IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PROPELLING BOATS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Louis Bellefonds at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 26th October 1883.
LOUIS BELLEFONDS of 10 Alfred Place, Bedford Square, in the County of
Middlesex, [gentleman] "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PROPELLING BOATS."
This invention has for object the utilisation of the force which may be produced
by the extension of the legs of an operator, the feet and the back being supported
on two points, one of which is fixed and the other moveable.
This action may be compared to that of a toggle press, and is far from being the
same in effect at all the points of its course or travel; it is the greatest when the
legs are nearly extended and becomes relatively weak when they are doubled up,
thus the efficiency of the action varies with the height and structure of the operator,
and also varies in the same individual according as he may be fatigued or otherwise.
I have therefore sought to render this course, or travel variable at the will of the
operator and so that he may at any instant exercise his strength under the most
advantageous conditions and such as are the least fatiguing.
The apparatus which I have invented fulfils this condition. It consists of a seat
provided with a back firmly fixed on the boat at any convenient part. The boat
may be fitted with a screw propeller or with paddles. In front of this seat and
nearly at the same height is placed a moveable horizontal har carried on oscillating
levers. The operator occupies the seat and rests his back against the back of the
seat, his feet being placed on the moveable horizontal bar. One of the oscillating
levers carrying the bar acts on a ratchet wheel through a pawl; a spring fixed to
the bar brings it to a normal position when the operator leaves off working..
Upon each extension of the legs the ratchet wheel will turn a fraction of a
revolution, this movement is transmitted to the driving shaft by means of toothed
gearing suitably arranged for obtaining the desired speed. A fly wheel placed
either on the driving shaft or on an intermediate shaft serves to regulate the
movement and continue it during the time of inaction when the bar is brought
back by the spring.
This mechanism forms the single acting motor.
In the double acting motor two fixed seats are placed one in front of the other,
together with two moveable horizontal bars; these latter are connected by rods
and thus form a frame; one of the oscillating levers of each of the horizontal bars

page_text: carrie a pawl acting on a ratchet wheel. The two shafts carrying the ratchet
wheels are in communication by two similar toothed wheels which cause them to
turn at the same speed but in an inverse direction. Under these conditions the
operation being continuous the fly wheel may be dispensed with or made smaller;
it is however preferable to retain it for the storage of power.
The double acting motor may, if required be worked by a single person by
employing a spring the tension of which would be equal to half the power of such
person. The muscular force developed during the operation would thus be divided
between the useful work and the tension of the spring which would return one
half of this work during the period of inaction.
In a modified arrangement I construct my double acting motor with a single
ratchet wheel instead of two; this ratchet wheel is placed on a vertical shaft
equidistant between the two fixed seats; the movement of the feet acting on the
horizontal bars is transmitted to the ratchet wheel by two pawls working in an
inverse direction one to the other, and which are carried by two oscillating
borizontal levers; these horizontal levers are worked by rods attached to the
vertical oscillating levers which carry the horizontal bars acted upon directly by
the feet.
The vertical shaft carrying the ratchet wheel terminates at its lower end in a
bevel toothed wheel, which drives the screw propeller shaft direct by means of two
pinions capable of being engaged in a clutch for the purpose of going ahead or
astern. A fly wheel governs the action and a break is fitted to act on the fly wheel
in the case where it should be necessary to suddenly arrest the motion of the
boat.
By widening the seats and lengthening the bars any number of persons may be
occupied in propelling the boat and their power united for working one and the
same apparatus.
When desired the pawls may be replaced by break levers, the various
arrangement of which are sufficiently known to render their description
unnecessary.
The position of the operating persons allows of their hands being entirely free
and the body itself not being in motion, they may apply themselves to any other
useful or agreable occupation.
Motors or apparatus constructed in accordance with this invention may also be
employed as motors for other kinds of work.