US34969A - Improved paddle-wheel - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

SOLOMON KEPNER, OF POTTSTOVVN, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVED PADDLE-WHEEL.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 34,969, dated April 15, 1862.

To @ZZ whom t 71mg/ concern:

Be it known that I, SOLOMON KEPNER, of Pottstown, in the county of Montgomery and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Paddle-VVheels; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, making part of this speciiication, in which my invention is illustrated by a perspective View of a portion of a paddle-wheel.

The nature of my said improvement consists in a device of simple construction operating in connection with a pivoted bucket to hold the said bucket rigidly during its downward and backward motion and releasing it as it begins to ascend, so as to permit it to assume a position in which it will pass through the water with the least possible resistance.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A represents a portion of the side of a vessel.

B is a shaft carrying a disk O and radial arms D D', connected to the said disk by bars E and F, which are parallel with the shaft, but at different distances therefrom, the bars F being at the eXtreme periphery of the wheel7 as shown.

G G are buckets adapted to turn upon radial pivots g g', which pivots are placed somewhat nearer to the arms I) D than to the disk C. Pins H (one shown) project from the face of the disk O in such posit-ion as to receive and sustain the inner or longer ends of the pivoted buckets as they fall into position on the descending side of the wheel.

I I are gravitating latches, by which the buckets are held in their closed position during a proper part of their revolution.

J is a segmental cam fixed to the vessels side concentrically with the wheel and employed to hold the gravitating latches I I inward upon the buckets.

K is a stationary pin employed to throw the latches outward in order to release the buckets at the proper time.

L are pins (one shown) which support the latches I when thrown off the buckets.

M are pins (one shown) which support the buckets, so as to prevent them falling too far outward to admit of their returning to a closed position by their gravity at the proper moment.

The operation of the wheel is as follows: As each bucket begins to descend it falls into a closed position, and its latch I, falling over it and passing within the segmental cam J, secures the bucket rnily against the action of the water. The bucket is thus held in the most effective position during such part of its revolution as it can act advantageously; but immediately that it begins to ascend or reaches a position where the force exerted upon the water will not be so directly applied to the propulsion of the vessel the latch I, passing under the fixed pin K, is thereby thrown from the bucket and the latter swings back to such a position as to adapt it to pass upward through the water with the least possible resistance. The pins L and M are so placed as to prevent the latches and buckets falling back too far and to support them in such positions that the buckets first and the latches immediately after will return to the closed position by their own gravity as they begin to descend. The bucket G and latch I show the closed positions and the bucket G and latch I the open.

In the drawing but ltwo arms and buckets are shown. In practice they will of course extend completely around the wheel. Arms may also be substituted for the disk O, if preferred.

I am aware that paddle-wheels have before been constructed with pivoted buckets; but,

Having thus described my invention, what I claim therein as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination of the pivoted buckets G G', latches I I', cam J, and pins H K L M, arranged and operating in the manner and for the purposes hereinbefore set forth.

The above specification of my improvement in paddle-wheels signed this 19th day 0f February, 1862.

SOLOMON KEPNER.

Titnessesa OcTAvIUs KNIGHT, .I AMES H. GEIDLEY.

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