Patent GB-191417304-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to Torpedoes, Mines and other Submarine Bodies.
IPC: F42B22/08
Filed: 1914-07-21
Granted: 1915-07-21
Abstract: 17,304. Eskilatuna Stalpressnings Aktiebolag. July 22,1913, [Convention date]. Submarine vessels. - Relates to suhmarine bodies provided with depth - regulating means of the kind in which an hydrostatic apparatus controls the supply of compressed air to a buoyancy - regulating chamber to cause the body to oscillate about a given mean depth. An intermediate low pressure air-chamber is used between the buoyancy chamber and a main high-pressure airreservoir, and is intermittently filled and discharged when the mine reaches its upper and lower limits. As shown in Fig. 1, the buoyancy chamber 24 of a mine and the intermediate low pressure air-chamber 32 are connected by pipes 26, 31 to a relay piston valve 22, controlled by another piston valve 13 worked by the hydrostatic device 3 by means of a lever 11, and the high-pressure airreservoir 14 is connected to the valves through a pressure reducer and regulator 18. When the mine is first laid or when it rises to the upper limit of its oscillation, the hydrostatic device 3 moves out and brings the piston 12 of the valve 13 down to the position shown in Fig. 2. Compressed air is then admitted through pipes 20, 30 to the left of the relay valve 22, while the right of the relay valve is connected to exhaust through pipes 29, 38, so that the piston 23 of the relay valve is shifted to the right, as shown in Fig. 2. Compressed air is then admitted through pipes 21, 31 to the intermediate chamber 32, and the buoyancy chamber 24 is connected to exhaust through pipes 26, 27, so that water enters the buoyancy chamber through pipe 25, and weighs the mine down. When the mine sinks to the lower limit of its oscillation, the hydrostatic device moves in, the valve piston 12 is raised and causes the relay valve piston 23 to be shifted to the left, whereupon the buoyancy chamber is cut off from the exhaust 27, and is connected to the intermediate air chamber 32 through pipe 26, grooves 45, 47, 46, and pipe 31, so that the air from the intermediate chamber is expanded into and expels the water from the buoyancy chamber. A pipe 28 adjustably screwed in the mouth of the buoyancy chamber limits the amount of water taken in, and the leakage from the pipe 21 through the relay valve to the pipe 26 completes the expulsion of the water, if the air from the intermediate chamber has not been sufficient. The exhaust from the valves 12 and 22 is led out in a finely divided state, to avoid disclosing the presence of the mine, by means of a multi-perforated exhaust chamber with a number of escape apertures, or by widening the mouth of the pipe 27 and covering it with a multi-perforated metal sheet. The compression of the springs of the hydrostatic device is adjusted by means of a socket 6 coupled by a lever 8 to a nut 9 on a screw 10, which can be rotated from outside the mine. The Specification as open to inspection under Section 91 (3) (a) also mentions (1) means for indicating outside the mine the strain of the spring; (2) means for adjusting the regulator 18 from outside; (3) clock-work for causing the buoyancy chamber 24 to be filled with air and cut off from the outside water to bring the mine to the surface after a given time; (4) a piston in an open-ended cylinder for adjusting the displacement of the mine before it is laid; (5) a separate passage with a small opening between the intermediate chamber and the buoyancy chamber to insure leakage of air into the latter; and (6) a safety-valve for confining the exhaust within the mine or an exhaust chamber therein, and discharging it only when it has acquired a certain pressure. This subject-matter does not appear in the Specification as accepted.