IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHIPS OR VESSELS, AND IN PROPELLING SHIPS AND VESSELS
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CONRAD
HAVERKAM GREENHOW, of North Shields, Gentleman, send greeting.
any
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourth day of May,
One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, in the tenth year of Her reign;
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Conrad Haverkam Greenhow, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Conrad
Haverkam Greenhow, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Conrad Haverkam Greenhow, my exors, admňors, and assigns, should at
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 England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHIPS OR
VESSELS, AND IN PROPELLING SHIPS AND VESSELS;" in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso, that I, the said Conrad Haverkam Greenhow, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seul, to be inrolled 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Conrad Haverkam Greenhow, 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:-
In draughting a vessel, great advantage will arise from making the necessary
displacement as near to the surface of the water as practicable, on account of
the increase of resistance to her movements in the deeper water; but in thus
diminishing the draught of water of the vessel, it will be necessary to keep
in view two requisites: first, to maintain a sufficient stability under canvas;
and, secondly, to enable the vessel to make her way good when sailing close
hauled to the wind. It will also be necessary to have her shape such that
in progressing through the water the resistance offered by the displaced fluid
may be reduced to the smallest possible amount, whilst at the same time every
facility is afforded for the easy performance of the different evolutions it may
be necessary for her to make in her transit over its surface.
The system of formation I propose will be found to combine the whole of
those requisites, namely, buoyancy, stability, resistance to lateral drift, and
quickness of movement. The water displaced by a vessel in sailing causes a
corresponding quantity to rise above the surface; and the power required to
raise this wave increases in relation to the depth of water the vessel draws;
and the greater the proportion of the vessel before the broadest section, the
greater will be the quantity of water forced to the surface before that section;
and the immersed area of this broadest section being the true measure of the
resistance to the vessel's progress, it follows that the greater the quantity of
water raised to the surface before this section, the more will the resistance to
the vessel's sailing be increased. It will become evident that the farther
forward this section is placed, the less will be the resistance met with by the
vessel in sailing.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.-PLATE 1.
In order to gain the object in view, I pursue the following method of
T first determine the length of kool sav from 8 to B (200

page_text: plan, to be not more than two-thirds of the greatest breadth then from the fore
end of the keel B. At the wood ends at the stern, describe a segment of
circle having a radius F; B being the diameter of the square, one of whose
sides is equal to the depth, let the extreme breadth at top continue forward
from 1 to A, see half-breadth plan, so that the semicircle formed at this
breadth by the bows may meet the segment of the circle described by the
stern at E; then from the broadest section I let the narrowing towards the
stern be in such a ratio as to make the top breadth at the stern post 8 equal
to one side of the square, of which the greatest breadth is the diameter. By
this means a true mathematical rotation is maintained between all the sections
(see body plan, 1 to 8); then take the depth 3 to × as a radius, and from the
centre of top breadth at broadest section, describe the segment of a circle; to
form the bottom, take the same radius, and from the extremity of the breadthi
on each side at same section, intersect the segment of the circle described from
the centre, there let the floor terminate. From this point, with the same radius,
draw the segment of a circle to meet the extremity of the top breadth, and the
outline of the section is complete; the same process will give the section at
any part, see body plan, to the section marked 4, from which section, being
twice the distance from aft that the extreme breadth is from forward, commence
the narrowing of the after end to the stern post to allow a free passage of the
water to the rudder, the buttock line No. 2 in body plan falling perpendicular
from the extreme breadth of the section 8 at the stern post, marking the point
at which the curve of the after rim is to commence, (see Figure, sheer plan.)
A vessel draughted in this manner will, by the great displacement in her
bottom, float much nearer the surface than any of like capacity which are now
built, and also on account of her narrowing towards the after end commencing
so far forward as section 1, she will steer with ease and facility; at the same
time, all her sections being segments of the same circle, her motions on the
water, when exposed to a heavy sea, will be easy and without strain, on
account of the solids of immersion and emersion being equal under varying
circumstances. On account of the diminished draught of water and round
bottom, the keel in the centre of the bottom will prove insufficient. to resist
lateral drift when sailing with a side wind, because as the vessel lies over to
one side with the force of the wind, the lee bilge will become deeper in the
water than the keel. I propose to obviate this by placing a keel on each bilge,
to commence at the broadest section 1, at the point where the segments of the
circles unite, and extending aft to the section where the run or narrowing to
the stern post commences at 4, the depth of the keel being such as to bring it
down square with the centre of the bottom (see K, in sheer plan). A keel so

page_text: placed will afford resistance to any tendency to drift to leeward. I do not lay
down any arbitrary scale of dimensions, only that the depth ought not to be
less than seven-twelfths of the top breadth at the broadest section. Should it
be less than this, the figure of the broadest section will approach too near
to that of a semicircle; but if a more shallow vessel be wanted, the figure
should be formed with a radius of seven-twelfths the breadth, and then so much
cut off the top as will leave the necessary height.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.-PLATE 2.
I will now proceed to describe the kind of propellor I propose to use, and.
the position it is to occupy in the vessel. The propellor is a wheel, with eight
blades, arranged in such a way as to strike the water at an angle of forty-five
degrees to the line of the vessel's course, gradually curving towards the axis of
the wheel so as to unite with it at right angles with the length of the vessel
(see Drawing No. 2, Figures P). The position in which I propose to place
it is immediately abaft the after termination of the bilge keel, in the bottom of
the vessel at 4, completely submerged, greater part being enclosed within the
vessel, as shewn in the Drawing, the opening being built sufficiently strong and
perfectly tight, same as the rest of the vessel. As the wheel revolves, the
water carried into this opening, will, by the curvature of the blade, be thrown
to its axis, and forced out of the opening with violence, thus getting quit of the
reaction from the water in the cylinder, and assisting in the propulsion of the
vessel by the water thus expelled.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I do not confine myself to the precise details shown and
described, so long as the peculiar character of either part of my Invention be
retained; but what I claim is,-
First, the constructing of ships and vessels of forms produced according to
the mode herein described in respect to Plate 1 of the Drawings.
And, secondly, I claim the mode of propelling vessels described in respect
to Plate 2 of the Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Conrad Haverkam Greenhow, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this 28th day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.
C. H. (Ls.) GREENHOW.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-eighth day of October,
in the year of our Lord 1847, the aforesaid Conrad Haverkam Greenhow came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and everything therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according-to-the tenor-of-the-Statute-made-for-that-purpose.
Enrolled the Fourth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-seven..