CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MECHANISM APPLICABLE TO A METHOD OF PROPELLING VESSELS ON THE WATER
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ELIAS
ROBISON HANDCOCK, late of Her Majesty's Ninth Regiment of Infantry, and
of Rathmoyle House, in the Queen's County, Ireland, and of 16, Regent Street,
in the City of Westminster, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by
Her Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twelfth day of September, One thousand eight
hundred and forty-four, in the eighth year of Her reign, did, for Her-
self, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Elias
Robison Handcock, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Elias Robison Handcock, my exors, adñiors,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Elias Robison Handcock, my
exors, adors, 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 that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, and the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Sark, and Man, and also in
all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention for
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MECHANISM APPLICABLE TO A METHOD OF PROPELLING
VESSELS ON THE WATER;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
that I, the said Elias Robison Handcock, shall cause a particular descrip-
tion, under my hand and seal, of the nature of my said Invention, and in what

page_text: manner the same is to be performed, to be enrolled in Her said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Elias
Robison Handcock, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say:-
My Invention, which I call the cycloidal paddle wheel, differs from common
paddle wheels now generally used, by having the floats or blades placed at such
an angle and in such manner as to enable them to enter the water with the
least possible injurious effect, not presenting a flat surface immediately on
striking the water, thereby creating a concussion, but as it were insinuating
itself gradually into the water and leaving it in the like manner, while at the
same time it has equal unyielding strength and all the simplicity of the common
paddle wheel, there being no additional eccentric action required to cause the
action of the paddle blades to be such as I have represented. It differs also
from the screw, first, inasmuch as the blades are perfectly flat, without any
curve, as in Figure Nos. 2, 4, and 6; and secondly, inasmuch as the axis of the
propelling blade stands in a direction athwartships in my propelling mechanism,
whereas, in the screw, it stands in a direction fore and aft. It has many advan-
tages over the ordinary wheel; first, it may be placed so far aft as to be under
the quarter, as in the Drawings Nos. 1 and 2, at each side of the vessel, in
what is called the run, the quarter deck projecting over it, and being so placed,
which has been found to answer well, the vessel is not, as in the case of the screw,
necessarily cut away in the dead wood; and secondly, it has the further advan-
tage, from its diminished size, of enabling the cumberous and unsightly paddle
boxes amidships to be dispensed with, of relieving the machinery from much of
the weight of the old wheel, and preventing the great destruction to the
machinery occasioned by the old form of paddle wheel, when one wheel
is deeply immersed in a heavy sea by the rolling of the vessel, requiring all the
power of the machinery to give it even useless action, while the other is totally
out of the water, having no resistance but the air to act upon it, and therefore
giving no propelling power. The propelling power of my improved mechanism
may of course be increased by the breadth given to the floats or blades, but the
wheel may be reduced, both in breadth and diameter, to much less than
the ordinary paddle wheel, retaining equal power, and the number of floats

page_text: decreased to one half that of the ordinary wheel when made on my plan, its
power being so much more effective.
I will now describe the different parts of the wheel, which it is evident may
be either used as a propeller for canals, rivers, or sea-going vessels.
Figure 1 represents a side view of a vessel, in which is seen the position of
my improved paddle wheel when it is used under the quarters in the run. This
Drawing also shews, by the dotted circle L, the comparitive diameter of a
wheel on the old plan; and by the dotted circle M, the comparitive diameter
of a wheel on my improved plan.
Figure 2 represents the transverse section of the after part of a vessel, with
the cycloidal paddle wheels applied.
Figure 3 represents a separate side view of my improved paddle wheel.
Figure 4 represents a perspective view of the framing of the wheel, without
the floats or blades; N, N, being the corresponding arms, one at each side, to
which one float or blade should be fastened, the arms or spokes being set at an
angle of 22 degrees.
Figure 5 represents a view of the paddle wheel complete.
Figure 6 represents the side of a wheel, the arms spokes placed at an angle
of 45 degrees.
I
Figure 7 represents a section of Figure 1 at A, B.
Figure 8 represents a plan of Figure 3.
Figure 9 represents a method by which the common paddle wheel may be
altered, so as to give the floats the same pitch, by attaching other pieces of metal
or wood to the radiating arm, as at F, F, or affixing a filling piece of wood, as
at G, G, so as to receive the ends of the floats at the proper angle.
Figure 10 represents another modification of the arms or spokes of my
paddle wheel, retaining the pitch of the paddle boards or floats, but deviating
slightly from a perfect flat surface.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I wish it to be understood that I do not confine my Invention
to any particular angle for the floats or blades to be placed at, or to any parti-
cular number of such floats or blades, though I prefer an angle of 45 degrees;
and the same observation applies to the angle at which the arms of the wheel
frame to which the blades are attached stands with reference to any line drawn
from the centre to the outer circumference of the wheel; nor do I contine
myself to the size of the blades, nor the particular depth of emersion here
shewn, all which should depend on the amount of resistance required to be
produced. But I hereby claim as my Invention:-
First, the formation of the wheel frame to which the paddle boards or blades

page_text: are attached as herein-before described, in which the arms to which they are
attached do not radiate from the centre, but form tangents to a circle drawn
round the centre, as shewn by Letter D, at Figure 6, such circle varying as the
angle required it more or less.
Secondly, the position of the paddle boards or blades here shewn on the said
wheel frame.
Thirdly, the application of my said paddle wheel to the after part of the
vessel under the quarter, at each side of the run of the vessel.
And lastly, the method of altering the formation of the common paddle
wheel, as seen in Figure 9, by which means the radiating arms of the common
wheel may be so altered as to take the floats of what I call my cycloidal wheel,
by affixing pieces of metal or wood to the radiating arms of the ordinary wheel
so as to form the required angle to receive the floats or blades. Also the
method, as shewn in Figure 10, of altering the floats or blades from a perfectly
flat surface, and affixing them to the arms or spokes what constitute the framing
of the wheels, should such be found desirable.
In witness whereof, I, the said Elias Robison Handcock, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of March, One thousand eight
hundred and forty-five