A NEW OR IMPROVED HYDRAULIC RUDDER BREAK
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alfred Paul and Edwin Paul at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the
18th October 1864.
! We, ALFRED PAUL and EDWIN PAUL, both of No. 60, Thomaston Street,
Everton, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED HYDRAULIC RUDDER BREAK,"
to be as follows:
This Invention consists in the application of an hydraulic break to the
rudder of any ocean or coasting steam or sailing ship. The object for which
it is to be applied is to enable the manor men, or whoever may be steering a
ship, to keep the rudder in any required position without having to hold on
to the steering wheel or helm' with sufficient force to keep the rudder in
position when no such break is attached to the rudder. The object, moreover,
is to take the strain which may be occasioned, either by the resistance which
may be offered to a rudder when it is over at any angle while the ship is
passing through the water, or by a sea or wave striking the rudder on one
side, or by the ship pitching or rolling when she is liable to strike'the water
with greater force on one' side of the rudder than on the other, entirely off the
rudder gear or apparatus which may be employed for imparting motion to the
rudder (of what kind soever such said gear or apparatus may be).
The mode of construction may be varied to suit particular cases or cir-
cumstances, the simplest and most generally applicable mode being the rotary,

page_text: which is as follows:-To the tiller or arm which may be fitted to a rudder
head (if made of wrought iron) there are to be fitted or forged two round
arms, of any required size, branching off one from either side of such tiller or
arm, which arms are to be bent or made to a regular curve of any required
radius, the centre of which will be the centre of the rudder head. The length
of such arms will be determined by the maximum motion which the rudder to
which it may be attached may have. There is also to be a hollow circular
cast-iron or other metallic chamber, corresponding in-radius-to-the-arms-
herein-before described; such chamber, when furnished with proper stuffing
boxes at the ends, and with a suitable cock in the middle of it, having also
the aforesaid arms placed partially in it, with their are the reverse way of the
chamber, is securely fixed to a strong foundation or sole plate, which will
have a set of metal blocks fitted to serve as guides for the rudder head when
such sole plate is fixed to the deck. In close proximity, or attached to the
said chamber near to or above the said cock, there will be a suitable (neces-
sarily a small) tank which will be capable of containing sufficient water to
make up for (for any required time) the loss of water which the said chamber
may sustain by leakage and evaporation.
Given, the bydraulic break, as herein-before described, to be fitted to a
ship's rudder and fixed to the deck, and the chamber and tank to be filled
with cold water, with the cock full open, and it is required to keep the helm
(which has been previously moved with the ship in motion) hard to port in
that position so as to bring the ship about without the man or men having to
hold on at the steering wheel or helm, it is manifest that all which it is
necessary to do is to close the cock in the chamber, for by so doing the
chamber is divided into two distinct compartments. The communication
between the chamber and supply tank will also be closed by the same opera-
tion. It will, moreover, be very evident that in proportion as the rudder is
moved upon its centre the curved arms will be moved also, the one further
into and the other further out of the two.ends of the hollow chamber, and the
space between the ends of the arms within the chamber will be kept quite
full by the force of gravity of-the-water in the supply tank. The pressure
upon or the resistance offered to a rudder is always transmitted to the tiller
with a tendency to put it in motion, so in this case the tendency of the curved
arm on the side of the ship opposite the rudder to move will be completely
checked by the incompressible nature of the water which will be confined in
one of the chamber compartments.:: By this means the steering gear will be
relieved of any strain which might otherwise be thrown upon it, the pressure

page_text: being sustained by the interior of the chamber and one of the blank sides of
the cock.
In the case of apprehended danger from a sea striking the rudder or from
the ship pitching or rolling, the operation is similar to the foregoing, care
being taken to close the cock before the rudder is struck and to open it before
attempting to move the rudder after.