A METHOD OR METHODS OF TOWING, DRIVING, OR FORCING SHIPS
Year: 1808

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
LINAKER, of His Majesty's Dockyard, Portsmouth, Master Millwright, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Ilis United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourteenth day of July,
in the forty-eighth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said James
Linaker, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole priviledge and authority, that I, the said James Linaker, my execu-
tors, adñiors, 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, my Invention of "A METHOD OR
METHODS OF TOWING, DRIVING, OR FORCING SHIPS;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso that I, the said James Linaker, should, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, cause a particular description of
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
one month after the date of the said Letters Patent, otherwise the said
Letters Patent should cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the
same, relation being thereunto had, may and will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Linaker, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained by the following observations and description, and by the
annexed Drawings, Number 1 and Number 2, that is to say :-
The first method of my Invention for the purpose of towing, driving, or
forcing forwards ships or other vessels consists in applying a bucket similar to
the bucket of a lifting pump, to be moved or worked by any sufficient power
backwards and forwards in a tube or trunk attached to the said ship or vessel
in a direction parallel, or nearly so, to the direction of the intended motion of
the said ship or vessel, which ship or vessel is to be moved forward upon the
water by the effect of this bucket drawing water in at one end of this trunk
and delivering it out at the other in a direction parallel, or nearly so, but
contrary to the direction of the motion of the said ship or vessel; for this
purpose the bucket and trunk must be provided with valves after the manner
of a lifting pump.
The second method of my Invention for the purpose aforesaid consists of
an improvement upon a method where a forcing pump has been used for the
same purpose, but in lieu of admitting or drawing in the water by the piston of
the forcing pump perpendicular to the direction of the intended motion of the
ship or vessel, I admit or draw in the water by the said piston of the forcing pump
in a direction parellel, or nearly so, but contrary to the direction of the intended
motion of the ship or vessel, thro' a tube or trunk attached thereto, by this
means combining the effect of admitting or drawing the water in along with
the effect of forcing the water out in the best direction for giving the intended
motion or impulse to the said ship or vessel.
Any powers may be made use of with either of my aforesaid methods, and
any of the common means of shafts, levers, rods, wheels, and racks for trans-
mitting the powers. I do not claim the power or the means shewn of trans-
mitting it to the buckets and piston in Drawing No. 1 and No. 2 as my
Invention. I, however, consider the steam engine as therein exhibited as
generally the best power to be applied to my aforesaid methods.
My first method as aforesaid is further exhibited by Drawing No. 1, in which
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section and elevation, Figure 2 a transverse.section
and elevation; and Figure 3 a plan, shewing the principal parts of the ship or vessel,
and of the apparatus attached to it for driving or forcing it forwards upon the
water N.B. The same letters of reference are put to the corresponding parts
in the different Figures of this Drawing No. 1. A; A, represents the ship or
vessel to be moved; B, B, two trunks fixed under the bottom of the vessel-A, A
C, a self-acting valve, of which there must be one-or-more-to-each-of-the-
trunks B, B; to admit the water and prevent its return by that w
way. 'D; D, two

page_text: buckets, one to work in each trunk B, B; each of these buckets is to be provided
with one or more self-acting valves opening in the same direction as the
valves C. E, E, the bucket rods, which are to be so connected with the
power which is here shewn-a steam engine--that the buckets may be worked
alternately backwards and forwards to draw water in at the end C, and deliver
it out at the end D of the trunks B, B, and by this means to impel the
vessel A, A, in a contrary direction to the motion given to the water. There
may be one, two, or more trunks, with valves and buckets to each as before
described, and the trunks may be placed on the sides or within side of the
vessel to be moved. I have here shewn two trunks with buckets and valves
to reciprocate alternately, which I consider sufficient to keep up a constant
and nearly equable impulse towards moving the vessel forwards. The follow-
ing apparatus of this Drawing No. 1 I do not describe as a part of my
Invention, since various other common apparatus and powers may be applied
to give motion to the buckets D, D. It, however, seems proper to explain
how these are applied. F, F, two pendulous rods connected with the
bucket rods E, E, which are to receive their motion from them. G, G, two
connecting rods to move the pendulous rods F, F. H, H, levers to give
motion to the connecting rods G, G. I, I, connecting rods from a cross bar fixed
on the top of the steam engine piston rod to give motion to the levers H, H.
K, the steam engine cylinder inclosed in a steam case. Springs should be
fixed within side of the cylinder at top and bottom to prevent any bad effect
from the piston striking against the top or bottom of the cylinder, which is
more likely to happen in this case than where the length of stroke of the
steam piston is confined by a crank. L, nosle, with slide valve to admit and
discharge the steam. M, condensing cistern and apparatus. N, steam engine
boiler, which for the sake of lightness is here shewn as a wooden case, to be
strongly bolted together to contain the water and steam, with metal fireplace
and flues within side of it to contain the fuel and apply the heat to the water.
O, metal chimney rising from the metal flue of the boiler N, which chimney
may be made with a joint, so that it may be lowered when necessary.
My second method and improvement aforesaid is further explained and
exhibited by Drawing No. 2, in which Figure 1 is a longitudinal section and
elevation, Figure 2 a transverse section and elevations, and Figure 3 a plan,
shewing the principal parts of the ship or vessel, and of the apparatus attached
to it for driving it forwards upon the water. N.B. The same letters of
reference are put to the corresponding parts in the different Figures of this
Drawing No. 2. A, A, represents the ship or vessel to be moved. B, B, two
trunks fixed under the bottom of the vessel A, A. C. C, self-acting valves, of

page_text: which there must be one or more to each trunk B, B, to admit the water and
prevent its return by that way. The water, by the action of the piston of the
double forcing pump hereafter described, being drawn in or admitted thro
the valves C, C, and along a portion of the trunk B, B, in a direction
parallel, or nearly so, but contrary to the direction of the intended motion of
the vessel, tends to impel the vessel forwards in a contrary direction to the
motion given to water, thus combining the effect of this impulse towards
forcing the vessel forwards with that produced by forcing the water out of
the trunks B, B, as hereafter described. There may be one, two, or more
trunks with valves as before described, with one, two, or more forcing pumps;
the trunks may be placed either on tho sides or within side of the vessel to be
moved. I have here shewn two trunks, with a double forcing pump for draw-
ing in and forcing out the water by cach trunk alternately, which I consider
sufficient to keep up a constant and nearly equable impulse towards moving
the vessel forwards.
The following apparatus of this Drawing Number 2 I do not consider as my
Invention, although it may be proper to describe it on account of the combination
of my aforesaid second method or improvement therewith. There may be various
other common ways of constructing the forcing pump and various other common
powers or methods applied for working it. I have here shewn a steam engine
which I consider as generally the best power for this purpose. D, D, self-acting
valves, of which there must be one or more to each trunk B, B, opening in the
same direction as the valves C. C, to discharge the water and prevent its return by
that way.
Near the valves C, C, and D, D, are shown other similar valves
to act in a contrary direction to them; when necessary these valves are to be
propt up by a lever fixed upon a spindle, as here shewn, which, on being moved
half a turn round by a wrench or key, will let down these valves and prop up
the valves C, C, and D, D. The object of this provision is that the action
of the water, and consequently the motion of the vessel, may be reversed when
necessary without putting the vessel about for that purpose. E, E, a double
forcing pump; F, the piston of the forcing pump, which piston, for the sake
of lightness, may be made of copper, and hollow, as shewn here. G, G, rods
to connect the piston of tho forcing pump E, E, with a cross bar fixed on
the top of the piston rod of the steam engine: these rods must work
thro' air-tight stuffing boxes, as shewn in the top of the forcing pump.
H, an opening to which is adopted a lid or cover, to be taken off for the
purpose of getting out and in the forcing piston F, when it is necessary to
renew its packing. The steam engine shewn in this Drawing No. 2 is like
that shewn in Drawing No. 1, but it somewhat more detailed by a section