Patent Model of a Steam Steering Apparatus, 1860
date: label: Date made
content: 1860
label: patent date
content: 1860-07-17
name: label: patentee
content: Sickels, Frederick E.
label: inventor
content: Sickels, Frederick E.
notes: label: Description
content: This patent model accompanied Frederick Ellsworth Sickels’ patent application for an “improvement in modes of steering vessels” that was awarded patent number 29,200 on July 17, 1860. "The principle and character of my invention," Sickels wrote in 1860, "consists in bringing to the aid of the steersman the power of steam, so arranged as to alternately move and hold the rudder of the vessel in any required position, according to the action of the steersman."
label: Description
content: Ocean-going vessels grew heavier and larger during the second half of the nineteenth century, making them increasingly difficult to steer by manpower alone. As the steam engine became more common at sea, many inventors thought to bring surplus steam to the helmsman's assistance.
label: Description
content: Mechanical engineer Frederick Sickels (1819-1895), already famous in the 1840s for developing a valve that revolutionized the operation of steam engines, patented a steam steering engine in 1853. By 1860, when he submitted this model to the Patent Office, he had refined the form and details of his device, a process he continued into the 1880s. Sickels's model depicts a ship's helm connected by crankshaft to a pair of steam cylinders. The small handle mounted on the front of the device controls the valves for admitting and venting steam from the cylinders. The traditional steering wheels are provided for control when the steam engine is disengaged. A foot-operated friction brake is mounted below the mechanism.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: associated place
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: Subject
content: Patent Models
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Maritime
label: See more items in
content: America on the Move
label: See more items in
content: Transportation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TR.252596
label: catalog number
content: 252596
label: accession number
content: 49064
label: patent number
content: 29,200
objectType: label: Object Name
content: steam steerer, model
label: Object Name
content: patent model, rudder, steam
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
label: Other Terms
content: patent model, rudder, steam; steam steerer; Maritime