IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR STEERING MANEUVRING SHIPS AND VESSELS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Dunbar, junior, and John Wymen Woodford,
both of 12, Sutherland Street, Walworth, in the County of Surrey, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR STEERING
MANEUVRING SHIPS AND VESSELS."
Scaled the 2nd October 1863, and dated tho 25th April 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by tho said James Dunbar and John
Wymen Woodford at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 25th April 1863.
We, JAMES DUNBAR, junior, and JOHN WYMEN WOODFORD, both of 12,
Sutherland Street, Walworth, in the County of Surrey, do hereby declare the
nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR STEERING OR
MANEUVRING SHIPS AND VESSELS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for steering
or manoeuvring ships and vessels. For these purposes an upright shaft or
axis is applied at or about the centre or midships of a ship or vessel, the lower
end of which passes through the bottom, and has affixed to it radial blades or
vanes, which come just below the bottom of the ship or vessel, or within a
recess formed in the bottom. The upright shaft or axis passes within a tubular
passage fixed within the ship, which rises to a height sufficiently above the
water line, or a suitable stuffing box or other provision is to be made, in order
that no water may get into the ship or vessel; and when desired the shaft or
axis may be raised, in order that tho vanes or blades may be replaced. The shaft

page_text: or axis is acted on by steam or other power to give rotatory motion thereto, in
order that the axis or shaft and the blades or vanes fixed thereto may be
caused to rotate toward the right hand or to the left, according to the direction
in which it is desired that the vessels should be steered.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Dunbar and John Wymen Woodford in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 24th October 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
DUNBAR, junior, and JOIN WYMEN WOODFORD, both of 12, Sutherland Street,
Walworth, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, IIer heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said James Dunbar and John Wymen Woodford, Her special licence that
we, the said James Dunbar and John Wymen Woodford, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said James Dunbar and
John Wymen Woodford, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR STEERING AND MANEUVRING SHIPS AND VESSELS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said James Dunbar and
John Wymen Woodford, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of
one of us or them, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said James Dunbar and John Wymen
Woodford, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for steering
and manoeuvring ships and vessel. For these purposes an upright shaft or

page_text: axis is applied at or about the centre or midships of a ship or vessel, the lower
end of which passes through the bottom, and has affixed to it radial blades or
vanes, which come just below the bottom of the ship or vessel, or within a
recess formed in the bottom. The upright shaft or axis passes within a tubular
passage fixed within the ship, which rises to a height sufficiently above the
water line, or a suitable stuffing box or other provision is to be made, in order
that no water may get into the ship or vessel; and when desired the shaft or
axis may be raised, in order that the vanes or blades may be replaced. The
shaft or axis is acted on by steam or other power to give rotatory motion
thereto, in order that the axis or shaft and the blades or vanes fixed thereto
may be caused to rotate towards the right hand or to the left, according to the
direction in which it is desired that the vessels should be steered.
Having thus stated the nature of our Invention, we will proceed more fully
to describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews a side elevation of a ship or other vessel, and Figure 2 a
plan thereof, showing the position in which it is preferred the apparatus should
be employed in carrying out our Invention; Figure 3 shows a transverse
section, and Figure 4 part of a longitudinal section of a ship or vessel on a
larger scale than used in tho previous Figures. In each of these Figures tho
samo letters are used to indicate the same parts.
a is a vertical shaft or axis which passes through the bottom of the ship or
vessel, and it has affixed to its lower end two radial blades or vanes, which
when at work come just below the bottom of the ship or vessel. Within the
ship or vessel is formed a hollow tubular passage or chamber b, within which
the lower end of the shaft or axis and the vanes or blades can be raised when
desired. The shaft or axis a passes through the upper part c of the tubular
passage, and through a stuffing box b' formed thereon. This tubular passage c,
or that part which contains the shaft or axis a, may rise to a position above
the load water line when it is desired to apply the power to the shaft or axis
above the water line; or, in place thereof, the shaft or axis may work through
a stufling box, as is shewn in the Drawings. At the upper part of the tubular
passage we employ a slide valve d which is shut when the shaft or axis a and
the vanes or blades are raised into the lower part of the tubular passage or
chamber, by which the blades can be got at, when the cover to the tubular
passage is removed. In the Drawing the valve is shewn to be moved by
means of a screw nut e, on the circumference of which are formed screw teeth,
into which a worm or screw on the shaft of works. The screw nut works on

page_text: a screw formed on the valve spindle, hence by turning the shaft f by the hand
wheel thereon the valve will be moved in or out from the tubular passage.
9, 9, are two halves of a bearing for the lower part of the shaft or axis when
the blades or vanes are external of the bottom of the ship or vessel. These
bearings are arranged to be slid into and out of position by means of their
spindles, which bavo screws formed on their outer ends which receive screw
nuts h, h, which receive motions by screw shafts i, i, in like manner to that
above described in respect to the valve. By the arrangement shewn in the
Drawings the shaft or axis a receives motion from the piston rods of two
steam cylinders which give motion to the gearing shewu; but the arrange-
ment of steam engines used, and the manner in which steam power is
communicated to the shaft or axis a may be greatly varied, provision being
made in all cases for readily reversing the direction of the rotation of the shaft
or axis a.
Having thus described tho nature of our Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, we would have it understood that we make no claim to
any of the mechanical parts separately; but we claim the combined arrange-
ment herein described.
In witness whereof, we, the said James Dunbar and John Wymen
Woodford, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-second
day of October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-three.