IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING VESSELS
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
BURGE, of the City and County of Bristol, Sign Painter, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-first day of December, in the fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said William Burge. Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said William Burge, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said William Burge, my exors, adññors, 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, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING VESSELS;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said William
Burge, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my 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 late of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at largo
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Burge, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer-

page_text: tained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had to the
Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon.
that is to say:-
My Invention consists of a machine to be attached to the side of a vessel
by means of which the floats or propellors are made to enter the water at a
curve of small resistance, to act under water in a line parallel to the water's
edge, and then to leave the water in a perpendicular direction, as may be seen
by the accompanying Drawings.
First, two wheels placed parallel to each other, between the side of the
vessel and the outer beam of the paddle-box, each having the same dip in
the water, the main or working wheel placed on the main shaft having a
groove in each rim deep enough to imbed vertically a plate chain, thus
forming double rims, the inner one of each having indentures at equal dis-
tances opposite each other to receive the bars or spindles that are inserted
into the chains to carry the floats, the other wheel differing from it in baving
its inner rims low enough for the bars or spindles to pass over.
Second, two chains, each formed of alternate single and double plates of
iron bolted together, and their ends inserted into each other and fastened in
the same manner, thus becoming endless chains, are placed over both wheels,
one on each side parallel to each other. In each chain is inserted two or more
compensating links.
Third, each compensating link is formed by placing a single plate, per-
forated at one end, as a single link between two plates terminating as a single
link at the opposite end; through the three is an oblong opening (bevilled
externally on its upper and lower edges), whose width is equal to the diameter
of one of the link bolts, and whose length will adnit a square bolt with dove-
tailed ends to fit the bevels, and as many plates or wedges of a similar
description as shall compensate for the wear of the chain.
Fourth, the spindles are round bars squared at the ends where they are
inserted in the chains, and having a hole in each square to receive a pin
between the two plates of the chain, to keep them in their places on these
spindles; the floats work loose; a loose washer or collar is likewise on the
spindle at each end between the float and the chain, to keep the float clear of
the wheel.
Fifth, cach float consists of two iron plates similar in shape, but one
deeper than the other, each hollowed slightly convex on its whole length, and
about two thirds its depth, forming a figure whose external edges are bounded
by catanarian curves nearly miceting at the cuds. These plates are rivetted
together all round the convex part, the large plate overlapping the smaller

page_text: all along the top and bottom, and welded between the two. At each end is an
iron bar, with a hole in its centre to receive the spindle (on which it turns);
to these bars the ends of the plates are rivetted. A broad iron strap crosses the
float in a perpendicular direction, having on its top a roller to lessen friction
against the guide bars.
Sixth, the guides are curved bars of iron placed the one before and the
other abaft the wheels, fixed against the interior of the paddle-box midway
between the two rims on the exterior of a line drawn from rim to rim. The
curve of these guides on the lower part follow the direction of the curve of
the wheels, and diverge slightly from it above. Both guides have sheaves in
the lower ends; the one abaft has a joint below the part where it is fixed, that
its lower extremity may move backward to free it from any body that may
meet it in its passage through the water, its position being restored by the
action of a weight it is obliged to lift in so doing.
Some of the advantages resulting from this arrangement over "the paddle
wheel" are as follows; an increase of speed, from the following causes :-
First, the resistance into and out of the water being lessened, the power so
saved is expended in propelling:
Second, the amount of surface contained in the floats actually in the water
being greater, the propelling power is greater also:
Third, the floats working at right angles in a line of motion in the verse
ratio of the motion of the vessel:
Fourth, the floats, being deeper, and the wheels narrower, present less
resistance to wind and wave; to which may be added, that her wake is as
sinooth as any sailing vessel.
From the foregoing reasons, as well as from repeated experiments, the
following facts may be distinctly asserted:-That one fourth of time in a
voyage is saved, the same power within a given time being used; one fourth
of time saved, one fourth of expense in fuel, &c. must also be saved.
Having thus explained the nature of the Invention, I wish it to be under-
stood that what I claim is, the mode of causing the floats or paddles to be
feathered in their entrance into and departure from the water, as above
described; and, secondly, I claim the mode of constructing the compensating
links of the chain, as above described..
In witness whereof, I, the said William Burge, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-two.
WAL
(L.S.) BURGE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twentieth day of Junc, in the
year of our Lord 1842, the aforesaid William Burge came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and everything therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-first day of June, in the year of our Lord One