IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PROPELLING AND NAVIGATING SMALL CRAFT
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Gedge at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 8th
April 1868. A communication from abroad by Hilaire André Levallois
of l'Isle Adam, France.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD GEGDE, of the Firm of John Gedge and Son, of
No. 11, Wellington Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Patent
Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR PROPELLING AND NAVIGATING SMALL CRAFT," a communication
to me from abroad by Hilaire André Levallois, of l'Isle Adam, France, to be
as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to employ scientifically in the navigation of
boats, barges, and other small craft the corporeal power which boatmen and
others now in a great measure waste, and also to render such navigation easy
to those who have found difficulty in navigating with the ordinary means, and
to obtain greater speed with no greater expenditure of power.
One part of this Invention consists in an arrangement of oars with jointed
pivots. These oars are made in two principal parts, namely, a wooden shaft
and a blade of metal, wood, or other suitable material. A half circular
socket fixed on the blade, and running nearly its entire length, receives one
end of the shaft lengthwise; it is of conical shape, and the shaft passes into its
entire length, lying flat on the side of the blade, and held by the conical shape
of the socket; it cannot oscillate in this sheath no matter what strain is brought
upon it by the tension of the handle. A ferrule is fixed on the shaft towards

page_text: the handle, its lower part hinging on a jointed pivot fixed on the side of the
boat. By this arrangement the oar may be inclined at pleasure, and plunged
deeper into the water while moving if desired.
Another arrangement is as follows:-The oar is composed of two parts
similar to those previously described, namely, the blade and the shaft, with
this difference, that the shaft also of metal is broken near the handle, with
which it unites by two toothed segments or quarter circles hinging on two
triangular plates united by bolts. One of these segments being fixed on the
handle, the other on the shaft of the oar. By giving a forward and backward
movement, two segments of a circle will be described in inverse directions,
which is the entire sweep of the oar. An up-and-down movement is also
given to the oar by means of two hinges. This and the previously described
arrangement permit the boatman to occupy any position he pleases, so that he
may when rowing look in the direction he is going, and the oar and apparatus.
may be easily removed when leaving the boat by simply withdrawing the
pivot pin.
Another improvement consists in a counter elbowed or double cranked pro-
peller, carrying at the end of the arm which plunges in the water a certain
number of paddles, and at the end of the arm which rises vertically in the
boat a ball, the weight of which equilibrizes that of the paddles, the horizontal
rod or shaft connecting the two elbows runs lengthwise with the boat, and
slides in grooved rollers. This propeller has two motions, one semi-rotatory,
which causes the paddle to rise out of the water, and re-enter it, the other a
come-and-go motion, which propels the boat forward or backward, the rower
always looking in the direction in which the boat is progressing.
Another improvement consists in an apparatus which may be termed a
rudder oar; it is composed of a lever carrying two iron guides, which guido
a paddle up and down; the paddle is set in motion by a chain passing over a
grooved roller fixed on the elbow of the lever. This chain is continued by an
iron rod sliding in a groove in the arm of the lever which is inboard, and at
the other end of this rod is connected another small chain, which rolls round
a pulley large enough to describe in its rotation a distance sufficient to raise
the paddle from the water. The paddle guides and the arm of the lever are
connected by two iron tie pieces hinging on a pivot, on which the entire appa-
ratus is supported and balanced. The pulley above mentioned is connected to
the lever by two angular half flat pieces of metal, and carries a handle
or crank, a turn of which aided by the chain completes the course of the
paddle. On the opposite side of the pulley is another handle, which aids the
return of the paddle towards the boat. The advantages of this oar are facility

page_text: of progression either backwards or forwards while acting as a rudder, for
which purpose it is only necessary to make it diverge obliquely from the right
to the left, or vice versa. A double rudder propeller may also be used, com-
posed of a lever guides and paddle as above described, but furnished also
with a piece of wood sliding on friction rollers, supported also on a small
plank, which is fixed to a pivot on the side of the boat, and by the extension
of a ring or hook on a bracket on the half deck. An iron pin which may be
removed at will secures the whole in position. At the end of the piece of
wood is a pulley as in the previously described arrangement, its inner handle
acting as a crank, on turning which the recoil movement of the propeller is
obtained, that is to say, the forward motion, all the parts being seated between
these two organs, and on turning round the other handle, an opposite motion
is produced. The handle comes against an iron elbow when it has described
its
proper course, so that it may not go further.
When this arrangement is applied to boats or barges having no half deck,
the balancing arrangement of the first described rudder propeller is adopted,
with this difference, that it only balances and does not pivot, and two organs
are used instead of one, so that if one only be moved, the boat will sheer to
the right or left while still advancing.