James Watt, in 1770, wrote: "Have you ever considered a spiral oar?" Joseph Bramah, in 1785, patented the idea of a "screw propeller", but never tried it in practice. The Austrians have statues to Joseph Ressel, whom they claim as the inventor (see below). Various people took out patents in England and America from 1794 onwards, though nothing practical was achieved. Richard Trevethick, in a 1815 patent, describes the screw propeller with considerable minuteness. John Swan was heralded the practical inventor, after a trial boat driven by a spring, in 1824. Read on . . .

We look forward to your contribution - if you have any views on the above, please send them in, and we will publish any further information on this page. Email us at info@irvineayrshire.org

John Ericsson sources included:
www.fact-index.com/j/jo/john_ericsson.html (includes a very full biography) and
www.history.rochester.edu/steam/stevens/screw.htm (incl. technical drawings from 1828 and 1836).
The fascinating Samuel Smiles chapter (perhaps written c.1870) is at: www.bookrags.com/books/moiai/PART3.htm

[This is not a new question: see Robert Wilson, "The Screw Propeller: Who Invented It?" (Murray, Glasgow, 1860), available electronically, in its Second Edition 1880, courtesy of the University of California library at www.archive.org]

Our original page prompted the following additional information:

John Stevens (1749-1838) (See www.history.rochester.edu/steam/stevens): His steam screw propellers, in operation on the Hudson River from 1802 to 1806, were the first to navigate the waters of any country. He considered himself its inventor, but the screw propeller had been proposed by Bernouli in 1752 and is described by Bushnell (writing to Jefferson) in 1787. Many others later suggested the propulsion of vessels by means of spiral wheels.

Josef Ressel (1793-1857), a Czech-born inventor (See http://www.radio.cz/en/article/33185): We discovered this information on the Radio Praha site. At Vienna University Ressel attended lectures on forestry, chemistry, technology and natural sciences. But due to a lack of money he had to leave the university and became a forester after graduating from a forestry school. At his new job he came up with many gimmicks, for instance how to measure areas of woods quickly and reliably. The job instigated an interest in sea navigation in the young man, as his duty was to care for wood from deforesting to the building of sea ships. So among many other inventions, Ressel became famous for the propeller. In 1826 he applied for an Austrian patent for what he called 'a never-ending screw which can be used to drive ships both on sea and rivers' and he received the license in February 1827.
Ressel was the first to place the propeller between the helm and the stern so that the propeller worked under the water thus being most efficient.
But Ressel's authorship of the invention was put in doubt due to inertia of the Austrian Presidium of Imperial Sciences, when in a suspicious coincidence, English traders Sauvage and Smith came up with the same invention. It is believed now that someone might have secretly sold Ressel's invention to Great Britain. But in 1865, at its arbitrary session, the National Academy in Washington decided the matter in Ressel's favour.

Rev. Edward Lyon Berthon was a great inventor (this information comes from the website of Berthon Yachting, Lymington, Hants, UK): in 1834/35, at the age of 22, he invented the screw propeller, which at the time was dismissed by the Admiralty as “a pretty toy which never would, and never could, propel a ship”. Three years later Berthon read that Francis Smith of Hythe had developed a similar device, which had also been rejected by the Admiralty. Berthon called upon Smith, certain that he had pirated his design from the patent office; Smith convinced him that he had actually arrived at the idea without outside influence. They collaborated and eventually Smith proved the device by towing the Lords of the Admiralty on their barge from Whitehall to Woolwich.
When on the 29th June 1849 the SS ORION was wrecked off Port Patrick, a friend of Berthon, the Rev Clark, was saved and wrote "Can not you think of a way in which boats, enough for all on board, be stowed on a passenger steamer without inconvenience?" Thus was born the Berthon Collapsible Lifeboat.
When demonstrated to Queen Victoria, the Prince Consort, the Princess Royal and the Prince of Wales, the latter commented that a cannon ball would go through it easily. The Rev Berthon asked him what a cannon ball would not go through, and the Queen was reported to have been greatly amused. The Navy, however, did not accept the design until Berthon had perfected it in 1873.
In 1877, the Rev E L Berthon started his company in Romsey, building folding lifeboats and "other floating machines". After his death in 1899, his son Edward ran the business.

Capt. John Patch (this information is from John A Townsend and Manfried von Starhemberg): John Patch was born 1781 in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada and died there in 1861. He was a sailor and fisherman. One day, while watching a small boat being manoeuvred with a single oar, he came up with the idea for a device which would allow steamships to travel without the need of large inefficient paddlewheels or wind-dependent sails. It would be thirty years before he would see his idea become reality.
During the winter of 1832-3, Patch developed and built the screw propeller, a wooden shaft with two 'fans' at the end. His friends Robert and Nathan Butler helped him by building a hand crank and wooden gears to be used with the device. During the summer of 1833, Patch tested his invention in Yarmouth harbour and, in 1834, Captain Robert Kelley agreed to put it on his 25-tom ship, the Royal George. On a subsequent trip to Saint John, the wind died, leaving other sailing vessels stranded, but the Royal George carried on. The propeller was a success.
Captain Patch was published in the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, titled Patch's propeller in Vol.4, issue 5, page 33 of October 10,1848, one sentence being: "THOSE THAT HAVE SEEN IT OPERATE CONSIDER IT MUCH SUPERIOR TO ERICSSON'S." (Ericsson being the one credited with the invention of the screw propeller itself.) Capt Patch deserves recognition, not necessarily as the inventor of the screw propeller, but certainly as a contributor. In his home Town of Yarmouth Nova Scotia, not so much as a plaque in his honour has ever been erected - no fault of the Town, just a possible ignorance of the facts.
In 1858, over 100 Yarmouth citizens signed a petition to provide Captain Patch with a pension as a thank-you for his work. The petition was presented to the Nova Scotia Legislature, but was eventually rejected, and Capt Patch died penniless in a Yarmouth poorhouse - not a very fitting end, considering that his contributions had an impact, world-wide, without a doubt. The screw propeller is still the main form of propulsion of vessels world wide, to this very day. John Townsend has tried to get some form of recognition for Captain Patch - well deserved - and late in coming.

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