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121 on the History of Paddle-Weeel Steam

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121 on the History of Paddle-Weeel Steam MARCH1886. 121 ON THE HISTORY OF PADDLE-WEEEL STEAM NAVIGATION. BY MR. HENIlY- SANDHAM, OF LONDON. The origination of the propulsion of Vessels by Steam Power is claimed for several individuals and by several countries ; but it is now generalIy admitted that to Great Britain is due the merit of having introduced and established the successful practice of steam, propulsion. The application of paddle-wheels to propel boats or vessels dates back to the time of the Roman empire, and even earlier; for it is known that the Chinese, Egyptians, and Greeks employed paddle- wheels for that purpose. In the Roman vessels the wheels were probably driven by slaves through some mechanical arrangement of spindles, wheels, pulleys, and ropes, or perhaps by mere direct action of manual labour; the feet also may have been employed. A drawing is given in Cutts’ “ Middle Ages ” of an early fifteenth- century vessel propelled by oars which were worked by slaves lying on their backs in the vessel’s hull, and pushing the oars with their legs and feet. The feet were kept in position by straps which enabled the oars, apparently balanced, to be lifted out of the water and carried back after each stroke. A rare and curious work in twelve books by Robert Valturius of Rimini, “De Re Militari,” published in 1472 and printed by Beughem, contains representations of boats fitted with one pair and with five pairs of paddle-wheels. 1543.-It appears that Blasco de Garay, a Spaniard, made an experiment on propelling a vessel by mechanical power at Barcelona in 1543, before the Emperor Charles V., who paid all expenses incurred. Nothing is known beyond the record of this experiment, and the invention died with the inventor. No claim is said to have Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at University of Bath - The Library on June 4, 2016 122 PADDLE-WHEEL NAVIGATION. MARCII1885. been raised upon it until 1826, after the true int,roduction of steam power for propelling vessels. 1682.-The earliest date recorded for the application, in Great Britain, of paddle-wheels to the propulsion of vessels seems to be 1682, in which year Prince Rupert’s (1619-1682) state barge was propelled by paddle wheels. At the same period tug-vessels, with paddle- wheels driven by horses, were proposed to be used for towing sailing vessels against wind and tide. 169O.-Denis Papin, a French mechanician who was born at Blois in 1647 and died in 1714 or later, is next recorded as having propounded the propulsion of ships by mechanical means. In 1690 he proposed to propel boats by wheels “ worked by racks and pinions working in steam cylinders;” and in 1707 he launched on the Fulda a boat with paddle-wheels, which was broken up by the boatmen at Miinden. In 1681 he had already immortalised himself by the invention of the “ digester ” known by his name, which still eontinues in practical use at the present day. 1698.-Thomas Savery published his ‘< Navigation Improv’d,” in which he proposed to work paddle-wheels by a capstan between decks, turned by men. 1736.-A patent was taken out in 1736 by Jonathan Hulls, an English mechanician, for moving a boat by a steam engine, or rather “for the application of the atmospheric engine to actuate or propel a boat by paddles for towing vessels in and out of rivers and harbours.” In 1737 be published in London a descriptive pamphlet with drawing, copy of which is in the possession of Sir Frederick Bramwell. The proposal was to drive a fan or wheel at the stern of a boat, by a steam engine working a series of pulleys with straps or ropes passing over them ; and there were arrangements for preventing a back motion of the stern-wheel. 1752.-Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782) suggested in 1753 an arrangement of submerged artificial fins for propelling a vessel. In 1757 he was awarded a prize by the French Academy for his demonstration of the use and effect of paddle-wheels and other forms of propellers to be worked by steam power or the expending gas of gunpowder. A propeller was exhibited at the Scientific Apparatus Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at University of Bath - The Library on June 4, 2016 MARCH1885. PADDLE-WHEEL NAVIGATION. 123 Exhibition at South Eensington in 1876, called the undulating propeller, the invention of A. H. Garrod, the idea of which appears to have been taken from the undulating fins of the pipe-fish and sea- horse. In 1882 a small boat was tried on the Thames with a fin propeller, the invention of C. F. Osborne. Mr. Pichler’s propeller of 1860 was also of this fin class. 1753.-Through the activity of L. Euler, the mathematician, and Mathon de la Cow, an engineer of Lyons, France again took a prominent part in the mechanical propulsion of ships. Euler, like Savery, employed the vessel’s crew in matches to drive an upright wooden shaft by long levers on each deck. On the top of the upright shaft was keyed a large crown wheel of wood having wooden teeth or pins which geared into a rung pinion on a horizontal shaft running across the vessel and through her sides, and carrying the paddle-wheels outside the hull. De la Cow drove his paddles by an endless rope-ladder suspended over two pulleys which were keyed on a horizontal shaft across the upper deck. The ladder was worked by men stepping on its rungs, exactly in the manner of the trend-wheel. The paddle-shafts and paddle-wheels were made to revolve by means of ropes from pulleys on the ends of the main shaft to pulleys on the paddle-shafts, which with their wheels were run out of the ship’s side about her draught line. The shafts and wheels could be shipped or unshipped at will. In 1755 Canon Gautier of Nancy presented to the Royal Society of that place a paper on the proposals of MM. Euler and De la Cow, maintaining that the strength of the vessel’s crew, working their machinery, would not be sufficient to give any great speed to a ship. As the only mems of obtaining the requisite power, he proposed employing a steam engine ; and pointed out several ways of doing so, and thereby of producing rotatory motion of the paddle-wheels. Practically however at that time the steam engine had not yet arrived at the stage in which it could be conveniently applied to the propulsion of vessels. Two conditions were wanting to adapt it to this purpose : namely rotatory instead of simple reciprocating motion, and continuous instead of intermittent motion of the ensine itself. P Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at University of Bath - The Library on June 4, 2016 12i PADDLE-WHEEL NAVIGATION. MARCII1885. 1782.-The Marquis de Jouffroy at Lyons in 1782 constructed a steam boat which ran for fifteen months on the river Sa6ne. She was 140 feet long, 15 feet wide, and drew 3.2 feet of water. She had a horizontal single-cylinder engine, the cylinder being placed inside the boiler for warmth, as was subsequently done by Trevithick. Motion for the paddles was obtained by means of an iron frame sliding backwards and forwards with the engine stroke. To the top and bottom bars of the framc were attached double sets of pads ; and on the paddle-shaft, which ran through the frame, two cam- wheels were fixed. In the outstroke of the engine the cam-wheels were pushed by the pads on the top of the frame, and in the instroke were pulled by those on the bottom, whereby an intermittent rotation was imparted to the paddle-wheels. In the South Kensington Museum is a sketch of this steamboat, lent by Mrs. Bennet Woodcroft, copied from a French print. The Comte d’Auxiron, a French nobleman of scientific pursuits, is also mentioned as having previously constructed a steamboat in 1774, and tried it on the Seine ; and in 1775 11. Perier is said to have placed on the Seine a steamboat which had an engine of one horse-power. 1782.-James Watt, who was born in 1736 and died in 1819, perfected in 1782 his double-acting condensing steam-engine, continuous in its working, and controlled by the governor. This achievement opened out an entirely new and perhaps never-ending career for the steam engine. The fly-wheel on the main shaft secured the continuous action; while the crank, said to be an invention of Watt, though its application to the steam engine was patented by Pickard in 1780, supplied a simple and practical means of converting reciprocating into rotary motion. 1786.-This year forms another epoch in the propulsion of vessels by paddle-wheels. Patrick Miller of Dalswinton in Scotland had been experimenting for some time on the propulsion of boats by paddle-wheels worked by manual labour. In the Hensington Museum there is a coloured engraving, lent by Mrs. Bennet Woodcroft, of the “Edinburgh,” a triple-hulled vessel designed by him and built in 1786 at Leith ; she appears to have been 71 feet long, with 214 feet extreme breadth, and 3 feet depth of hulls. Her paddle- Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at University of Bath - The Library on June 4, 2016 MARCII1885. PADDLE-WHEEL NAVIGATION. 125 wheels were 6 feet diameter, and 44 feet in breadth ; they had eight float-boards, 43 feet long, 9 inches deep. The wheels were turned by manual labour, as depicted in the engraving ; they were set between two of the three hulk, one ahead of the other, and were housed in.
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