CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING VESSELS
Year: 1821

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
REEDHEAD, of Heworth, in the County of Durham, Engineer and Mariner, and
WILLIAM PARREY, of East Lane, Walworth, in the County of Surry, Master
Mariner, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fifth day of May, in the second year of His reign, give
and grant unto us, the said John Reedhead and William Parrey, our
exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that we, the said John Reedhead and William Parrey, our exors,
admiors, 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, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING
VESSELS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if we,
the said John Reedhead and William Parrey, shall not particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or
under the hand and seal of one of us, and cause the same to be inrolled in
His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters

page_text: Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall
utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same, relation
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
John Reedhead and William Parrey, do hereby declare that the nature of our
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are
particularly described and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereunto
annexed, and the following description thereof (that is to say):-
Our Invention of certain Improvements in Propelling Vessels consists of two
parts-First, in a method of employing several pairs of paddle wheels for the
purpose of propelling ships, boats, barges, packets, and other vesssels upon
water; and, secondly, in a mode of enclosing or shutting up the said paddle
wheels occasionally, under circumstances of stress of weather, by which means
the said ships, boats, packets, &c. become converted into sailing vessels, to
be then propelled by canvas sails of the ordinary construction, acted upon by
the pressure of the wind....
In the Drawing hereto annexed, Fig. 1 represents a side view of a
vessel upon our improved construction; Fig. 2, a plan or horizontal section
of the same; the respective letters referring to the same parts in both
Figures. In constructing the vessel ive provide two or more horizontal
channels or passages for the purpose of enabling the water to pass freely
through the vessel lengthways, as shewn by the letters a, a, a, a. We then
mount two or more pairs of paddle wheels b, b, b, b, which are to be partly
immersed in the water contained in this channel. The vessel is then to be so
much depressed in the water, by means of ballast or other weight, as to cause
the lower paddles to dip about twelve inches (or more, according to the size of
the vessel,) into the stream. This will be evidently seen by the dotted lines in
Fig. 1. The paddle wheels are made to revolve by their axles being connected
by cranks, levers, and rods, or otherwise, to the operating part of a steam
engine, (seen at Fig. 2,) when, by the paddles dipping into the water which
occupies the channel and there meeting with resistance, the vessel is pro-
pelled forward. It will be seen that the channels are open fore and aft for
the purpose of giving free ingress and egress to the water; but in the event
of stormy weather, or a high and tempestuous sea, we close the apertures of
those channels by means of slides, shutters, or sluce gates), and, if necessary,
pump the water out of the channels, by which means the paddle wheels are
closed in, and put out of action. The vessel then becomes the same externally
as an ordinary sailing packet, and by setting canvas may be propelled by the.
power of the wind upon its 'sails, and is as -perfectly safe at sea in stormy:

page_text: weather as any other sailing packet of the ordinary construction. We have
described the said water channels as passing through the hull of the vessel,
but under some circumstances it may be found desirable to form trunks on the
outside of the vessel, open at both ends, for the purpose of working the paddle
wheels therein, as above described. As we employ several pairs of propellers,
we connect all the wheels on one side together by means of rods and cranks
upon their axles (as shewn at Fig. 2), and all the wheels on the other side by
the same means, so as to communicate the motion of the first pair to all the
remainder. We do not, however, confine ourselves to this or any other mode
of connecting the wheels together so as to put them all in action, but employ
gear, or a train of wheels, or any other means, none of which are claimed by
us as new, or forming any part of our Invention.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Third
day of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and twenty-one.
Inrolled the Fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord One thou-
sand eight hundred and twenty-one.