The History of Propellers in the Royal Navy

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TheGreenAnger
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The History of Propellers in the Royal Navy

#1 Post by TheGreenAnger » Wed Aug 31, 2022 3:33 am

Prompted by some of the initial musings as to the cause of HMS Prince of Wales's most recent mechanical issues, I was wont to look again at the state of the art in propeller technology, both naval and aeronautical, and went down the fascinating historical byway of the history of the introduction of the propeller into general usage as a means of propulsion in the Royal Navy. It was not an easy one, and as befits the technology was a turbid one as well, with the old guard of sail, and the paddlewheel proponents, belittling this new, reckless and probably useless new technology, while some more far sighted officers and politicians realised the real value of the new technology. This debate over "screw patents" gives one a sense of the Royal Navy's early appreciation of the value of such patents despite the naysayers...

Vide. Hansard reference Screw Propellers In The Royal Navy (Volume 134: debated on Monday 10 July 1854):

https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/185 ... eRoyalNavy
A recent blog told the story of the invention and initial testing of screw-propellers for ships, building on principles established two millennia previously. In the late 1830s the practicality of this concept was proven in a series of exhaustive tests by the experimental steamship SS Archimedes, as detailed in that earlier article (Click here to read if you missed the earlier blog). These tests included evaluation against the Royal Navy’s fast paddle-driven mail-packets and indicated that “as regards power-to-weight ratio, the screw propeller had proven equal, if not superior, to that of the ordinary paddle-wheel.” The practicality of the finding was to proved in service thereafter by a Royal Navy sloop, HMS Rattler.
Early propeller days...

Read on here if this history interests you...
My necessaries are embark'd: farewell. Adieu! I have too grieved a heart to take a tedious leave.

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