A NEW METHOD OF OBTAINING POWER FOR PROPELLING VESSELS, AND CERTAIN NEW PROPELLING MACHINERY
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Hitt, of Tavistock Street, in the City of
Westminster, Gentleman, for the Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF
OBTAINING POWER FOR PROPELLING VESSELS, AND CERTAIN NEW PROPELLING
MACHINERY
Sealed the 6th May 1856, and dated the 12th November 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Hitt at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th
November 1855.
I, THOMAS HITT, of Tavistock Street, in the City of Westminster, Gentle-
man, do hereby declare 'the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW METHOD
OF OBTAINING POWER FOR PROPELLING VESSELS, AND CERTAIN NEW PROPELLING
MACHINERY," to be as follows:-
My Invention in obtaining power consists in the employment of two or more
sets of vanes or blades mounted on an axis, and descending into tanks con-
taining water at the fore and aft parts of a vessel. The tanks are closed, and
the vanes or blades are prolonged on the upper side of the axis out of the
tauks, and terminate in a toothed quadrant or sector, which takes into a rack
upon a shaft. extending from one quadrant or set of quadrants at the bow to
another. quadrant or set of quadrants at the stern. By the pitching of the
vessel an oscillating motion is communicated to the vanes, consequently to the

page_text: quadrants, and in their turn they cause the shaft to move to and fro. Now,
the machinery I use in connection with this mode of obtaining motive power
consists in a quadrant which gears into a rack upon the shaft, before mentioned.
The foot of this quadrant is keyed or fixed to an arm on a cross head, free to
Oscillate in suitable bearings. To this cross head, and on each side thereof, is
fixed a metal plate, in the form of a segment of a circle. On the bottom of
each of these plates are fixed several pauls, but their position on each plate is
reversed. These pauls fall into and cause to rotate a ratchet wheel placed
horizontally. The periphery of the ratchet wheel is toothed, and gears into
other toothed wheels, the last wheel in the train being made to gear into and
drive the shaft of a screw propeller. The two paul plates being caused to
oscillate, communicate a continuous rotary motion to the screw propeller shaft.
Either the mode of obtaining the power or the propelling machinery may be
used separately.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Hitt in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 12th
May 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
HITT, of Tavistock Strect, in the City of Westminster, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Hitt, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas Hitt, my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Hitt,
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 "A NEW METHOD OF OBTAINING
POWER FOR PROPELLING VESSELS, AND CERTAIN NEW PROPELLING MACHINERY," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Hitt, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their bands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of

page_text: 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 Thomas Hitt, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is to say-
My Invention in obtaining power consists in the employment of two or
more sets of vanes or blades mounted on an axis, and descending into tanks
containing water at the fore and aft parts of a vessel. The tanks are closed,
and the vanes or blades or the levers which carry them are prolonged out of
the tanks on the upper side of the axis, and terminate in a toothed quadrant
or sector, which takes into a rack upon a shaft, this rack extending from one
quadrant or set of quadrants at the bow to another quadrant or set of
quadrants at the stern. By the pitching of the vessel an oscillating motion is
communicated to the vanes, and from them to the quadrants, which in their
turn cause the rack to move to and fro, and thus give motion to the shaft on
which the rack is carried.
The machinery I use in connection with this mode of obtaining motive
power consists of a quadrant which gears into the rack, before mentioned,
and the foot of which is keyed or fixed to an arm on a cross head, which is
free to oscillate in suitable bearings. To the cross head, and on each side
thereof, is fixed a metal plate, in the form of the segment of a circle. Around
the bottom of each of these plates are fixed several pauls, their position on each
plate being reversed. These pauls fall into and cause to rotate a ratchet
wheel placed horizontally; the periphery of the ratchet wheel is toothed, and
gears into other toothed wheels, the last wheel in the train being made to
gear into and drive the shaft of a screw propeller. The two paul plates being
caused to oscillate, communicate a continuous rotary motion to the screw
propeller shaft.
Instead of employing racks and toothed quadrants, as herein-before
described, I sometimes prefer to substitute for the racks a longitudinal rod,
and to connect the vanes or blades to levers, the other ends of which are con-
nected to the longitudinal rod by means of suitable links, the arm on the cross
bead being connected to the longitudinal rod in the same mauner.
The mode of obtaining power may be used with other propelling machinery
or for any other purpose on board ships. The machinery before described, in
connection with a screw propeller, may be used in connection with any other

page_text: description of motive power or propelling agent, and for any purpose to which
motive power is applicable.
Figure 1 of the Drawings hereunto annexed represents a longitudinal
section of the fore and aft portions of a vessel to which both parts of my
Invention are applied. In this case I have adopted the longitudinal rod and
connecting links instead of the racks and quadrants. A, A, are the vanes or
blades, which are carried by levers B, B, mounted on axes C, C. The upper
ends of the levers B, B, are connected by the links D, D, to the longitudinal
rod E, which extends from the forė part to the after part of the vessel when
two or more sets of vanes or blades are employed, and is supported by suitable
intermediate bearings. F, F, are tapered spaces, cut, away. for the purpose of
allowing the levers B, B, to oscillate freely. It will now be seen that by the
pitching of the vessel.an oscillating motion will be communicated to the vanes
or blades A, A, and from them to the levers B, B, which in their turn cause
the rod E to move to and fro. G is a lever, which is, connected by another
link D' to the rod E, and receives a rocking motion from it. It is this lever
G which gives motion to the propelling apparatus, shewn in part in Figure 1.
This apparatus is shewn on a larger scale in Figures 2 and 3 of the Drawings
annexed; Figure 2 being a longitudinal elevation, and Figure 3 a transverse
view of the same. In these Figures, however, motion is imparted originally,
not from the lever G, as it would be where both parts of my Invention are
used together, as in Figure 1, but from a steam engine H. I, I, are the metal
plates to which the pauls J, J, are attached, the pauls on one plate inclining
forward and those on the other inclining aft. K is the ratchet wheel, into
which the pauls J, J, fall, and which is rotated by them.
This 'wheel K has
teeth L, L, formed upon its periphery, and these teeth gear into those of the
wheel M, which drive the axle N which carries the wheels O and O'. The
teeth of one of these wheels O, O', take into those of the wheel P on the
propeller shaft Q when the vessel is to be propelled forward, and those of the
other when the vessel is to be propelled backward. Thus, when the paul
plates I, I, are caused to oscillate, a continuous rotary motion is imparted to
the shaft Q by means of the pauls J, J, and the wheels K, M, and O or O'.
. I do not confine myself either to the number of the plates which carry the
pauls, or to the number of sets of pauls, or to the number of gearing wheels,
before described, since either of these may be varied without departing from
the principle of my Invention; nor do I restrict the application of my im-
proved machinery to the propulsion of ships or other vessels only, but propose
to employ it wherever it is necessary to convert reciprocating motion into
rotary motion either on land or sea; and I declare that I claim,-

page_text: First, the obtaining of motive power on board ships or vessels by means of
the action produced during the pitching of the ship or vessel upon vanes or
blades immersed in water contained in suitable tanks, as herein-before
described.
Second, the method of converting reciprocating motion into rotary motion
by means of plates of the form of a segment of a circle, which oscillate about
a centre, and carry at or near their circumferences pauls which take into
suitable teeth upon a circular plate, to which rotary motion is thereby com-
municated, and from which it is transmitted in any suitable manner, as herein-
before described.
Third, the arrangement and construction of apparatus herein-before described,
and represented in the Drawings hereunto annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Hitt, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of May, One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-six.
THOMAS HITT. (LS.)