A New or Improved Wind Motor and Apparatus for Propelling Vessels.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 12th July, 1887
Specification Accepted, 13th Apr., 1888
A New or Improved Wind Motor and Apparatus for Propelling
Vessels.
A communication from abroad by RICHARD ALEXANDER CHRISTOPH VON SCHLIEBEN,
of Berlin, Inventor.
1, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON F.C.S. M.I.M.E. of the Agency for Foreign
Patent Solicitors, 6 Lord Street, Liverpool in the County of Lancaster 323 High
Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, 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 :-
The following is a translation of the communication as forwarded to me with
orders to file.
This invention has for its object the propelling onwards, or if required backwards,
of all kinds of craft, of which however only a goods carrying vessel (flat) has been
selected as illustration in the following specification and the annexed drawings.
It consists in a wind-wheel or air motor so constructed as to be able to propel the
vessel both with favorable and contrary winds, and according to the strength of the
wind, even in running water.
This motor is placed on the poop or the quarter deck, or any suitable part of the
deck. It consists chiefly of two vertical mutually connected wind-wheels each fixed
on its horizontal shaft but both turning round a vertical shaft according to the wind,
this vertical shaft boing at the same time put in rotation by means of bevel gearing.
Only those vanes of wind-wheel are presented to the wind which act offectively,
while the others enter a casing which may be sunk from the deck level, in order not
to increase uselessly the resisting surface for contrary winds, but to simply include it
in the air resistance of the body of the vessel above the water. The previously
mentioned vertical shaft may be connected, by means of two sliding bevel wheels,
with the bevel wheels of the horizontal shafts of the wind wheels, and is provided at
its lower end, (which revolves in a socket in the keel or hull of the vessel) with a
bevel wheel which grips into another bevel wheel on the end of the propeller shaft,
and turns this shaft.

page_text: A short reference may here be made to the nature of the propelling as well as to
the mode of action and the power produced. Let it be supposed that a vessel about
20 metres long, 5-6 metres broad, drawing three metres of water and having a
height of one metre above the water surface, capable of carrying 60 men, is to be
propelled on a canal or a lake.
The vessel weighs fully equipped (without rigging) complete in iron per horse
power 840 kilo. The vessel is to be propelled by a force of 10 HP., and reprosent
à total weight, (that of the vessel and the cargo) of 8400 kilograms, viz.-
-
60 men (full grown) about
would require 5 HP. (840 × 5
=
4200)
-
4200 kilogr.
0400 Knogr.
With a light wind and a speed of twenty nautical miles per hour a pressure
of 1 klgr. per. square foot of sail or wing surface would be exercised, consequently
per. square metre surface about 11 klgr. (but for 30 nautical miles 2 equal to
25 klgr.) then a wind motor with two wind wheels must have these 76 metres broad
and 45 high to develop a power of 10 HP., because
TO HP.
These dimensions have been arrived at without reference to friction, in other words
to the effective power of the motors, which in reality turns out less than the theoretic,
and in the present case, where the position of the wings is always the most favourable,
and the latter consequently work under full pressure. It is about as follows:
=
If F surface, c =
10 metres per second)
F c² C
2 g 275
•
=
speed of the wind, speed (20 nautical miles per. hour =
about 600 kilograms.
=
=
"
A larger wing surface must therefore be selected. This difference will, as shown
below, he compensated. What further effects the speed of the vessel is evolved from
experiments already made, and tables compiled on the base of the following date.
The surface of the vessel covered by or immersed in the water = about
175 metres with 18 metres water line and 9 metres "developped shipping line
("developpirte Schiffrungslinie ") in the water. The surface of the air resistance is
here only 10 metres. The experiments made with the English sloop "Greyhound
and the resulting calculated ship resistance (its dimensions being fourfold those of
the supposed vessel), with a speed of 4 knots per. hour would give a total resistance
power of 16 HP.
A quarter of this power would consequently suffice to conquer
the resistances to the vessel. In fixing the size of the wing surface it has been
supposed, as said in the beginning, that 5 HP. could be absorbed.
"
Four knots speed is equal to about 7200 metres per hour; the vessel would
_consequently under the above circumstances make two metres per second.
From this it follows that a vessel with such a motor and such a displacement
would, with the above mentioned strength of wind (light wind) remain stationary in
a river with a current speed of 0.35 metres per. second. It is supposed here that a
water current running with a speed of 0.30 metres per. second exercises the same
pressure as a wind of 28 x 0.31 =8.40 metres per. second. But on the one hand
this speed is seldom met with in our waters, and on the other, it is only seldom that
the wind blows with so little power. The calculation is thus based on entirely
unfavourable circumstances, but in reality the available result will be considerably
larger in consequence of the continuity of the wind pressure on the whole of the
wing surfaces.

page_text: All the statements here made do not pretend to absolute exactness and absolute
correctness, but are arranged only to suit average circumstances, and a ship constructed
in accordance with the above date would presumably give the above mentioned
result only approximately.
L
Figure 3 is a plan view of figure 2.
Figure 4 is a section through the line e-d figure 2.
Figures 5 and 6 details of figure 4.
Figures 7 and 8 dotails of figure 3 side elevation and plan view of points where
sails are attached and reefed.
Figure 9 side elevation of a ship with applied inotors.
Figure 1 plan of figure 9.
A is an erection of wood or iron consisting of the two parts A' A², their supports
below A3 A4 and capping pieco A placed on the top, which is bent at the ends and
receives in the middle the top socket B' of a vertical shaft B which down in the
ship, ie. in the bull rests in a socket B. This capping piece serves the shaft as
holder and support, while the latter serves the same as a prop.
On the middle of this shaft is a box or gear support C made of wrought or cast
iron, which however cannot turn with the shaft. Inside this casing are two bevel
wheels G G fixed in the shaft B, which by means of a coupling box F F¹ can bo
connected or disconnected with the bevil wheels E E¹. To reverse, in order to
backwards it consequently suffices to connect one of the two coupling boxes g. or gl
in the opposite direction with the bevel wheels For F¹.
Instead of this way of giving motion to the propeller shaft another toothed wheel
may simply be placed in the ship's hold, as represented in figure I, and when these
two wheels are provided with coupling boxes or clutches, either the top one or the
bottom one may be placed in contact with the toothed wheel on the propeller shaft by
shifting. But they may both be uncoupled and the machinery thus be stopped,
with exception of the wind wheels and the vertical shaft.
In this case when the vessel is lying still the power produced by the wind-wheels
may be used for deriving an electro dynamic machine for instance, charging an
accumulator, and the electricity thus stored can be applied to the driving of the
propeller or to lighting or heating purposes.
The shafts D, D', rest with one end in the casing C and the other in the naves or
bases L, L', which along with the shaft taps are carried by the frame H, H', wbich
again is secured by means of stays and props T, T¹, T² etcetera, from the casing and
the gear support C.
The above mentioned naves L, L', hold the spokes or frames R, R¹, which together
form wheels without felloes.
These spokes, which form so to say the sail-beams, are provided at their upper
and lower ends with socket rings M, M¹ (figures 7 and 8) in which the tubular
T pieces, N, N, move, from which the poles 0, 0¹, run alongside the sail-beam, while
the projecting poles P, P¹ are fixed in the off branch of the T piece at right angles
to the latter.
The poles O and P are provided with a number of rings between which a triangular
piece of sailcloth is stretched in the manner of the lateen sails. Each of theso
separate sail arrangements, forming in their combination a wind mill vane, can, by
means of the above mechanism be closed and spread like the wings of a butterfly.
After the wings have presented themselves to the wind in succession, in the order I,
11, III and IV, and gathered their power and transmitted it to the horizontal shaft D', D¹,
and from this to the vertical shaft B' and to the propeller shaft S, they enter fully
spread into the casing T. In entering, their free ends fall into the corresponding
opicycloid shaped grooves U, which are formed at the bottom of the casing T
(figures 5 and 6) by ledges U¹. They follow these grooves closing themselves

page_text: gradually until they are placed as shown in figure 3 to the left, from which position
they again slowly spread out and cutting into the opposing air they again emerge at
the upper edge of the casing T at V. They are then caught by the wind to go
through again the same evolutions as I, II, III and IV.
The position of the wings during their passage through the casing T is illustrated
in the figures 1, 2, and 4.
The propeller is made to go forwards and backwards as mentioned by connecting
or disconnecting the one or the other of the bevel wheels G G, by means of the
sliding clutches F, F. The wind wheels with their lower casings will always place
themselves self actingly in the direction of the wind as both turn freely and are
balanced round the shaft B.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondent I declare that what I claim is :
A wind wheel for propelling all kinds of ships with the wind from any direction,
distinguished chiefly by the use of two wind-wheels turning on a vertical shaft (B),
the vanes of which consist of poles (K) with sails (R, R) and which after having
received the motion from the wind and transmitted it to the propeller shaft (S) by
means of shafts (D, D), bevel wheels (E, E¹) and shaft (B) close themselves in
casing T by the aid of the grooved rails (U) arranged therein in such a manner that
they cut the air and offer no resistance to it, and when emerging from T, their whole
surface is caught by the wind and caused to turn round.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool,
Agents.