CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PROPELLING VESSELS OF ALL DESCRIP- TIONS, BOTH IN MARINE AND INLAND NAVIGATION, WHICH I CONCEIVE WILL BE OF PUBLIC UTILITY
Year: 1825

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
REEDHEAD, of Heworth, in the County of Durham, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of July, in the sixth year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Reedhead, His especial licence, that I, the said John Reed-
head, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Reedhead, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in
all His said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PROPELLING VESSELS OF ALL DESCRIP-
TIONS, BOTH IN MARINE AND INLAND NAVIGATION, WHICH I CONCEIVE WILL BE OF
PUBLIC UTILITY;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said John Reedhead, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same
to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference 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
John Reedhead, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to consist
in the application of a horizontal reciprocating motion to the paddles of steam
boats, in lieu of the ordinary wheel or rotary motion, and also in a peculiar
arrangement and construction of the paddle, whereby the resistance of back
or tail water, as experienced in rotating paddles, is avoided. And in further
compliance with the said proviso, I, the said John Reedhead, do hereby
describe the manner in which I perform my said Invention by the following
description thereof, reference being had to the Drawing annexed, and the
figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 represents a section of my said Invention. A is the inside of the
paddle case of a steam boat. B is a pinion working in the rack C; this rack
C forms one side of an oblong square frame, which is supported in grooves
R, R, at each side of the paddle case, and in which grooves this frame slides
backwards and forwards by means of the alternate movement of the pinion B,
as hercin-after described. Within this oblong square frame is a similar frame
T, turning on an axis at S. Along the centre of this inner frame T, and
which I call the dipping frame, is a beam D, having an inclined plane E
formed on its hinder extremity. This inclined plane E is acted upon by the
friction roller F, so that whenever the inclined plane E passes under the
friction roller F, the hinder end of the dipping frame is depressed and the
forward end raised; and vice versa, when the inclined plane E is removed
from under the friction wheel F the hinder end of the dipping frame rises, while
the forward end falls to a level with the frame first described, and which I call
the rack frame. It is in this last-mentioned position of the paddle that the
propelling action takes place, as will be hereafter more particularly described.
G is the paddle turning on a pivot at X, and having a friction wheel II at
its upper extremity. The paddle is prevented from making a greater angle
than a right angle with the dipping frame by means of a shoulder J, which
stops it from exceeding the right angle. K is a guide plane or friction
tappitt, the rise of which will be better understood when Figure 3 has been
described. L is an aperture cut in the guide plane, to admit the rising of the
upper end of the paddle when the friction roller F is acting upon the inclined
plane.
Figure 2 is a plan of Figures 1 and 3, and has the corresponding parts
marked with the same letters. Figure 3 is an outside vi w of the paddle case.
M is a motion pinion communicating motion to the inside pinion B, by means

page_text: of the small pinion N; and O is a lever connected with the beam of a steam
engine by means of the rod P. The dotted lines in this Figure represent the
position of the apparatus when the paddle is in the position for giving the
propelling stroke.
Figure 4 represents the inside of the paddle case when the paddle is in the
act of being thrown forward, after it has given one propelling stroke, into the
position for giving a second, and shewing the inclination that the paddle takes
to avoid the backwater resistance.
Having now described the various parts of my apparatus, and its several
positions as shewn by the Drawings, I will proceed to describe its action with
reference to the various Figures shewn in the Drawing. And, first, with refe-
rence to Figure 3, where the paddle is shewn in the position for giving a
propelling stroke. It is evident that if the lever O be depressed by the falling
of that end of the beam of a steam engine to which it should be attached the
rack frame and dipping frame will be drawn along in their grooves in the
direction of the arrow; and the paddle, which is kept steady and from rising
by means of the friction wheel H acting under the guide plane K, being
drawn along with them in the perpendicular position here shewn, a propelling
stroke is given; when the end of the beam of a steam engine to which the
lever is connected rises, of course a reverse action is given to the back
and dipping frames, and they are forced forward, the paddle sloping as shewn
in Figure 4, till the inclined plane E comes under the friction roller F, when
the forward end of the dipping frame begins to rise till the paddle and frame
assume the position shewn in Figure 1, and the paddle is again in a position
for a propelling stroke. It should here be observed, that no entire rotation
takes place, the pinions B and M only reciprocating on their axes in unison
with the rise and fall of the engine beam.
Now whereas such an apparatus as is herein-before described, being an
horizontal reciprocating motion applied to the paddle of a steamboat or other
propelling engine, as also the manner of hanging the paddle, and mode of
depressing and elevating the same by means of the inclined plane and friction
wheel herein-before described, is, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
entirely new, and never before used within that part of His said Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His said
Dominion of Wales and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, nor in any of His
said Majesty's Colonies or Plantations abroad. I do hereby declare this to be
my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this my said
Specification doth comply in all respects fully, and without reserve or dis-
guise, with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent

page_text: contained; wherefore, I hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege
to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Reedhead, have hereunto set my.
hand and seal, the Twenty-sixth day of September, in the sixth year
of the reign of our sovereign Lord George the Fourth, by the Grace
of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King,
Defender of the Faith, and in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and twenty-five.
'
JOHN REEDHEAD (L.B.)
Signed and sealed by the within-
named John Reedhead, in the
presence of
FRANCIS RUDALL,
of Clement's Inn, Solić".
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-sixth day of September,
in the year of our Lord 1825, the aforesaid John Reedhead came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in-form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-sixth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-five.