IMPROVED ÅRRANGEMENTS OF MACHINERY AND METHOD OF REGULATING THE SUBMERSION OF PROPELLERS FITTED TO VESSELS."
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Wimshurst, of Kensington, in the County
of Middlesex, Ship Builder, and Edward James Reed, of 8, Victoria
Chambers, in the City of Westminster, Companion of the Bath,
Naval Architect, for the Invention of "IMPROVED ÅRRANGEMENTS OF
MACHINERY AND METHOD OF REGULATING THE SUBMERSION OF PROPELLERS
FITTED TO VESSELS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Wimshurst and
Edward James Reed at the Office. of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 21st October 1874.
'
We, HENRY WIMSHURST, of Kensington, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, Shipbuilder, and EDWARD JAMES REED, of 8, Victoria Ohambers,
in the City of Westminster, Companion of the Bath, Naval Architect,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED ÅRRANGE-
MENTS OF MACHINERY AND METHOD OF REGULATING THE SUBMERSION OF PRO-
PELLERS FITTED TO VESSELS," to be as follows:-

page_text: other submerged propellers of ships at greater or less depths in the same
vessel as may be required at sea or in shallow waters, and the Invention
consists in so forming and placing the engine with its screw shafting
within the ship as to enable the shafting and as much of the machinery
as may be necessary, including the steam or other cylinders, to move
about an axis, as the screw is raised or lowered in the ship, thus enabling
the steam or other engines always to act directly upon the shafting in
the same manner, whether the screw or other propeller be more or less
immersed.
The most convenient arrangement for giving effect to this Invention:
is to adopt a rotary engine, but it is obvious that the plan is also
applicable where reciprocating engines are employed by mounting them
upon a pivoted platform or otherwise, and it is our intention to apply
our Invention to the case of such engines.
Our Invention further consists in the employment of an elastic or
flexible tube or chamber of india-rubber or other suitable material for
the purpose of establishing a water-tight connection between the stuffing
box and the ship without impeding the movement of the shaft or of the
stuffing box.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 2
filed by the said Henry Wimshurst and Edward James Reed in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 21st April 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HENRY
WIMSHURST, of Kensington, in the County of Middlesex, Ship Builder,
and EDWARD JAMES REED, of S, Victoria Chambers, in the City of
Westminster, Companion of the Bath, Naval Architect, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of October, in the
year of our Lord. One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and a
successors, give and grant unto us, the said Henry Wimshurst • and
Edward James Reed, Her special licence that we, the said Henry.
Wimshurst and Edward James Reed, our executors, administrators, and

page_text: •
Our Invention further consists in the employment of an clastic tube
or chamber of india-rubber or other suitable material for the purpose
of establishing a water-tight connection between the stuffing box and
the ship without impeding the movement of the shaft or of the
stuffing box.
Some of the methods of carrying our Invention into practise are
represented in the annexed Drawings; Figures 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6, show
the profile view of the stern of a ship; in Figures 1, 4, and 5, part of
the outside plating is removed to show the internal arrangements;
Figures 2 and 7 show cross sections of the ship through the engine
rooms. The propelling engine to be employed may be of any convenient
or suitable type. In the present views there is shown for illustration,
in Figures 1 and 2, an oscillating reciprocating compound engine, and
in Figures 4, 5, and 7, a rotary or direct revolving engine. A, A, are
the engine cylinders; B is the main frame or foundation plate; C, C,
are the engine bearers or supports having cylindrical bearings at D, D,
so arranged as to admit the tilting of the entire engine, when the pro-
peller and shaft are raised or lowered according to the depth of water
in which the ship floats; if required at the same time the vessel may be
propelled through the water; E, E, are water-tight stuffing boxes attached
and made water-tight by clastic or other packing to the bulk heads F, F;
G is a suspended bearing worked from the deck above by means of an
auxiliary steam engine or other motive power or appliances, and raising
or lowering the propeller and shaft; H is a bearing intended to receive
the shaft when at its lowest position; J, J', J", is the propeller at
different positions, J" being a position convenient for repairing the
propeller without docking the ship. Where desired, by carrying the
aperture higher up, the propeller boss may be raised completely out of
the water. The stern post of the ship may be so formed that the shaft
may be always at the centre of the ship, transversely as is most usual, or
it may be at one or both sides from the centre, as in twin screws, of the
ship, as shown in Figures 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. When arranged so as to
be at one side of the centre of the ship, the freedom to raise and lower
the shaft and propeller may be gained by leaving an opening K in the
bottom plating on either side of the ship, as shown in Figure 3, or an
årrangement of a moveable door or side rudder, as letter L, shown in
Figure 6, may be used so as to present the same or nearly the same

page_text: surface to the water as the usual construction. This door (letter L)
which may be made and fitted as is usual in other rudders may be
worked by means of a vertical shaft M actuated by any convenient
motive power, or by other mechanical means situated on deck above
or elsewhere. This door may be so constructed as to carry on its lower
edge a cover or top bearing H' corresponding to the bottom bearing H,
and the door being free to rise and fall a distance equal to about half
the shaft's diameter, the top bearing H¹ may be made to secure the
shaft against vibration in the best manner when working in deep water.
At any convenient height there may be, if required, an upper bearing H"
formed in the door to receive the shaft when the propeller is working in
shallow water.
The manner of raising or lowering the entire machinery in accordance
with this latter arrangement, that is to give oscillation to the machinery,
would be as follows:-On leaving the harbour and gaining deep water the
door I would be first raised as required, then opened sufficiently to allow
of the downward or upward passage of the shaft. The propeller and
shaft would then be raised or lowered by means of the suspended
bearing G and its controlling motive power on deck. The door L would
then be closed against the stern post N, and dropped so as to embrace
the shaft by the bearing H'. The door might now be secured by locking
the spindle M inboard, or by automatic clamps on the after edge of the
door of ordinary construction as at O. The machinery would remain in
this position until the end of the passage and the approach of shallow
We do not confine ourselves to the above described arrangements as
they may be varied in many ways without departing from the sub-
stance of our Invention.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention of "Improved
Arrangements of Machinery and Method of Regulating the Submersion
of Propellers Fitted to Vessels," and in what manner the same is to be
performed, we declare that we claim, so forming and placing the pro.
pelling machinery with the screw shafting within the ship as to enable
the shafting, and as much of the machinery as may be necessary,
including the steam or other cylinders to oscillate or move about an axis

page_text: as the screw is raised or lowered in the ship, substantially as set forth.
and shown.
In witness whereof, we, the said Henry Wimshurst and Edward
James Reed, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Nine-
teenth day of April, One thousand cight- hundred and seventy-
five.