CERTAIN AERIAL CONVEYANCES, AND VESSELS TO BE STEERED BY PHILOSOPHICAL OR CHEMICAL AND MECHANICAL MEANS, AND WHICH MEANS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE PROPELLING OF VESSELS THROUGH THE WATER AND CARRIAGES OR OTHER CONVEYANCES BY LAND
Year: 1815

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DURS EGO
of the Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Gun Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third,
did, by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the
Twenty-fifth day of April, in the fifty-fifth year of His reign, give and grant
unto Samuel John Pauly and me, the said Durs Egg, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, his especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that we, the said Samuel John Pauly and Durs Egg, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, exercise, and vend "CERTAIN AERIAL CONVEYANCES,
AND VESSELS TO BE STEERED BY PHILOSOPHICAL OR CHEMICAL AND MECHANICAL
MEANS, AND WHICH MEANS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE PROPELLING OF VESSELS
THROUGH THE WATER AND CARRIAGES OR OTHER CONVEYANCES BY LAND;" within
that
part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all His said
Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, in such manner as to us, the said
Samuel John Pauly and Durs Egg, our executors, administrators, or assigns,
should in our discretion seem meet; in which said Letters Patent is contained
a proviso, that if we, the said Samuel John Pauly and Durs Egg, or one of us,
should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of our said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing,
under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, and cause

page_text: the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages
whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become void,
as in and by the said recited Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had,
may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Durs Egg, do hereby declare that the nature of our said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be applied and performed, is particularly
ascertained and described as follows; (that is to say,)
purposes of
It having been ascertained that round bodies are not fit for the
navigation through any fluid, or of floating from one distance to another with
any degree of certainty, we adopt a figure or form whose farthest extremities
may be in an horizontal and longitudinal direction, or nearly so, such as the
shape of a fish or bird, as the best and most useful form for an aerostat or
"balloon, being the best adapted to the purposes of steerage or guidance; around
the lower part or belly of the said fish or bird we fix a frame of wood or
other fit material, well joined together, which we call the head frame, for the
purpose of holding the net of the balloon, as well as to hold a ribband, band, or
other appendage fixed to the inside of the belly of the balloon, which, in case of
accident by the balloon bursting, will form a parachute by containing the atmo-
spheric air, as also the different laths, rods, ropes, straps, or other fastenings by
which the gondola, boat, or car is suspended or fastened. By means of the said
laths, rods, ropes, or straps, other fastenings made of any proper material, we
fix the gondola, boat, or car to the head frame for the purpose of attaching the
different machinery for the direction of the balloon. The fins, feathers, or faus are
made of silk, or any other light stuff or substance capable of acting upon and
retaining the air, fixed to a rod or staff by means of small ribs of whalebone or
any other pliable or elastic substance placed into the rod or staff on one side
only, like a feather one side whereof has been stripped of its plumage. These
rods or staffs consist of four or more pieces of wood, cane, or other proper material
firmly fitted and glued together, hollow throughout, and tapered off similar to
the rib of a feather. We place five such separate feathers, more or less, as we
find it convenient or necessary, on each side of the balloon, to form a wing or
wings about one fourth part of the whole length of the balloon from the head
or front, and such five of these fins, feathers, or fans, more or less, we unite or
place into a head piece or frame, to form a wing, like rays, horizontally, in one
plan alongside each other, so that the silk or feather edge of each is turned
towards the tail or hinder part, and the staff edge towards the head or front

page_text: part of the fish or bird. This head piece or frame is applied to a strong steel
spring, which is firmly fastened to the head frame, playing backwards and for-
wards horizontally. This spring should be about four feet long, but varying
according to the size of the fish or bird, and carries a vertical arch on its
extremity, over which the head piece or frame, with the said wings; describes
a circle of about 60°, more or less. The fish or bird may be furnished with two
or more pair of the before described wings as may be found necessary... These
wings, acting as before described, will remove, draw, or displace the air-from the
nose or front part of the balloon, and driving it along its sides to the tail or
hinder part in a current, will cause the balloon to move forward.
..
The principle of these fins, feathers, fans, or wings being considered by us
as a very material part of our Invention, we think it necessary, for the purpose
of rendering them more clearly understood, to explain the principles upon which
they act still more minutely.. Each separate fin, feather, fan, or wing has a
threefold power, which we call attractive, aspiring or sucking, repulsive, driving
or blowing, and collective or uniting. When any one of these fins, feathers, fans,
or wings, horizontally extended, and lying flat, is moved up and down in a ver-
tical direction, the back or staff edge of it will attract the air or any thing not
very heavy, upon which the air may act suspended on that side, and will repel
or drive away from the side of the feather edge the air or other matter sus-
pended on this side, and at the same time produce a strong power on the staff
edge side, propelling horizontally forward. Again, if the feather edge is placed
upwards, the staff edge downwards, and the motion is horizontal, the fin, feather,
fan, or wing will be drawn towards the ground; if the fin, feather, fan, or wing
is now reversed, the feather or silken edge downwards, the back or staff edge
upwards; and the motion horizontal, the fin, feather, fan, or wing will produce
a motion upwards; or if this tendency or power is resisted, it is evident that
the power which is necessary for this resistance is communicated to or expe-
rienced by the body by which it is held, or to which it is attached.
From the foregoing description of these fins, foathers, fans, or wings, and of
the manner of applying them, we imagine that the principle of their construction
and action will be very easily understood, and therefore we proceed to the further
elucidation of our Invention. The tail of the fish or bird, which may be
adopted for any aerostat or balloon, is made in the same manner and of the
same sort of materials as the said fins, feathers, fans, or wings, but larger, and¨¨
having feather or silk edges on both sides of the staff or rod, and consists of
only two such double feathers. It is fixed to the binder part of the head frame,
and serves as a rudder to steer and guide the balloon. The method of steering
requires no explanation, being similar to that used in navigation, which is suffi-

page_text: ciently known. The direction of the fins, feathers, fans, or wings, and of the tail
or rudder, is given by the acronaut in the gondola, boat, or car, by means of
ropes, levers, or other well known mechanical contrivances. The aforesaid laths,
rods, ropes, straps, or other fastenings which connect the gondola, boat, or car
with the head frame, and by this means with the balloon, and constitute
another frame to which the machinery for moving or working the fins, feathers,
fans, or wings, and also the tail or rudder, is adapted, we do not think necessary
to describe, as this piece of mechanism forms no part of our Invention, and is
extremely simple, and may be made by any practical mechanic in various
ways as circumstances may require. We give the impulse to it either by
manual or mechanical means, using, in the latter case, any first mover which
may be applicable to the purpose.
As a further additional mean for the guidance and direction of our balloon
we have invented a moveable weight, which will also servo for ballast as
occasion may require. This weight consists of a barrel containing water, in
quantity more or less, as may be thought necessary, according to the size of the
balloon, provided with a cock, and suspended by ropes or straps which pass
over pullies from the gondola, boat, or car, to the end or tail of the balloon in
an inclined direction. When the barrel is suspended in the ropes or straps,
in the middle of its length of motion, and the balloon is upright or level, if the
barrel or
weight is moved from the boat towards the tail of the balloon, it will
cause the opposite end or head of the balloon to rise and proceed upwards in an
inclined direction, and on the contrary, if the barrel or weight is moved towards
the boat, the head of the balloon will sink and proceed downwards in an
inclined course. The water in the barrel which is used as ballast may, by
means of the cock, bo discharged at any time as occasion may requiro. On
each side of the gondola, boat, or car, we also apply one, two, or more fins,
feathers, fans, or wings, which are made upon the same principle, and are
worked in a manner similar to the fins, feathers, fans, or wings before described,
which will enable the acronaut to ascend or descend at pleasure, without being
compelled to throw out ballast or suffer the gas to escape, by opening a valve
or valves, or otherwise.
Having above fully described the principle of constructing our said fins,
feathers, fans, or wings, we do hereby declare, that the same principle is
also applicable to the propelling of vessels thro' the water, to the working
of wind or water mills, and may also be assistant in a great degree to driving
carriages and other conveyances by land, and to other useful purposes, hereby
reserving to ourselves the sole right of applying fins, feathers, fans, wings,
or tails, made upon the above principle, of whatever shape or form they

page_text: may be constructed, and in whatever direction they may be placed or fixed,
suitable to the situation and circumstances of the case, to any purpose or pur-
poses to which they may be applicable. These fins, feathers, fans, or wings,
upon the before-mentioned construction, will also be applied and fixed to a
frame or frames, and wheels for a machine, for the purpose of raising and sup-
porting itself in the air, without the assistance of gas, by means of a wheel or
wheels, their motion either horizontal, vertical, or otherwise, and fixed to a
frame, to be moved or worked in a circular direction or otherwise, as may be
found best. The impetus to this machine will be given by a fly and fly
wheel or wheels similar to those applied to windmills, with the assistance of the
well known mechanism usual to work machinery or manual labour; an appro-
priate frame made of wood and canvas, or other materials best suited for the
purpose, will form the head, body, and the tail by which it will be steered.
In witness whereof, I, the said Durs Egg, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Twenty-fourth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifteen.