AN IMPROVE- MENT IN PADDLE WHEELS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of the firm of
Robertson, Brooman, and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the
City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVE-
MENT IN PADDLE WHEELS."-A communication.
Sealed the 20th January 1854, and dated the 31st August 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 31st August 1853.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of the firm of Robertson, Brooman,
and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVEMENT IN PADDLE WHEELS" to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to feathering paddle wheels, and its principal
peculiarity consists in maintaining a vertical position of the floats by
means of a ring or rings connected with the floats by a series of cranks
as a substitute for the employment of eccentrics and journals sus-
pended to the main shaft, as in the case of the Morgan's and other
similar wheels.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 28th February 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of the firm of Robertson, Brooman, and
Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agent,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seven-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, Her
special licence that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, my exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, 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 King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN PADDLE WHEELS," (being a
communication,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
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 Richard Archibald Brooman, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, 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:
This Invention relates to feathering paddle wheels, and its principal
peculiarity consists in maintaining at all times a vertical position of the

page_text: floats or buckets by means of a ring or rings connected with the floats
by a series of cranks. This arrangement is intended as a substitute
for the employment of excentrics and journals suspended to the main
shaft, as in the case of the Morgan's and other similar wheels, and is of
a much simpler construction than any heretofore in use.
Figure 1, of the Drawings annexed is a perspective view, and
Figure 2, a sectional elevation of a paddle wheel constructed according
to the said Invention. The wheel is framed generally in the same
manner as those in common use, having a shaft A, and four sets of
rings B, B, connected therewith by appropriate arms. The floats C, C,
are hung on journals which are attached at the centre of the width of
the floats. They are also divided in their length into two parts, having
a crank D, between them; or they may be considered as two sets of
floats united by the crank hanging between them in the plane of the
face of the floats, the whole resting on the rings B, B, by journals on
cach side of the crank, as well as at the outer ends. The surface of
the floats being equal on each side of the point of suspension, they would
naturally assume a vertical position by reason of the weight of the cranks.
This vertical position would be retained either while in the air or while
the floats were entirely submerged in the water; but at the moment
of entering or of leaving the water they would have a slight disposition
to swerve from the perpendicular, inasmuch as at those moments the
resistance would be against one edge only. To obviate this the cranks
are all connected to a ring E, the necessary strength of which affords
sufficient additional weight. The action of the wheel cannot thus be
deranged unless the floats come in contact with some substance other
than water, as ice, timber, &c., in which case it is deemed an advantage
that the whole will be capable of yielding temporarily to the shock.
It will be evident that the feathering operation of this wheel is self-
acting, being due entirely to gravity and a judicious arrangement;
and it is also clear that, although the float is carried around in a circle,
its action upon the water will be in a horizontal direction only.
The wheel may obviously be constructed in various forms under the
same general principle; as, for instance, a single set of floats may be
used, having cranks at each end, and a ring E, on each side.

page_text: And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim
as the said Invention is,―
The preserving of the vertical position of paddle wheel floats by
means of a ring or rings connected to the floats by cranks.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth
day of February, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
R. A. BROOMAN. (L.S.)