Specification of Samuel Hall : steam engines, boilers, furnaces, &c.

  • Hall, Samuel.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of Samuel Hall : steam engines, boilers, furnaces, &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/30 (page 11)
    Hall's Improvements in Steam Engines, Eoilers. Furnaces, Qc. vessels similar to chambers p1 and p2, or such gases may be expelled in any other convenient place. I will now proceed to describe my second improvement in propelling vessels, which consists in the use of vibrating planes, plates, or floats, which are fixed on 5 an axle or shaft, on which they vibrate backwards and forwards so as to perform such an arc of a circle as experience may shew to be the best. I find that the plates vibrating to the extent of from forty-five degrees to sixty degrees of a circle act very well; the operation of these plates or floats is, that by vibrating on their axle from the right to the left, and vice versa, alternately 10 they press against the water, and the water in its turn presses against them in a direction forming an acute angle with the line in which the propeller is acting and in which the vessel is proceeding, which angle of pressure is calcu¬ lated to propel such vessel in a powerful manner. Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, Plate 6, shew the various parts of my vibrating or universal propellers. 15 I call them universal propellers, because as already stated they will not only propel the vessel ahead and astern, but sideways, and around. A, Figures 1 and 2, shew a vessel to which such propellers are applied, a1 and a2 are vibra¬ ting planes, plates, or floats attached to the vertical shafts b1, b2, which are placed at the two quarters of that vessel, and such shafts are supported by and turn upon suitable bearings ; and a3 and a4 are similar vibrating planes, being attached to similar shafts bs and b4, the same being placed at the bows of the vessel. c\ c2, c3, and c4, are arms fixed on and projecting from the shafts above mentioned; and these arms are respectively connected by the rods d\ d2, ds, and d4, to the cranks e, e; these cranks are fixed to the ends of the shaft f, 2 - which is driven by steam or any other suitable power ; by this arrangement of machinery the revolving of the cranks imparts a vibrating motion to the planes or plates, whereby the vessel is propelled in any required direction, which will be effected by placing the inclined planes in the requisite positions. When they are placed in the positions (being at one extreme of their vibration) gQ shewn in the Drawing, the vessel will be propelled ahead; and when they are reversed, it will be propelled astern, and, in fact, each vibrating plane propels in the direction of a line bisecting the arc in which it vibrates towards its centre of vibration, from which it will be easily understood in what positions the planes must be placed, not only to propel the vessel ahead or astern, but 35 sideways and around as if turning on a pivot. The methods of placing these vibrating planes in their proper positions, and altering them at pleasure, are shewn by Figures 3, 4, 5, and 6, Plate 6, which are drawn to a larger scale than the other Figures, a is the head of the shaft of the vibrating propeller;