Improvements in Ships or Vessels and their Propelling-apparatus.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 13th Oct., 1897-Accepted, 11th Dec.,
1897**
"
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION..
7.
Improvements in Ships or Vessels and their Propelling-apparatus.
I, FRANZ HINRICH STORM of Albertstrasse 3, Hamburg Germany, Captain, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
It is a well known fact that with our present means in shipbuilding, we have
reached almost, if not quite, the limit of efficiency, because the slightest increase
in speed necessitates such a considerably greater increase in working expenses,
that the advantage thereby gained is not in any proportion to its cost.
The reason
for this is that too much power is lost with the present propelling devices, whether
these be wheels or screws. This results in the case of wheels, mainly from the
immersion and withdrawal of the paddles in and from the water, and in the case
of screws, from the lateral displacement of a large portion of the water.
This loss of power is further considerably increased by the fact that in heavy
seas the propellers work at intervals in the air, so that all the power expended is
lost.
Now this invention has for its object to obviate these drawbacks. Figs. 1 and 2
of the accompanying drawings show in side elevation, and Figs. 3 and 4 in under-
side view, a steamship constructed according thereto;
Fig. 5 is a cross section corresponding to the line A B C D of Fig. 1; and Fig. 6
a cross section corresponding to the line E F of Fig. 1.
According to this invention a ship has two wheels which are provided with
fixed or adjustable paddles, are arranged below the water-line, and are fixed on
vertical shafts a situated at the middle of the ship. These wheels b can be rotated
by means of a suitable motor. The arrangement of the wheels is such that they
do not project beyond the width of the ship. With this object the ship's hull,
which has a contracted lower part, is formed with two recesses in each of which
one of the wheels b is situated.
The advantages resulting from this arrangement consist in that in consequence of
the arrangement of the wheels below the water-line, the wheels always work
entirely in water, and therefore no loss of power takes place. This is equivalent
to a saving in coal, or, with the same consumption of coal, to an increase in the
speed of the ship. Further, as a result of the arrangement of the propellers at
the middle of the ship, the vibration which is otherwise produced by the working
of the propeller out of the water, and which is extremely injurious to the hull of
the ship, is obviated, and the manoeuvring capability of the ship is considerably
increased because it turns about its own vertical axis.
It will be readily understood by every one that the contraction of the ship's
hull and the recess, will cause a more constant or steady motion of the ship in
heavy seas because the contraction and the recess act exactly as a keel.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is:
1. A ship having two paddle-wheels 6 fixed on vertical shafts a at the middle

page_text: of the ship and arranged to rotate in recesses in the ship's hull, which has a
contracted lower part.
2. A ship or vessel and propelling apparatus constructed and arranged sub-
stantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and shown in the accom-
panying drawings.
Date : 19th
11007
F. WISE HOWORTH,
46 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C. Agent for the Applicant.