CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PROPELLING VESSELS AND GIVING MOTION TO MILLS AND OTHER MACHINERY
Year: 1829

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
POOL, of the Parish of Saint Michael on the Mount, in the City of Lincoln,
Smith, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine, being the tenth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Pool, His especial licence, that I, the said William Pool, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, or such others as I, the said William Pool, my
executors, administrators, or 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, and also in all His
said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PROPELLING VESSELS AND GIVING MOTION TO
MILLS AND OTHER MACHINERY;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said William Pool, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to

page_text: cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's, High Court of Chancery,
within two calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being there-
unto had, will more fully and at large appear:
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said !
William Pool, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the mode of constructing, using, and applying the same, is herein-after fully
described, set forth, and explained, reference being had to the Drawing which
is hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
My Invention consists of certain contrivances and arrangements of ma-
chinery, whereby I cause the float-boards, vanes, or paddles that are to be
applied near the periphery or. circumference of the propelling or other water
wheel, to move on pivots or arbors. in such manner that they shall not
revolve or turn quite round, and that they shall at all times be in good and
effective positions within the water for exerting the power required from them.
This motion I provide for by fixing each float-board, board vane, or paddle to
an arbor or axis, which passes through and works at either of its ends in the
two rims or side checks of the paddle wheel, as will be distinctly seen in the
annexed Drawing, in which A, A, A, is one of the side rims of the said paddle
wheel, supported by the arms B, B, B, and C, C, C, is the other side; rim
supported by the arms D, D, D, all of which are connected with the: central
bosses or plates E, E, which are hung upon and attached to the main; central
axis G, G. These rims and arms are shewn in the Drawings.as being formed
of iron; but they may be made of wood'or, any-sufficiently strong material, and
may likewise be cross-braced from one to, the other-to give greater strength to
the wheel formed by them if necessary. The-float-boards, vanes, or paddles,,are
shewn in their different positions at F, F; F, F; F, F, and these positions.arė pro-
duced and retained by the crank arms or levers I, I, I, I, I, I, and regulated by the
length of those levers and the positions of their bosses or rollers-H, H, H, H; H, H
which pass into and work, freely within the space K, K, K, .formed' or left
between the two parallel guiding rings J, J, J, and.L, L, L, the longest of which
J, J, J, should be about equal in diameter to the rims which, form the paddlē
wheel, and these. parallel rings are fixed and held together in their proper
positions by four or more arches or bridge-pieces, as at M, M, M, M; having
sufficient openings in them to permit the flanches or heads of the bosses: H, H;.tc
pass without touching them. These rings J, J; J, and LLcall the guiding
rings, and they are fixed to the sides of the vessel to be propelled, or to some part
of the framing that supports the paddle wheel, not only by means of the arch

page_text: or bridge-pieces M, M, &c., but likewise by such arms or bracings from the
inner ring L, L, L, as will render the whole perfectly firm and stable. The two
guiding rings are thus fixed concentrically, or parallel to each other, but in an
excentric manner in respect to the paddle wheel, or in such way that their
common centre may not coincide with the position of the main central axis
G, G, of the wheel, but their centre may be in the same horizontal line with
that axis, in order that their upper and lower parts may correspond in height
with the top and bottom of the rings of the float or paddle wheel. Their
excentricity is therefore only lateral, and its quantity may in general be equal
to about one half of the length of the crank arms or levers I, I, I, I, I, I, but
should in no wise be equal to their entire length, because as these crank arms
are fixed to the float-boards, vanes, or paddles in such manner that they may
be nearly at right angles to their faces or flat surfaces, those float-boards,
vanes, or paddles would stand vertically on each side of the horizontal
diameter of the wheel if the excentricity of the guiding rims was equal to the
length of the crank arms, and this erect position of the paddles at these places
is one of the objects I wish to avoid, and the avoiding it constitutes one of the
principal features of my Invention, and distinguishes it from the other
moveable paddle wheels which have been before used; because if a paddle
enters the water or retires from it in a vertical position when the wheel is
deeply immersed, or the water reaches near to its axis, such paddles will move
so directly at right angles to the direction of the water in a mill, or to the way
of..any vessel they may be propelling, and have such a different progressive
velocity compared with the most efficient paddle, or that which is vertical at
the bottom of the wheel, that they never fail to produce a detrimental action,
and to abstract very materially from the power of the lower paddles, and con-
sequently from the velocity they would otherwise impart to the machinery,
notwithstanding the apparent ease with which paddles so constructed enter
into and come out of the water. In my Invention, on the contrary, any two
floats or paddles which may be opposite to each other will form angles of
about forty-five degrees with the horizon, when they are in the position of the
horizontal diameter of the wheel, and those angles will be in opposite direc-
tions to each other, or in other words, the upper edges of both the said paddles
will incline inwards in a direction pointing nearly to the top of the wheel, and
the descending paddle will not become erect till it has proceeded about forty-
five degrees below the horizontal diameter, and will continue in very nearly
that position, or with little variation, throughout the whole lower quadrant, or
ninety degrees of the wheel, where it has its greatest effect, and during which

page_text: time its progressive motion is nearly equable, after which, as that progressive
motion diminishes and the paddle descends, it again assumes an angular
position in the direction of the flow of the water, and thus materially
diminishes the resistance to the motion of the vessel that would otherwise take
place, because the ascending paddle not only opens out in the direction in
which the water has to pass, but by assuming an angular position in the right
direction permits it to pass much more readily than it otherwise could do.
This favorable position of the floats or paddles, it will be seen from the forego-
ing description, depends entirely upon the length of the crank arms or levers
I, H, being greater than the excentricity of the parallel guiding rings J, L;
and I therefore ground my right to my Invention upon this particular point of
construction, because I believe it to be new and different, as well as superior
in effect to any arrangement that has preceded it, for causing paddles to
move. And as it is the principle of thus moving the paddles, in the manner
herein-before described, which I claim as my Invention, so I likewise declare
that I do not confine myself to the proportionate size or length of the said
crank arms, and the quantity of excentricity of the guiding rings that is shewn
in the annexed Drawing, because these may be required to be varied in
respect to each other as the paddle wheel has to move more or less deeply in
the water; neither have I shewn in that Drawing how the said parallel
guiding rings are fixed to the side of a vessel, because when the use and
operation of these rings is understood, the mode of fixing them will. be. obvious
to any mechanic, all that is necessary being that they should be fixed strongly
and steadily, and in such manner as to offer no impediment to the motions of
the bosses H, H, H, in the space or groove K, K, in which it is intended they
shall move.
.
After what has been said of my aforesaid improvements in machinery,
as applied to the propelling of vessels, no difficulty can arise in applying
the same to the water wheels of water mills, all that is necessary being to so
arrange and fix the paddles or floats with their arms or levers in such manner
that they shall enter and pass out of the water in an oblique direction, and come
to a vertical position after they have entered it, so that the wheel shown in
the Drawing would be properly constructed for an undershot mill, working in
water at a depth of about from one third to a fourth of its diameter.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Pool, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine.
W (L.s.) POOL.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Eighteenth day of July,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid William Pool came before
our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.