CERTAIN COMBINATIONS OF AND IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY TO MOVE BY WIND, STEAM, ANNUAL STRENGTH, WATER, OR OTHER POWER, BY MEANS OF WHICH BOATS, BARGES, SHIPS, OR OTHER FLOATING VESSELS MAY BE PROPELLED OR MOVED IN WATER, AND WHICH INVENTION IS PURTHER APPLICABLE TO OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1819

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
JEFFRAY, of Glasgow, in that part of the United Kingdom called Scotland,
Professor of Anatomy in the University of Glasgow, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourth
day of March, in the fifty-ninth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the:
said James Jeffray, my exors, adññors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said James Jeffray, my
exors, admors, and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's.
Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN COMBINATIONS
OF AND IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY TO MOVE BY WIND, STEAM, ANNUAL STRENGTH,
WATER, OR OTHER POWER, BY MEANS OF WHICH BOATS, BARGES, SHIPS, OR OTHER
FLOATING VESSELS MAY BE PROPELLED OR MOVED IN WATER, AND WHICH INVENTION
IS PURTHER APPLICABLE TO OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the said James Jeffray, shall not
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent
and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease,
determine, and become void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Jeffray, do hereby declare that the particulars of my aforesaid Invention
and improvements, and the manner in which the same are to be carried into
effect and used, is herein-after set forth and described (that is to say):-
The machinery for moving. or popelling boats and other vessels in the water
consists in a new form of pump to be impelled or driven by any of the usual
and accustomed prime movers of machinery as aforesaid, and by means of
which water or air is alternately drawn in and expelled outwards underneath
the surface of the water upon which such vessel is floating, and in a direction
contrary to that in which it is intended such vessel shall move, with such
adjustments as to quantity, force, and direction as will not only give different
degrees of velocity to such vessel, but, likewise assist in steering, turning, or
guiding the direction of the same.
Fig. 1 represents a longitudinal section through the center of one of my said
pumps in its simplest form, in which a is a true barrel with parallel sides for a
piston to work in, and b another barrel, which need not be so true, but which
must be connected with the first by an open passage or pipe of communication c.
These barrels and pipe of communication should be of the same size or capacity
throughout, and may be made either round; square, triangular, or of any other
form, so as to admit the working of the air-tight piston (d), and by means of
its rod (e), which is to be connected with the steam engine or any other
machinery that may be adopted capable of producing reciprocating or alternate
motion of the same from one end of the true barrel to the other. This piston
rode must work through a stuffing box fin an air and water tight man
manner,
and the whole may be made in this as well as the following examples of metal,
timber, or other suitable material, but I prefer strong sheet copper, as light-
ness in the construction must always be considered. It is evident from this
construction that if the open ends 9 and h of these barrels a and b are
immersed in the water in which the vessel in which this pump is fixed is
floating, that a constant efflux of water will take place so long as the piston
9, h, since while g is receiving
water h will be ejecting it, and vice versa; and consequently by directing the
efflux of water in a contrary direction to that in which the vessel should or is
intended to move, a degree of motion will be communicated to it proportionate
to the force with which it is so ejected from the barrels. The open ends g
and h must in all cases be under water; and in the construction pointed out
in this Figure it is supposed that the barrels are laid horizontally, or nearly so,
with the open ends g and h pointing out of the stern of the vessel, and that
the whole apparatus is placed so near the keel as to be always under water;
is worked from one or other of the orifices

page_text: but, whenever it may be desirable to work, the piston in and up and down.or
vertical. direction; then no other alteration will be necessary than to fix the
barrels in a perpendicular form, and. to turn the open ends g and h into an
horizontal or nearly horizontal direction, as in the last. case, which may be
done.by curved elbow pipes, and the same effect will be produced. To insure
a more steady and powerful:action upon; the vessel' it will be adviseable to have
two pair of such barrels, one being fixed on either side of the keel; but when
speed' is the principal object, a greater number may be employed, -disposed in
pairs of equal power along the sides of the vessel, always placing them so that
their discharging orifices may be lower than the lowest water line of the vessel
when unloaded...
Fig: 2 represents two barrels communicating with each other, and placed as
in Fig. 1but with a piston in each. The pistons acting alternately, and the
space between them being filled either with water or air, or both, as it may at
times be proper. to divide the ejected column of water, and on other occasions
to increase its velocity without altering the speed of the pistón, the mouth of
the barrel a' is shewn terminating in two narrower openings l, m,' and the
mouth of the barrel;6 is seen terminating in a much smaller tube k, all which
may be altered in dimensions as occasion may require:
*
In the above Figures. the pistons are represented as fitting the barrels
exactly, but if the piston be made somewhat less, so as to be close to but not
to touch the inside of the barrel, and thus that some of the water can get
through between it and the piston, the apparatus will partake-of-the-principle
of the öar. By placing the valves n; n, in, the piston, as at Fig. 3; the
apparatus is reduced to the principal of the oar in the forward stroke, but by
shutting of the valves it becomes in effect a lifting pump in the-back stroke
The principle of this Invention allows the apparatus to assume a variety of
shapes, and to be placed almost anywhere in the vessel. Thus Fig. 1 shewed a
pair, of barrels. fitted for being placed low down and to open out at the stern;
but Fig. 4 represents a single barrel a, in which the piston or impeller d moves
forwards and backwards horizontally, and the fluid expelled by the fore stroke
is sent downwards, and escapes from the mouth g opening astern close by the side
of the keel;, or outwards if it opens out at the side, while what is expelled by
the back stroke is also thrown backwards through the mouth h. The apparatus,
though apparently single in this. Figure, is: in reality the double barrel of
Fig. 1st altered in shape. As there must be as much force acting on one sidé
of the keel as on the other side, so; instead of using separate barrels, those
opposite to one another' may be conjoined as in Fig. V, where a, a, represents
one large cylinder or barrel lying over the keel, as far forward in the ship as
may be required. In this Figure it will be observed that the piston rod e
"

page_text: looks towards the stern, and the piston d is towards the head; of course the
apparatus as here represented is intended to be placed anterior to the moving
power. In the previous Figures there is no other aperture shewn through
which the water can enter but those by which it had been previously expelled.
If, however, it be wished that the entry of the fluid should be facilitated, as will
be particularly necessary, when the spouting apertures are diminished, as in
Fig. 2, that may be accomplished by making two or four additional openings
in the large cylinder or barrel, as shown at o, p, o, p; these must be clear of
the range of the piston, and must be fitted up with valves opening inwards, and
those of one side must communicate with a tube or tubes opening out through
the bottom of the vessel on one side of the keel, and those on the other side
with another tube or tubes opening out on the other, to serve as suction pipes
to supply the water. The apparatus in all these Figures is represented as
situated low down in the vessel, and as the water has free entrance to both
ends of the barrel the piston works in water; but by raising the working
cylinder or barrels, and elongating the tubes of g, g, h, h, till their capacity be
greater than that of the working barrel or cylinder, the piston will work in air.
The barrels have likewise been represented in all the Figures as laid horizon-
tally, but they might have been placed vertically, and at any angle. In Fig. 6
the cylinder or barrel a, a, is placed erect, so that the piston d is drawn
upwards or pushed downwards perpendicularly by its rode moving in the
stuffing box f; and if, as in the former case, the cylinder be raised sufficiently
high to allow the descending tubes g, g, h, h, length enough to have greater
capacity than the cylinder, the piston will work dry, but the tubes will receive
and eject water. It may be of consequence on some emergencies to have
the power of lessening the vessel's speed, and at other times it may be of great
importance to be able to get the vessel to turn suddenly round. Let a, b, Fig. 7,
be the anterior ejection pipe h of Fig. 6 or one of the preceding Figures,
turning backwards, and let c be an offset from it turning forwards at an angle
of ninety degrees, or as in Fig. 8 at an angle of forty-five degrees, it is evident
that the valve d when in the situation d, e, will set the current in the direction
of 6; but if the valve lie in the place of the dotted line f it will as effectually
turn the current into the tube or cylinder c, and if c open out at the bow, say
at an angle of forty-five degrees, then the jet which it will deliver will effec-
tually turn the head of the ship the other way; and if the offsets on both bows
be opened there must be a lessening of the ship's way. In whatever position
the valve may be placed the sum total of passage which it will leave open will
be equal to the area of the tube a, therefore whether the valve be open or shut
the engine or moving power can run no risk from obstruction. It will also be
found that when shut as at d, e, Fig. 7, one force only, viz, that of the current

page_text: in a, can have a tendency to press upon it at d, and force it to change its
position at the same time that there are two forces acting in opposition to that,
namely, the pressure of the same current in its way out at 6, and that of the
fluid in c trying to get in. The valve can, however, be held in any wished for
position by many simple and well known contrivances. It will be easily seen
that the apparatus herein-before described is not only applicable to propelling
and moving of vessels in the water, but that it is applicable to other useful
purposes on board ship, since by a proper arrangement and disposition of cocks
or valves and suction pipes to the working barrels before described in a
manner which will be evident to any one acquainted with pump work, the
external water may be shut off and the barrels made to draw from the hold or
lowest part of the vessel, and in this way the same may be pumped much more
effectually than by any other means; and even if a leak should be sprung, the
water getting into the vessel may be used for moving her; and if the apparatus
be allowed to go on working after all the bilge water is removed from the well,
the air which is in and immediately over the well, and which in general is the
worst in a ship, will be pumped up and thrown out next; and as the same
quantity of pure air must enter up the hatches and port holes at every stroke.
as is thrown out by the cylinders f and g, it will be understood how the
whole air in the ship must in the course of a few hours be completely changed,
especially as any number of barrels may be used that may be required, either
in their separate form or connected with each other.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Jeffray, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and nineteen.