CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
DOVER CHATTERTON, of Derby, in the County of Derby, Esquire, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Eleventh day of January, in the fifth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Richard
Dover Chatterton, my exors, adñññors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Richard Dover Chatterton,
my exors, admors, and assigns, and every of us, by myself and themselves, or by
my and their deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I,
the said Richard Dover Chatterton, my exors, adñors, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term of fourteen years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Her Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion
of Wales, the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey,
Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Planta-
tions abroad, in such manner as to me, the said Richard Dover Chatterton, my
exors, admors, or assigns, or any of us, should in my or my exors, adiñors, or
assigns discretion seem--meet, my Invention of " CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN

page_text: PROPELLING;
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that I,
the said Richard Dover Chatterton, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my said improvements, and the manner in which the same are to be
performed, under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in pursuance of the said proviso, I, the said Richard
Dover Chatterton, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the Improvements invented by me are to be performed,
are as follows, that is to say :-
The nature of my said Invention consists in an improved arrangement or
adjustment of the paddle floats or boards of steam boats, and of all other
vessels, machines, or bodies similarly propelled or moved by the action of
floats or other like contrivances in and against water, whether such floats
be made of wood, iron, or any other material used for the purpose.
And I declare that the manner in which the said improvements are to be
performed is represented and exemplified in the Drawings hereunto annexed,
and in the following description thereof, that is to say :-
A, A, is a paddle wheel of a steam vessel constructed in the ordinary manner,
except only as regards the floats a, a, a, a. Instead of these floats being placed
parallel to the shaft or axis B, as such floats are now usually placed, they are
fixed obliquely at a considerable angle thereto, and in alternate opposition
to one another, as shewn in the said Drawing, each float projecting beyond that
opposite to it. By placing the floats in these relative positions the amount of
direct resistance from the water, and of propulsive power thereby obtained,
is greater than is obtainable within the same width of space by any other
arrangement of floats with which I am acquainted; while at the same time
the power is exerted unintermittingly and continuously throughout each entire
revolution of the wheel, and acts in an equable and steady manner on the
vessel and its machinery. In consequence, too, of the oblique direction in
which the floats enter into and emerge from the water, as well as of the water
being drawn (as it were) into the interior of the wheel between the floats, there
is less of that back lift and dashing of the water against the sides of the vessel
which are so much complained of, and are so peculiarly objectionable in canal
and river navigation. Instead of one set of floats placed in alternate opposition
to one another in the manner shewn in the Drawing, two or more such sets
placed side by side in manner shewn by the Drawing marked Y, or that
marked Z, may in many cases be employed with advantage. The same

page_text: arrangement of floats which I have herein described as applicable to the paddle
wheels of steam vessels, may be adopted with the like advantage in respect of
power in the case of undershot water wheels, and with more or less advantage
in all cases where a rotary or progressive motion is sought to be obtained by
the action of such floats or other analagous means in and against water.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim as of my
Invention is the placing of the paddle floats or boards of steam boats, and of
all other vessels, machines, or bodies which are propelled or moved by the
action of floats or other like contrivances in and against water, in the oblique
positions relatively to the shafts or axes and to one another shewn in the
Drawings hereunto annexed, but without confining myself to the precise angles
or relative distances at which the floats are there represented to be fixed, and
reserving to myself a right to place them at any more suitable angles or
distances by which the like beneficial results may be obtained; and also
without confining myself to the particular modes of securing the said floats
represented in the Drawings hereunto annexed, which modes may be varied
in several ways without prejudice to the principle of my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth
day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and