This
page started as a Scottish east-west puzzle, with contenders from Dunbar
and Irvine, and the answer must be - no one individual invented it - as
Samuel Smiles, the 19th century polymath
and writer, put it, in Men of Invention and Industry: "It
was not the production of one man, but of several generations of mechanical
inventors. . . While others had given up the idea of prosecuting it to
its completion, Smith stuck to his invention with determined tenacity,
and never let it go until he had secured for it a complete triumph. .
. he had made a stride in advance which was almost tantamount to a new
invention."
The
sources for our information are given below. What's your view? - see
below latest points (incl. John Stevens, Joseph Ressel,
Rev E L Berthon, Capt John Patch)
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 . . .
James Steadman
1790-1865
championed by Irvine
on Scotland's west coast
Robert Wilson
1803-1882
championed by Dunbar
on Scotland's east coast
Richard Jordan Gatling 1818-1903
in North Carolina,
beaten by Ericsson
Francis Pettit Smith
1808-1874
The Oxford Companion official contender
Steedman
(the spelling on his gravestone) or Steadman, a carpenter and cabinetmaker,
had an interest in natural history, and his study of fish gave him the
idea of rear propulsion; watching a spinning wheel in 1816
suggested the method. He and gunsmith McCririck made models, one of
which was taken by an Irvine leading light and fellow inventor, Maxwell
Dick, to London in 1830, where - it was alleged - the
idea was pirated, and patented without credit to James Steadman.
His gravestone
at Irvine Old Parish Church bears the carving of a screw propeller:
Click on either picture (the one above or that on right) to enlarge
it.
Wilson,
always interested in boats (seeing paddle-wheels on a fishing boat at
age 5; he lost his father in a boat rescue at age 7), had the idea from
watching a windmill. He worked on the invention while apprenticed to
a joiner and cabinetmaker. In 1827, the Earl of Lauderdale
unsuccessfully approached the Admiralty, the "Edinburgh Mercury"
recorded the "new invention", and in 1828, the first
practical screw propeller was trialled on the Union Canal (the
model being in the Royal Scottish Museum). The Admiralty again rejected
the idea in 1833. In 1880, aged 77, the War Office granted him £500
for the use of his double-action screw propeller as applied to the fish
torpedo.
A 4-ton
propeller at Dunbar harbour was unveiled as a memorial to him, on the
anniversary of his birth in Sept. 2003.
Gatling, later Dr Gatling, and known for the invention of the Gatling
Gun, had, by the age of 21, in 1839, in North Carolina,
invented the screw propeller for steamboats, only to discover it had
just been independently patented by Smith & Ericsson.
Smith, a farmer, from boyhood had had a passion for constructing models
of boats. In 1834, he built a boat with a wooden screw; in 1835,
a superior model; in 1836 he took out a patent. Where he got his original
idea is not known. In 1839, the "Archimedes", a 237-ton vessel,
achieved over 9 knots speed. Isambard Brunel was so impressed that he
advised the screw to be adopted as the method for propelling the "Great
Britain", which achieved 10 knots on her first voyage. The design
was patented in the U.S. in 1838-39. Both Smith & Ericsson introduced
the screw propeller on war vessels in 1843, in their respective countries.
Smith was knighted in 1871.
John Ericsson
1803-1889
Ericsson moved from Sweden to England in 1826; his 1829 steam engine
"Novelty" lost to the Stephensons' "Rocket". After
patenting the screw propeller in May 1836, he moved
in 1839 to New York, where he & Smith took out U.S. patents.
Rev E L Berthon (1813-99) apparently invented the
screw propeller in 1834 - see information from Berthon
International near the foot of this page.
Capt. John Patch in 1833 in Nova
Scotia - see foot of page.
Many others improved the ideas independently of the
patents of either Smith or Ericsson.
Maxwell Dick also devised a snowplough, a suspension
railway, a bed of hot water pipes for cholera victims, a telegraph insulator,
and guano fertilisers.
Robert Wilson went on to be a highly successful engineer,
taking out patents for valves, pistons, propellers and hydraulic and
other machinery.
As well as the rapid-fire machine gun of 1861, Gatling
invented machines for sowing cotton seeds, a hemp-breaking machine and
a steam plough.
One of Smith's backers was Sir John Rennie, son of the
famous engineer John Rennie, brought up only 5 miles from Dunbar, at
East Linton.
Source: Strawhorn, "The History of Irvine" (1982), p.120
Gatling sources: Web sites, mostly repeating the same information.
Sources: various, incl. Samuel Smiles (see below)
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 (includes technical drawings
from 1828 and 1836).
The fascinating Samuel Smiles chapter (perhaps written c.1870) is at:
www.bookrags.com/books/moiai/PART3.htm
[It's not a new question: Robert Wilson,
"The Screw Propeller: Who Invented It?" (Murray, Glasgow, 1860)]
Latest
Points
What about 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.
Or 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.
Or 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.
Or Capt.
John Patch (this information is from John A Townsend and Manfried
von Starhemberg, and quotes the former): John Patch was born 1781 in Yarmouth,
Nova Scotia, Canada . . Died 1861, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada . . In 1833
. . Patch tested the invention of a hand crank, with wooden gears . . He crossed
Yarmouth Harbour several times . . using this device . . And in 1834 Captain
Robert Kelly had Patch install the device on the 25 ton . . Royal George (Kelly's
vessel) all sail, or steam, I'm not sure, but would assume that the mode of
propulsion would have been sail. On a voyage to Saint John New Brunswick . .
the wind died out, . . the screw propeller employed, . . and the Royal George
made its way to Saint John . . leaving other vessels behind . . The propeller
was a sucess . . Captain Patch was published in the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. titled
Patch's propeller in Vol.4, issue 5, page 33 . . of October 10,1848 . . I will
quote a passage from the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN . . "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.) It is my objective
to get some deserved 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 lack of the facts. Captain John Patch died
in 1861 . . in a Yarmouth poor house . . 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 . . Housed in a poor house, penniless . . was not a very fitting end
to Captain Patch, considering that his contributions, had an impact,world wide,
with out a doubt, the screw propeller is still the main form of propulsion of
vessels world wide, to this very day. It is this writer's objective to get some
form of recognition for Captain Patch . . it is well deserved . . and late in
coming.
