Francis Pettit Smith

Francis Pettit Smith [ fɹænsɪs pɛtɪt smɪθ ] ( born February 9, 1808 in Hythe, Kent, † February 12, 1874 in South Kensington) was a British inventor.

In the first decades of the 19th century was the development of the engine power demand on effective propulsion of ships. The paddle wheel pointed to weaknesses. Starting from far earlier ideas on how Archimedes screw drives have been realized. The Austrian Josef Ressel had he developed propeller and the British Admiralty offered after the Austrian Navy had any further cooperation with him, propeller concerning rejected. The British Admiralty also had doubts about this new drive. Later, she wrote an award from the invention of the ship's propeller. This won the English farmer Francis Pettit Smith, who occupied himself for some time by boat propellers. Smith invented the propeller developed by Ressel a second time.

1836 Smith received his first patent for a propeller developed by him. In a test drive in 1837 with the 34 -foot-long " Francis Smith " broke from his catchy, wooden screw the length of two pitches out half and the ship sailed with these " defective " device noticeably faster. Smith built the next propeller similar to the broken. This was a success.

Official test drives under control of the Admiralty followed and they came to the conclusion to equip a larger ship unit with the Smith - propeller. Smith was then at his own expense in 1838 to build the " Archimedes ", a ship of 238 tons. All trips were very successful, and a race with the then fastest paddle steamer in the Navy, the " Widgeon " was a great success. 1845 finally won after his plans with a screw propeller equipped HMS Rattler (1845 ) a spectacular competition against the paddle steamer HMS Alecto, which led to the complete Royal Navy was rapidly converted to be driven by propellers.

For his achievements, Smith was knighted in 1871.