IMPROVEMENTS IN CONSTRUCTING AND PROPELLING SHIPS AND OTHER FLOATING VESSELS
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION, left by Abraham Follett, Osler at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 23rd
July 1864.
I, ABRAHAM FOLLETT OSLER, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN CONSTRUCTING AND PROPELLING SHIPS AND OTHER FLOATING
VESSELS," to be as follows:- ·
The object of my. Invention is to construct and propel ships and other
floating vessels so that they may be propelled without encountering the
resistance which is produced in ships and vessels of the ordinary construction
by the friction of the ship or vessel against the water through which it is
moving.
For convenience of description, I will describe my Invention in connection
with a ship. Near either end of the ship a horizontal shaft is situated, each
of the said shafts working in bearings on either side of the ship; the said
shafts are situated in a plane about midway between the upper and lower
surfaces of the ship. Each of the said shafts carries at each end a wheel ;.
the said wheels are not circular, but of an octagonal or of other angular
figure. The diameter of the said wheels is somewhat greater than the depth
of the ship; upon the said wheels two jointed endless chains work, the said:
chains passing over and under the ship. The said chains are made of metallic
bars of a length equal to the distance between two contiguous angles of the
wheels. To the outer sides of the endless chains transverse tubular closed vessels.

page_text: or floats are fixed, and on the inner side of the said endless chains rollers or
antifriction wheels work. The floats described are of such size that that
portion of the series always under the ship is buoyant under the heaviest load
of the ship, hence the ship itself does not rest upon the water, but is sup-
ported above it by the floats. When the ship is placed upon water, and a
propelling force is applied to the said ship, it is made to advance upon the
rollers or antifriction wheels on the endless chains, the floats immediately
under the ship remaining stationary or nearly stationary. By the advance of
the ship the wheels on which the endless chains work advance and rotate,
the state of rest of the lower part of the endless chains causing the upper
part to travel over the upper part of the ship in the direction of the ship's
motion, and with double the ship's velocity. By the motion described, the
endless chains lay down floats in advance of the ship, and take up those at its
rear, the ship at the same time travelling upon the rollers or antifriction
wheels between it and the endless chains. By the construction described,
there is formed, as it were, a floating platform carrying rollers on which the
ship travels, the said floating platform being simultaneously laid down in
advance of the ship and taken up at its rear. The ship travels on the rollers
of the said floating platform without encountering the resistance which would
be produced by its motion through water.
Ships constructed according to my Invention may be propelled by the
action of the wind upon sails. When the ship is propelled by steam or other
motive power contained within the ship, the said motive power is applied to
produce the rotation of the shafts described; by the rotation of the said
shafts the ship is made to advance.