpose
of keeping the vessel steady, and to this may be affixed a tube or hollow vessel
water-tight, to buoy up the weight of the beam and machinery.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTION OF THE MACHINE.
In the Drawing No. 1, the lever N, O, is represented as moving towards
the side P, S, of the boat. The broad surface of the paddle or urger L, M,
and the edge of the paddle or urger I, K, are seen pressing against the body
of the water in contrary directions; but if the lever N, O, be moved towards
the side Q, R, of the boat, the broad surface of the paddle or urger L, M,
will give way to the water, and the broad surface of the paddle or urger I, K,
will press against it, so that, by the motion to and fro of the lever, the broad
surfaces of the paddles or urgers will be alternately pressed against the body
of water, by which pressure the boat will be moved towards T. The paddles
or urgers are contrived so as to be raised above the boat that the machinery
may be turned half round (see No. 2); then, when the ends of the paddles
or urgers are lowered into the water again, and the lever, after being moved
to the opposite side of the upright A, B, (see No. 2,) is set in motion, the boat
will be moved towards U.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Steers, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Seventeenth day of April, in the year of our Lord