CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STEERING VESSELS
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ROBERT
CLARK, Ships Painter, and ALEXANDER PIRNIE, Ships Smith, both of Newburgh,
in the County of Fife, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Second day of October, in the ninth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Robert Clark and Alexander Pirnie, our exors, admors, and assigns, Her
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said
Robert Clark and Alexander Pirnie, our exors, admors, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said Robert Clark and Alexander Pirnie, our exors, admors,
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at a 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, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
STEERING VESSELS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
that we, the said Robert Clark and Alexander Pirnie, shall cause a particular
description of the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date

page_text: Figure 1 is a side view, and Figure 2 is a plan of steering apparatus
arranged and combined according to our Invention. a is the steering wheel
fixed on the axis 6, which axis turns in bearings at c, c. The axis b gives
motion to a second axis d, which has a worm or screw e fixed thereon. This
axis turns in bearings at f, f, which are so formed as to have cork or other
elastic substance placed at the ends, so that any sudden movement of the axis
d endwise would be counteracted by the elastic packings at the ends thereof.
On the axes 6 and d are fixed chain wheels g, h, so that motion is commu-
nicated to the axis d from the axis 6 by a chain, as is well understood. When
communicating motion from one axis to another by a chain, and in order to
keep the chain at all times tight, the standards or pillars carrying the bearings
of the axis b are made to rise by the upper parts sliding into the lower parts,
as shewn, there being screws h¹, h', to retain the parts in any required position.
The screw e takes into the sector of a screw wheel i, fixed on the head of the
rudder, and by such means a powerful, safe, and uniform action may be
communicated from the steering wheel to the rudder.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, we would have it understood that we
do not confine ourselves to the precise details herein shewn and described, so
long as the peculiar character of any part of our Invention be retained, and
we make no claim to the separate mechanical parts shewn in the Drawing;
but what we claim is,-
First, the mode of communicating motion from a steering wheel to a rudder
by the combination of the parts b, d, e, i, as herein described.

page_text: Secondly, we claim the application of elastic packing at the ends of the
screw axis d. And,
Thirdly, we claim the mode of tightening the chain, as herein described.
In witness whereof, the said Robert Clark & Alexander Pirnie have
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-third day of March,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-six.
aken and acknowledged by Rob*
Clark & Alexander Pirnie, parties
bereto, at Newburgh, in the County
of Fife, the 23d day of March,
MOD
ALEX (Ls.) PIRNIE.