IMPROVEMENTS IN PADDLE WHEELS
Year: 1852

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of the Firm of J. C. Robertson and Company, of
166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourth day of May,
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the fifteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial
license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Richard Archibald Brooman, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
and in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in
all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PADDLE WHEELS," communicated to me by Thomas Ennis,
of New York, in the United States of America; in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, shall cause
a particular description of the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said

page_text: in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being there-
unto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, hereby declare that the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the present Specification thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say -
The said Invention has for its object to' do away with, or at least greatly
diminish, the disadvantages attending the employment in paddle wheels of floats
placed parallel with the axis of the wheel, of which disadvantages the principal
are, first, concussion produced by the floats on their contact with the water,
and consequent loss of power; second, backwater, which may be distinguished
as of two kinds, that raised upon the upper surface of the floats as they emerge
from the water, and that dragged after the floats during their passage through
the water by the pressure of the surrounding fluid to fill the space produced by
the displacement of water by the floats; third, interference of the floats with
each other while in action, owing to their parallelism, and their acting in the
same horizontal plane; and, fourth, loss of effective resistance by the water to
the action of the floats, partly owing to the air which is drawn under water by
the floats during their revolution, and partly to the disturbed state of the water
on which the floats more immediately act. The means by which I remedy
these 'evils are as follows:-The floats are set obliquely to the axis of the wheel,
and caused to enter the water partially endwise; their immersion, therefore, is
gradual, consequently without jar, tremor, or vibration. The egress of the
oblique floats from the water being equally gradual and partially endwise,
there is no horizontal base offered for the water to rest on, so that before the
lower end of the float has reached the surface of the water, the pressure or
tendency to equilibrium of the water itself will prevent any accumulation on
its upper side, and the air rushing under the rising float will prevent the water
below from being forced upwards after it by the pressure of the atmosphere.
Again, the floats have little or no interference with each other, because no two
adjoining floats thereof will operate in the same plane, the full effect of each
float being accomplished before the operation of another float in the same
plane can take place, the floats of this new wheel acting in opposite planes
alternately. The forcing of the air beneath the water arises principally from
the large displacement of water by the ordinary paddle wheel as its floats enter
the water, leaving a space into which the air, rushing more rapidly than the
surrounding water, is forced or drawn underneath by the action of the wheel
in its revolution; but the oblique floats entering the water gradually, a suffi-

page_text: cient time must necessarily elapse before their complete immersion for the
water to close over them as they descend, and thus the rush of air which
invariably accompanies the descent of the ordinary floats is to a great extent
excluded, the immersion of the latter commencing and continuing simultane-
ously at all parts of the length of each float.
Having thus pointed out in what respects the improved paddle wheels differ
from and excel the common ones, I will proceed to describe the Drawings
hereto annexed.
Figure 1 is a part front view shewing two adjoining float boards obliquely
adjusted and fixed to the arms of the wheel.
Figure 2 is a side view of a wheel complete, and Fig. 2" a front view of the
same, showing the manner in which the oblique floats are fixed each one in
a direction contrary to that on either side of it. A, A, is the shaft or axis of
the wheel, B, B, are the radii or arms of the wheel, and C, C, the floats which
are bolted to the arms in the usual way, but are placed obliquely to the axis
of the wheel, and also in a position oblique to each other, that is, they diverge
alternately in contrary directions from parallelism with the axis of the wheel,
and are so set that their ends are at unequal distances (Fig. 1) from the axis
of the wheel.
Figure 3 shews an arrangement in which the float boards are divided instead
of being made in a single piece, as just described; and,
Figure 4 shews another arrangement in which two paddles or floats crossing
each other obliquely are fixed to the same set of arms; but the arrangement
first described is that which the Inventor prefers to use without, however,
confining himself to any particular degree of obliquity of the floats or diver-
gence from parallelism with each other or with the axis of the wheel. The
iron framing of the ordinary side wheel can be used for the oblique arrange-
ment without alteration, though an arrangement of the arms of the wheel to
correspond with the improved mode of construction would undoubtedly be
preferable where the wheel is being newly made. With regard to the floats
also, they may be of a slightly curved form instead of being perfectly straight;
and, indeed, when straight floats are used, they will twist in, being fastened to
the arms or radii of the wheel obliquely to the plane thereof, so as to form
sections of a screw.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim on behalf of
my Informant, the said Thomas Ennis is,-
The several oblique arrangements of the paddles or floats of paddle wheels