English Patent Model, Screw Propellor
date: label: Date made
content: ca 1832
label: patent date
content: 1932
name: label: patentee
content: Woodcroft, Bennet
notes: label: Description
content: This model represents the "revolving spiral paddle, for propelling boats and other vessels on water," that Englishman Bennet Woodcroft patented in the United Kingdom in 1832. The model once formed part of the technology displays at the U.S. Patent Office, from which it was transferred to the Smithsonian in 1926.
label: Description
content: Bennet Woodcroft (1803-79) was for many years the superintendent of specifications for the British Patent Office. The author of numerous British patents indices, he was instrumental in creating the Patent Office Library in 1855 and the Patent Office Museum in 1857. Trained as a weaver, he held a number of patents for textile machinery, but his great interest was steam navigation, for which he also held numerous patents. He long championed his screw propeller, overseeing a first test of it in a manually powered boat in July 1832 and arranging additional tests on steamships through the 1840s.
label: Description
content: He received at least one American patent, for a variable-pitch screw propeller, in 1846.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
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
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TR.308533
label: catalog number
content: 308533
label: accession number
content: 89797
label: patent number
content: 6,250
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Propeller, Screw-Type
label: Object Name
content: propeller, screw-type, model
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
label: Other Terms
content: Propeller, Screw-Type; Maritime
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 3/4 in x 4 3/4 in x 2 in; 14.605 cm x 12.065 cm x 5.08 cm