Ressel's ship propeller (1827 patent)
Hélice naval de Ressel (patente de 1827)
- Date
- 1827 · confidence high
- Place
- Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy
- Credited to
- Josef Ressel
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
The Bohemian forester obtained an imperial privilege in 1827 for a steam-driven screw propeller. In 1829 he tested it at Trieste on the ship Civetta, which reached six knots until a steam pipe burst.
Screw propellers had been designed or tested earlier (Bushnell 1775, Fitch, Stevens 1802…) and practical exploitation is credited to Smith and Ericsson (1836). Ressel was born in Chrudim (Bohemia) and worked in Carniola and Trieste, today Czechia, Slovenia and Italy.
What it led to
- a police ban on further tests and abandonment of the project in Austria
- Czech and Slovene claims for the propeller's priority
- the commercial propellers of Smith and Ericsson in 1836-1839