Patent GB-115672-A (GB)
IPC: F41F3/10
Abstract: 115,672. Baker, F. May 14, 1917. Launching torpedoes.- -Relates to launching apparatus comprising several tubes concentrically arranged around an axis forming a sort of rotary magazine for bring- ing each tube in succession in line with a fixed barrel through which the torpedoes are ejected. According to the invention, the magazine is provided with means for stopping its rotation at each step in combination with means for then moving it longitudinally. In the form shown, the tubes 25 are carried by disks 27 mounted on a spindle 26 behind the fixed barrel 1. To launch the torpedoes, the following operations are performed. A valve 95 is opened, admitting compressed air from a reservoir 81 to a cylinder 89, where it presses a piston 88 against a spring 93. The piston 88, being connected by a rod 87 to an air chest 63 carried by rollers 67 on a track 65, draws the chest forward; and an extension 62 on the chest closes the rear end of the uppermost tube 25 and presses it against the rear end of the barrel 1. A sluice valve 6 at the front end of the barrel is opened by water under pressure supplied to the mouth of the barrel through a passage 4. Another valve 83 is now opened, admitting compressed air to a cylinder 76, where it presses a piston 75 against a spring 77. This piston, being connected by rod 74, lever 73, link 72, lever 71, and rod 70 to a va.lve 69 in the air chest 63, opens this valve. admitting compressed air from the reservoir 81 through a pipe 85, the chest 63, and the extension 62 to the tube 25. When the air pressure behind the torpedo has risen sufficiently, it lifts a spring valve 57, Fig. 3, and passes through a tube 55 to a spring piston 53, which thereupon rocks a cam 51 thereby unlocking the torpedo which is at once ejected by the compressed air behind it. As the torpedo passes out at the mouth 15 of the barrel 1, it is surrounded and protected by a conical jet of water from an annular nozzle 3 supplied by the conduit 4, and also by jets from holes in an annular pipe 5. While the torpedo is passing through the barrel 1, compressed air escapes from behind it through a port 18 into a cylinder 17, where it compresses a spring piston 19. The rod 20 of the piston strikes the lever 71, returning the valve 69 to the closed position. An extension 98 of the rod strikes a spring valve 90, exhausting the cylinder 89, allowing the spring piston 88 to retract the air chest 63 with its extension 62, this, in turn, allowing the magazine of torpedo tubes to be retracted by a spring 47. Another extension 97 on the rod 20 strikes and closes the valve 95. The valve 83, which was opened to cause the launching of the torpedo, was closed immediately afterwards by a spring 84, and therefore does not interfere with the above described automatic operations restoring the parts to the normal position. Some of the air that passes through the port 18 while the torpedo passes through the barrel 1, flows into a pipe 36 wherein it is trapped by a non-return valve 36a. Part of this air passes into a cylinder 39 where it compresses a spring piston withdrawing a locking-rod 46 from the front disk 27 of the magazine. The remainder of the air passes into a cylinder 33 where it compresses a spring piston 32 which rotates the magazine one step by means of ratchet teeth on the front disk 27 and a ratchet pawl 30 on the rod 31 of the piston 32. The apparatus is then ready for launching a second torpedo.