AMERICAN CONDENSING ENG.INE FOR RIVER BOATS.




HI ISTORY
PROPELLERS
AND
STEAM NAVIGATION.
WITH
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
OF THE
EARLY INVENTORS.
BY
ROBERT MACFARLANE, C. E.,
EDITOR OF THE " SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN."
NEW-YORK:
GEORQGE P. PUTNAM
1851.




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by
GEORGE P. PUTNAM,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New-York.
JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER,
49, 51 & 53 Ann-st.




DESIGN OF THE WORK.
THE object of this History of Propellers and Steam
Navigation is two-fold. One is the arrangement and
description of many devices which have been invented to propel vessels, in order to prevent many ingenious men from wasting their time, talents, and money,
on such projects. The immense amount of time,
study, and money, thrown away on such contrivances,
is beyond calculation.- The author has had opportunities which few possessed, of viewing a vast amount
of indifferent re-inventions brought out for this purpose; and it has been a subject of regret to him to
know, that this was owing to the want of historical
information on such subjects. This work is designed
to supply, in a measure, that want. It is not pretended that it contains all the propelling devices which
have been invented, but it contains the only instructive arrangement, and by far the greatest variety of




I dIX1GN  F1''11E tV 0i[t,K.
such devices; and in this respect it is hoped that it
wrill be the means of doing some good.
Another object of this work is, to present an. interesting history of Steam Navigation, especially that of
the attempts of the early inventors in this department
of " practical mechanics."  There has been much controversy respecting the claims of those men who made
the first experiments in steam navigation. The author
has examined the claims of each, and has treated the
subject, he believes, impartially.  Much information,
to be found in no other work, is arranged within, relating to Fitch, Rumsey, Fulton, Symington, and Bell.
A separate chapter is devoted to Marine Navigation,
which will be found to contain much that is but parpartially known in our country. The different applications of the steam engine to river and sea navigation
is clearly'illustrated.
The author has seen a great number of experiments made with different kinds of propelling devices;
his views will be obtained from the spirit pervading
the book, the intention of which is to benefit those interested and engaged in such pursuits.




CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.                       PAGE
Introductory                               e                 9
CHAPTER II.
De Joffrie-Rumsey  17
CHAPTER III.
Evans-Symington-Miller                                      28
CHAPTER IV.
Buchannan-Linaker-Gordon —Hill-Palmner-Nairne —Skene    38
CHAPTER V.
Paul Steenstrup's Paddle-Wheels.                           51
CHIAPTER VI.
Mr. Ewbank's Experiments t.                              79




8:CONTENTS.
CHAPTER  VII.                        PAGE
Screw Propellers... 108
CHAPTER  VIII.
River Steamboats.              o                               125
CHAPTER IX.
Ocean Navigation-the Marine Steam Engine   o                   131
CNONGLUDINCE  REMARKS...            142




HISTORY
OF
PROPELLERS AND STEAM NAVIGATION.
CHAPTER I.
IN tracing the progress of every great discovery, we almost
invariably find " coming events casting their shadows before."
Before America was discovered, there had been handed down
from generation to generation, wonderful traditions of the
fabled " Atlantis."  Strada described the " magnetic telegraph" nearly two centuries before it was really invented;
and he also describes a floating pageant which was got up on
the Tiber for the amusement of Pope Leo the Tenth, and
was propelled by "six huge wheels-three on each side
-which by their constant motion carried on the machine,
until it arrived before the Pope's Villa." But the most remarkable olden description of a steamboat, is to be found in
that exciting romance of the middle ages, "Amadis of
Gaul."  The unknown author, therein describes the Queen
I




10            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
of enchanters rushing over the ocean in a fiery vessel, which
bears no indistinct resemblance to the appearance of the
Clermont, on her first midnight voyage, from New-York to
Albany.
The most ancient vessel on record, was propelled without
oars, paddle, wheels, or screw. This was the Ark of our
father Noah. We must give it the precedence, in point of
primogeniture, over the primitive, but ancient canoe of the
Indian, who is here represented, with his paddle in hand
"Skimming Ontario's waters blue,
Like the swallow's wing, in his bark canoe."
The most ancient navigators that we have any account of,
were the Phoenicians.  The cities of Tyre and Carthage
were famous for their fleets. and their citizens for maritime
skill, such as was known in those days. To them the then
distant Island of Albion was not unknown, for thither they
came with their oared galleys to dig tin from ancient Cambria's hills. From all that we can correctly gather on the
subject of ship propulsion, the oar was the only universal
instrument used in the days of old, and a good instrument
it is for that purpose, far superior, when the power applied is
manual, to that of the paddle-wheel, owing to the oarsman




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                11
being able to apply his power more economically than to the
wheel. The application of wheels to propel boats, dates as far
back as the time of the Romans, or as some say, the Egyptians, but upon this point we are not positive, therefore we have
arrayed an " ancient mariner " at the wheel, as a cosmopolite,
belonging to any part of the world our readers may assign
him. In 1682 Prince Rupert propelled his barge in this
manner, and there are two or three other instances on record
nearly as old. Of one thing we are certain, that before the
introduction of steam propulsion, navigation was a slow
process, and that is not long ago. If Solomon had been acquainted with such a power for propelling the ships of his
fleet, they would not have taken three years to make their
voyages for peacocks and California gold.
The great improvement which has been effected by steam
power, as applied to navigation, by increasing the intercourse
between people of different and distant nations, has resulted
more than any other invention on record (and is still augmenting) to unite mankind, we hope, in one great family,
working in concord for their common good. The steam engine may be called the grand improver of the age.  Its




12            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
power can be increased to almost any extent, and can be
made to execute the most difficult and delicate operations.
For business or pleasure, it conveys the traveller from place
to place, with celerity, convenience, and economy.
The origin of the application of steam to propelling vessels is claimed by several persons of different nations.  Tug
vessels propelled by wheels driven by horses, were proposed
and employed long before steam was thought of for that
purpose. The earliest account in our possession respecting the employment of steam to propel vessels, is that of a
Spanish Captain, named Blasco De Garay, who, it is said,
in 1543, in the presence of Charles V., in the harbor of Barcelona, propelled a vessel of 200 tons burden, against wind
and tide, at a considerable speed. The account of this vessel is taken from the Royal Archives of Simuncas, and was
first given to the world in 1825. The vessel is described to
have had paddle-wheels suspended on its sides, but after the
experiment was made, although the emperor paid all the expenses, the inventor took out his machinery, and with the
wisdom of all ancient inventors, left it to rot in darkness.
Quite a controversy has existed among paper wasting historians, respecting the nature and construction of De Garay's
steamboat, but all that we have been able to learn from an
examination of many opinions about it, is nothing at all, and
since De Garay has not enlightened us himself, we may justly
dismiss the claims of Spain, for nothing was heard about it
by the world until steam navigation had been successfully
established both in America and Great Britain. The steam



AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                13
boat is not such a wonderful invention in itself-the steam
engine, is the parent of the successful steamboat. Steamboats had been built and tried, but all were dead failures,
until the improved steam engine of Watt was applied to
them; with it they at once, on the Hudson, in the New
World, and on the Clyde, in the Old,
" Walked the waters like things of life."
PAPIN, SAVERY, WORCESTER, ALLEN, HULLS.
DR. PAPIN, a Frenchman, Captain Savery, and the Marquis
of Worcester, proposed to propel vessels by steam power applied in some way to paddles, but the testimony which is left
to posterity of their contrivances for that purpose, is so unsatisfactory and vague that little can be made out of it.
In 1726, a Dr. John Allen published a work in London
in which he proposed to propel a vessel by having a horizontal pipe open at the stern, into which air or water was to be
forced, to propel the boat forward by its reaction.  The
Doctor tried his scheme on a boat upon a canal, and he states
that if steam was used as a power, he had no doubt but it
could be moved at the rate of three miles per hour.
The first patent on record to propel a vessel by steam
power, is that of Jonathan Hulls, who published a pamphlet
in 1737, describing it, and for which posterity is not a little
obliged to him. Some have claimed for him very high honor.
His invention is certainly a nearer approach to a steamboat




14            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
than all that had been invented before him, but without an
opinion expressed, for or against, his steamboat is here presented.
FIG. 3.
As there have been many plans brought forward as substitutes for the crank, it may be news to many, to be told
that the crank was not the first contrivance used to convert
a reciprocating into a rotary motion, but it was adopted from
its beautiful simplicity after many other plans failed. Hulls'
mode of converting the reciprocating motion of the engine
into a rotary one, is depicted in the annexed diagram, fig. 4,
FIG. 4.




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                15
in which A, B, C, are three wheels, on one axis; and DI), F
two others, hung loose on a parallel axis, with ratchet wheels
attached, so as to move the axis only in the forward direction.
P is the piston of an atmospheric steam engine, connected to
the, middle wheel, B, by a rope passing round the latter. H
is another rope, connecting the wheels C, F, so that both
must move in the same direction; and I is a rope which connects the wheels A, D, diagonally, so that they move in opposite directions. The rope I, proceeding from the wheel A,
is continued round the wheel D, and passed over a small
pulley; a weight, J, being suspended from the end of it.
When the piston descends, the wheels A, B, C, move forward:
and, by the ropes I, H, turn the wheels D, F; that is, the
wheel F forward, and the wheel D backward. The paddles
K are therefore moved round, in a forward direction, by the
wheel F; while, at the same time, the weight, J, is raised by
the wheel D. When the piston is, in the next place; ascending, the motion of the whole is reversed, except that of the
paddles, which are moved in the same direction, by the action
of the descending weight J, upon the wheel D. By this
alternate action, the axis A, B, with the paddle-wheel, is
constantly moved around in the same direction, and by an
equable force.
This is the first paddle-wheel driven by steam. power,
and the idea of placing the wheel in the stern occurred to
the inventor as being the proper place for it, because water
fowl, ducks and geese pushed their web feet behind them.
There seems to be some discrepancy in the accounts




1f6           HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
given of Jonathan Hulls' application of steam to propel vessels. Herbert, in his history, says that Hulls took out a patent for the application of the crank, whereas Hulls' pamphlet, from which the engravings are taken, represents another
plan than the crank, to convert a reciprocating into a rotary
motion, to drive the paddle-wheel. The engine of Hulls was
single acting, and the application of a crank to it, has always
been very difficult, as the ascending stroke has to be effected
by a counterbalance, and an immense fly-wheel, not suitable
to the steamboat, is necessary.




A.ND STEAM NAVIGATION.              17
CHAPTER II.
DE JOFFRIE, RUMSEY, FITCH.
AFTER Hulls, the steamboat slumbered, till 1782, when the
Marquis De Joffrie tried one on the Loire, at Lyons in
France. He used paddles, on an endless chain. It was not
successful.
FIG. 5.
In 1784, Mr. James Rumsey, of Shepardstown, Virginia,
made a private experiment with a steamboat, and in 1787 a
public one, on the Potomac.  Rumsey's boat was about
eighty feet long, and was propelled by a steam engine which
worked a vertical pump in the middle of the vessel, by which
the water was drawn in at the bow, and expelled at the
stern, through a horizontal trunk in her bottom. The reac1I




18            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
tion of the effluent water carried her at the rate of four miles
an hour, when loaded with three tons, in addition to the
weight of her engine, of about a third of a ton. The boiler
held no more than five gallons of water, and needed only a
pint of water at a time  and the whole machinery did not
occupy a space greater than that required for four barrels of
flour.
Rumsey went to England, and after two years' preparation to get a vessel afloat on the Thames, died, just as he
had completed its construction. This was in 1793. The
vessel made several trips on the Thames, against wind and
tide, at the rate of four miles per hour. It was propelled
by the reaction of water, like his first one, on the Potomac.
The contemporary of James Rumsey was John Fitch, a
man of great mechanical resources and inventive powers.
He published the following description of his boat, in the
Columbian Magazine, December, 1786.
FIG. 6.
"The cylinder is to be horizontal, and the steam to work
with equal force at both ends. The mode by which we obtain a vacuum is, we believe, entirely new, as is also the




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                 19
method of letting the water into it and throwing it off
against the atmosphere without any friction. It is expected
that the cylinder, which is twelve inches in diameter, will
move with a clear force of eleven or twelve cwt., after the
frictions are deducted; this force to be directed against a
wheel eighteen inches in diameter. The piston is to move
about three feet, and each vibration of it is to give the axis
(or shaft) about forty evolutions. Each evolution of the
axis moves twelve oars, or paddles, five and a half feet.
They work perpendicularly, and are represented by the
strokes of the paddle of a canoe; as six of the paddles are
raised from the water, six more are entered, three on a side,
and the two sets of paddles make their strokes of about
eleven feet at each evolution.  The cranks of the axis act
upon the paddles about one third of their length from their
lower ends, on which part of the oar the whole force of the
axis is applied. The engine is placed in the bottom of the
boat, about one third from the stern, and both the action and
evolution turn the wheel the same way."
It is stated by Charles Whittlesley, Esq., in his pamphlet, "Justice to the Memory of John Fitch," that the first
model of a steamboat, built by Fitch, had side-wheels, but
the buckets of them  were found to labor so hard under
water, that he adopted the plan of propulsion which we have
represented above; and the construction of such a boat became to him  the highest object of his ambition.  In the
biography of John Fitch, published in the Friends'.. Weekly
Intelligencer, by Mr. Daniel Longstreth, of Warminster,




20            HISTORY O0' PROPELLERS
Pennsylvania, he adheres to the point that John Fitch preferred the wheels, and adopted the paddles, which were patented by Henry Voight, once chief coiner of the United
States Mint, at Philadelphia, who was one of Fitch's fundholders. Between the two accounts there is a discrepancy,
but none so far as it respects the wheels being attached to
his first model. We are of opinion that Fitch preferred the
paddles, as they were represented in his drawings, and also
a model after he secured his patent, in 1791.
James Rumsey and John Fitch were contemporaneous
inventors, and no person at this day would imagine the
amount of strife, ill feelings, and struggling for supremacy
and for public favor there were between the two and their
friends, were it not for documents left behind-(showing the
value of the art of printing)-to prove the old adage with
inventors as with merchants, "two of a trade cannot agree,"
FIG. 7.
At the present day, when so much is said about who was
the first inventor of the screw propeller, to be told it was an
American-the unfortunate John Fitch-will surprise many
people; but so it was. It will also surprise many to be




AND STEAM NAVIGATIOON.                21.
told, that his propeller sailed in 1793, in water 60 feet deep,
where the Halls of Justice now stand, in New York City.
In 1846 Mr. John Hutchins, of Wesley Place, Williamsburgh, L. I., published a chart, with the above cut, which
has been somewhat widely circulated in this city. Mr.
Hutchins says, that in the summer of 1796 or'97, he, when
a lad, assisted Mr. Fitch in steering his boat, and otherwise
attending to his machinery of the boat (Fig. 7) on Collect
Pond, which then covered the ground where the Tombs now
stand, and that part of our city round that quarter. The
boat was a common long-boat, eighteen feet in length, six
feet beam. She was steered at the bow when the propeller
was used. The boiler was a 10 or 12 gallon pot with a
thick plank lid firmly fastened down on it.  The cylinders
were of wood, barrel-shaped outside, and firmly hooped.
The main steam pipe was led from the boiler into a copper
box. The leading pipes led into two cylinders. Each
piston rod was attached to the extremity of the beam. The
connecting rod is seen between the bow cylinder and the
beam support. 3Mr. Hutchins says it was so arranged as to
turn the crank of the propelling shaft, which passed horizontally through the stern of the boat and was made fast to
the screw. If the above is a true cut of John Fitch's engine and its arrangement for propelling, we must conclude
that the ideas for the purpose of propelling were good, but
the machinery was crude. and that Mr. Fitch had not attained to the true mode of combining the mechanical for
driving the propelling parts. But we must make due al



22            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
lowance for Fitch's poverty for the want of commanding
right materials, and if he propelled the boat at the rate of
six miles per hour, may we not rather be charmed with that
genius which took not the materials he would have chosen,
but what were at his command, and propelled his rough
boat, with his rougher engine, at such an astonishing speed.
We are inclined, however, to doubt the speed stated, because
it is not a bad speed with a good engine and screw, at the
present day. But although we have no doubts about the
boat and the screw used by Fitch, as a propeller, we will be
pardoned for checking one discrepancy in Mr. Hutchins'
memory. He states that both Livingston, Fulton, and Col.
J. Stevens visited Fitch's boat, and that Mr. Fitch explained
to Fulton the modus operandi of the machinery.  Now
all the biographers of Robert Fulton assert that in 1796-7
he was in France. He went to London in 1786, and did not
return to America till 1806. In 1797 he was trying experiments with Joel Barlow on the Seine, and it would be a
very singular thing to find him both on the Seine, in
France, and the Collect Pond, in New-York, at the same
time. It would have been well had the fact of this propeller, with the date of its operation, been set forth, and no
more. Herbert attributes the invention of the screw propeller to an American, but does not state the name of the
inventor, and in fact nowhere before have we been able to
trace this invention to its author.  Mr. Hutchins has
therefore done the cause of science a service in this respect.
This boat, with a part of its machinery, was abandoned by




AND STEAM NAVIGATIO[N.                23
Mr. Fitch, and left to decay on the banks of the Pond, from
whence it was carried away, piece by piece, by the children,
for fuel.
Rumsey's plan for propelling, was entirely different from
that of John Fitch, as will be perceived from the following
description of his boat (Fig. 8), and it may be interesting
for many to know, that since the days of Rumsey his invention has been frequently revived. It is only two years
since a patent was secured at Washington by a gentleman
in Baltimore (Mr. Fulton), for some principle connected
with propelling by water, and since that, another to Mr.
Ruthven, of Scotland. We will now describe the first invention for propelling boats by steam power, forcing a jet of
water out towards the stern of the vessel.
FIG. 8.
In the bottom of the boat, on the Kelson, A, there is a
trunk, B, the after end of which is open, and terminates at
the stern-post, D); the other end is closed, and the whole
trunk, according to its dimensions, occupies about three
fourth parts of the length of the boat.-On the closed end
of the trunk stands a cylinder, N, two and a half feetfrom this cylinder there is a communication by a tube to the
river or water under the boat, by the valve, C, to admit the




24            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
water from the river into the cylinder, and it likewise prevents it from  returning again the same way. There is
another communication which lets water pass freely from
the cylinder to the trunk, through which it is discharged
by the stern; on the top of this cylinder there stands
another of the same length, which is fixed to the under one
by screws; in each of these cylinders there is a piston,
which moves up and down with very little friction; these
pistons are connected together by a smooth bolt, M, passing
through the bottom of the upper cylinder, acting as a pump
to draw water from the river through the tube and valve,
before described. The upper cylinder acts as a steam engine, and receives its steam from a boiler under its piston,
which is then carried up to the top of the cylinder by the
steam (at the same time, the piston of the lower cylinder is
brought up to its top, from its connection with the upper
piston, by the aforesaid bolt,) they then shut the communication from the boiler, and open another to discharge the
steam for condensation; by this means the atmosphere acts
upon the piston of the upper cylinder, and its force is conveyed to the piston in the lower cylinder, by the aforesaid
connecting bolt, which forces the water, then in the lower
cylinder, through the trunk, with considerable velocity; the
reaction of which, on the other end of the trunk, is the
power that propels the boat forward.
It is well known that a heavy body falling near the
earth will pass through a space of about fifteen feet in the
first second of time; if the same body was acted upon in




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                25
a horizontal direction by an impulse equal to its weight, it
would move in that direction the same distance in an equal
time; it follows, then, that the water in the trunk will have
the effect, proportionable to its weight, of retarding the
water from being discharged from the cylinder in too short
a time.
Near the cylinder, on the top of the trunk, there is a
valve to admit air, which follows the water that is then in
motion, and gives time for the water to rise gradually into
the trunk through valves, at its bottom, for that purpose;
this water has but little motion with respect to the boat,
and is therefore capable of resisting the next stroke of the
engine.
Rumsey published a pamphlet in Philadelphia, May 7th,
1788, wherein he denounced Fitch in no measured termsusing expressions towards him as plain as to say that he,
Fitch, got his idea of a steamboat from a Capt. Bedinger,
who described Rumsey's boat to him. Rumsey published a
number of affidavits to prove that he was the original inventor of the steamboat, and among the rest a letter from
General Washington, to prove that he had spoken to him of
employing steam as a prime mover. Fitch's pamphlet is
very rare, but there is one in the New-York Society Library,
in Vol. 82 of Pamphlets.
Three days after Mr. Rumsey published his pamphlet,
John Fitch published an answer to it, which pamphlet, if it
came from his pen, gives evidence of a mind skilled in
metaphysics, ingenious in detecting the weak points of his




2 6           HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
opponent's argument, and  skilful in making a capital
specious plea.-Fitch admits that neither himself nor Rumsey were the first who suggested the idea of propelling vessels by steam, but that he was the first who matured the
idea, constructed a model, and made the actual experiment.
This was, he says, "about the middle of April, 1785."
Rumsey claimed to have matured his plan in 1784.
As the plans of both Rumsey and Fitch were different
from those employed at the present day, we have exhibited
their inventions, and all that can be justly claimed for them
is, that they were modifications of the manner of applying
steam to propel boats, but neither Fitch nor Rumsey were
the first who actually made the experiments of applying
steam power to propel vessels. Fitch undoubtedly thought
he was, and said he was, and so did Rumsey, but we have
shown that Jonathan Hulls took out a patent for the application of steam to propel boats, forty-eight years before
Fitch or Rumsey (by their own admissions) thought upon
the subject.
It is needless for us to go into the controversial points
of the original merits of these two inventors. We look
upon them both as very ingenious men, and Rumsey as
possessing as much original genius as Fitch, for he got
patents for other inventions beside his steamboat. Rumsey
was the original inventor of propelling boats by steam
power driving a jet of water out of the stern, and Fitch
that of using his very ingenious combination of paddles, and
beside he has a good claim to the paddle-wheels. It is




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                 27
stated that John Bernouli, the famous mathematician, suggested the idea (first) of propelling a vessel by the reaction
of the water, but we have no evidence that he ever matured
his idea. Rumsey's claims are not weakened by those of
Bernouli. John Fitch claims our deepest sympathies. He
was very unfortunate, and terminated his life by poison at
Bardstown, Ky., in 1796.




28           XHISTORY OF PROPELLERS
CHAPTER III.
EVANS, SYMINGTON, MILLER.
IN 1768, Oliver Evans, of Philadelphia, a man of a most
ingenious and constructive turn of mind for mechanics, proposed to navigate vessels by steam and paddle-wheels.
About this time a boat was run for a short time, by steam,
between Philadelphia and Bordentown, but we have no
means of ascertaining the nature and construction of the
propelling parts. About the same time Dr. Franklin proposed to propel vessels by the immediate action of the steam
upon water, but this was found to be utterly incompetent
for the purpose. A Mr. Latrobe, a keen opponent of Evans,
but a man celebrated as an engineer, unfortunately for his
own future fame, wrote a work against the steam engine for
impelling boats. It no doubt at the time retarded steam
navigation in America, for, as a general thing, the man who
can give a plausible reason against the introduction of a
new invention, is held to be a Solomon, while the inventor
is too often looked upon either as a knave or an enthusiast.
It was the case with the first inventors of the steamboat.




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                 29
In 1787, a Mr. Patrick'Miller, of Dalswinton, in Scotland, took up the subject, and applied steam to propel a
double vessel, with a wheel in the stern.
The steam engine for this boat was made and fitted up
by a very ingenious mechanic, named William Symington,
and it is carefully preserved to the present day. The success of this boat was very gratifying, but it was on a small
scale, the cylinder being only four inches in diameter. In
1789, Mr. Symington again, under the direction of Mr. Miller, fitted up an engine on a double boat, sixty feet long.
This boat, on the Forth and Clyde Canal, went at the rate
of seven miles per hour, and was very promising as an experiment, but unfortunately the boat was too weak for the
machinery, which was taken out, and Mr. Miller tried no
more experiments. A work published by his son states,
that out of his private fortune, Mr. Miller spent no less
than $150,000 making experiments, for which he never received in return a single cent.  He was a patriot in mechanical science. It has always appeared strange to us how Mr.
Miller came to embrace the idea of a double boat instead of
a single one, but so far as it regards the successful and direct
application of steam to drive a single paddle-wheel, the evidence appears to be in favor of his claims, that is, of having
put his invention into actual operation. Twelve years after
Miller's last experiment, in 1801 and 1802, Symington induced Lord Dundas, a man of mechanical taste and experience, to build a steamboat for dragging vessels on the
Forth and Clyde Canal. The engine for this new boat had a




30            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
cylinder of twenty-two inches diameter. and four feet stroke.
This was quite a large vessel, and it took in tow two sloops
of 70 tons burden, and moved them with great ease through
the canal at the rate of nineteen and a half miles in six
hours-three and a half miles per hour. This was a great
feat, for the wind blew a strong head breeze all the time.
This steamboat was also laid up, because the proprietors of
the canal supposed that the undulation of the water by the
wheel, would wash away the banks.
It was during the period of the building of this boat of
Symington, that he received, as he states, a visit from Robt.
Fulton.  He politely made himself known, and told Symington that he was going to return to America soon, but
could not go away without seeing the steamboat operate, and
would be happy to receive any information Mr. Symington
chose to communicate, stating at the same time, that however advantageous the steamboat might be to Great Britain,
it would be of far greater benefit to America, with her
broad, calm, and long rivers. This is direct testimony that
Fulton had the steamboat in his mind before, or why should
he go from England to Scotland to see this one? Every inventor, when he has any project in his head, likes to see and
know about what is doing in the same line, but Symington was
first in the field a bona fide steamboat builder. At the request of Fulton, Symington fired up and carried his guest
four miles along the canal, and returned to the place of
starting. Fulton took notes, and was very particular in his
examinations. It is very singular that at this time, and for




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                 31
a long time afterwards, it was thought that steamboats were
not capable of being employed except in placid waters. It
is to be regretted that there was not enterprise enough in
all Scotland, at this time, to encourage Symington to make
his experiments on the river Clyde. We believe that we are
not saying too much, when we attribute the first real practical steamboat to this man.  Our reasons are these: -He
was very ingenious, and was employed by Mr. Miller on this
account, and he was a practical machinist and engineer-he
could make and fit an engine as part of his trade, he was a
good tradesman, and had an excellent education.
EVANS, COLONEL STEVENS, ROBERT FULTON, TIENRY BELL.
It is stated that Oliver Evans published, in 1785, an account of a mode to propel vessels with paddle-wheels, by his
high pressure engines; and although Galloway states that
"he fully establishes his claim to the first practical steamboat." still we have no correct evidence to establish the truth
of this statement. Neither IRumsey nor Fitch mention his
claims in their pamphlets; but he was a most ingenious
man.
In 1804, Mr. Stevens of Hoboken, New-York, made a
number of trips on the North River, with a small boat twentyfive feet long, which was propelled by a wheel at the stern.
Mr. Stevens first tried a rotary engine, but it would not answer; and then he tried one like Watt's, which propelled
his boat at the rate of four miles an hour; and it even run




32            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
at the rate of eight miles per hour for a short distance.
This boat was kept going for nearly a fortnight, making excursions for a few miles up and down the river. Stevens
rendered an important service to the engineering world by
his invention of the tubular boiler, which he patented, and
which, as a suggestion, at least, has been the means of working wonders; for, in a boiler six feet long, four feet wide, and
two feet deep, he exposed four hundred feet of surface, in
the most advantageous manner, to the action of the fire.
FIG. 9. THE CLERMONT.
While Fitch, Oliver Evans, and John Stevens, were
prosecuting their experiments in steam engines and steamboats in America, Robert Fulton was in Europe studying
and experimenting on the same subject. He left Philadelphia in 1786 and went to London; and in 1793 he communicated with the Earl of Stanhope about steamboats, and he
published a very neat work on the subject in 1796. The
Earl of Stanhope was a very ingenious nobleman, and proposed to propel the boat by what was called the duck-foot




AND STEAMI  NAVIGATION.              33
propeller, which was simply a kind of broad blade, that
opened when acting against the water, it being pushed behind the boat on a rod, and closed by the action of the
water when drawn back. In this same year Fulton went to
France, where he brought the subject before the French Directory and the Minister of Marine. IHe also proposed to
build his Nautilus, to "deliver France and the whole world
from British oppression." In 1801 he tried his Nautilus at
Brest, under the favor of Napoleon, and remained under
water for four hours and a half, but he never blew up a single enemy's ship.
It was in France where Fulton was introduced to Mr.
Livingston, his countryman, who, in 1803, assisted Fulton to
complete a boat of sixty-six feet long, to be propelled with
paddle-wheels, on the Seine. From the number of experiments which Fulton had made before, we believe that Mr.
Livingston, in all likelihood, made some good suggestions
to him in the building of this boat, for this experiment fully
established the confidence of both the projectors, and they
at once ordered an engine to be built by Bolton and Watt,
in England, to be forwarded to New-York, to introduce the
steamboat on American waters. Livingston succeeded in
getting a patent from New-York, to navigate all its waters
by steam, for twenty years. Fulton arrived in New-York in
December, 1806, and in 1807 his steamboat, the Clermont,
was launched on the East river; and, although in the course
of its erection it was called "Fulton's Folly," and he was
looked upon as a man beside himself. yet his vessel had not
2




34            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
proceeded one hundred yards from the shore, before the incredulous multitude, who had assembled to witness its failure, were convinced of its utility. This vessel made regular
trips to Albany, and it may be said, that from the first
stroke of her paddles steam navigation has never ceased for
a single day. She established regular steam navigation.
She made her first trip to Albany in thirty-two hours, being
at the rate of five miles per hour.  The Clermont was one
hundred and sixty tons.  The cylinder was twenty-four
inches in diameter and four feet stroke. The Clermont, on
her first voyage, wonderfully astonished the simple people
on the banks of the Hudson. She used dry pine wood for
fuel, which sent up a column of flame and smoke above her
funnel. Some thought she was a monster fire-eater, coming
to warn them of the end of time. Many on board of sloops
on the river, were so terrified by the noise of her machinery
and paddles, and the lurid glare of her fires at night, that
they rushed below decks, to hide from the monster which fed
upon fire, and dashed over the.water against wind and tide.
Some have endeavored to tarnish the fame of Fulton by
endeavoring to rob him of all honor or merit; but he deserves great praise, and his memory will always be respected
by every impartial person who looks back upon the works
which he accomplished. Up to the period of the Clermont's
first trial, we have seen that the subject of steam navigation
had been brought before the public at various periods, in
different parts of the world, from 1736. The advancements
made in the art, may be said to have been gradual; one in



AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                 35
ventor profiting by the failures of his predecessor; and
surely we must give credit to the sagacity that perceives
how to remedy a defect.  Until James Watt improved the
steam engine, and made it double-acting, no steamboat was
successful; and when we consider that he built the engine
of the Clermont-the first successful boat —we cannot shut
our eyes to his merits in connection with improvements in
steam navigation.
It very often happens that a good idea is embraced in a
new invention —a new principle of action developed; but it
also often happens, that there is some great fault in carrying
it into execution; we are, somehow or other, very liable to
make blunders, and only get our wisdom in a negative manner-dear bought experience; and in the case of steam navigation, the honest historian will state facts in such a manner as not to adorn the character of one inventor at the
expense of another.
After Fulton's successful experiment in America,.Henry
Bell, a self-taught engineer, constructed a boat at his own
expense, in 1811. It was ten feet wide and forty feet long,
and worked with an engine of three horse power, and with
paddle-wheels. This boat was named the Comet, and was
perfectly successful.  The same nautical architect who
built her hull, was the gentleman (John Wood) who built
the hull of the Europa, one of the finest pieces of nautical
architecture in the world. So far as it regards paddlewheels-the propelling devices-Fulton's and Bell's were
identical, but from them both, we can trace two distinct




36            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
kinds of steam vessels.  Our marine, or sea steamships, are
built upon the basis of Bell's first boat, and our river boats,
upon that of Fulton.
In our school libraries there is a book containing a biography of Robert Fulton, wherein it is stated that Henry
Bell assisted to put up the machinery of the Clermont, and
afterwards went back and established steam navigation in
Britain.  This is incorrect. Henry Bell was never in America. The mistake is copied from an error in a report of a
committee of the House of Commons. We have stated before, that more credit should be awarded to Symington than
prevailing history allows to him.  Fulton saw his boat in operation, and so did Bell; and Bell took drawings of the machinery and furnished them to Fulton, with whom he was
acquainted.  Both of these men profited by Symington's
skill, and had sagacity to see his defects, and the genius to
remedy them. In the arrangement of machinery to effect a
new object, it is as essential to apply the same aright, for
success, as to plan the application of it to a new object.  It
is in this capacity that we would give Symington credit, he
being a skilful and ingenious practical mechanic.
It is a fault in the character of most inventors, that
they claim too much. Both Fulton and Bell believed themselves to be the first real inventors of the steamboat. The
honor we would assign them-and it is the greatest we can
award to them as inventors-is, they were the first successful
steamboat inventors; they established steam  navigation;
and we cannot sufficiently estimate the importance of their




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                 37
inventions, nor calculate the vast benefits they have conferred upon the human race. Without detracting from the
merits of one inventor to garnish the brow of another, we
will say, that Robert Fulton was the first who successfully
established steam navigation in America, and Henry Bell
was the first in Europe.
In 1812, a plan to propel vessels without steam, was projected in New-York, to completely overturn the act of ]Legislature granted to Fulton, without setting the Hudson
river on fire. It annoyed Fulton not a little before it was
fairly tried. It was nothing less than to propel the vessel
by springs and a pendulum. This boat, the wheels of which
revolved with great rapidity when on the stocks, stood stock
still when she was launched into the water. Robert Fulton
died in February, 1815. He was one of Nature's noblemen, in every sense of the word, and the nation felt that she
lost one of her great men, when he was laid in the grave.




38           IHISTORY OF PROPELLERS
CHAPTER  IV.
BUCHANAN) LINAKER, GORDON, HILL) PALMER; NAIRNE, SKENE.
IN Buchanan's work we are told that among the papers of
William Linaker, of Portsmouth, England, found after his
death, there was described a plan to propel vessels by water,
in a different way from that of Rumsey. The steam engine
had no piston, but drew the water and expelled it, on the
principle of Savery's engine.
After the value of side paddle-wheels had been successfully established, both in America and Europe, various inventors arose to improve them, by forming plans to make
the paddles enter and leave the water vertically. It will be
observed, as we proceed in this history, that the majority of
all the propelling devices, invented since 1811, have this object in view.
The third boat that was built on the Clyde, in Britain,
was constructed with paddle-wheels to enter and leave the
water vertically. Mr. Robertson Buchanan was the projector-an ingenious, scientific man, and above all, a practi



AND STEAM  NAVIGATION.                 39
cal engineer of the first order. His plan was very ingenious,
and is thus described:
FiG. 1 0.
c 2
Gr 4
If two equal rings or circular lines in the same plane, or
in planes parallel to each other, be conceived to revolve each
upon its respective centre, in its own plane, with one and
the same uniform velocity, and in the same direction with
regard to parts of the rings, or lines alike situated, and any
point be taken in one of the lines or rings, and a right line
be drawn from that point, parallel to a line supposed to join
the centres, until it meets the other ring or circle, then the
right line, so drawn, will be equal to the line of distance between the centres, and will continue equal and parallel to
that line of distance, during the whole of every revolution
so made.
The dotted circle and the black circle in the accompanying figure, denote the rings or circles mentioned in the theorem, and Y and X denote their centres; and the lines 1 A,




40            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
parallel to an equal to X Y, the line of distance of the centres, will continue equal and parallel to that line of distance,
in the positions 2 C, and 3 E, and 4 G, and in all other positions into which the point 1, can be brought, during the uniform, equal and similarly directed revolutions of the two
circles.
The amount of friction caused by the eccentric movement
was enormous, and the scheme was abandoned.
In 1819, three very scientific gentlemen of Glasgow,
Scotland, conceived the idea of propelling vessels by water
in a different way from Rumsey or Linaker.  The scheme
was to discharge water behind with great velocity, from pipes
placed under the surface, using the water underneath the
surface somewhat as a fulcrum. After an expensive experiment the propelling power was found to be totally inefficient
to compete with paddle-wheels, and it was therefore abandoned.
FIG. 11.
In 1822, a Mr. D. Gordon, of London, invented the casing for the paddles, allowing the water to enter at an aperture below the level of the water line, but allowing the water




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                 41
to leave freely at the back. Figure 11, is a view towards
the head of the vessel. A is the paddle-wheel case; B the
fore part of the keel, and C the place for the water to enter,
below the water line, E. The aperture to admit the water,
was furnished with a sluice to admit a greater or less quantity of water, according to the velocity of the vessel or the
roughness of the water. This invention was tried-but laid
aside.
The first steamboat that was built on the Mississippi was
named the " Enterprise," and was about 70 tons burden;
she was built with a single wheel placed in her stern, and in
1815, took 28 days to go from New Orleans to Cincinnati.
Considering the state of the river at that period, this was
not a bad voyage. In 1789, Symington navigated canals
with only one paddle-wheel in the stern, but in 1822, Gordon
made an improvement, by placing the wheel in the stern as
here represented in
FIG. 12.
This is a longitudinal section of the boat, intended to be
driven by steam, but no apparatus of that kind shown. It
has a channel made through its whole length at the bottom,
being open at its under side (like an inverted trough) until
it comes to the place where the paddle-wheel case commences,
and there the channel is closed up under the paddles, nearly
2




42            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
to touch their extremities as they revolve. She was to be
steered by two rudders, one on each side of the paddlewheel, connected together by jointed rods so as to be moved
by one tiller. A is the wheel, and C is the entrance for the
water coming along the channel spoken of, which then freely
escapes behind. The entrance aperture'may be furnished
with a gate to admit just as much or as little water as is desired, and with a grate in it to prevent sticks, &c., from injuring the paddles. For canals this. invention is one of no
inconsiderable merit.
FIG. 13.
A                     A
U        U L
About this period it was also proposed to employ reciprocating paddles as substitute for the paddle-wheel, to enter
and leave the water vertically, as herein represented. A A
fig. 13, are the cranks which are moved by the engine, and
turns with them the horizontal bar to which the vertical
paddles are fixed. It is very evident that these paddles
cannot be moved fast enough to afford the slightest shadow
of a hope in competing with a paddle-wheel, back lift of
water and all.




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                43
FIG. 14.
Figures 14. 15 and 16, is another plan that was invented
by a Mr. Hill, of Woolwich, Eng., to make the paddles enter
and leave the water vertically, and to pass through the water
elliptically, a hobby indulged in by a great many since that'time. This plan, however, is very ingenious, as will be observed by the accompanying description of the separate
figures of side views, the same letters referring to like parts:
-A A A represent the spokes of the paddle-wheel, shown as
disconnected and broken off from the periphery, B B, to prevent its being confused with the novel propelling part; C C
C C are four bent levers, one of which is shown separately
by fig. 16; E E E E represent the edges of the paddle boards,
which are bolted to the straight arms of the levers, C, and
are connected by axles to four shoot arms, F F F F, which
radiate from the periphery of the wheel; each end of the




44            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
curved part of the levers is attached to the next lever in the
series, by an intermediate short rod, G G   G G. Owing to
this mode of connecting the short rods by pivot joints, the
FIG. 15.
resistance of the water Hi H against each immersed paddle,
causes the next in succession which is entering the water, to
be depressed at its extremity, thereby throwing it into that
position or that angle with the surface of the water, by which
it meets with the least impediment to its immersion. The
resistance of the water upon the paddle that has preceded it,
FIG. 16.




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                 45
then draws the other into the vertical position, at the same
time that it is itself being raised out of the water, at a similar angle to that by which it entered; these motions are
communicated successively to all the paddles by the revolution of the wheel.
In the Repertory of Arts there is a description of a patent granted (1826) to a Mr. Palmer, of the Royal Mint,
which strongly resembles the one granted to the Engineer
of the American Mint, the co-partner of John Fitch.  This
invention consisted of chains passing horizontally along the
sides of a vessel, or along the bottom, between false keels,
with paddles jointed to a guide frame to which they are attached in such a manner, that when the chain is drawn in a
direction from stem to stern, the paddles will be kept in a
perpendicular position by small check chains, proceeding
from the lower extremity of the paddle, to the main chain or'
guide frame, in an angular position; thus forming a resistance to the water, which propels the vessel forward, as the
chains with the paddles are dragged backward. When the
horizontal parts of the chains are returned, or moved from
stern to stem, the paddles fold up and and take a horizontal
position with the chains, and therefore form no resistance in
passing through the water. The chains are kept in their
places by passing over guide pulleys at each end of the horizontal or lower ports, and over wheels at the upper ports.
The wheels are furnished with spikes on their peripheries,
which take into the links of the chains. These wheels are
put in motion by a band passing over a drum in connection




46            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
with a steam-engine, and round a small rigger attached to
the axis of each of the spiked wheels.
If the paddles be used on the sides of the vessel, the
spiked wheels and guide pulleys are attached to triangular
frames, which are firmly fixed to the sides. But if they be
applied to the bottom of the vessel (when they are used for
barges on canals, as they will in that case agitate the water
less, and consequently do less injury to the banks of the
canal), they must be placed between false keels.
The accompanying engraving is a modification of this invention:
FIG. 17.:P~~~~'
A A is the large wheel or drum, having studs on its circumference to work the chains both above and below. B B
two smaller drums, over which the chain passes, which serve
to keep it in the' proper position, and each of which have
raised edges to prevent the chains from slipping off. One of
the small drums is made to move by a screw, so as to tighten
or slacken the chain when required; and both may be made
to fix either higher or lower, so as to give the paddles a
greater or less sweep or stroke of the water. The paddles,
chains, drums, and the water line are shown, the small drums




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                 47
being raised above the centre of the large drum.  C 0 are
parts of the chain; P P P P the paddle boards.
The next is a very curious contrivance, by a Mr. Nairn,
of equal age with the above.
Two, four, or more levers are to be suspended over the
sides of a vessel, and to descend nearly as low as the vessel's
keel. These levers are to be moved backwards and forwards,
like a pendulum, the motion being communicated by a steam
engine, or other prime mover; and that the levers may experience but little resistance from the water, they should be
of such a shape as to present in their horizontal section a
form like the adjoining figure.
FIG. 18.
At each side of the lever, at its lower extremity, is attached a broad plate of iron, A A, fig. 18, by means of hinge
joints, which, upon the lever being moved forward, close, and
offer no resistance; but when it is moved backward, they
open or expand, and thereby impel the vessel forward. To
prevent their opening beyond the proper angle, which is from
140 to 160 degrees, a circular arc may pass through them, or
they may be connected to chains, which only allow them a
certain range of opening, or any other method to admit their
expansion within due limits.




48            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
There have been many previous contrivances for propelling, bearing a resemblance to this, which have failed in
practice; and we can discover nothing in the present contrivance calculated to render it an exception. It is just a
modification of the duck-foot propeller.
FIG. 19.:-                     D
This invention is that of Lieut. Skene, R. N., invented in 1828. The form and full size of the paddles are a
parallelogram, 1 foot deep, by 2 feet wide, terminated by a
semi-circle of one foot radius. These paddles are not immovably fixed, but vibrate on axes passing through the two
opposite annular plates that form the periphery of the wheel,
in order to allow of their dipping into the water edgeways,
and thereby reducing the resistance of the water to the revolution of the wheel. For this purpose, the lower or semi-circular portion of each paddle is loaded with metal, the superior gravity of which, to that of the upper portion, causes




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                 49
each paddle successively, as it enters the water, to assume
the vertical position; and to prevent their turning over, a
simple stop is provided (which will presently be explained),
so that the full effect of the impelling power of the engine
may be given to each paddle at the proper time. To prevent
the water from escaping sideways between the arms of the
wheel, a large disc or circular plate is fixed against the internal sides of the wheel, and of such diameter as not to come
within the range of the paddles as they vibrate on their axes.
The number of paddles to each wheel is to be regulated
by the diameter of the wheel; which is, for every foot in diameter, one paddle; therefore, for six-foot wheels, there are
to be six paddles.
This figure, 19, represents a side elevation of the wheel,
with the paddles viewed edgeways.  The arms of the wheel
revolve upon the shaft B.  D D D are paddles, of which, F
F F are the loaded sides; L L are the axes of the paddles,
the dotted arcs of circles, at the extremities of the paddles,
show the range of their motion, which is arrested by the
stops, E, that consist merely of a prolongation of the upper
sides of the paddles striking against the arms, or the inside
of the rims of the wheel.
Experiments were made with this paddle-wheel, the paddles measuring 16 by 16 inches, and their extremities, describing a circle of nine feet nine inches in diameter. The
boat run on the River Thames, the engine making 45 strokes
per minute, It was an entire failure, for it went much slower
when the paddles operated as designed, than by an experi



50             HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
ment of lashing them to make them immovable.  The backwater was excessive, thrown right astern. In turning, the
paddles seemed to strike the arms and the rim of the wheel
with great violence, causing a great noise. The vibration
of the vessel was very great, and the paddle-box shook with
great violence. In revolving rapidly, it is very evident that
the centrifugal force, has a tendency to throw the paddles
outward, to prevent them from entering the water in a vertical position; consequently no advantage but a disadvantage
would be the result. It is a great evil also to have the lower
part of the paddles heavier than the upper, if turning, as
these paddles do, on an axis. The reason of this is obvious,
not in entering, but in rising out of the water, causing an
unequal wear on the axis, thereby creating a great deal of
friction.  The thicker the blades of the paddles, so much of
their useful effect must be subtracted from the circumference of the wheel, when we measure the distance the vessel
travels, by the number of revolutions of the wheel,




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                 51
CHAPTER V.
PAUL STEENSTRUP'S PADDLE-WHEELS.
THE form and full size of the paddle-wheels are a parallelogram, 1 foot deep, by 2 feet wide, terminated by a semicircle
of i foot radius. These paddles are not immovably fixed,
but turn on axes passing through the two opposite annular
plates that form the periphery of the wheel, in order to allow
of their dipping into the water edgeways, and thereby reduce
the resistance of the water to the revolution of the wheel.
FIG. 20.




52            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
This figure, 20, represents a side elevation of the wheel,
with the paddles viewed edgeways.
A represents the paddle-wheel, B a cog-wheel bolted to
the vessel's side, concentric with A and allowing the shaft C
of the paddle-wheel to revolve in its centre; D a cog-wheel,
double the diameter of B, revolving upon an axis supported
by the arms of the paddle-wheel, and gearing into B; E the
paddle, suspended by axles turning in the rim of the wheel:
on each of these axles is fixed a chain wheel F, and a similar
wheel is fixed on the axis of the cog-wheel D; G is an endless chain, passing over the wheels, on the periphery of the
paddle-wheel, and under the wheel F, on the axis of D; H
represents a water-line.
It will now be perceived that when the paddle-wheel is
set in motion, the toothed wheel B being fixed, causes the
large-toothed wheel D, to revolve upon its own centre, at the
same time that it is carried round by the paddle-wheel, in a
manner similar to the sun and planet wheel, in Watt's steam
engine. The wheel D, being double the diameter of B, will
perform one revolution upon its own axis, in the same time
that it is carried round once by the paddle-wheel; and by
means of the endless chain, passing under the small wheel F,
on its axis, will cause each paddle to revolve once on its axis
in the same time; and each paddle is constantly directed to
the highest point in the rim of the wheel.
This wheel was patented as far back as 1828, and its very
complexity is enough to condemn it at a glance. It is a
most astonishing thing, how some people to remedy an evil,




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                53
adopt another of far greater magnitude. For complexity
and impracticability, it was an ingenious invention: and, if
these are qualities to recommend any thing, it surely deserves the highest eulogiums.
TRIPLE CRANK PROPELLER.
This is a plan of propellers which, when it was brought
forward by its inventor, a Mr. Stevens, in 1828, it was
somewhat highly flattered. Like all other improvements to
supersede the common paddle-wheel, its object was to allow
the paddle to enter the water vertically and rise out of it in
the same way, so as to prevent jarring in the first case, and
water lift in the other —two evils attributed to the common
paddle-wheel, but greatly magnified.
In this engraving, Fig. 21, we have a side elevation of
the machinery in the paddle-box, which is placed on the vessel in the common way. A series of paddles are attached to
a three-throw crank, and by means of radius and guiding
rods, the paddles are made to describe the segment of an
ellipsis in the water.
Each throw of the crank revolves between two parallel
bars, with its bearings upon them, and carrying with them a
set of paddles (the bars are not seen). There are thus four
bearings, the innermost of which it fixed to the vessel's side
and the outer one on the frame of the paddle-box. The
circle of motion described by the triple crank being equally
divided (120 degrees apart) between each throw, and thus




54             HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
balance one another on their general axis. This invention
was fairly tested by a number of experiments, but failed to
rival the old paddle-wheel.  It has been revived a great
number of times since the above date.
FIG. 21.
There is a centre to the axis of the cranks C C C, and B
is one of its bearings, supported on the side frame of the paddle-box; D D (represented by two dotted horrizontal lines,)
is one of the longitudinal beams which support the other
bearings of the said axis; and the extremities of D )D are
transverse to support them. In the paddle-box, provision is
made for the occasional rise of the rods G and F, if it be not
thought desirable to carry the paddle-box above them; R R
are three sets of paddles, each set being carried by a division
of the triple crank, which revolves between, and has its bearings upon parallel bars; the paddles are directed in their




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                55
appropriate motion by means of the guide rods F F F, and
the radius rods G G G, the latter of which work on a fixed
beam or centre at H; there are arched spreaders, to keep
the paddles steady and firm; the paddles are marked R and
are fixed to vertical bars in the ordinary way; the upper
ends of the bars being inserted in sockets cast in the paddle
carriage.
SIDE FAN PROPELLER.
Various plans have been proposed from time to time, to
propel by a kind of propeller that would close when moving
forward against the water, to offer at least but little resistance to it; and would open when moving backward, to act
with great surface and power on the water. The duck-foot
Propeller, of the Earl of Stanhope, was devised to act on this
principle, which really has something very plausible and
self-commending in it. As practical experiment, however, is
the real test of ally invention-the touchstone of its economnical value —so in the case of the duck-foot paddle, it was
a weighed in the balance and found wanting."
FIG. 22.




56            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
The invention represented in this engraving, Fig. 22,
was invented about twenty years ago, and it was the result
of observing the powerful action of the " tail of a fish." The
piston of the engine being attached to the rod, A, will alternately open and shut a series of sliding sub-marine fans,
which may be variously constructed, and placed without the
sides or bow, or stern of a vessel, keeping up a constant
pressure upon the water, and a consequent motion upon the
vessel forward, without backwater or splashing. Hinged
paddles attached to a reciprocating frame, so as to fold upwards, and assume a horizontal position when moving forwards, and to have their flat full surfaces acting upon the
water when moving backwards, have been brought forward
oftentimes since the above was brought forward. About two
years ago, only, the same thing was brought forward in New
York, and high hopes were entertained about it, but it now
reposes in oblivion.
It is something very annoying to the man accustomed to
scientific research, to find the same things invented over and
over again by different individuals, living in different places.
Within three years the duck-foot propeller has appeared in
public print, as something new, because somewhat modified
from the original one, in contour and arrangement. In the
London Mechanics Magazine, for 1845, there are two engravings of plans for propelling, by applying the direct action of the piston rod to move a fan piston to act upon the
water at the stern of a vessel, and close when moving forward, so as to propel the vessel upon the same principle as




AiND STEAM iNAVIGATION.                57
chat represented above.  There can be no question of its:simplicity, but simplicity, although desirable, is not always
possible, to accomplish certain objects.  Every'thing must
be judged by its effects-its whole effects.
GALLOWAY'S PADDLE-WHEEL.
Almost every person has heard of 1 "Morgan's Paddle-Wheel;" the honor of the invention belongs to Elijah Gal-:loway, the author of a very valuable history of the'" Steam
Engine."   The object of Galloway's invention was like
that of many others, viz., to provide a remedy for the loss,of power and other inconveniences arising from the oblique
position in which the paddles enter and leave the water,
FIG. 23.:'This engraving represents his invention, for which a
patent was secured in 1829. Each paddle turns on an
o,        "A:z




58             HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
axis through the medium  of projecting levers, firmly fixed
to the paddles at their axis of motion, and- connecting rods
proceeding from  these levers to the extremity of a fixed;
crank, adjustable at a given distance from the centre of motion of the paddle-wheel, which consists of four radiating
arms connected at their extremities by strengthening braces:
[B B, Fig. 23, represents four arms radiating from a
central axis, the extremities of which E E, are connected by
bracing rods from  one to the other.  C C, are the paddles, firmly-fixed to which are the levers, D ID, forming angles
of about 120 degrees to each other, and turning together
on axes at E  E; F, represents the  water-line.  There
is a crank, fixed centrally to the axis of the wheel, but so as
not to revolve with it; this crank is alterable at pleasure by
means of a set screw, which causes the paddles, through the medium of the connecting rods I I X, to take such an angle with
the water line, as may be deemed most desirable for propelling; the rods I, however, are connected to a revolving collar
on the crank, which allows of their free rotary motion, while
it draws the paddles uniformly into the positions shown in.
the engraving, when the arm of the crank is set in a hori~zontal position, as represented.  The dotted lines show the
position the paddles assume in the intermediate parts of'
their revolution, or the relative position they would take, if
there were eight paddles attached to the wheel.




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                 59
FiG. 24.
A     A        e
This figure represents the mechanism of Morgan's wheel;
A A A A, &c., are the paddles which turn upon spindles,
having a bearing in the angles of the framework of the
wheel, B B B, and which is of a polygonal figure, with as
many sides as it is required to have paddles.  The inside
frame or polygon is alone attached to the shaft of the engine, which does not continue beyond the side of the vessel;
and the outer one has an independent bearing on a centre
attached to the paddle box, so that it receives its motion
entirely from the rim or angles of the polygon; by this
means the space between the sides of the wheel is left entirely free. The part of the shaft or centre upon which the
outer side of the wheel revolves, is projected in an inclined
direction to the middle between the sides, but of course to a
point considerably eccentric with the wheel,




60           1HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
Each paddle has a crank, C, attached to it at an angle of
nearly ninety degrees, and rods, D D D, &c., connect the
extremity of this crank with a movable boss which revolves
upon the fixed eccentric point of the shaft.
It will thus be seen, that in consequence of the fixed
point being situated out of the centre, the paddle will ass
sume different positions during the revolution of the wheel,
which positions can be so arranged as to differ very little
from a vertical direction while passing the lower part of the
revolution, or that part where the action of the paddle takes
place.
The difference between the "Galloway Paddle-Wheel,"
and the " Morgan Wheel," consists in one simple point, viz.,,
the axis of the paddles above pass through their ends; in
Morgan's the axis passes through the middle of the float.
These wheels have been too highly extolled, in our opinion.
They are complicated in comparison with the common
wheel, and must be far more expensive to keep in repair.
Seven vessels in the British Navy have been fitted with
these kind of wheels, and some of the steam packets that
run on the French coast. The speed of the Firebrand and
Flamer, fitted with "Morgan's Wheels," averages only
10.55 miles per hour. If there were any superior benefits
to be derived from this kind of wheel, we would expect that
they would have been placed in the most superior new
British steamships of the Liverpool and North American
Line.
The accompanying engraving (Fig. 25.) represents a




-AND STEAM NA VIGATION.                61
plan for making the paddles enter and leave the water in a
vertical position by an extra eccentric wheel moving the
paddles on their axis-the axis of them passing through their
centre. We are not able to tell the inventor's name, we
believe, however, that it is i Poole;" but the invention is at
least twenty years old. A B C D E F are the paddles,
which turn round upon their axis as the large wheel to
which they are applied revolves.  H   H H H H  are the
rods to the two sides of the wheel. I I I I are the concentric rings, with an opening or groove between them, which
forms the path for the crank arms, K K K K, to move in.The centre of the guide rings being eccentric to that of the
wheel, causes the paddles to assume the positions represented in the engraving, which were found to be best
adapted to the motion of the vessel.  The paddle C is supposed to be just dipping into the water, while D is deeply
immersed, and E just rising out of it.
FIG. 25.
K            \




62            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
The small figure below the wheel is an underside perspective view of a paddle separately; K is the crank arm
connected at one end to the axis, A, and at the other to the
anti-friction roller before mentioned, which travels in the
groove of the railway.
We have seen no less than three separate re-inventions
of this paddle-wheel, within two years. Two of these were
invented by men who constructed models and brought them
to New-York, the one from St. Louis, the other from Connecticut.  The other was a drawing only, made by a gentleman in New-York. Had these gentlemen been acquainted
with the above invention, it would -have saved them much
labor, study, and, consequently, expense.  But what is
stranger than all this, and what we would not have expected, we are informed that Mr. David Napier, of London,
a first rate and one of the most experienced marine engineers in the world, constructed a steamer with wheels like
the above, in 1848. His steamboat exhibited astonishing
speed, surpassing every steamboat on the Thames, but this
might have been owing to some other thing than the paddlewheels, perhaps the engines, or build of the vessel. At any
rate, its superior speed lasted only a few weeks, when, from
the number of breakages, she had to be laid aside. Economy
embraces, not the speed of a trip, but the number of trips
in a given time, performed at the least expense.
The great duty that we wish to perform, is to show
what has been already invented, to prevent others from
spending their time and money on the like projects.




AN:D STEA.M NAVIGATIONl.              63
HEILBRONWS PADDLE-WHEEL.
More than one plan of different motion, has been devised
io make the paddles enter and leave the water in a vertical
position.  One plan is to make the upper and lower edges
change position, and enter the water at a different angle.
Another is to turn the side edges, or feather the paddles,
which will produce the same evect, but requires a different
arrangement of machinery.  The plan presented here was
the invention of Adolph Heilbron of New-York, and was
patented in 1829. A revolving motion is given to the paddles, by which they dip into and leave the water as represented in figure 26. The buckets are each fixed upon an
arm, which radiates from the centre of the wheel.
FIG. 2 6.




64             HISTORY OF PROPELLERS:
In a wheel so constructed, the paddles may be made tsu
enter the water edgewise, and be turned so as to aet upon it
at any point which may be preferred.  The paddles whichl
are out of the water are all feathered, or turned edgewise, so
as- to experience but little resistance from the wind, and to
require a very shallow box or casing to protect them on each,
side of the boat. A wheel of this description may be im-mersed in water to- any depth which may be required, or it
may be entirely under water, where the depth is sufficient'
should such a mode of fixing it be thought advisable, the,
progress of the boat will be but little impeded thereby.
One great advantage anticipated from these paddles is,
the avoiding of those numerous and. perpetual concussions.
produced by the striking of the water by the ordinary floats,
which causes a continued, distressing, and very injurious
tremulous motion.  They' enter by their edges, and are gradually brought into action.
FIG. 2 7.
D;c~ 
ra1




AND STEAM  NAVIGATION.                 65
Figure 26, represents one of the said wheels of eight arms
or paddles, as it appears when in a finished state, and as applied to the side of a vessel; and figure 27 is a view, on a
larger scale, or the central part of the said wheel, as seen
from the opposite side, or that nearest to the vessel, for the
purpose of showing how the paddle-arms are held and supported in their places, and yet permitted to turn or feather
at the proper instant, while the whole wheel turns round. In
these several figures, A-is a circular disc or plate of cast
iron, having a rim or ring, rising on one side to a sufficient
height to give strength and solidity to the said circular plate,
and also to hold the boxes C C C, through which the paddle-arms or axis, D D ]D D, are permitted to turn.  The
central block of metal E, may be cast in one piece with the
disc or plate, but will be better detached, and afterwards
fixed to it by screw-bolts. The disc or plate, A A-with its
centre block E, forms the central part of the paddle-wheel,
which must be firmly keyed, or otherwise fixed upon the main
shaft, F, which derives its rotary motion from  any power
applied within the vessel, and this shaft also passes freely
through the centre of a metal wiper carriage, which is firmly
and immovably fixed to the side of the vessel, for the purpose
of operating upon the wipers or projections H HII, of the paddle axis in order to produce the feathering of the paddles.
To effect this, the outer face of the wiper carriage presents
two annular surfaces, or eccentric grooves, or one will answer
to make the paddles turn or feather.
The wipers or projections on the axis of these paddles,




66            IISTORY OF PROPELLERS
are projections of metal, crossing each other so as to project
at right angles from the axis of the paddles, and as these
wipers come into contact with one or other of the annular
surfaces, the several paddle axes will each make a quarter
turn or revolution. Thus the wipers, Z Z, lie with their flat
surfaces upon one annular surface of the wiper carriages, and
the inner annular surface then presents itself, and acts upon
the wipers to turn them round; consequently, the inner wipers will now assume the flat position, and will continue in
it, until they are again brought by the motion of the wheel,
into contact with the ends of the outer annular surface.
PERKINS' PADDLES.
This propeller, fig. 28, is the invention of the celebrated
Jacob Perkins. Each of the paddles is placed on the extremity
of a radiating arm,in such a position that its plane,if produced
towards the centre of motion, would make with the axis of
the paddle-wheel an angle of 45 degrees.  The axes of the
paddle-wheels are not carried across the vessel in the customary manner, but are carried in a direction sloping towards
the stern, and they meet at a point in a straight line, drawn
from stem to stern along the middle of the vessel, making
with it an angle of 45 degrees, and with each other an angle
of 90 degrees. On the extremities of the axis are fixed bevel
wheels, which act upon each other, or are both acted upon by
an intermediate bevel-wheel in connection with the steam
engine, or first mover.




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                67
FiG. 28.
LE
1,
o        F
By this arrangement the surface of each paddle, when
immersed in the water at its greatest depth, is perpendicular
to the side of the vessel, or to the line of motion, as represented at C, fig. 28; at their greatest elevation, each paddle
is parallel to the line of motion, as at E; and, when in the
horizontal position, whether ascending or descending, the
paddle presents an angle of 45 degrees; and from this angle
it deviates but little, when in the act of entering or leaving
the water, as the inventor purposed to immerse the wheel to
about one fourth of its diameter.
Fig. 29 represents the outline (in plan) of a vessel with
these paddles attached. A is the boat; B B the paddle axles, to which a uniform motion is given by the engine, through
the medium of the bevel gear which connects them: C C are
two of the paddles immersed in the water, and in the act of
propelling; D D, E E, and F F, are those paddles which succeed each other in the revolution. The oblique action of the




368:HIISTORY OF PROPELLERS
blades of the paddles, as they perform their revolutions, will
be understood by reference to fig. 28, wherein the paddles
are marked by the same letters as in fig. 29.
FIG. D9.
This was invented in 1829, and some experiments made
with them were reported in the Journal of-.the Franklin Institute, with the following very flattering remarks, in comparison with the old paddles: " The saving of fuel appears
to be upwards of three in five, and an increase of fifteen per
cent. of speed.' The article was furnished for the Journal,
Vol. IX., by a gentleman in London.  It is an inflated
piece of commendation on Mr. Perkins's invention, and deals
in some severe remarks on the inferiority of the old paddles.
Although it was stated how superior this method of propelling was to the paddle-wheels, yet it had its day.  It came,
and is gone.




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                 69
HALE'S HORIZONTAL PROPELLER.
FIG. 30.:A
This is a mode of propelling, invented in England, about
1829 or 1830, by a Mr. Hale.  It was revived in 1847, by
Simpson, and tried both on the Thames and the Clyde. An
engraving of it appeared in the Illustrated London News,
in 1848; and although it was a little different from  Mr.
Hale's plan, the principle in no respect was changed; it was
only a modification (if it can be called that) of the blower
substituted for the paddle-wheel. It received high commendations from some of the foreign periodicals.  When employed by Simpson, the boat to which it was applied, with
four feet paddle-boxes, went at the rate of eleven miles per
hour on the Thames.  Its first performance seems to have
been its last, for since that period it has not, so far as we
are informed, broken the waters of the classic'" Clutha," or
muddy Thames.




70             HIlSTORY OF PROPELLERS
Fig. 30 represents one modification of the apparatus, and
consists of an air-tight circular casing A A, containing four
arms C C C C, which revolve horizontally on a vertical axis
B, placed eccentrically with respect to the casing; at the
extremities of the arms are fixed four curved vanes or paddles D D D D, inclined in the manner represented in the
drawing. The water enters the casing through the holes E
E E E, and is expelled by the revolution of the paddles
through the opening F, against the external water at the
stern, which of course impels the vessel in a contrary direction.
FIG.. 31.
Fig. 31 is another modification of the apparatus. In this
similar letters of reference indicate similar parts, with only
these differences in the arrangement, that the water is received at one large aperture in the centre of the vanes, the
line of direction of the discharge being a tangent to the cir



AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                 71
ele. The dotted lines at G denote a tube leading from the
bottom of the vessel, through which the water ascends into
the paddle-box; and it may be supposed that similar tubes
are employed in the first described plan, for conducting the
water into the paddle-box.
The centrifugal force of the paddles acting on the water
within the box, produces a pressure all round the interior of
the box, which gives a tendency to move in a direction opposite to the side where the opening is made in the circumference; while the same causes accelerate the entrance of the
water into the box, which is produced in the first instance
by the paddle-box being placed within the vessel, and lower
than the exterior water.
FLAP PROPELLER.
FIG. 32.
Fig. 32 represents a plan of folding paddles, D, placed
on both sides of the vessel. The paddles are attached to




72            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
hinged joints, A, and to the prolonged axis, C, of the traversing frame. They fold, and present only their sharp
edges to the water when moving forward from stern to stem,
and they open and act with a large surface on the water
when moving backwards.  The traversing frames are kept
to the sides of the vessel by grooved guides, G, H. I I are
friction rollers at the ends, and at the middle, to keep them
steady, and to assist them in moving. The upper part of
the frame consists of a rack, which is acted upon by the
toothed wheel, the axis of which passes through the vessel
and terminates in similar wheels on the other side, to act
upon similar racks.
To the piston rod of the steam engine, whose cylinder
(which may be either situated above or below the plane of
the axis) is placed in a position somewhat inclined, as represented by dots, is attached a rod which passes under a pinion on the axis of one pair of the wheels, and over a pinion
on the axis of the other pair of wheels, and vice versa; the
parts of the rod passing under the one and over the other
of these pinions,-and thus, by the alternating motion of the
piston of the engine, cause one pair of the paddles to move
forwards, while the other pair are moving backwards, by
which one pair of the paddles on each side are kept continually in action. The paddle stems or axis are attached by
stop hinges to the upper part of the paddle frames, and to
the lower parts by screw bolts, to fix them when in use. By
this arrangement the paddles can be unshipped, and removed from the side of the vessel, whenever the state of the
wind renders their application unnecessary.




AND STEAM NAVIGATION,.                 7
FIG. 33.
a;;~ —.....~~~~~~~~~~...........
Fig. 33 is another method of attaching similar folding
paddles, A D, to the ends of two or more rods projecting
through stuffing boxes, under the water line, in the stern of
the vessel. These projecting rods, represented by K L,
rmade of metal, and turned cylindrical, are connected with
the piston of a steam engine, through racks and pinions, in
a manner similar to the connection of the paddle frames before described, The intention of the wheel and pinion, the
former acting on the rack connectd with the projecting
rods, and the latter being acted upon by the rack connected
with the engine piston, becomes necessary, to obtain a
greater velocity in the paddle than could be given to the
piston of a steam  engine.  The projecting rods have rule
joints at the extremities nearest the vessel. When one of
the screw bolts is withdrawn, and the rods being detached
from the rack, then pushed out beyond the usual extent, and,
the end to which the paddle is attached elevated to admit of
the paddle being easily detached, the rod is to be let down
and withdrawn, till it is all within the vessel except its end,




74            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
which must be left in the hole, or stufling-box, to prevent
leakage; so that with its application there need be no exterior appendages, except when the paddles are in action.
This invention is thirty years old, and was patented by a,
Mr. John Melville.
TIE 1WINGED BOAT:.
FIG. 34.
- B
Some of the most extraordinary inventions have burst
upon the world, astonishing nobody but their projectors, except it may be surprise at their futility, instead of utility.
One man imagines that the wings of birds are the grand
subjects for copying after, in works of art, to propel balloons;
and another, the fins or tails of fishes are the true forms to
copy after, for propellers in water. But balloons are not
eagles neither are steamboats sharks, whales, or dolphins.
Who would have thought, however, that wings were the best
appendages for a steamboat, because they are the best for
aerial locomotion? Nevertheless, here we have them.  The




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                  75
invention is now thirty years old, and does credit to the
name of Mr. Dixon Vallans, of Scotland.
A A is the crank; B B are the wings; C C are the arms,
which have moving joints; D ID are the shafts, which give
motion from  the crank to the wings; E E E E are the
leaves or feathers of the wings, which, by the forward motion of the crank, fold nearly close to the wing; and by
the backward motion fold back, and form  a strong pressure against the water; and by that means impel the boat
forward with great velocity. The feathers may be either of
hard wood or sheet iron, six or eight inches broad, and
one foot six inches or two feet long, or they may be made
any size, according to the size of the vessel.
FIG. 35.
Fig. 34 is a plan view.  Fig. 35 is a side view.  The
same letters refer to like parts. When this invention was
first brought out, it was to make a boat run three times
faster than with paddle-wheels; but it never did it. It atfords a useful lesson for others, and not a small number
either, for inventions for the same purpose, less plausible
than this, have been brought forward frequently since the
above was first brought into notice.




76     ~       HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
THE INCLINED PLANE STEAMBOATo
FIG. 36.
This boat has novelty, but greatly lacks the grand essential, practicability. It is twenty-four years old, and is the
invention of Mr. Thomson, of Scotland.
A A and B B are two parallel iron bars, to which the
planes are fixed, the one being close to the side of the boat
and the other farther off, so that in working alternately up
and down, they pass each other freely. These planes projecting from the vessel's sides will be objected to, but as this
was merely a trial, improvements, of course, were to follow.
2, 2, &c., the planes, each of which are fastened to the parallel bar, by their respective swivels.  D D and E E are
working beams that raise and depress the planes. The ends
D  and D, working close to the boat, for the bar A  A7
while the other end reaches out for B B; the rod, IH  connects two working beams in the manner represented in the
figure, so that both ends of the parallel bars, by this communication, rise and sink alike.  There are two rocking beams
that run across the boat to the other side, where there is
the same machinery as on this side, only there is no occasion for more than one connecting rod, IT, as this one is sufP




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                 77
icient for all. Now, the piston rod of the engine, by work.
inug a lever upon one of the rocking cross beams, sets the
whole in motion; there was no occasion even for a single
wheel or crank; a few connecting rods and levers were all
that was required.
The above inclined plane paddles are totally unfit for
propelling; they never would answer for a steamboat navigating the ocean. No propeller will answer the purpose,
however scientific the ideas embraced in its construction, if
it is not perfectly and firmly built in all its parts, without
hinges, and such like things.
FIG, 37.
-.I    -'.
TRIPLE CRANK PROPtLLER.
This invention, fig. 37, is likethe majority of others, for
mnaking the paddles enter and leave the water vertically.
The defect of the old revolving paddle-wheel was deseribed




78             HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
by the inventor, a Mir. Thos. Clark, to be something far sttd
perior to the paddle-wheel.  A frame is erected on the side
of the vessel, and A is the main shaft, on the end of which
is the cog-wheel, B, meshing it into the two cog-wheels C C,
to give motion to the two shafts having triple cranks, D D I),
on each.  The crank shafts are secured in the frame, J IEI
and revolve in proper bearings in the same. E EE are
reciprocating bars secured on the extremities of the cranks
of both shafts together. The paddles or blades, F F F, are
secured on these reciprocating bars. The reciprocating bars
E E E, are secured on the cranks to work on them like centres, therefore when the crank shafts revolve, the paddles
will receive a reciprocating motion, entering and leaving the
water in a very good position, acting upon the water very
effectually.  The cranks are inclined to one another at equal
angles, and the connecting bars preserve the cranks parallel
to one another.
We saw a model of this very same description, about five
years ago, made by a mechanic in this State, and it was tried
at Whitehall, on Lake Chaplain, with flattering hopes. It
is twenty-five years, however, since it was first invented,
Paddle-wheels can be built stronger and work with less friction than these cranks, but although this is all, it is a great
deal, for the compact wheel, every part of which is trussed
and arched, has wonderful advantages.




A-ND STE]AM IAVIGATIOIN.               79
CHAPTER Yi.
MlR. EWBANK'S (COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS) EXPERIMENYT.
FIG. 38.
Since part of the Report of the Commissioner of Patents
was published, that part of it which relates to the " propul.
sion of steamers  has been visited by the most scourging
criticism of "heroes great and heroes small."
Frmc..39.




8o0           HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
Th.e experiments referred to, were conducted on HIarlen
River, New-York, in 1845 and 1848.
" For this purpose, the boat, fig. 38, was employed.  It
was 12~ feet long, and 31 feet across the middle. A wrought
iron shaft, 1 inch square, with a crank, extended across the
gunwales, and turned in bearings bolted to them. Each
end of the shaft stretched 14 inches over the side of the
boat, which prevented the wheels, that were secured on each
extremity, from throwing as much water into the vessel a's if
they had been nearer; and afforded a better opportunity of
observing the action of the blades. A person seated at one
end of the boat, readily turned the wheels in either direction,
by alternately pushing from and pulling towards him, two
upright rods, which moved in joints at the bottom  of the
boat, and were connected to the cranks by horizontal rods
-or pitmen.
FIG. 40.               FiG. 4 1.
The wheels were very light, and of the simplest construed
tion.  One is figured at B. Eight slender arms, of 5-16
square iron, with their inner ends cast in the central piece,




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                 81
extended 20 inches from the centre, and thus made a 40-inch
wheel.  To stiffen them, and transmit any strain upon one
to the whole, they were braced tightly together by the wire,
O O 0, fig. 39, which was wound round each arm, and retained by slight notches at the corners.  The various blades
or paddles were cut out of stout sheet iron.  Square sockets,
to slide over the arms, were riveted to the paddles, by which
means they were readily adjusted and secured at uniform
distance from the axes. All were of the same area-49
inches.
To test the qualities of the boat, and get her into working trim, blades, 7 inches square, fig. 40, were fixed on the
arms of both wheels, and several excursions up and down
the river, made with them. Their dip was 7 inches, or rather
more, for their upper edges were half an inch below the surface. They were next removed fromnone wheel, and left on
the other, as the standard by which to compare the effects of
different shaped ones.  They were distinguished as No. 1.
Nearly all the rest were formed from them: i. e. by removing portions from one part, and adding them to others, as
will be seen in the following diagrams.  In this way there
was no danger of making, through mistake, one set of blades
of larger or of less superficial surface than others, since no
calculation of their areas was required.
In all the figures, the paddles are supposed to sweep
through the water in the position as represented, the lowest
sides being those which descend lowest in the fluid.
Fig. 41 is formed by cutting off the lower angles of fig.
4




82            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
40, and transferring the pieces to the upper ones, making a
right-angled triangle, with sides 10 inches, and hypothenuse
14. (By mistake the upper corners were cut away, so as to
leave the area of these blades 48 square inches instead of
49.) Eight of these were fixed on the wheel (see B, fig.
39), to compete with the same number of fig. 40, on A, both
having seven and a half inches dip.
It will be obvious that, as both sets were attached to the
same shaft, if one proved more'efficient than the other, the
boat would be turned from a straight course, and be inclined,
more or less abruptly, to the weaker, or less efficient set.
The result was, that those marked fig. 40 overcame fig. 41, and
though only in a small degree, yet quite sufficient to
establish their superior effect on the vessel's progress.-As
we were not always out of the influence of tides and slight
breezes, each experiment embraced excursions in various directions on the river. Once or twice the boat went straight
as an arrow, but eventually the square paddles got the
better of the triangular ones.  These dipped into the
water with little noise, and threw it off behind from their
points.
Most of the experiments were made in smooth water,
and, except slight currents —aqueous and aerial-under the
most favorable circumstances. Two persons occupied the
boat, and the greatest care was exercised in preserving the
shaft in a horizontal position. When results were doubtful,
the experiments were repeated, and, generally, several times.




AND STEAM  NAVIGATION.                 83
FIG. 42.        FIG. 43.
The same paddles, fig. 41, were next attached to the arms
in the position represented in the margin, and distinguished
as fig. 43, the upper side being, as in all other instances, 13
inches from the centre of the axis. Through repeated trials,
they overcame the test paddles, fig. 40, and in a rather more
marked manner than fig. 40 surpassed fig. 41.  They entered the water silently, but observers on shore thought they
raised more water behind, but did not raise it as high as fig.
40.-Their points were nearly three inches lower in the
water than the lower edges of fig. 40.  The boat described
a circle of 400 feet, and another of 600.
The same blades were next tried as fig. 42.  From  the
experiment fig. 43, it was inferable that, if inverted, the
effect of the blade on the boat would have a longer sweep
through the water. Such was the fact, and to such a degree,
that first two, and then four, were removed from the arms,
when the remaining four were found equal to the eight of
fig. 40.




84            IHISTORY OF PROPELLERS
FIG. 44.              FIG. 45.
Lastly, the same blades were turned into the position of
fig. 44 (being fig. 41 reversed).-The boat was turned on
40 under all circumstances, describing circles from 80 to
150 feet in diameter. Four of them equalled eight of No.
40.  They were thought to throw  off more water behind
than their competitors, which, from  the greater extent of
their extremities, was probably true.
The next form tried was fig. 40, placed in the position of
fig. 45.  These turned the boat round againt the test ones,
in circles varying from 50 to 200 feet. We then tried six
of them against the other eight, when there was little observable difference in the result. Four were found superior,
but three were unequal to them. These, of course, entered
the water without jarring, and threw it off at their points.
Fig. 46, formed by removing the upper corners below,
as in the figure, seemed to have the advantage of fig. 45.
Four were superior to eight of fig. 40. It was supposed
that a slight accession of resistance to the lower ends,




AND STEAM  NAVIGATION.                  85
FIG. 46.          FIG. 47.
#, 1,tlll_
sweeping through the water, might be derived from opposing
currents meeting in the forks, but we had no means to
ascertain if it existed.
Figure 47 is cut out of plates eight inches square, with
one-fourth (minus a superficial inch) removed, as shown in
the figure. After several excursions, these were thought to
exhibit a very slight advantage over fig. 40; but from subsequent tests, they seemed to be balanced.  Fig. 48 had
a decided preponderance over their competitors. Six predominated slightly over the latter, and four seemed nearly
equal to them.
FIG. 48.           FIG. 49.
Ai..1 t, it'
1A!    i          il[ll(iI




86             HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
Fig. 49 was a semicircle.  They turned the boat in circles varying (from light winds and tides) from 30 to 150
feet.  Four were thought equal, and sometimes superior, to
eight of fig. 40.  It is demonstrable that these blades are
less effective, though in a very small degree, than those
marked fig. 44, and, when reversed, more powerful than
fig. 41.
Fig. 50 was formed as represented but not tried, as it
was evident their value would be nearly that of fig. 44,
probably a shade above them, but too minute to be detected,
except in perfectly still water.
Fig. 51 is a right-angled triangle, 7 inches across the
top, and ending in a point nearly 14 inches below it. These
were more effective than those of fig. 40.  They entered the
water without jarring.
The same were attached to the arms in the position of
fig. 52, and were unable to compete with fig. 40. The latter
had a slight advantage over them.
FIG. 50.        FJG. 51...III,.......     4
iil iI ~ li   ____________l~iii i iiii




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                 8'7
They were next reversed, as fig. 53, when they proved
effectiveas fig. 44, and 49-four being equally so as the
eight opposed to them.
They were finally changed to fig. 54, when the boat was
turned so rapidly, as to make it difficult, with a wide oar, to
keep her in one direction.  Four were removed, and then she
described a circle in less than 50 feet. Two more taken
away, leaving only a couple to act against the eight on the
other wheel, and to which they proved equaL
From  these experiments, it appears that, with equal
areas, and equal dip, triangular blades may be rendered
twice as effective as ordinary rectangular ones. This is
made manifest by figs. 44, 49, and 53,-four of the former
equalling eight of the latter.  And this, too, while the propelling surface of the smaller number was half that of the
greater; for the four were as long in making a revolution, as
were the eight.  Hence, the speed of a boat may be increased by diminishing the number of her paddles-a fact still
further elucidated by fig. 54.
FIG. 52.    FIG. 53.    FIG. 54.
___'      g it




88            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
There can, says Mr. Ewbank, be little doubt, that the
greater the velocity of a steamer's wheels, the fewer (within
certain limits) should be the blades; and that, at the rate at
which some of our boats go, the number might be reduced
with advantage.  Some have three, others four, and in more
than one vessel, without any load on board, submerged at
each wheel. In these cases, is it not evident that each blade,
on entering, plunges, not, as it ought, in water undisturbed,
but into that which preceding ones have already broken up
and set in motion towards the stern?  It would seem that
one in the act of plunging, another sweeping under the shaft,
and a third leaving the surface, are all that are necessary to
be kept up; and that a greater number, as regards the speed
of a boat, is positively injurious.  Yet under a vague idea of
attaining a higher speed, the number of paddles has frequently been nearly doubled.
Snow, as every person knows, causes the wheels of land
locomotives to slip upon, instead of rolling over the rail.
They revolve as usual, but the carriages make little progress,
hence much of the power spent on them is expended to no
purpose. So it is with paddle-wheels: a boat never progresses in the ratio of their revolutions, because of the yielding medium in which, and against which, they act.  They
slip always —a result, to some extent, inevitable when massive solids wade through fluids. The distance between the
Atlantic steamers' docks, in Liverpool and New-York, has
been calculated at 3023 miles, but their paddles, in each
turip pass over a. space varying from 5000 to 80Q0 miles.  In




iA.ND STEr AM NAIGATION.              89
FIG. 55.
steamers unaided by sails, the disproportion is often greater.
Now can this be modified, by giving the paddles a better
hold on the fluid they sweep through  The experiments
with blades 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 53, and 54,
furnish replies to the interrogatory.The moral of the foregoing experiments is this:-As the
propelling power of a paddle is greatest at its lower or outer
extremity, and diminishes to nothing at the surface, so its
face should enlarge with the dip, and be nothing, or next to
nothing, above.  Let D, fig. 55, represent the end of an ordinary blade, or paddle. Its upper part barely touches the
water, and only for the moment it is in the position shown.
But suppose it were immersed to the line E E, —say four or
five inches —it would even then be no sooner under, than
above the surface again, so brief would be its immersion.
The lower edge, in the meanwhile, would sweep along the
extended curve there delineated.




90             HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
FIG. 56..
The Report again says " the extension of the lower part
of the paddle and its contraction above, is nature's own
plan," and this it sets forth by the annexed diagrams of the
tails of fast and slow fishes.  Fig. 56 shows the combination
of the tails of a fast and slow swimming fish and a steamer's
blade.  The dark part of the figure O O O is the caudal
paddle of a fress-water bass, a slow swimmer, and to give it
the speed of the dolphin it should be constructed with the
lobes, F F (dolphin) which will- have the same material as
O O 0, but the propelling lever will extend further from the
fulcrum, and will have a longer sweep, and therefore exert
their force to propel for a longer period on the water.




ANSD STEAM NAVIGATION.                91
FIG. 57.
A.......
C    I.
Suppose W, the water line and the parallelogram V V, a
steamer's blade, attached to the arms S S. The vessel's
speed is required to be increased.  How is it to be attained?
Almost always by adding to the surface laterally at V V.
Thus, as has been remarked, the ocean steamers now in progress in New York-supposed to embrace every possible
improvement-have the paddle planks 14 feet, (some boats
have them 22 feet!) stretching that distance from each side
of the vessels; as if half the surface, disposed after nature's
mode, would not be equally sufficient and with the same
power; for, saving of power is as essential a result of ima



02          F t ~T gIST1OI tIr 011 PJtJ.ROP.lLERS;
proverment in form, as of approaching the truth in any other
particular.
Suppose P P, fig. 57, represents one of those enormous
blades about to be enlarged to make a vessel go faster, is it
not apparent that by altering its figure to that shown by the
dark tint, the rule of nature being followed, superior results
must ensue? and this not by adding to, but actually clispensing with about one half of the propelling surface.  Were
the boundaries extended to the dotted lines, the area would
still be nearly one third less than the original.  In this type
of blade a quality unknown in common ones is relieved, viz.,
every horizontal section bears a like amount of strain, and
contributes equally to the work done, although their areas
differ so materially; thus the portion included between the
lines A P, from the larger sweep it has to take, equals the
larger portion between P P; and for the same reason, the
section A B3 equals A P; —increased range compensating
for diminished surface. [This is a point which, I believe, no
engineer has yet brought oaul:.  The idea is a new one in artificial propelling.]  In this, also, we see there is nothing accidental, or without deep meanings in nature's works.
The ordinary mnode of increasing the efficacy of paddles
has been to widen the levers instead of lengthening them.
Thus the jar arising from 14 to 20 feet planks striking the water, is a constant source of destruction to both vessel and machinery, while with blades, as figured above, it is annihilated,
and the enormous amount of power consumed by it, saved.
Having presented the main.points of the Report of Mr.




A.ND  TI     NAV)I,'IT-ATP.[MIO N\r,
Ewbank, Commissioner of Patents, so as to convey a clear
idea of his experiments and the conclusion at which he arrived, as to what constituted the best form of blades for propelling vessels, we will now conclude our extracts from the
same with the following illustration:FIG. 58.
A/..
[__._
Devices for readily lengthening and shortening the arms,
so as to vary the dip with the chlanging draught of a vessel,
and accurately to adapt it to the power of her engines, are
worth adopting.




94           HIISTORY OF PROPELLERS
The principle is of course equally applicable to stern submerged propellers, revolving sculls or screws. In these the
ancient forms are the latest also. Those last patented were
proposed over a century ago. A is an outline of Woodcroft's,
patented here in 1846, and in England previously. Those of
Stevens, Loper, Ericson, Smith, and a host of others, have
the same sectorial form. Their resemblance to the tails of
slow-swimming fish is obvious to every eye. Would it not
be better to make each more like the lobe of the most agile
and swift, as at B B   A rectangular blade-not unlike one
belonging to a paddle-wheel attached to the axis endwise, as
at C C, has also been recommended, though on what grounds
it is not easy to perceive. The Great Britain steamship had
blades resembling those figured at C C.
Mr. Ewbank inculcates the lesson of following nature in
mechanical philosophy, as being the best guide; and in reference to propulsion, he says, " if ever nature took extra pains
to teach engineers a lesson, she has done it here, and let
them never forget that nature and natural philosophy are
never at variance."  While we subscribe to the latter sentiment, we would state that the only difficulty in the way of
following after nature, lies in our acquaintance with, or ignorance of, anatere's laws,-and more than this, man must look
to more than the sight of his eyes to follow after in nature,
so as to guide him in mechanical philosophy.  The God of
Heaven has given him reason to lead him above a mere copyist —to be a creato~r in his own world, himself-because he is
formed in the image of his Creator, who made him lord of
the world,




AND STEAM NA.VIGATION.                95
If man had never soared above natural presented objects, he never would have constructed a carriage to move on
wheels. The first locomotive was constructed with legs,
like a deer, because the swiftest of animals used such propellers, but such a method of propulsion was not equal to
rolling wheels; and in what part of nature's labyrinth did
Stephenson get his first lesson of the " Rocket?"  The same
kind of reasoning is applicable to the paddle-wheels of
steamboats.  No fish or fowl uses rotary propellers; all of
them employ reciprocating propellers; and it was copying after nature which led the ingenious Earl of Stanhope to employ what is termed the "Duck's-foot propeller."  It is well
known, as we have shown iii the preceding parts of our history of propellers, that the devices for this purpose are
"'legion," while none have been able to maintain the field
against the oblong rectangular blades of the paddle-wheels,
as they are at present constructed. We must consider every
obstacle which has to be overcome; and when we reflect
upon the mighty storms of the Atlantic, the huge waves
beating against the vessel's sides like battering rams, we
must look to strength in construction, as well as to the best
form for speed.  The race-horse for the race-course, the hunter for the wood and the wild.
We believe, however, that our screw propellers should
adopt the ideas presented in Fig. 58; the improvement appears to be like a self-evident axiom, requiring no debate.




96             HISTORY 0 1 P1RO U:I0 LERRS
BIRANMIS PADDLE WHEEL.
FIG. 59.
It has often been attempted to place the floats of paddlewheels oblique, in order to allow the blades to enter the
water with an increasing surface, upon the principle of the
wedge, to reduce the tremulous motion of the vessel, caused
by the direct action of tile common blades upon the water.
Among the many plans for this purpose, we present one patented by a Mr. Biram, an English engineer.
In figure 59 we have a side view, and figure 60 is a perspective view.
In this the floats, A, are supposed to be made of iron
plate, and consist of two parts; one part is a flat plate,
riveted to the ring and arm, and this is met by a second
plate, slightly curved and set obliquely to the axis of the
paddle,  By this arrangement the float enters the water




AND STEAMsi  NAVIGATION.              97
gradually, and communicates to it an angular motion at
right angles to its own plane.  The water, as it recedes from
the oblique float, is thrown upon the parallel side-plate, and
being thus confined, it is supposed to give the same amount
of reaction as would be produced by action of the common
float.
FIG. 60.
It will be observed that the action of the floats upon the
water is angular, as is fully shown.
The placing of a single paddle obliquely on the face of
the wheel, is something which has not been thought of by a
single individual, but by quite a number.  The paddle
wheel here presented (Fig. 61) was fairly tried on a very
fine steamboat, called the Superb, built in Glasgow, Scotland, a place famous for steamship-building, and for experi



98           IHISTORY OF PROPELLERS
DOUBLE OBLIQUE PADDLES.
FIG. 61.
ments in marine navigation, and was thought for a while to
be superior to the common paddle-wheel, but on the whole,
after a fair trial of its merits, the old wheel towered above
it in utility, and laid it on the shelf.
Instead of the floats A A A in this paddle-wheel, being
placed parallel to the. shaft, they are fixed at a considerable




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                 99
angle to it, and in alternate opposition to one another, each
float projecting beyond that opposite to it. By placing the
floats in these relative positions, the amount of direct resistance upon the water does not seem to be diminished; while
the oblique direction in which the floats enter into and
emerge from the water, as well as the water being drawn as
it were into the interior of the wheel between the floats,
there is less of that back lift and dashing of the water
against the sides of the vessel, than there is with the common paddles.
The principal advantage-and we consider it a very important desideratum which this paddle seems to possess-is
the diminution of tremor in the vessel.
RENNIE S EXPERIMENTS IN PADDLE WHEELS.
The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal, of September, 1849, contains an article from George Rennie, so well
known as an experienced engineer, on the subject of the
form of paddles, which has been represented in the Franklin Journal. It refers to the experiments of Mr. Ewbank
with marked respect, and says:The facts developed by his experiments may be briefly
stated: they are as follows --
1st. That, with equal areas and equal dip, triangular
blades may be rendered twice as effective as ordinary
rectangular ones; and this, too, while the propelling surface




100            HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
of the smaller number of floats was only half that of the
greater.
2d. That, as the propelling power of a paddle is greatest
at its greater or outer extremity, and diminishes to nothing
at the surface, so its face should enlarge with the dip, and
be nothing above-in imitation of the tails of fishes, the
wings of birds, &c.
3d. That the fewer the number of paddles on a wheel
the better, provided one be always kept in full play; and,
4th. That it would be more advantageous to point or
fork them as proposed, to evade the jar of their striking the
surface.
FIG. 62.
(Modifications of Orditlary System.)




AND STEAM  NAVIGATION.                 101
In the year 1831, he says, my attention was attracted to
this subject during the investigations undertaken for the
purpose of ascertaining the laws of the friction and resistance of solids in motion in fluids, such as air and water;
when, on causing discs or plates of metal to rotate round a
fixed axle, by means of weights descending through given
spaces and times, it was found that when a certain portion
(one-fourth) of a rectangular disc or fan was intercepted,
FIG. 63.
(Improved Trapezium System.)
from the interior part of the rectangle, so as to approximate
to the form of a duck's foot, the resistance, whether through
air or water, was the same-or, in other words, the resistance with three triangular or duck-footed floats was as great
as previously with four rectangular floats.  This apparent
paradox was, however, accounted for on the principle of the




102           HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
interior or detrimental portion of the rectangular float being
removed.
IMPROVED TRIANGULAR SYSTEM, WHEN THE VESSEL IS UPRIGHT.
FIG. 64.
A series of experiments on two other vessels was again
made in the years 1839, 1840, and 1841, by applying different shaped floats to paddle wheels of different diameters and
widths, and on steam vessels of different powers, of from 6
to 90 horses-an abstract of some of which was published
in 1840.
The following are the particulars of the " African,"' when
tried in 1837, previous to her being tried in 1841:




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                103
Length between perpendiculars, 109 feet, 11 inches.
Extreme breadth,    -    -    24  "  10  "
Mean draught, -    -    -       9  "   4  "
Depth,    -         -    -    10  "   0  "
Nominal power of engines (by Maudsleys and Field) 45
horses, or 90 horses together.
Number of strokes made by the engine per minute, 20
to 30.
Barometer gauge, 24 to 26,- inches.
Area of immersal midship section, 150 square feet.
Mean diameter of the paddle-wheels, 14.7.
Area of the immersal rectangular floats, on the cycloidal
or Galloway system, twelve in number, 7 feet in length and
1 foot 9 inches in breadth; thus presenting an area of from
57 to 60 square feet, being a ratio of 1 foot of float to 1'6
midship section.
IMPROVED TRIANGULAR SYSTEIM WHEN THE VESSEL IS INCLINED.
FIG. 65.




104:          HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
When this trial was made, in 1837, at the measured mile
in Long Reach, her average speed, of six trials each, was
9'174 statute miles per hour,. with her rectangular floats.
Subsequently she was employed for towing, and other purposes, and had never undergone any other repairs than in
her engines, and had never been in dry dock; her bottom
was consequently foul, and covered with green weeds when
tried with the trapezium floats in 1841.
Experiments on H. M. steamer "African," with trapezium floats.-All the rectangular floats, twelve in number on
each wheel, were removed, and twelve trapezium floats were
fixed to the interior and middle rings of each wheel. X X
is the water-line.
Thus making the area of the immersed floats 34 square
feet.
Number of revolutions made by engines, 23  per minute.
Mean speed of vessel in statute miles, 9-1.
Mean diameter of wheels, 17 feet.
Comparing the whole of the experiments, when tried in
still water, under the most favorable circumstances, and
when tried in the " African," under the unfavorable circumstances of foul bottom, and difference of the powers of the
engines, the conclusion is in favor of the trapezium floats.
The truth of the principle is confirmed by Mr. Ewbank, and
by the laws which govern the forms of the tails of fishes,
the feet of aquatic birds, and the wings of birds and insects,
whereby the means are so admirably suited to the ends;
and the triangular form, proposed by Mr. Ewbank for pad



AND STEAMB  NAVIGATION.             105
die floats, entirely confirms the view I took of the subject in
the years 1839 and 1840.
HOLLOW CONICAL PADDLES.
FiG. 66.
The accompanying engraving represents the paddles
made of hollow cones, A A, made of metal of a sufficient
thickness, and cut at the vertex at right angles to the plane
of its base, so as to divide them into two equal parts, which
are affixed to the arms, B B, as represented.  These halfcones may vary in number. The best form is the half-cone
with the angle of 32 degrees at the plane of the base; but
by extending the surface of the half-cone a greater propelling force is the result. This invention is the subject of a
patent in England; the inventor being a Gent., as he styles
himself, named Thomas Parlour, of Holloway.
5




106           HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
STEVENS NEW PLAN TO INCREASE THE SPEED OF STEAMBOATS,
FIG. 67.
A great number have heard that Mr. PFrancis B. Stevens,
of Hoboken, N. Y., had invented a new plan for increasing
the speed of steamboats, by interposing a stratum of air between the immersed surface of the vessel and the water, but
few know any more about it, although it has been patented
both in America and in Europe, since 1847.
Fig. 67 is a longitudinal section through the bottom
of the vessel; and fig. 68 is a transverse section; A A
are the timbers of the bottom  of the vessel, and B  is
FIG. 68.
_-_ —..-~-_ E-F —------
8     S       f;  r




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                107
the planking; C C are pieces of planking of an angular
shape, shown first on the planking forming a series of recesses upon the bottom of the vessel, or these recesses may
be formed out of the planking itself.  These recesses are in
a series, divided by strips, D, and run along the whole
length of the vessel. Running fore and aft along the whole
bottom, inside, are trunks, E E, from which are small branch
pipes, F F, through the bottom of the vessel, one at least
for each recess, and terminating on the outside, behind the
angular shaped pieces, C C. This position of the pipes behind the base of the angles, C C, prevents the water from
entering the pipes when the vessel is in motion. The bases
of the angular pieces being laid towards the stern of the
vessel, the main pipes, E, communicate with the air-compressing apparatus, by which the air is forced in through
the system of conduits, and the recesses kept charged with
a stratum of atmospheric air.
A steamboat constructed upon this plan has been employed by Mr. Stevens, and was laid up a short time since
at iHoboken, affording an opportunity for examining her
construction.  It does not appear to embrace any economical principle, whereby, with the same power, the speed of a
steamboat can be increased in the least.




108           HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
CHAPTER  VII.
SCREW PROPELLERS,
IT is not possible for us to assign the invention of the screw
propeller to the first inventor, whoever he may be. The
screw has been claimed by America and England. Mr.
Hutchings, in his defence of John Fitch, exhibits his steamboat with side-wheels, and a screw at the stern likewise.
The accompanying figure, 69, was the plan of a propeller proposed by Woodcroft, having one spiral on each
Fls. 69.




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.               109
side. The form of the screw was that of an increasing
pitch-the correct form. An account of it was first published by Partingdon, in 1834. It was a screw wrapped
round a shaft, and the increasing pitch of the blade enabled
each part to act upon the water. The principle of this invention consists in making the water a nut and the spiral a
screw, acting upon the water, to propel the vesssel.
It was not until 1839 that the principle of propelling
steamships by a screw-blade was fairly brought before the
world, and for this we are indebted, as almost every adult
will remember, to Mr. F. P. Smith, of London. He was the
man who first made the screw propeller practically useful.
Aided by spirited capitalists, he built a large steamer named
the "Archimedes," and the results obtained from her at
once arrested public attention. This engraving represents
the double-threaded screw employed on the Archimedes. A
large proportion of the complete screw having no useful effect, a great portion of the central part of this one was cut
away, so that the form should offer but little resistance to
the water, yet act upon it by the blades so as to obtain
full power in propulsion. But this screw had not a very
good effect upon the water, as the arms formed by the ends
of the blades obstructed its free passage. Although the
trial of the Archimedes was very satisfactory, it was evident
that there was a great deal of what is termed slip, by such
a screw, and this fact was always made manifest when the
vessel was backed.




110           HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
FOUR-BLADED FRENCH PROPELLER.
FiG. 70.
This is a propeller which was employed on a French
Mail Boat, named the Napoleon, in 1842. Fig. 70 exhibits
a front, and fig. 71 a side view. This propeller was fixed in
a space or opening abaft the usual stern-post (to which, in
an ordinary vessel, the rudder would be hung), and inside
of another stern-post, which was erected on a prolongation
of the keel, farther aft, for sustaining the rudder, so as to
leave a space between the two posts, for the reception of the
propeller; The centre of the propeller was 6 feet beneath
the surface of the water; its diameter was 7 feet 6 inches,
and the highest point of its periphery was 2 feet 3 inches
below the water line, when the mean draft of water aft was
about 11'82 feet.




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                  111
Four propellers of the same diameter, but of different
forms; were made, of cast-iron, and were tried with various
success. The propellers had been altered several times;
and it was found that within certain limits, by cutting away
the ends so as to shorten the length of the screw, which had
also the effect of diminishing the surface of the blades, the
speed of the vessel was increased, and the vibration was reduced; a portion of this effect had, howeverbeen attributed
to using four arms. A propeller with three blades, occupying the whole of the circle, was first tried; others which
presented less central surface answered better; and the best
(which is still in use) had four blades, which occupied sixtenths of the area of the circle, when viewed in the direction
of the axis, leaving four-tenths of that area vacant for the
free escape of the water between the blades, whose obliquity
was such as to produce an advance of 10 feet 3 inches in a
revolution.
FIG. 71.




[112          HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
The motion was communicated to the propeller by a spurwheel of 126 teeth, working into a pinion of 20 teeth, which
gave nearly 6- revolutions for each stroke of the engine, or
about 120 revolutions of the propeller per minute. The ordinary speed of the vessel, without any sails being used, was
10 knots) or 11I statute miles per hour.
CONOIDAL SCREW PROPELLER,.
This is a screw, fig. 72, of three blades, invented by
Messrs. Rennie, of London, and applied by them, in 1839, to
a steamer named the Dwarf.  Friction wheels were first
used for giving motion to the propeller, but on account of
their noise and slipping, they were abandoned, and spurwheels, with wooden teeth, substituted.  It made about 150
revolutions per minute. The advantage of this form of screw
over the one represented last, is an increasing pitch, so formed that while the propeller is rotating on its axis, the vessel
is advancing-thus making far less slip.  These blades are
curved conoids, therefore they have variable curves approximating to angles from 270 to 300. It was 5 feet 10 inches
diameter, and had an area of about 15 square feet, and in
smooth water propelled the vessel at the rate of 12 miles
per hour,-the vessel being 164 tons burden, with engines of
70 horse power. In 1843 this vessel ran 200 miles in 23
hours, and used 10 tons of coal in 27 hours, from the time
of getting up the steam. This propeller had a slip of oneeighth. The superiority of the conoid propeller was set,




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                113
forth to be the best, as being formed after nature's laws and
the swiftest of fishes. The opening towards the centre of
motion by reducing the arms of the screw blades, as far as
strength would allow (as the rotative motion towards the
centre is less than the circumference), reduced a tendency to
centrifugal action on the water. The gradual alteration of
the angle of the blade to the axis of the screw or outward
path of the vessel, affords a greater onward action of the
blade at the entrance, whilst it gradually curves round to
nearly a right angle with the path, so as to leave the water
without causing a revulsion. The salmon, when it makes a
run, puts down all its side fins, and solely by the oblique
action of the tail, is propelled forward with great force and
speed, so as to leave the water without revulsion; the flexible nature and curving form of the tail contributes to this
object.
FIG. 72.
4/
5*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~;




114           HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
THE LIVERPOOL SCREW.
Figures 73 and 74 represent what is termed the " Liverpool Screw." It is made on Woodcroft's plan. It has four
blades, with broad shovel ends, set at a mean angle of 450.
It is termed the Liverpool screw, because it was applied to
the steamer of that name.
FIG. 73.
With respect to a screw of equal, and one of an increasing pitch, Mr. Woodcroft tried a fair experiment with two
such, of equal area, placed at the stern of a vessel, and he
found that the screw of an increasing pitch gave the greatest
impulse to the vessel, turning it from its direct course-thus
showing that the two forces were unequal-the greatest effect
being produced by the screw of an increasing pitch.




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.              115
FIG. 74.
The amount of slip in a screw is not so well known, owing
to the difference of opinion about the best form and the proper diameter of the screws.  The four-bladed Liverpool
Screw, was enlarged three times, and every time improved the speed of the vessel. The speed of the engines
remaining the same. This was no doubt owing to its being
too small at first. The area of a propeller must be in proportion to the body to be moved, but what that area should
be precisely, is not yet generally understood. In paddles it
is well known that the vessel does not move through the same
space as the wheels, the difference being 1000 for paddles,
and 739 for the speed of the vessel.
The following formula from Tredgold is laid down by
Galloway to determine what pitch a screw should have:-:" To the speed in feet per minute add the amount of slip,




116           lHISTORY OF PROPELLERS
and divide by the number of revolutions, the resultand is
the answer.  Thus, intended speed of vessel 10 miles per
hour or (860) feet per minute; the amount of slip 2 miles or
(172) feet per minute; number of revolutions, 120 feet per
minute:
860+172
— 8 6 feet.
120
ERICSON PROPELLER.
FIG. 75.
It is a number of years since the screw propeller was introduced into America, and in March 1834, a patent was
granted to John B. Emerson for a submerged propeller.
The first specification of Emerson was a bungling business,
and the patent with it was not worth a snuff, as it had not a
correct drawing attached; but a second drawing was filed




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                117
after the patent was granted, and in a trial for infringement
of his patent against Hogg & Delameter, the jury found a
verdict for Emerson, and against the propeller known as
"Ericson's Propeller," which is now presented as applied to
the Princeton, an American frigate.  The Princeton was 164
feet long, with a breadth of beam of 30 feet; the depth of
the hold was 22 feet 6 inches, the draught of water was
17 feet 6 inches, and the burthen about 700 tons; the
propeller was 14 feet in diameter, with six blades, and
made from 33 to 36 revolutions per minute, at which
rate the vessel's speed was stated to be nearly 14 miles per
hour. The engines were about 400 horse power; they were
of peculiar construction, having two steam cylinders, or
chests, containing vibrating pistons or flaps, with cranks upon
the ends of the suspending pivots, both these were coupled
by connecting rods to a main crank on the driving shaft;
the length of these cranks being so proportioned that their
alternate vibrations should give a rotary motion to the main
crank, and thus act directly upon the propeller, without the
intervention of bands or gearing.
We have seen many flattering notices of connecting the
pistons by direct action with the propeller shaft, and have
heard many objections to the use of cog gearing in propellers,
but the argument seems all to be in favor of the cog gearing,
when the master wheel has good wooden teeth.  The " City
of Glasgow " is connected in this way, and if there is one
fact stronger than another to give force to her arrangement
of gearing, it is her success,




118            HIISTORY OF PROPELLERS
jFIG. 76.
The accompanying engravings, 75 and 76, represent the
Ericson propeller applied to the Princeton and to the Robert
Stockton, the latter vessel being tried successfully on the
river Thames as a tug boat, in 1839. It was named after
Commodore Stockton, who introduced the screw into the
American navy.  The propeller, figures 73 and 74, some
have contended was the best form of all, as the broad shovel
ends were fixed at a mean angle of 45o. It was the one
preferred by Woodcroft, as adopted, and termed the "Liverpool Screw."
The advantage of the Ericson screw, is in having a ring
within the arms, whereby any number of blades can be fixed,
and a large area of surface obtained.




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                119
LOPER S PROPELLER.
FIG. 77.
This propeller is the invention of Captain Loper, of
Philadelphia, and its good character is so well established,
that it requires no further eulogy than to say, that more of
these kind of propellers are now employed on vessels in the
United States than any other, and on vessels of every class
of burden, from the small canal boat to the first-class steamship.
The accompanying engraving represents the Loper Propeller, as applied to the trial U. S. Revenue Steamer
"Spencer."  The diameter of the propeller is eight feet,
width of blade at hub two feet three inches-at outside four
feet four inches. The angle of the blades at the hub 30~,




120           HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
at the outside 540. It was driven by the common intermediate gearing of cog-wheel and pinion.
Screw propulsion has received the earnest attention of
eminent engineers in America and Europe, and is now regarded as more economical than side wheels, but only as
auxiliary to sails, for they are not so fast as steamers with
side wheels.
Whatever may be said of the different kinds of bladed
screw propellers, there does not seem to be one superior to
the Woodcroft Propeller.  The Sarah Sands and the City
of Glasgow are fitted with this kind, and they are the only
two steamships which have attempted the regular navigation
of the Atlantic. The latter steam propeller has done wonders: its success has induced the contemplation of a "Line
of Propellers " by a powerful company, to ply in the merchant service, between New-York and Liverpool.
The question of exclusive steam navigation is only one
of economy, and the auxiliary screw propeller presents advantages in this respect, which are worthy of serious consideration by all those engaged in the shipping business.
The city of Philadelphia is the seat of constructing
American Propellers, and there the " Loper Propeller," is
the favorite. At the present moment, at a single establishment in Kensington, of Messrs. Reaney, Neafe & Co., machinery is now in the progress of construction for nine
"Loper Propellers."  This shows in what a favorable light
this propeller is regarded.




AND STEA)M NAVIGATION.                121
BEADON S PRiOPELLER.
This is rather a singular propeller in form. It is the
invention of Commander Beadon, R.N., and was patented
in 1846. The arms for the blades formed one of the claims.
The scroll form of the arms on which to attach the blades,
will be familiar to every millwright who is acquainted with
Whitelaw and Stirratt's water wheel.  The scroll arms have
been claimed as being superior to the radial arms, and also
attaching the blades directly to the shaft, owing to the extremities of screw propellers being the most effective portions of them.  This is a fact, as it has been found expedient to reduce the blades of propellers (as much as is possible, consistent with strength) near to the shaft. Curved
blades have also been preferred to the flat, so as to act only
tangentially against the water. The rotate curve is given
to the arm, increasing gradually from the centre, as in a
volute.
FiG. 78.
-
A is the shaft; C C  are the curved arms; D D the propelling blade. Two curved arms may be used to support
the blade.




122           HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
The form of a blade essentially different from Ericson
and others, has also been proposed by the same inventor,
and this is represented in
FIG. 79.
and is held to be a double propeller. The blades are secured to a long boss at each end, and the form of them, instead of being the mere segment of a screw, is that of a
spheroid.
There are as many different opinions about propellers as
there are about water wheels, and we have shown what a
beautiful variety there is-the only way to do good.
In connection with the above English propeller, we have
heard that a somewhat unique propeller has been invented
there by a Mr. McIntosh, of Sheffield. It is called "MMcIntosh's Improved Flexible Propeller." It is made of steel,
well hammered and tempered, and set on an angle on the




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                123
revolving shaft. When at rest, it is a perfect plane, but
when in action it forms a screw, and by the flexibility of the
steel, assumes a finer or coarser pitch according to the
strength of the adverse action of the water through which
it moves. This circumstance imparts to the vessel and machinery an easy action, especially in a rough and heavy sea,
which has never been attained by the rigid screws now in
use. Propellers manufactured according to this patent are
not more than half the weight of those made of cast metal,
though the forgings are the largest yet attempted to be
made from steel. It has been ascertained by experiment,
that in point of speed there is at least twenty per cent.
gained. In a heavy sea or rough weather this propeller can
be easily hoisted on board by means of a simple block and
tackle, thus saving the expense of the machinery now used
for raising the cast metal ones; and, from being malleable
and tough, does away with the risk of breakage which
necessarily ensues in the moving of a cumbersome piece of
cast-metal.  In cost there is a saving of about fifty per cent.
This is considered one of the greatest improvements yet
made in marine propulsion. Four of these propellers have
already been made and brought into use, and as a proof of
the high estimation in which they are held, it may be stated
that (the Lords of the Admiralty have ordered) her Majesty's steam-vessel Bee, the swiftest screw-vessel afloat, is to
be fitted out with one of these propellers in preference to
the rigid screw.
A very simple and beautiful propeller has been invented




124           HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
and patented by Alexander Bond, of Philadelphia. It is a
Sculling Propeller, and has only one blade. Alternately it
is moved by a very ingenious mechanism from side to side
of the keel at the stern, slipping forward parallel with its
edge against the water alongside of the keel, and then
striking backwards at an angle of about 450.




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.               125
CHAPTER VIII.
RIVER STEAMBOATS.
IN America the river steamboat differs materially from the
marine steamship.  This difference is unknown in Britain,
because the rivers there are so near the sea, that all the
steamboats have been and must be built to withstand its
buffetings.
The accompanying engraving is a vertical section of the
American Condensing Engine, for river boats. A minute
description of all the parts is not required, as our objeet is
mainly to show its application to propulsion; nevertheless,
this view of the engine will serve to convey a very correct
idea of its relative parts. A is the steam cylinder; B is the
piston rod passing up through a stuffing box and connected
with the beam; C is the steam pipe coming from the boiler;
O is the steam chest, and J is one of the rods to operate the
valves; D is the injection pipe, which communicates with the
water through the bottom of the boat, and it enters into the
condenser, S, below the cylinder; E is the air pump which
draws off the water and air in the condenser into a reservoir,




126         HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
FIG. 80.
OA*1'Agj
it, I   tj/', 




AND STE AM NAVIGATIOmN.             127
whence it passes down a pipe through the bottom of the boat.
A continual stream of water rushes up the pipe, D, into the
condenser, to condense the steam suddenly, to form a vacuum; F is a force pump, to supply the boiler with water; I-I
is a crank secured on the main or wheel shaft, and attached
by a pin to the connecting rod of the beam. On the main
shaft is a rocking rod, I, which runs forward and hooks over
a cross shaft in front of the steam chamber. This shaft is
rocked by the rod I, which is worked by an eccentric to oscilate large curved prongs or toes in front, which act upon
other prongs on the rods,'J, and thus lift the valves, and allow them to close. G is the paddle-wheel. When the steam
is rushing in at one end of the cylinder, it is rushing out at
the exhaust into the condenser, at the other.  There are
four valve rods on one engine, two on one side work the exhaust valves, and two on the other side work the steam
valves. These open and close alternately, giving motion to
the beam, which, by the crank TI, changes the reciprocating
motion of the piston rod into rotary motion on the main
shaft, thus propelling the paddle-wheels.
When steamboats were first built, it was supposed that
they were fit only for river navigation, —this was Fulton's
opinion. The great inland navigation of the United States
has been the means of producing a class of steamboats which
are perfectly national, and which have no rivals for speed
and splendor in the world.
It is generally conceded that we are more indebted to R.
L. Stevens, of New-York, for improvements in our river




128           HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
boats, than to any other person. It is indeed true, that we
see in the above condensing engine nothing more than the
principles embraced in that of Watt-excepting the manner
of working the valves by "Stevens' Cut Off," which is very
superior to the old tappet arrangement of Watt's engine, as
is also the upright guides for the piston rod, which is superior to the parallel motion,-this also was introduced by
Stevens.
The engines of the American river boats are worked on
the principle of the Cornwall Engines-the stroke of the
piston being long, and the steam used expansively. This is
an economical practical advantage. Mr. Adam, of West
Point Foundry, was the gentleman, as stated by Prof. Renwick, who introduced this system.
The form of the American steamboat is beautiful and
clean for speed: they have fine clean runs, and bows like razors. They divide the water instead of pushing it up before
them, and they are so long, that the divided element gradually unites towards the stern, pushing forward the vessel,
instead of forming a partial vacuum behind, as in the oldfashioned short blunt boats. They are long and narrow,
some being in length twelve times more than in breadth of
beam.
There is one peculiarity about the American river steamboats, viz., their huge wheel-houses. The paddle-wheels of
the New World, which runs in the North River, are 46 feet
in diameter. The Alida is another fast boat, has wheels 31~
feet diameter, and the Thomas Powell, a smaller boat by a




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.               129
great deal than either of the other two, has 40-feet wheels.
There does not appear to be any adopted rule for the size
of the wheels according to the size of the vessel.
The Lake and River navigation of America are unequalled in any other land under the sun. It may be said, that
the United States of America enjoy both a home and foreign
commerce within themselves.  The number of steamboats
navigating all their waters, cannot be less than 2000 at the
present moment. They are all propelled as represented in
figure 81. The engines employed are the high and low pressure kind. All of them would employ the condensing engine
if it were not for the little draught which is necessary for the
navigation of some of the shallow rivers. The accidents
by the high pressure boats, are as two to one in comparison
with the low pressure.  This should cause their abandonment as a matter of humanity.
The American river boats often run at a speed of over
20 miles an hour, and some of them can make 30 miles.
Scott Russell says respecting American River Steamboats, "they stand in every respect-in science, in speed,
in beauty, in magnitude-unparalleled by the river steamers of Britain, or those of any other country."
For the past fifteen years we have noticed a gradual enlargement of the paddle-wheels on the finest river steamboats,
and there has been a gradual increase of speed.
Large wheels allow the paddles to enter the water nearer to a vertical position and to rise in the same manner, than
small wheels, hence there is less concussion when they enter
6




130           HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
the water, and less lift of water on the blade when rising,
and these are important advantages in propelling. Aside
from all theorizing, practice has proven the truth of this
conclusion.




,AD STEAM NAVIGATION.               131:CHAPTER IX.
OCEAN NAVIGATION-THE MARINE STEAM ENGINE.
AFTER Henry Bell had established steamboat navigation in
Europe, it was still a question whether they could or could
not be employed for open sea navigation. Nautical men entertained the opinion that they were unfit for any other
than smooth water and sunshine voyages.  There was
one man, however, who thought differently.  This was
4George Dodd, a London engineer, and a young man of great
resolution. He went down to Scotland and purchased the
Argyle steamboat, which used to ply between Glasgow and
Greenoek, 20 miles. She was 79 feet keel, 16 feet beam,
had an engine of 14 horse power, and her paddle-wheels
were nine feet in diameter.  Messrs. Wood, of Greenock
were the builders. She was purchased by a company to run
on the Thames, and cost about 15,000 dollars.
The vessel was exclusively appropriated to the conveyance of passengers. The engine occupied the middle of the
vessel, the boiler being placed on the starboard side, and the
cylinder and fly-wheel on the larboard.  The smoke was




132'           HI-ISTORY OF PROPELLERS
carried off by a funnel, which also did duty as a mast, and
carried a large square sail.  It seems, indeed, to have been
the anxious wish of the constructors of the early steamrmboats,
to disguise the ugly, smoking chimney, under the designation of a mast, and some even went so far as to raise up a
topmast in the thick folds of the dense smoke.
His crew consisted of a mate, four seamen, an engineer,
a stoker, and. a cabin-boy.  It was not without heavy misgivings: on the part of many persons in Glasgow, that Dodd
started for his long voyage; but, full of confidence in his
vessel and crew, he boldly put to sea in May, 1815. The
commencement of his voyage was far from auspicious, the
weather was most unfavorable, and the sea ran extremely
high in the narrow channel separating Scotland from Ireland.  In consequence of ilhe negligence or misunderstanding of the pilot, who had altered the course of the vessel
during the night, they ran a great risk of being wrecked.
At break of day a heavy gale was blowing, and it was discovered, that instead of being off the coast of Ireland, they
were within half a league of a lee rock-bound shore, two
miles to the north of Port Patrick.  It blew too hard to attempt to beat off by the united power of sails and steam;
Dodd, therefore, depending entirely on the power of his engine, laid the vessel's head directly to windward, and
ordered the log to be kept constantly going.  It-was soon
ascertained, to the great satisfaction of all on board, that the
vessel was clearing the shore and going direct in the wind's
eye at the rate of three knots and a half. When he had ac



AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                133
quired a sufficient offing, he bore away, and gained the Irish
coast.  Dodd was firmly of opinion that no other power than
that of steam could have saved the vessel from destruction.
HIe now continued his voyage to Dublin, where he determined to remain for a short time, to rest his crew and to
examine the machinery.
While the Thames (old Argyle) was lying in Dublin bay,
a spirited Irish gentleman and his lady resolved to go along
with Dodd to London.  This gentleman (named Weld)
wrote an account of the voyage afterwards, which is, perhaps, the most remarkable on record. The sea was very
rough after she left Dublin, and some naval officers who were
on board, were unanimous in declaring it to be their firm
opinion that the vessel could not live long in heavy seas,
and' that there would be much danger in venturing far from
shore.
The motion of the vessel differed essentially from that
of a sailing vessel; the action of the wheels on the water at
each side prevented her rolling.  The most disagreeable
movement was felt when the waves struck the vessel on the
beam; but even then her particular construction was advantageous, for the coverings which inclosed the wheels
acted as buoys, and contributed to keep the vessel afloat.
On such occasions the noise produced by the sudden compression of the air within the wheel-boxes was frightful.
After having sustained a concussion on one side, a second
was generally felt on the other, by a sort of reaction, and a
third, but mrach more feeble, succeeded, after which the ves



t34           HISTORY OF' PROPELLERS
sel preserved a regular motion for several minutes.  This
somewhat alarmed the passengers; but as these concussions
only extended to three or four successively, all alarm soon
vanished, for they saw that the vessel soon righted, and
bounded lightly over the waves. All the sailing vessels
which left Dublin with it, by the same tide, were soon left
behind, for the weather was stormy and bad. During the
passage one of the blades of the starboard paddle-wheel became out of order; the engine was stopped, and the blade
was cut away.  Some hours after, a similar accident happened to the other wheel, which was remedied in the same
manner.  The loss of one blade in each paddle made no apparent difference in the progress of the vessel. From Dublin they sailed to Milford Haven,'in England, where Dodd
determined to examine the boiler, which had not been done
since he left Glasgow. When it was opened, a considerable
quantity of fine salt was found in it, and it became necessary to clean the boiler again during the voyage.
She left Milford Haven and went into Plymouth harbor.
The harbor-master, who had never seen a steam-vessel before, was as much struck with astonishment when he boarded
the Thames, as a child is in getting possession of a new
plaything. He steered the vessel round several ships of war
in the bay. The sailors ran in crowds to the side of their
vessels, and mounting the rigging, gave vent to their observations in a most amusing manner. Dodd entered the harbor in the most splendid style i steaming in, with the assistance of the wind and tide, at the rate of from twelve to




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                135
fourteen miles an hour.  A  court-martial was at the time
sitting on board the Gladiator frigate, but the novelty of the
steamboat presented an irresistible attraction; and the
whole court came off, excepting the president, who was
obliged, by etiquette, to retain his seat until the court was
regularly adjourned.
From  Portsmouth, Dodd proceeded to London; and
passed every thing on the Thames, astonishing all the fastsailing boats on the river. The Thames was regarded with
no little wonder by all the Londoners. She had run 758
miles in five days and two hours, and experienced during
that time some severe weather, and heavy seas. It proved,
incontestably, the superiority of the steamboat over the sailing vessel.
And when we remember that this was the first steamer
that attempted the seas, and that she was only fourteen
horse power, it must be allowed that some courage was requisite to embark in so frail a vessel for so long a voyage.
Dodd, in his examination before a Committee of the
House of Commons in 1815, states, that the Thames carried
fifteen tons of coals, and that the consumption was generally
one ton for every hundred miles; he, however, ran the vessel from Portsmouth to Margate, a distance of one hundred
and twenty nine nautical miles, with only one ton. It appears singular, that with such satisfactory practical evidence
in favor of steam navigation, steamboats were not at once
employed to carry the mails between England and Ireland.
The Parliamentary Committee, to their credit, recommended




13 6          IIISTORY OF PROPELLERS
steam packets; and Mr. Dodd, on behalf of himself and
some friends, offered to be at the expense of building two
steamboats; provided he was guaranteed the conveyance of
the mails, in the event of the packets fully answering his
representations. To this spirited offer no further attention
was given by Government than the usual formal letter of
acknowledgment, and it was not until 1821 that steam vessels were regularly established as post-office packets on that
station: they were intended, in the first instance, merely as
auxiliaries to- the sailing packets, but they soon superseded
them.
Many will ask, "What became of Dodd2' Alas, he
died in prison, a drunkard and a beggar.  He was the projector of the Thames Tunnel, which was finished by Brunel.
Although possessed of great talents and courage, he was
unfortunate, took to the cup, and starved himself in a fit of
partial insanity, within the walls of a London prison.
The regular establishment of ocean steam navigation
commenced with the Rob Roy, a steamer of about thirty
horse-power and ninety tons burden, which commenced running in 1818, between Greenock and Belfast.  This vessel
was established by Mr. David Napier, who was highly instrumental in improving and advancing steam navigation.
The Rob [Roy plied for two winters with perfect regularity
and success, and was afterwards transferred to the English
Channel, to serve as a packet-boat between Dover and Calais.
From that period steam navigation progressed most rapidly,
and to no living man is the world so much indebted for this




ANI) STEA AM NAVIGATION.             137
as to Mr. D. Napier (not Robert Napier, who also has done
a great deal for steam  navigation, but his cousin, now of
London). Before IM r. Napier built the Rob Roy, he made
a voyage to Ireland in one of the sailing packets, to behold
a wintry storm  on that tempestuous sea.  I-e stationed
himself at the bow of the vessel until the waves broke in
sheets over him, and until he was informed, that it was one
of the roughest passages the Captain had ever experienced;
then his eye flashed, and he exclaimed, " I think I canl
m2anage this."  Next year, 1818, he had his steamboat running regularly between Glasgow and Belfast.  He was the
first engineer who introduced those kind of engines in steamships, which still hold the highest place in every respect,
as being the best for snugness, convenience, and general
economy.
Fig. 82 is a marine " Side Lever Steam Engine," as applied to navigation. It is different from that of the River
Boat, inasmuch as the beam is below, secured on centres, at
the bottom of the cylinder.  The machinery of the steamship
has to be under cover, low down, and snug. Every part has
to be made strong, and all fitted together with the utmost
care and exactness. A is the cylinder, B is the slide-valve
casing, C the condenser, D the hot well, and air vessels
placed on the top of the condenser.  The air pump is
placed below the feed pump F, K is the piston rod of the
cylinder, I is the cross-head, H is one of the cylinder side
rods, which descends to the beam or side lever G, L is one
of the rods of the parallel motion, V is the weigh-shaft, on




138           IJISTORY OF PROPELLERS
FriG. 82.:1I
II _     _
/1             _  _
_     _        _     0
B'o~             II(C'
I            _
Q'u~ ~ ~ 1~il
_____            (3~~~~~~~f




AND STE AM NAV-IGATION.              139
which is fixed the valve lever, the other end of which is inserted. in the slide-valve link. The bilge and brine pumps
are below the beam, and worked by rods attached to it.  To
the extremity of the beam  are attached the links P, of the
cross-tail, which are attached to the connecting rod iE: T
is the paddle-wheel shaft, U is the eccentric to work the
valve by the eccentric rod: Y is the expansive valve apparatus.  This figure is designed to show the difference
between the mode of applying the power of the steam to
propel the wheels of river and ocean vessels. The above is
a side elevation of the engine of the Britannia, which so
successfully navigated the Atlantic for about nine years.
There is no new principle involved in the construction of
the engine -on the newest and best steamnships.  There is
but very little diifference in the above engine from that of
the United Kingdom, built by David Napier, in 1822.
The first steamship which crossed the Atlantic fron
America to Europe was an American vessel nanled the
SAvANNAIH, built by Crocker & Fickitt, at Corlear's Hook, in
New-York.  She was built by a company of gentlemen, with
a view of selling her to the Emperor of Russia.  This conmpany was organized through the agency of Capt. Moses
Rogers, afterwards her commander.  The Savannah was a
vessel of 380 tons, ship-rigged, and was furnished with a
horizontal engine.  This was placed between decks-boilers
in the lower hold,
The Savannah sailed frotm New-York, in the year 1819.
She first went to Savannah,  The passage occupied seven




140            H-ISTORY OF PROPELLERS
days, four of which she was under steam.  There she was
chartered by the corporation, as an act of courtesy, to proceed
to Charlestoh for the purpose of affording President M3onroe,
who was then travelling through the States, with a pleasure
excursion. For some reason, he failed to go, and the steamer
returned to Savannah,-forming, while there, an object of
much attraction.  From Savannah, she proceeded direct to
Liverpool, where she arrived after a passage of 18 days, during
seven of which she was under steam.
When about entering St. George's Channel, off the city
of Cork, she was descried by the commander of the British
fleet, then lying at that city. Seeing a huge mass of smoke
ascending from the vessel, enveloping her rigging and overshadowing the sky, he naturally inferred that a vessel was
on fire in distress, and with commendable promptitude despatched two cutters to her relief. After passing near to her
a few times, taking a full survey, and firing a few guns across
her stern, the steamer was boarded. Finally, being perfectly
satisfied that all was right, the cutters bore away,
The news of her approach having been telegraphed to
Liverpool, as she drew near the city, with her sails furled
and the American colors flying, the pier-heads were thronged
by many thousand persons, who greeted her with the most
enthusiastic cheers.  Before she came to anchor, the decks
were so crowded that it was with difficulty that the men
could move from one part to another, in the performance of
their duty.  She was afterwards visited by many rersons of
distinction, and departed for Elsinore, on her way to St.




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                141[
Petersburg. —She next touched at Copenhagen, where she
remained two weeks.  From, Copenhagen, she went to TCronstadt and St. Petersburg.  Not being able to get over the
bar at the latter place, she lay opposite the city, six miles
distant.
Here, as at other places, she was an object of much wonderment. She, however, was not sold, as had been expected,
and sailed for home, putting into Errington, on the coast of
Norway, on the passage. Fromn the latter place, she was 22
days in reaching Savannah. On account of the high price of
fuel, she carried no steam on the return passage, and the
wheels were taken off. A similar course was adopted during
a portion of the time occupied by the passage out fromn the
United States. As it was nearly or quite impossible to
carry sufficient fuel for the voyage, during pleasant weather
the wheels were removed, and canvas substituted.  On nearing Liverpool, the more effectually to " astonish the natives,"
the wheels were restored.  At the completion of this voyage,
the Savannah was divested of her steam apparatus; and used
as a packet between Savannah and New-York.  She subsequently went ashore on Long Island, and broke up.
Although Capt. Rogers was offered $100,000 for ier, by
the IKing of Sweden, to be paid in hemp and iron, delivered
at New-York, Philadelphia, and Boston, the offer was not
accepted-the cash being wanted.  It is said that $50,000
or $60,000 was sunk in this transaction.
From all the descriptions given of the Savannah, her
steam was only auxiliary to her sails, and her engine does




142           HISTORY OF PROPELLERS
not appear to have been capable of forming regular communication between the two continents, but her voyage established not only the feasibility, but the possibility of Atlantic
Steam Navigation, and it is somewhat singular that no other
steamship made the voyage for nineteen years after; for
there is no doubt but plenty of the steamships running in
the St. George's and British Channels, were perfectly able
to do so.
It is now twelve years since the Atlantic was first bridged
by regular steam  communication between England  and
America.
On the morning of the 23d of April, 1838, the British
steamships Sirius and Great Western entered the harbor of
New-York from England. The former was the first to arrive, and may consequently be considered the first British
steamer that ever entered the United States as a regular
trader.    -
Shortly after this, the Royal Mlail or Cunard Steamers,
all built in Scotland and their engines constructed by Robert Napier, commenced to run between Liverpool, Halifax,
and Boston. These vessels have been models of punctuality
and success, but without the patronage of Government it is
doubtful if they would have been successful, in point 6f profit. The first vessels of this line have been superseded by a
larger and superior class, the engines of which are all built
on the same principle as the one in figure 82, but not of the
same pattern-they having wrought instead of Gothic castiron frames.
It is but a very few years since America constructed her




AND STEAM NAVIGATION.                143
first Ocean Steamship. From the port of New-York, there
are now two American Lines running to Europe. The one
to Liverpool consists of the Atlantic and Pacific,-Collins'
American Line-the largest steamships in the world. They
have side-lever engines, and the paddle-wheels are 36 feet
in diameter. The newest steamers of the Cunard Line are
not so large, but they are very fine vessels. There appears
to be a generous rivalry between these two lines. It is to
be hoped, that it will always be tempered with prudence and
energy at the same time; and, by that means, we may expect a still greater reduction in the time required to cross
the Atlantic, which has already been shortened, in twelve
years, twenty-two per cent.  As it is self-evident, that a
small steamship is incapable of performing a long sea voyage, it is as plain, that the larger and more powerful the
steamship, the shorter and more successful passage will she
make; and it is not too much to expect, that, in twenty
years from the present date, passages will be made from
America to England in seven days, for Ocean Steaim Navigation has certainly not yet attained to its "manhood's
mnight."
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
It will be perceived, that the majority of propelling devices which have been presented in this work, were invented
to prevent the lift of water by the paddle-wheel, and to make
the propelling blades act less obliquely on the water than in
the vertical curves, which are necessarily described by the




144           HISTORY OF PROPELLERS.
revolving paddle-wheels. But the real action of the paddlewheel on the water does not appear to be generally understood. It does not describe a true circle by its action in the
water when the vessel is moving forward, but a cycloid, hence
the paddles act far more effectually-like the motion of a
carriage-wheel on a road-than is generally supposed. There
is some loss by water lift, but not so much as some have imagined. By experiments with the improved Morgan paddlewheel in smooth water, eighteen per cent. have been added to
the speed of one vessel on the Clyde. This shows a drawback in the common wheel from water lift, but the feathering
paddles would not answer apparently for ocean navigation.
With the exception of the Morgan wheel for smooth water,
(the advantages of which are secured in enlarging the wheel),
no other propelling device in the foregoing pages is equal to
the paddle-wheel. It can be built strong and compact. It
has but few bearings, and consequently its working friction
is confined to the journals of a single shaft. The paddlewheel has proved itself to be the prince of propelling devices
for speed, but as an auxiliary to sails, and as being better
adapted to war, and mere cargo vessels, the screw propeller
is undoubtedly to be preferred.
When we look at the mighty advances made by man in
application of steam power to the arts, and especially in subduing the billows of the ocean to his sway, it requires no
great faith to believe, that the time is not far distant, when
every ship which navigates the ocean will use steam as a
prime or auxiliary propelling power.