AN IMPROVED METHOD FOR PRO- PELLING SHIPS OR VESSELS, AND APPARATUS FOR SUCH PURPOSE
Year: 1876

page_text: 55
LETTERS PATENT to Charles Spruyt de Bay, of 9, Victoria Chambers, Victoria
Street, Westminster, for the Invention of AN IMPROVED METHOD FOR PRO-
PELLING SHIPS OR VESSELS, AND APPARATUS FOR SUCH PURPOSE."
Sealed the 15th December 1876, and dated the 22nd June 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Spruyt de Bay at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 22nd June 1876.
CHARLES SPRUYT DE BAY, of 9, Victoria Chambers, Victoria Street, West-
minster. "AN IMPROVED METHOD FOR PROPELLING SHIPS OR VESSELS, AND
APPARATUS FOR SUCH PURPOSE."
It consists in a propelling apparatus so constructed that the water displaced by
its motion should be prevented to move in directions in which their resistance to
the displacement is useless or of little use to the progress ahead of the ship, or at
least prevented to do so as much as by the screw propellors actually in use, either by
material obstacle placed in the way of such directions, or in causing part of the
water displaced by the apparatus to be moved in a direction contrary to that in
which another part is moved, when they will offer a better bearing to the force
used to propel the ship ahead, or by altering the position of the blades, using such
means separately or combined. To obtain such results I propose several ways, more
or less simple and obtaining the result with more or less efficacy.
First. To place a cylinder of sheet or plate iron or any other material round tho
screw, this cylinder to be fixed so as to prevent the water moved by the blades of
the screw to be thrown sideways as much and as immediately as it is now, its best
position should be to have its axle corresponding with that of the screw; it may
be shorter, longer, or of same length as the screw itself. This cylinder could be
fitted with blades projecting inside it for a short length to prevent the water
moved by the blades of the screw to take a rotary direction or diminish its tendency
to it; in this last case the diameter of cylinder should be augmented sufficiently to
prevent such blades to come in contact with the blades of the screw while they
revolve.
Second. Instead of fitting inside the cylinder straight or plane blades, those
blades may be made of such shape and placed in such position as to help to propel
the vessel, so for instance they might be given in the same way as the blades of
the inside screw, the shape of parts of screw in a contrary direction, I mean that
calling the screw to which belong the blades fitted on the shaft, inside screw,
and that to which belong the blades fitted or attached inside the cylinder
outside screw, one should be right-handed and the other left-handed, and the whole

page_text: system of cylinder and its blades could be made to revolve as well as the inside
but in a contrary direction, which may be done by any convenient means,
of which I will show one.
screw,
•
The shaft transmitting the rotary movement. to the inside screw should be
cranked at a convenient point or by any other means made to transmit its rotary
movement. to another shaft placed paralelly to it, then this second shaft should be
fitted with a cogg wheel transmitting the rotary movement in a contrary directionto
another cogg wheel fitted on a hollow shaft placed outside the first shaft (that working
the inside or centre screw) having same axle which would thus revolve in the
direction contrary to that in which the inside should revolve. This transmission of
movement could be obtained by other means, as for instance, two wheels or pullies
with a crossing strap. The hollow outside shaft should have a diameter sufficiently
larger than that of the inside one to admit of rings to be fixed or fitted on the
inside shaft, such rings of an outside diameter larger than that of the inside shaft,
and equal to the inside diameter of the hollow shaft, and placed for the purpose
of maintaining both inside and outside shafts in their lincal direction while they
are revolving in contrary directions, and diminishing the friction; three rings,
more or less, should be used (not less than two), and at each point where there
should be one of those rings there should equally be a bearing to support and
maintain the hollow shaft, each such bearing being fitted with a lubricator to
lubricate not only the friction surfaces between such bearings and outside hollow
shaft, but also the friction surfaces between the said hollow shaft and the rings
fitted on the inside shaft, by means of proper apertures in the outside hollow shaft.
The hollow outside shaft could be made of several pieces bolted or held together
by any other means, so that a short length of it could be taken off in two pieces
at each bearing, and thus allow them to be easily replaced as well as the rings
fitted on the inside shaft, and which could also be made in two parts. Instead of
having the hollow outside shaft bearing directly on the rings, other sets of rings
could be fitted inside the hollow shaft having for inside diameter the same as the
outside ones of the rings on the inside shaft, so that all the friction would be on
the surfaces of those two sets of rings. On this hollow outside shaft the cylinder
fitted with the second set of screw-shaped blades should be firmly fixed or attached.
The main shaft could be cranked in two places to transmit its motion to the other
shaft parallel to it, so that when the arms of one crank are in a horizontal position
the arms of the other should be in a vertical one, or instead of communicating its
rotary movement to one parallel shaft on one side of the main one it might be
made to communicate it to two, one each side of the main shaft, each of which
should then transmit it together to the outside hollow shaft having same axle or
centre with the main one.
Third. Instead of fixing the blades of outside screw on a cylinder those blades
could be fixed on one or several rings connected firmly with the outside hollow
shaft, such rings being placed behind the centre or inside screw (between said
screw and vessel) so that the edges of those rings nearest to inside screw or
furthest from vessel should be in plan perpendicular to the shaft or shafts, and a
little nearer to the vessel than the parts of blades of inside screw nearest to the
said vessel, and those blades of the outside screw could not only be maintained in
their position upon these rings by their ends touching those rings, but also by
iron bars acting as struts and ties between themselves or between them and the
rings; those blades could be entirely on one side of the rings or partly on one
and partly on the other side, in which case they can be so that the part on one
side continues the curved surface of the part on the other side.
Fourth. Instead of fixing the blades of inside screw as it was supposed in No. 3
upon their shaft, they could, as well as those of the outside screw, be attached on
rings firmly connected with their shaft, the whole in same manner and way as
the blades of outside screw; in the same manner the blades of outside screw
instead of being attached on rings could be held by or attached to arms or bars
radiating direct from the outside shaft.

page_text: Fifth. Instead of two screws revolving in opposite directions, a greater number
could be used, then calling the centre one No. 1, the next No. 2, and so on, No. 1,
No. 3, &c., could be made to revolve in one direction and the even numbers to
revolve in the contrary direction, forming thus two sets of screws all revolving
round the same axle, but the set made up of odd numbers in a direction contrary
to that of the set made up of even numbers; if one set is made of right-handed
screws the other should be made of left-handed screws. In such a case while all
the even numbers of systems should be connected to the hollow shafts by arms
radiating from it and placed between the blades and the vessel, all the odd numbers
of systems should be connected between them and the inside shaft by arms
starting from the outward part (that furthest from the vessel) of the blades of
centre screw or system, that numbered one and the connecting parts should be
shaped so as to continue the curves of the blades. More or less space may be
left between the outside circumference of a system and the inside one of the
system revolving immediately round it.
Sixth. Instead of giving to the revolving blades the shape and position of parts
of a screw or screws made on the axle of their shaft when their rotary motion
will move the water in a direction tangent to the curve traced by cach point of
such blades, these blades or some of them, especially those belonging to the outer
system, could be given a position so as to form an angle with the radius coming
from the axles to any point of the blades, so as to throw the water moved by
their rotation towards centre of systems, or in any other wished for direction, when
the word screw could no more properly applied to such a system of blades, and
more or less advantageous shapes could be given to these blades, one of the best
would be as follows:-Their outward surfaces (the surfaces furthest from the ship)
should be given by a line traced in the outward plan of the rings to which these
blades are to be attached. This line, instead of being in the direction of or tangent
to a radius coming from the centre of these rings, should form an angle with the
said radius angle, more or less open according to the direction it will be wished
to give to the water moved by the blades; if then this line first included in the
plan of the rings is made to move parallely to said plan and following two other
lines starting from the two extremities of the base of each blade remaining in
plans perpendicular to the radius from axle or centre of shaft to starting point of
each line (that is the point in outward plan of rings, and so bent that they should
trace in the said plans, perpendicular to the said radius, curves of which the
tangents at any point should always form with the plan perpendicular to the
axle of revolution or shaft of revolving apparatus in angle proportional but in
inverse ratio to the distance of that point (point of contact of said tangent with
curve) to the axle of shaft.
Experience will show if the principle that the inclination of blades is to be
proportional to the distance from axles is to be modified, and of how much, on
account of more or less strength with which the water will be moved in contrary
directions by the different systems of blades.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Charles Spruyt de Bay in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 22nd
December 1876.
CHARLES SPRUYT DE BAY, of No. 9, Victoria Chambers, Victoria Street, West-
minster, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer. "AN IMPROVED METHOD
FOR PROPELLING SHIPS OR VESSELS, AND APPARATUS FOR SUCH PURPOSE."
My Invention is an improved method of and apparatus for propelling vessels
or ships by which the water is struck or pressed at the same time, and within the
same space comprised between two sane planes perpendicular to the axis of
the propeller by the combined action of surfaces placed at an angle with the line

page_text: of movement of the vessel, and revolving round one another in contrary directions,
and upon the same axis, the best apparatus for accomplishing this being two
screws, one a right-handed one and the other a left-handed one, revolving in
contrary directions on the same axis between the two planes perpendicular to the
axis, with the exception of some parts which it may be necessary to place outside
the said planes, as will be seen in the Drawings. These two screws are consequently
not placed nor are they to work one aside or one behind the other, but are placed
one inside the other, and it may be said that they work one round another or
inside one another.
In order to obtain part of the effect it is not necessary to have both screws
revolving, part of the effect might by obtained by using the two screws without
giving the rotary movement to more than one, the other then remaining fixed
in the same position relatively to the vessel, the effect would of course be greatly
lessened, but the cost of applying the new propeller, although not in the same
proportion, would also be lessened.
Although the shape of the screw is the most advantageous that can be used for
the purpose, it is not absolutely necessary to use it or to give the helicoid shape
to the blades of the screws, and that is why I have said above that my Invention
is a method of propelling by which the water is struck or pressed by the combined
action of surfaces revolving round one another in contrary directions, in fact, it
will be sufficient to produce the required effect although less advantageously to use
two or more series of surfaces, planes, or of any other shape, it being generally
sufficient that those surfaces should be such that any point of any surface being
foremost in the direction of the rotary movement of the series to which it belongs
relatively to any other point of the same surface, that point should be nearer to
the vessel than any other point occupying a position further back in the direction
of its rotary movement, or in other words, that any section of one of those surfaces
by a plane containing the axis of revolution should be further from the vessel
than the section of the same surface by the same plane when the surface was less
advanced in the direction of its rotary movement, two or more such series could
be used, then numbering these series No. 1 the central one or that revolving in the
space nearest to the axis, No. that revolving immediately round the first, No. 3
that revolving immediately round the second, etc., etc., then all the surfaces of even
numbers should revolve in one direction, and all those of odd numbers should
revolve in the contrary direction.
When only two series of surfaces are used, one revolving in each direction, the
central or inside one may be the actual ordinary screw with its blades such as they
are now in use, and the second series may be made of blades belonging to helicoids
of contrary directions fixed inside a cylinder surrounding the central screw, as
shown by Figure 3. A, B, C, D, being the cylinder surrounding the ordinary screw
of which the blades are marked E, F, and H, I, whereas a a, b b, c c, d l, e e, etc.,
etc., are the blades of the other series, E, F, shows in dotted lines the blade E, F,
in another position to better illustrate that of the two screws, the central or inside
one and the outside one made up of the blades fixed on the cylinder, if one is a
In such a case it will be well
right-handed one the other is a left-handed one.
to give but little developement to the blades fixed to the cylinder and augment
their number accordingly. The cylinder itself may be connected by arms to a
hollow shaft placed and revolving round the solid shaft on which is fixed the boss
of the central screw. The same letters represent the same parts in the elevation
on the left of the Figure, and in the section on the right of the Figure.
The best way of constructing the apparatus is by using two screws having pieces
left out, as shown in the Drawings, through which the parts left in the other screw
can pass during their movement of revolution in contrary directions.
Figure 1 shows a front and a side elevation of a propeller of my system having
two screws of four blades each, the blade a, b, c, d, e f h i k l m, belongs to the
screw which represents the even numbers of series of surfaces spoken of before,
when h, i, k, l, should be a surface of series No. 2, and c, d, e, one of series No. 4,

page_text: but calling it the blade of a screw, then the part e, f, h, i, and k, l, m, are left out
of what would be an ordinary blade to give passage to the parts left in the blade
o, p, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, the same explanation applies to the three other blades of
each screw. If thought necessary, the same parts of each blade in each screw,
or all the surfaces of a same series, may be held together by one or several rings, of
which one only is shown in the Drawing, by the letter A, A, A, A, such ring or
rings could be placed in the same manner between the other surfaces of a same
series or between the same parts of the blades of a same screw, not only as shown
in the Drawing, but in other places as well, and from any point of such rings,
iron bars could be used to join them to any point of the series of surfaces or parts
of blades to which they belong to act as struts or ties. In the Drawing the
blades of the screw smaller in diameter are placed on a boss B, B, B, B, fixed on
the central solid shaft, which for that purpose is longer than the hollow shaft, and
the blades of the screw larger in diameter are placed on the boss C, C, C, C, fixed
on the hollow shaft, each of these bosses forming about half the ordinary boss of an
ordinary screw. Although four blades are shown to each screw in the Drawing
a greater or smaller number might be used, and instead of giving the same number
of blades to each screw, more blades could be given to one screw than the other
for the purpose of preventing the meeting of all the blades by pairs to take place at
the same instant.
To give the rotary movement in contrary direction to the two screws working
round or inside one another, or to the different series of surfaces, I crank the
shaft coming from the engine at some point near the stern of the vessel, and by
means of this cranking the rotary movement is given to another short shaft, also
cranked, placed parallel to the main shaft, this short shaft then communicates by
means of cog wheels, the rotary movement in contrary direction to a hollow shaft,
placed round and on the same axis as the main shaft, which may from that point
(astern of its cranks) be diminished in diameter, the hollow shaft enters the tube
in which the ordinary shaft of the actual screw propeller is placed, and acts itself
as the tube of the inside solid shaft having at convenient points the same augmen-
tations of thickness to act as bearings on the solid shaft, as the tubo has to act as
bearings on the hollow shaft; a stuffing box is necessary at the end of the hollow
shaft to prevent the sea water lubricating the surfaces between the hollow and
solid shafts to run inside the vessel in the same way as used at the end of the
tube placed inside the vessel. As well as two stuffing boxes, two thrust blocks
should equally be used, one on the hollow shaft, and one on the solid shaft, at some
point between the cranking and the stern of the vessel, these with two bearings
to hold the main shafting and the short parallel shaft are all the addition necessary
to the gearing of a steamer to give the double rotary movement to the screws of
my propeller, and one of those bearings could also be made so as to act as a thrust
block, of which then only one more would be required.
Figure 2 shows in front and side elevation a somewhat different position given
to the different parts of the blades in the top part of the Figure where the lines
f, e, w, x, v, u, n, i, etc., etc., showing the parts cut out of and left in the blades,
instead of being about perpendicular to the radius joining their middle to centre
of revolution, as shown in Figure 1, aro at a pronounced angle with that radius,
this might be done for the purpose of better insuring the combined action of both
screws on the same parts of water, and to one part of each blade of one screw in the
lower part of the same Figure where the part of the blade marked A, B, C, D, instead
of being the continuation of the helicoid on which the remainder of the same
blade was shaped, might be given a shape tending to give to the water moved by
it a direction more towards the centre of the apparatus than it would have other-
wise, such as would be given by a surface generated by a line E, D, in a plane
perpendicular to the axis of revolution, which instead of being the continuation
or part of the radius coming from centre of revolution should form an angle with
it, as shown in the front elevation, the said line E, D, then moving in remaining
always parallel to the plane in which it was first contained, along two other

page_text: lines starting from each end of the first line, and each of them entirely contained
in a plane perpendicular to the radius, starting from each end of the line E, D,
in its first position, and so made (the two last lines) that their tangent at any
point should always make with the plane perpendicular to the axis, angles
proportional, but in inverse ratio to the tangential point and the axis.
As my propeller can be made of a much smaller diameter than that of any
ordinary screw, its centre of rotation can be placed much lower down the vessel
where it is applied than the centre of the ordinary screw, which will cause the
propeller to remain in the water even in rough seas much more than the usual
screw, but where it is desired to give a large diameter to my propeller, then to
avoid the great augmentation of speed caused by the cessation of resistance opposed
by the water to the blades or part of them, I may use an automatic break applied
to the shaft and worked by levers under the action of weights, made hollow so as
not to make them heavier than their bulk of water, these weights being then placed
in parts where the sea water should have access, and in such a way that they should
go down in and come out of the water in the same way and at the same time that
my propeller itself would put the break on the shafts or wheels placed on the
shaft, and release it at the same time that the propeller is leaving the water or
sinking in it.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, I must further say that I
do not confine myself to the precise details herein shown and described, but that
I claim as my Invention the apparatus of whatever dimension or shape, as long
as it is made of surfaces, some revolving in one direction and others in the contrary
direction, the said surfaces or part of them forming by their revolution a section
of cylinder or of cone surrounding or surrounded by the section of cylinder or of
cone formed by the revolution of surfaces revolving in contrary directions, that is
to say, in the supposition of screws that the said screws are revolving partly or
entirely inside or round one another, and not entirely behind or aside one another,
as well in the case where all the surfaces should revolve, some in contrary direction
to others, as in the case where some should revolve and the others not, or if all
the surfaces revolving in one direction are called, a screw, and all the surfaces
revolving in the other direction are called another screw, then in such case if only
one of the screws revolve and the other not as well as if both screws revolve in
contrary directions.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Spruyt de Bay, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
C. SPRUYT DE BAY. (L.S.)