Editing Propeller (section)

==History==
===Early developments===
The principle employed in using a screw propeller is derived from [[stern sculling]]. In sculling, a single blade is moved through an arc, from side to side taking care to keep presenting the blade to the water at the effective angle. The innovation introduced with the screw propeller was the extension of that arc through more than 360° by attaching the blade to a rotating shaft. Propellers can have a [[single-blade propeller|single blade]], but in practice there is nearly always more than one so as to balance the forces involved.

[[File:Archimedes screw.JPG|thumb|left|[[Archimedes' screw]]]]
The origin of the screw propeller starts with the first records of a water screw, or screw pump, dates back to [[Ancient Mesopotamia]], a [[cuneiform]] inscription of [[Assyria]]n king [[Sennacherib]] (704–681 BC) describes casting water screws in bronze. This is consistent with classical author [[Strabo]], who describes the [[Hanging Gardens]] as watered by screws.<ref name=DO>{{cite journal|last1=Dalley|first1=Stephanie|last2=Oleson|first2=John Peter|date=2003|title= Sennacherib, Archimedes, and the Water Screw: The Context of Invention in the Ancient World|pages=1–26|journal=[[Technology and Culture]]|volume=44|issue=1|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/40151/|doi=10.1353/tech.2003.0011|s2cid=110119248|url-access=subscription}}</ref>  Later, [[Archimedes]] (c. 287 – c. 212 BC) used a screw to lift water for [[irrigation]] and bailing boats, so famously that it became known as [[Archimedes' screw]]. It was probably an application of spiral movement in space (spirals were a special study of Archimedes) to a hollow segmented water-wheel used for irrigation by [[Egyptians]] for centuries. 
In this wise, the origin of modern propellers are usually made by cutting the tip of a long screw into a short shape.<ref>{{Cite web|url= https://www.shippingwondersoftheworld.com/screw_propeller.html|title= Development of the Screw Propeller|date=2012|publisher=Shipping Wonders of the World}}</ref>

Additionally, a flying toy, the [[bamboo-copter]], was enjoyed in China beginning around 320 AD.

In 1661, Toogood and Hays proposed using screws for waterjet propulsion, though not as a propeller.<ref>{{Citation | last = Carlton | first = John | title = Marine Propellers and Propulsion | publisher = Butterworth-Heinemann | year = 2012 | page = 363}}.</ref> [[Robert Hooke]] in 1681 designed a horizontal watermill which was remarkably similar to the Kirsten-Boeing vertical axis propeller designed almost two and a half centuries later in 1928; two years later Hooke modified the design to provide motive power for ships through water.{{Sfn | Carlton | 2012 | p = 1}}  In 1693 a Frenchman by the name of Du Quet invented a screw propeller which was tried in 1693 but later abandoned.<ref>{{Cite web|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=LPczAQAAMAAJ |title= A Treatise on the Screw Propeller: With Various Suggestions of Improvement|first= John|last=Bourne|date=April 10, 1855|publisher=Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=_3hUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA18|title= Patents for Inventions: Abridgments of Specifications : Class… |date= April 10, 1857|publisher=Patent Office|via=Google Books}}</ref> In 1752, the ''Academie des Sciences'' in Paris granted Burnelli a prize for a design of a propeller-wheel.  At about the same time, the French mathematician Alexis-Jean-Pierre Paucton suggested a water propulsion system based on the Archimedean screw.{{Sfn | Carlton | 2012 | page = 1}} In 1771, steam-engine inventor [[James Watt]] in a private letter suggested using "spiral oars" to propel boats, although he did not use them with his steam engines, or ever implement the idea.<ref>Murihead, James Patrick, ''The Life of James Watt, with Selections from His Correspondence… With Portraits and Woodcuts'', London: John Murray, 1858, p. 208</ref>

One of the first practical and applied uses of a propeller was on a submarine dubbed {{ship||Turtle|submersible|2}} which was designed in [[New Haven, Connecticut]], in 1775 by Yale student and inventor [[David Bushnell (inventor)|David Bushnell]], with the help of clock maker, engraver, and brass foundryman [[Isaac Doolittle]]. Bushnell's brother Ezra Bushnell and ship's carpenter and clock maker Phineas Pratt constructed the hull in [[Saybrook, Connecticut]].<ref>Stein, Stephen K., 2017, ''The Sea in World History: Exploration, Travel, and Trade [2 volumes]'', Ed. Stephen K. Stein, ABC-CLIO, Vol. 1, p. 600</ref><ref>Manstan, Roy R.; Frese, Frederic J., ''Turtle: David Bushnell's Revolutionary Vessel'', Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing. {{ISBN|978-1-59416105-6}}. {{OCLC|369779489}}, 2010, pp. xiii, 52, 53</ref> On the night of September 6, 1776, Sergeant [[Ezra Lee]] piloted ''Turtle'' in an attack on {{HMS|Eagle|1774|6}} in [[New York Harbor]].<ref>Tucker, Spencer, ''Almanac of American Military History'', ABC-CLIO, 2013, Volume 1, p. 305</ref><ref>Mansten pp. xiii, xiv.</ref> ''Turtle'' also has the distinction of being the first submarine used in battle. Bushnell later described the propeller in an October 1787 letter to [[Thomas Jefferson]]: "An oar formed upon the principle of the screw was fixed in the forepart of the vessel its axis entered the vessel and being turned one way rowed the vessel forward but being turned the other way rowed it backward. It was made to be turned by the hand or foot."<ref>Nicholson, William, ''A Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts'', Volume 4, G. G. & J. Robinson, 1801, p. 221</ref> The brass propeller, like all the brass and moving parts on ''Turtle'', was crafted by Issac Doolittle of New Haven.<ref>Manstan, p. 150</ref>

In 1785, Joseph Bramah of England proposed a propeller solution of a rod going through the underwater aft of a boat attached to a bladed propeller, though he never built it.{{Sfn | Carlton | 2012 | pp = 1–2}}

In February 1800, [[Edward Shorter]] of London proposed using a similar propeller attached to a rod angled down temporarily deployed from the deck above the waterline and thus requiring no water seal, and intended only to assist becalmed sailing vessels. He tested it on the transport ship {{ship||Doncaster|1792 ship|2}} at Gibraltar and Malta, achieving a speed of {{convert|1.5|mph|kph|abbr=on}}.<ref name="Carlton, p.2">Carlton, p. 2</ref>

In 1802, American lawyer and inventor [[John Stevens (inventor, born 1749)|John Stevens]] built a {{convert|25|ft|m|adj=on}} boat with a rotary steam engine coupled to a four-bladed propeller. The craft achieved a speed of {{convert|4|mph|kph|abbr=on}}, but Stevens abandoned propellers due to the inherent danger in using the high-pressure steam engines. His subsequent vessels were paddle-wheeled boats.<ref name="Carlton, p.2"/>

By 1827, Czech inventor [[Josef Ressel]] had invented a screw propeller with multiple blades on a conical base. He tested it in February 1826 on a manually-driven ship and successfully used it on a steamboat in 1829. His 48-ton ship ''Civetta'' reached 6 knots. This was the first successful Archimedes screw-propelled ship. His experiments were banned by police after a steam engine accident. Ressel, a forestry inspector, held an Austro-Hungarian patent for his propeller. The screw propeller was an improvement over paddlewheels as it wasn't affected by ship motions or draft changes.<ref>Paul Augustin Normand, ''La Genèse de l'Hélice Propulsive [The Genesis of the Screw Propulsor]''. Paris: Académie de Marine, 1962, pp. 31–50.</ref>

[[John Patch]], a mariner in [[Yarmouth, Nova Scotia]] developed a two-bladed, fan-shaped propeller in 1832 and publicly demonstrated it in 1833, propelling a row boat across Yarmouth Harbour and a small coastal schooner at [[Saint John, New Brunswick]], but his patent application in the United States was rejected until 1849 because he was not an American citizen.<ref>Mario Theriault, ''Great Maritime Inventions'' Goose Lane Publishing (2001) pp. 58–59</ref> His efficient design drew praise in American scientific circles<ref>{{Citation|url= http://www.cogulus.com/cgi-bin/viewer.cgi?type=writings&file=1848_10_033|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708174319/http://www.cogulus.com/cgi-bin/viewer.cgi?type=writings&file=1848_10_033 |url-status=dead|title= Patch's Propeller | work = Scientific America | volume = 4 | number = 5  | date = October 10, 1848 | page = 33 | via = The Archimedes Screw | access-date = 31 January 2010|archive-date= July 8, 2011}}</ref> but by then he faced multiple competitors.

===Screw propellers===
Despite experimentation with screw propulsion before the 1830s, few of these inventions were pursued to the testing stage, and those that were proved unsatisfactory for one reason or another.<ref>{{cite book|author=Smith, Edgar C.|year=1905|title=A Short history of Naval and Marine Engineering|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=TSg7AAAAIAAJ|publisher=University Press | place = Cambridge|pages=66–67}}</ref>[[File:F. P. Smith's original 1836 screw propeller patent.jpg|thumb|right|Smith's original 1836 patent for a screw propeller of two full turns. He would later revise the patent, reducing the length to one turn.]]

In 1835, two inventors in Britain, [[John Ericsson]] and [[Francis Pettit Smith]], began working separately on the problem. Smith was first to take out a screw propeller patent on 31 May, while Ericsson, a gifted [[Sweden|Swedish]] engineer then working in Britain, filed his patent six weeks later.<ref name=bourne84>Bourne, p. 84.</ref> Smith quickly built a small model boat to test his invention, which was demonstrated first on a pond at his [[Hendon]] farm, and later at the Royal Adelaide Gallery of Practical Science in [[London]], where it was seen by the Secretary of the Navy, Sir William Barrow. Having secured the patronage of a London banker named Wright, Smith then built a {{convert|30|ft|m|adj=on}}, {{convert |6|hp|kW|adj=on|lk=in}} canal boat of six [[tons burthen]] called ''Francis Smith'', which was fitted with his wooden propeller and demonstrated on the [[Paddington Canal]] from November 1836 to September 1837. By a fortuitous accident, the wooden propeller of two turns was damaged during a voyage in February 1837, and to Smith's surprise the broken propeller, which now consisted of only a single turn, doubled the boat's previous speed, from about four miles an hour to eight.<ref name=bourne84/> Smith would subsequently file a revised patent in keeping with this accidental discovery.
[[File:EricssonCounterRotatingScrews.png|thumb|Ericsson's original patent for a contra-rotating screw propulsion.]]
In the meantime, Ericsson built a {{convert|45|ft|m|adj=on}} screw-propelled steamboat, ''Francis B. Ogden'' in 1837, and demonstrated his boat on the [[River Thames]] to senior members of the [[British Admiralty]], including [[Surveyor of the Navy]] [[Sir William Symonds]]. In spite of the boat achieving a speed of 10 miles an hour, comparable with that of existing [[paddle steamer]]s, Symonds and his entourage were unimpressed. The Admiralty maintained the view that screw propulsion would be ineffective in ocean-going service, while Symonds himself believed that screw propelled ships could not be steered efficiently.{{Efn | name=ogden_note | In the case of ''Francis B. Ogden'', Symonds was correct. Ericsson had made the mistake of placing the rudder forward of the propellers, which made the rudder ineffective. Symonds believed that Ericsson tried to disguise the problem by towing a barge during the test.}}  Following this rejection, Ericsson built a second, larger screw-propelled boat, ''Robert F. Stockton'', and had her sailed in 1839 to the United States, where he was soon to gain fame as the designer of the [[U.S. Navy]]'s first screw-propelled warship, {{USS|Princeton|1843|6}}.<ref name=bourne87-89>Bourne, pp. 87–89.</ref>

[[File:Illustrirte Zeitung (1843) 21 335 1 Archimedische Schraube des Dampfschiffes Archimedes.PNG|thumb|left|Screw propeller of {{SS|Archimedes}}]]
Apparently aware of the Royal Navy's view that screw propellers would prove unsuitable for seagoing service, Smith determined to prove this assumption wrong. In September 1837, he took his small vessel (now fitted with an iron propeller of a single turn) to sea, steaming from [[Blackwall, London]] to [[Hythe, Kent]], with stops at [[Ramsgate]], [[Dover]] and [[Folkestone]]. On the way back to London on the 25th, Smith's craft was observed making headway in stormy seas by officers of the Royal Navy. This revived Admiralty's interest and Smith was encouraged to build a full size ship to more conclusively demonstrate the technology.<ref name=bourne85>Bourne, p. 85.</ref>

[[File:Great Britain propeller and rudder wideshot.jpg|thumb|A replica of {{SS|Great Britain}}'s first propeller. A four-bladed model replaced the original in 1845. The ship was originally designed to have paddles, but plans changed after screw propellers were shown to be much more efficient.]]
{{SS|Archimedes}} was built in 1838 by [[Henry Wimshurst]] of London, as the world's first steamship{{Efn | The emphasis here is on ''ship''. There were a number of successful propeller-driven vessels prior to ''Archimedes'', including Smith's own ''Francis Smith'' and Ericsson's ''Francis B. Ogden'' and ''Robert F. Stockton''. However, these vessels were ''boats'' – designed for service on inland waterways – as opposed to ''ships'', built for seagoing service.}} to be driven by a [[#History of ship and submarine screw propellers|screw propeller]].<ref>"The type of screw propeller that now propels the vast majority of boats and ships was patented in 1836, first by the British engineer Francis Pettit Smith, then by the Swedish engineer John Ericsson. Smith used the design in the first successful screw-driven steamship, ''Archimedes'', which was launched in 1839."  Marshall Cavendish, p. 1335.</ref><ref>"The propeller was invented in 1836 by Francis Pettit Smith in Britain and John Ericsson in the United States. It first powered a seagoing ship, appropriately called ''Archimedes'', in 1839." Macauley and Ardley, p. 378.</ref><ref>"In 1839, the Messrs. Rennie constructed the engines, machinery and propeller, for the celebrated ''Archimedes'', from which may be said to date the introduction of the screw system of propulsion…" ''Mechanics Magazine'', p. 220.</ref><ref>"It was not until 1839 that the principle of propelling steamships by a screw blade was fairly brought before the world, and for this we are indebted, as almost every adult will remember, to Mr. F. P. Smith of London. He was the man who first made the screw propeller practically useful. Aided by spirited capitalists, he built a large steamer named the "Archimedes", and the results obtained from her at once arrested public attention." MacFarlane, p. 109.</ref>

The ''Archimedes'' had considerable influence on ship development, encouraging the adoption of screw propulsion by the [[Royal Navy]], in addition to her influence on commercial vessels. Trials with Smith's ''Archimedes'' led to a [[tug-of-war]] competition in 1845 between {{HMS|Rattler|1843|6}} and {{HMS|Alecto|1839|6}} with the screw-driven ''Rattler'' pulling the paddle steamer ''Alecto'' backward at {{convert |2.5|kn|kph}}.<ref>[https://bowcreektoanatahan.wordpress.com/propeller-versus-paddle-the-tug-of-war-between-hms-rattler-and-the-alecto/ Propeller versus Paddle: The Tug of War between HMS Rattler and the Alecto], Bow Creek to Anatahan.</ref>

The ''Archimedes'' also influenced the design of [[Isambard Kingdom Brunel]]'s {{SS|Great Britain}} in 1843, then the world's largest ship and the first screw-propelled steamship to cross the [[Atlantic Ocean]] in August 1845.

{{HMS|Terror|1813|6}} and {{HMS|Erebus|1826|6}} were both heavily modified to become the first Royal Navy ships to have steam-powered engines and screw propellers. Both participated in [[Franklin's lost expedition]], last seen in July 1845 near [[Baffin Bay]].

Screw propeller design stabilized in the 1880s.

=== Aircraft ===
[[File:Precision air ATR72 5423a.gif|thumb|[[ATR 72]] propeller in flight]]
{{main|Propeller (aeronautics)}}

The [[Wright brothers]] pioneered the twisted [[aerofoil]] shape of modern aircraft propellers. They realized an air propeller was similar to a wing. They verified this using [[wind tunnel]] experiments. They introduced a twist in their blades to keep the angle of attack constant. Their blades were only 5% less efficient than those used 100 years later.<ref>Ash, Robert L., Colin P. Britcher and Kenneth W. Hyde. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110604093014/http://www.memagazine.org/supparch/flight03/propwr/propwr.html "Wrights: How two brothers from Dayton added a new twist to airplane propulsion."] ''Mechanical Engineering: 100 years of Flight'', 3 July 2007.</ref> Understanding of low-speed propeller [[aerodynamics]] was complete by the 1920s, although increased power and smaller diameters added design constraints.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/pilot_handbook/ |title=Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge |publisher=U.S. Federal Aviation Administration |year=2008 |location=Oklahoma City |pages=2–7 |id=FAA-8083-25A}}</ref> 

[[Alberto Santos Dumont]], another early pioneer, applied the knowledge he gained from experiences with airships to make a propeller with a steel shaft and aluminium blades for his [[Santos-Dumont 14-bis|14 bis biplane]]. Some of his designs used a bent aluminium sheet for blades, thus creating an airfoil shape. They were heavily [[Camber (aerodynamics)|undercambered]], and this plus the absence of lengthwise twist made them less efficient than the Wright propellers. Even so, this may have been the first use of aluminium in the construction of an airscrew.