IMPROVED STEERING APPARATUS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Pegg, of Monk Wearmouth, in the County
of Durham, Shipowner, for the Invention of "IMPROVED STEERING
APPARATUS."
Sealed the 8th July 1856, and dated the 15th March 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Pegg at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the.
15th March 1856.
I, JOSEPH PEGG, of Monk Wearmouth, in the County of Durham, Ship-
owner, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for IMPROVED
STEERING APPARATUS, to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention of improved steering apparatus is so to
construct and arrange the various parts of the steering apparatus that there
may never be any slack on the chain whereby the tiller is worked. This
object is effected by the employment of double barrels, of peculiar construction,
to receive the chain from the wheel barrel. One half of these barrels is of
the same diameter as the wheel barrel, and the other part of the barrels is
of double the said diameter. One end of the chain from the wheel barrel
is secured to the smaller diameter of one of the double barrels, and the other
end of the chain is secured to the larger diameter of the other barrel; one
end of the tiller chain is in the same manner attached to the larger diameter

page_text: of the first double barrel, while the opposite end is secured to the smaller
diameter of the other double barrel. It will now be understood that when
the wheel is moved round, in either direction, all parts of the chain will be
kept tight, as the slack that is given off by the small diameter of one of the
barrels is taken up by the larger diameter of the other, consequently every
movement of the wheel in either direction, however slight it may be, will
immediately act upon the tiller, whereas in the ordinary steering apparatus it
is usually necessary to take one, two, or more complete revolutions of the
wheel before the slack of the chain will be taken up, and the rudder
effectually acted upon.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Pegg in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
15th September 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
PEGG, of Monk Wearmouth, in the County of Durham, Shipowner, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the. Fifteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Joseph Pegg, Her special license that I, the said Joseph Pegg, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph Pegg, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands and Isle
of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVED STEERING APPARATUS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Joseph Pegg, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent..
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph Pegg, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be perforined,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following state-

page_text: ment, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
This Invention relates to a mode of steering vessels without the use of
blocks or pulleys, and of removing the necessity for keeping the chain slack
to allow of the wheel moving round. This object I propose to effect by the
employment of an arrangement of barrels for transmitting motion from the
steering wheel through a segment or other lever to the rudder, and thereby
increasing the leverage, so that one helmsman will have a perfect command
of the rudder even in boisterous weather.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 shews my improved steering appa-
ratus in plan view, and Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the same. a is the
steering wheel, keyed to a shaft b, which turns in bearings in the standards
c, c. To this shaft 6 is keyed a barrel d to receive the coils of a rope or
chain e, the opposite ends of which are attached respectively to barrels f, f,
which are free to turn in bracket bearings affixed to the deck of the ship.
Keyed to the same spindles which carry the barrels f. f, or forming a part
of those barrels, are the smaller barrels g, g. From each of these barrels g
a tiller rope or chain h proceeds to a segment shaped tiller i, which is secured
in the usual way to the rudder head: The tiller ropes are secured at one end
to their respective barrels g, and their other ends are laid over the segment.
face of the tiller (which is provided with double grooves to receive the ropes
and keep them apart), and secured to the tiller by tightening screws, as
shewn best at Fig. 3, which represents the tiller in edge view. It will now
be understood that the chains will always remain tight without detracting
from the power exerted by the helmsman, as no friction takes place in the
working of the apparatus, whereas great friction is produced when the chains
run through blocks. The advantage of making the barrels f, f, of larger
diameter than the barrels g, g, is that the steersman has a greater leverage,
which enables him to work the rudder more quickly, and to hold the wheel
firmly than heretofore in a heavy sea way. The least motion of the wheel
acts immediately on the tiller, which is not the case when blocks are used, as
the slack necessary to allow them to work generally requires one or more
revolutions of the wheel before the tiller is acted upon. This apparatus also
prevents the shaking and jerking of the rudder against the stern post, which
motion has occasioned many vessels to leak about those parts, and it also
removes the annoyance so often complained of by passengers of the rudder
thumping against the stern post, and the rattling of the wheel chains. This
Invention can be applied to the straight tiller, but more efficiently to the
segment with the double groove at the back. (as shewn at Fig. 2) for keeping

page_text: the chains apart as they cross each other to reach their points of attachment,
for by the use of the segment an increased leverage is obtained without
straining the pintle on the rudder head, as the tiller is at right angles when
"hard over," which is not the case with a straight tiller. The Invention can
also be applied to vessels where the steering wheel and the stern post are
necessarily separated, as is the case in ships driven by a screw propeller,
where the shaft or opening to lift the screw propeller out of the water is
situate between the stern post and the standards of the steering wheel.
Under these circumstances I use the arrangement shewn in the plan view,
Fig. 4, which represents the quarter-deck of a screw propeller steamboat
fitted with my improved steering apparatus. The only difference between
this and the arrangement above described is, that the barrels f and g. are
situate at the opposite extremities of a pair of shafts k, through which the
motion from the steering wheel is communicated to the segment lever on the
rudder head.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improved Steering
Apparatus," and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I
wish it to be understood that I claim the arrangement of barrels, as herein
described, for transmitting, through tension chains, the motion of the steering
wheel to the rudder.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Pegg, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Thirteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
WM. ALLISON, Solicitor,
Sunderland.
JOSEPH PEGG. (L.S.)