STEERING APPARATUS. An im provement on the steering wheel, as commonly used on shipboard. Capt. C. F. Brown, of Warren, Rhode Island, has invented a new and ingenious im provement in steering apparatus for ves sels, for which he has taken measures to secure a patent, and which will, no doubt, arrest the attention of nautical men. The head of the rudder post is made of metal, with a helical groove run ning down on each side of it ; and over this is placed a tube with two feathers on its inside, fitting into the said helical grooves. Over the top of this is another outside tube or cap, bolted by a flange to the deck, and on the top is the wheel, having for its axis a screw, which works into a thread opening in the second tube, and as the wheel is turned this second tube is raised or lowered, and its feathers, thereby working in the helical grooves of the head of the rudder post, turns it roundward and from one side to the other, thus operating the rudder and steering the vessel. The steering wheel is horizontal, and there is an indicating pointer on the post head, which, as it turns, points to an index, and enables the steersman to see every degree through which the rudder moves. Of all the steering apparatus that we have ever seen, this is the most compact and beautiful.
The steering apparatus on board the Cunard steamer Asia, which was in vented by Messrs. Frazer and Robinson, R. N., differs from the foregoing. It consists in the application to the steering wheel of a friction band, similar to that used in cranes, which passes round a pro jecting circumference inside the wheel, and is brought down to a pedal on the deck, by pressure, on which any amount of friction can be put on the wheel. It is not desirable that the helm should ever be at a "dead lock," without the power of yielding a little to the shock of a very heavy sea, as that would endanger the carrying away the rudder. An adjusting screw is therefore provided, by which the amount of ultimate friction that can be put on the wheel is regulated, and not left in the power of the steersman. A great advantage of this invention is the power which it gives of fixing the rud ders of vessels lying in the tideway or harbor, and thereby preventing the con tinual wear on the pintals of the rudder, and in time the loosening of the stern framing of the vessel.