Model of a Disengaging Gear for Paddle Wheels

...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

ObjectNumber: NG-MC-543

Model of a disengaging gear of the crank of a paddle wheel, mounted on a base.

The crankpin fits into a hollow bush in the crank eye of the paddle shaft, which can be screwed in or out to engage or disconnect the pin and leaves a slot. The crankpin will then move straight through the slot at every turn of the crankshaft.

The model shows the method attributed to Grantham as described by Bourne. The model was designed for the 7-gun paddle steamer Vesuvius,¹¹J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 543. 43 metres long, built by Cornelis Jan Glavimans (1796-1857) from 1840 to 1843 in Rotterdam. The steamer was decommissioned in the Dutch East Indies in 1857.

Scale (derived) 1:10.

J. Grantham, Plan for Disconnecting Paddle Wheels from the Engines on Steam Vessels, s.l. 1842; J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 543; J. Bourne, A Treatise on the Steam-Engine in its Various Applications to Mines, Mills, Steam Navigation, Railways, and Agriculture, London 1861 (5th ed.), p. 328; J.M. Dirkzwager, ‘De Nederlandse Marine als pionier in de technische ontwikkeling. De radervoortstuwing in het tweede kwart van de 19de eeuw’, Tijdschrift voor Zeegeschiedenis 10 (1991), no. 1, pp. 41-58, pp. 48-50; A.J. Hoving, ‘Early Dutch Paddlewheelers’, Model Shipwright 79 (1992), pp. 59-63

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'Koninklijke Fabriek P. van Vlissingen & Dudok van Heel, Model of a Disengaging Gear for Paddle Wheels, Amsterdam, c. 1840', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244357