IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING, AND IN PROPELLING MACHINERY
Year: 1846

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
MAUDSLAY, of the Firm of Maudslay and Field, of Lambeth, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent most Excellent Majesty Queen
Victoria, under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Thirteenth day of January, in the ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself,
Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Maudslay,
my exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Joseph Maudslay, my exors, admors, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Joseph Maudslay, my exors, admors, and 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 England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING, AND IN
PROPELLING MACHINERY;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
that I, the said Joseph Maudslay, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joseph Maudslay, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described in and by
the present Specification thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say:-
My Invention consists, firstly, in an improved apparatus for raising and
lowering screw or other propellers when attached to the stern of a vessel
abaft the stern post. The details of this method are represented in Figures
1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of the annexed Drawings. Figure 1 is an outside
view of the stern quarters of a vessel, with a screw propeller adapted thereto,
and Figure 2 a plan taken on the line x, x, of Figure 1. A, A, is a guide bar
which is attached to the counter of the vessel in a position perpendicular to
the axis of the propeller shaft I, K, and is firmly fixed at its lower end to a
tube B, C, through which the propeller shaft passes. D is a sliding piece
with two projecting eyes E, E, that moves up and down on the bar A, and is
retained thereon by raised flanges d. F, F, is a rectangular frame which
is suspended by a chain L passed down from the stern of the vessel, and hinged
to the sliding picce D-by means of two eyes F¹, F', which project from it into
the spaces between the eyes E, E, of the hinge piece, where they are secured
by a bolt B2 passed through both sets of eyes. The propeller P is mounted
within this frame on a hollow axis G, which turns in plummer blocks g¹, g³,
attached to the two under ends of the frame. The hollow in the axis G is of
a square form, and the propeller shaft is tapered off square at the end I to
correspond therewith. The inner plummer block g of the hoisting frame is
provided with recurved flanges h, h, which fit on to a projection on the end of
the tube B, C. The different parts of the hoisting frame are shown detached
from one another in Figure 3, and the propeller is also shewn in different
positions in Figures 4, 5, and 6. The operation of raising the propeller is
performed as follows:-The inner end of the chain L being made fast to the
capstan or windlass on the deck of the vessel, the outer end of the propeller
shaft is withdrawn in board a distance sufficient to clear the hollow axis or
eye of the propeller. Purchase is then applied to the hoisting chain L, and
the rectangular frame F, with the propeller attached to it, is thereby raised
out of the water, being kept during its ascent in a state of exact parallelism
with the bar A by the sliding connecting piece D. A reverse operation to the
preceding serves to lower the propeller when it is again required to be brought
into action. One advantage attending the preceding arrangements is, that they
admit of tlie shaft being placed low down in the vessel, and consequently of a
screw of a large diameter being employed; another is, that the water in pass-
ing from the screw meets with no obstruction from any part of the vessel or
. rudder, and so abstracts nothing from the effective forec of the engines, and

page_text: 3
hat the screw is also prevented from communicating any tremulous motion to
he vessel. The upper part of the guide bar A may be made to unship from
the under part that is attached to the tube B, C, as shewn in Figure 1*, so
that no part of it may be seen above the water line.
.
My Invention consists, secondly, in an improved conical coupling box and
brake for disconnecting the propeller from the engine shaft. when it is desired
to put the vessel under sail alone, without taking the propeller out of the
water, or when the vessel is lying in a tide-way, thereby allowing it to revolve
by the action of the water passing, and also for connecting it again when the.
power of the engines is to be used in propelling. The construction of this
coupling box and brake is represented in Figures 7 and 8 of the Drawings
annexed. A represents the inner end of the propeller shaft, and B the outer
end of the engine shaft. C is a cone, which is firmly keyed on to the propeller
shaft, and enclosed in a conical cap D turned to fit it exactly. E is a circular
piece, which is similarly keyed on to the after end of the shaft B, and 'has three
snugs on its periphery, through which turn screwed bolts T, T, T, the ends of
which take into nuts t, t, t, let into the sides of the cap D.. On the outer ends
of the bolts T, T, T, are firmly fixed the three winch pieces S, S; S, each having
three arms, one of which always projects outward from the coupling. Instead
of employing screwed bolts the clutch box may be worked by a lever in the
usual way. The mode of action is as follows:-When the screwed ends of
the bolts T, T, T, are withdrawn from their nuts, so far as to allow the cap D
to revolve loosely upon the cone C, the engine shaft revolves without trans-
mitting its motion to the propeller shaft, and when it is required to bring the
propeller shaft into work, all that is necessary is to screw up the bolts T, T, T,.
tightly by means of the winch pieces S, S, S.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is,―
First, the apparatus for raising and lowering screw or other propellers when
attached to the stern of a vessel abaft the stern post, as before described.
.
And, second, the coupling box and brake for connecting and disconnecting
the propeller shaft with and from the engine shaft before described, and for
stopping the propeller when it is turned round by the action of the vessel
through the water, or when the vessel is in a tide-way.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Maudslay, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eleventh day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand. eight hundred and forty-six..
JOSEPH. (L.S.) MAUDSLAY.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eleventh day of July, in the
year of our Lord 1846, the aforesaid Joseph Maudslay came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification ȧfore-
said, and all and every thing 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 Eleventh d