Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 12th Nov., 1886.
Complete Left, 10th Aug., 1887.
Complete Accepted, 20th Sept.. 1887.
We, DAVID DEHANE NAPIER, WILLIAM DIXON NAPIER, and ALEXANDER KELLY,
of the firm of Napier Brothers, of 100 Hyde Park Street, Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of this Invention to
be as follows, that is to say:-
1
Our said Invention has for its object to arrange and combine, in an improved
manner, the parts of steering gear which can be worked by hand or by steam
power.
In carrying out our Invention we employ a well known arrangement of screw gear
comprising two parallel screw shafts which act on internally screwed blocks fitted
to slide on guide rods parallel to the screw shafts, the said blocks acting by means of
vertical pins on lower blocks fitted to slide on the oppositely extending arms of a
crosshead fixed on the rudder head. The screw shafts are carried upon a horizontal
frame supported at a suitable height above the deck on standards, and, being both
right-handed or both left-handed, are driven in opposite directions by the gearing.
The hand gearing consists of spurwheels on the two screw shafts and gearing with
each other, one of these spurwheels being in the same piece with or fixed to a larger
spurwheel which last gears with a pinion on the steering-wheel shaft situated contrally
above the prolongations of the two screw shafts. The two spurwheels on the screw
shafts are loose on those shafts and clutches are provided for putting them into or out
of gear accordingly as the hand or steam gear is to be used." The same clutches are
arranged for putting into and out of gear two wormwheels which are also on the
screw shafts and form part of the steam gear. These wormwheels have in gear with
them worms on a transverse shaft fitted with cranks to be actuated by a pair of steam
cylinders placed horizontally on the framing carrying the screw gear or vertically or
in inclined positions. The valves of the steam cylinders are controlled by any suitable
modification of the various known arrangements of automatic gear for steering
engines.
EDMUND HUNT,
Applicants Agent.

page_text: Improvements in Combined Hand and Steam Steering Gear.
We, DAVID DEHANE NAPIER, WILLIAM DIXON NAPIER, and ALEXANDER KELLY,
of the firm of Napier Brothers, of 100 Hyde Park Street, Glasgow, in the County
of Lanark, North Britain, Engineers, 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, that is to say :-
Our said Invention has for its object to arrange and combine, in an improved
the parts of steering gear which can be worked by hand or by steam
manner,
power.
In carrying out our Invention we employ a well known arrangement of screw gear
comprising two parallel screw shafts which act on internally screwed blocks fitted to
slide on guide rods parallel to the screw shafts, the said blocks acting by means of vertical
pins on lower blocks fitted to slide on the oppositely extending arms of a crosshead
fixed on the rudder head. The screw shafts are carried upon a horizontal frame
supported at a suitable height above the deck on standards, and, being both right-
handed or both left-handed are driven in opposite directions by the gearing. The
gearing is provided with clutches for putting parts into or out of gear accordingly as
hand or steam power is to be used. The steam power acts on worm wheels on the
screw shafts by worms on a transverse shaft fitted with cranks or crank pins to be
nctuated by a pair of steam cylinders which are by preference placed horizontally on
the framing but which may be placed in vertical or inclined positions. The valves
of the steam cylinders are controlled by any suitable modification of the various known
arrangements of automatic gear for steering engines.
And in order that our said Invention and the manner of performing the same may
be properly understood we hereunto append a sheet of explanatory drawings to be
hereinafter referred to and representing an arrangement of combined hand and steam
steering gear as made with our improvements.
Figures, 1, and 2, on the accompanying sheet of drawings are a plan and a side
elevation of the steering gear. Figuro, 3, is an after-end elevation and figure, 4, is a
forward-end elevation partly in section. In these drawings the same reference
numerals are used to mark the same or like parts wherever they are repeated.
The principal parts of the machine are carried by a horizontal frame, 5, fixed upon
standards or pillars, 6, which are by preference of wrought iron or steel, but which
may be of castiron and in the same piece with the frame, 5, or otherwise. The
standards or supports, 6, are by preference in all cases made so as to impart some
elasticity to the machine to enable it the better to withstand sudden shocks. Two
screw shafts, 7, are carried in bearings in the forward and after parts of the frame, 5,
and work in internally screwed blocks, 8, which are fitted to slide on guide bars, 9,
fixed to the frame, 5, parallel to the screw shafts, 7. The blocks, 8, are provided with
vertical pins, 10, which extend down into blocks fitted to slide in slots formed in the
opposite arms, 11, of a crosshead, 12, fixed on the rudder head, 13. With this arrange-
ment as is well understood the effective leverage or action on the rudder increases

page_text: The
the further the rudder is put over to either side; and one feature of our improved
steering gear consists in using this advantageous action in connection with steam
engine details. The screw shafts, 7, extend beyond the forward part of the frame, 5,
and have on them near the frame wormwheels, 14, and beyond these wormwheels,
clutches, 15, and spurwheels, 16, the clutches, 15, being movable by a hand lever, 17,
so as to put in gear with the screw shafts, 7, either the wormwheels, 14, which form
part of the steam gear, or the spurwheels, 16, which form part of the hand gear.
forward ends of the screw shafts, 7, are held in bearings in a standard, 18, connected
to the frame, 5, by a bracket, 19. The spurwheels, 16, gear together, and the screw
shafts, 7, which are both right-handed or both.left-handed, turn in opposite directions
so as to move the arms, 11, of the rudder crosshead, 12, opposite ways. One of the
spurwheels, 16, has fixed to or made in one piece with it a spurwheel, 20, which gears
with a pinion, 21, on an upper middle shaft, 22, which has fixed on it (at 23) the
usual large band steering wheel (not shown in the drawings). The shaft, 22, is
made tubular and has passing through it a shaft, 24, on the forward end of which
is fixed a small handing wheel (not shown) by means of which the steam gear
is controlled.
The steam-engine action is communicated through the wormwheels, 14, on the
screw shafts, 7, these wormwheels having in gear with them worms, 25, one right-
handed and the other left-handed, on a transverse shaft, 26, carried in bearings on the
frame, 5. The strains on the two worms, 25, oppose and balance each other so that
there is no endway thrust on the shaft, 26. This shaft, 26, has on its ends disks, 27,
with crank pins, connected by rods, 28, to the piston rods of two steam cylinders, 29,
fixed horizontally on the frame, 5. The cylinders, 29, are worked by means of valves
worked by eccentrics, 30, placed on the crank shaft, 26, at right angles to the cranks.
The cylinder valves are by preference in the form of open frames working between
the port faces and adjustable back plates and made without lap; whilst the inlets and
outlets of the valve casings communicate with ports in a valve casing, 31, placed
between the two cylinders, 29. An ordinary slide valve works in this middle casing, 31,
and accordingly as it is moved, directs the steam to the outsides or insides of the
cylinder valves, at the same time putting the insides or outsides respectively in
communication with the exhaust or waste pipe. It is by shifting this middle valve
that the cylinders, 29, are made to turn the crank shaft, 26, in one direction or the
other; and the valve spindle, 32, is moved by the shaft, 24, which has the small
handing wheel on the forward end of it. The valve spindle, 32, is connected to the
inner end of the shaft, 24, by a swivel coupling allowing the shaft to turn without
turning the valve spindle. The shaft, 24, has formed on it a screw thread, 33, which
works in an internally screwed tubular boss, 34; and when the shaft is turned by
means of the small handing wheel, the action of the screwed parts makes the shaft
move on end and move the valve spindle, 32, inwards and outwards. The internally
screwed boss, 34, has fixed on it, a light spurwheel, 35, which gears with a similar
spurwheel, 36, fixed to one of the worm wheels, 14; and whenever the engine moves
in consequence of the middle valve being shifted by the shaft, 24, a corresponding
motion is transmitted from the wormwheel, 14, to the internally screwed boss, 34, and
by the action of the screwed parts moves or tends to move the shaft, 24, back to its
middle position, according to a well understood action common to many existing
steering engines.
When it is desired, as is generally the case, to provide for operating the steam
steering gear from the bridge or other place at a distance from the gear, there is
placed on the shaft, 24, between the internally scrowed boss, 34, and the inner end of
the tubular shaft, 22, a bevil wheel, 37, made to move with the shaft, 24, by means
of a key, and gearing with a bevil wheel, 38, on a vertical shaft, 39, passing down
through the deck. This shaft, 39, is connected by shafting consisting by preference
of tubes, and by pairs of bevil wheels and universal joints, with a handing wheel on the
bridge or in any other desired position.
The screw threads of the shafts, 7, are made of such a steepness that an excessive
strain acting on them from the rudder through the internally screwed blocks, 8. will

page_text: cause them to turn and thereby give relief, whilst with ordinary strains the rudder
will be held steadily in any position into which it is moved. And in order to get
ample bearing surface with the proper steepness of thread the screw shafts, 7, are
inade double-threaded.
:-
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said Invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we claim is :-
1-Combining double-screw steering mechanisın with steam-engine mechanism
substantially in the manner and for the purposes hereinbefore described.
2-Transmitting the steam power to the double-screw steering mechanism through
worms and wormwheels arranged substantially as herein before described.
3-Making the screw shafts both right-handed or both left-handed and combining
with them a worm shaft in a manner to avoid endway strain on such shaft substantially
as hereinbefore described.
EDMUND HUNT,
Applicants' Agent.