Patent GB-190512509-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in Apparatus for Automatically Indicating, at a Distant Spot, the Instantaneous Position of an Object Observed from a Single Point.
Inventor: LEON KARL OSKAR
Filed: 1905-06-16
Granted: 1906-05-03
Abstract: 12,509. Leon, K. O. June 17, 1904, [date applied for under Patents Act, 1901]. Position-finders. - In apparatus of the kind described in Specification No. 2270, A.D. 1893, for automatically indicating at a a distant spot the' momentary position of an object observed from a single station, to facilitate the directing of guns on moving objects, the firing of mines, the taking of ranges at sieges, and similar operations, a pointer at the distant spot is moved over a map or chart so as to keep parallel, in azimuth, with the sighting- apparatus, and a cursor is moved backwards and forwards along the pointer as the angle of depression of the sighting-apparatus is increased and decreased. A second pointer operated by the cursor indicates at the distant spot the bearing and range of the object, which may be out of sight at this place. Fig. 1 shows in part sectional elevation the sighting-apparatus, which is in effect a rangefinder of the depression type. The telescope 1 is directed on to the water-line of the ship or other object so that the bearing of the object and its range are determined from the horizontal and vertical angles turned through by the telescope. At one end, the telescope rests on a spring- supported lever 6 and at the other end is connected by a horizontal pivot 5 to a frame 2 resting on rollers 29 on which it is rotated by a handle 23, from which motion is transmitted through-toothed and worm gearing to a worm-wheel sector 27 on the hollow shaft 28. The telescope is tilted by the longitudinal movement of a screw 11 in contact with a ruler 10. The screw 11 is adjusted vertically along a scale 12 and is carried by a slide 9 operated longitudinally by a screw 8 operated by a handle 14 through worm, bevel, and spur gearing as shown. The handles 14, 23 also operate inductors or armatures 35, 36 arranged between the poles of permanent magnets 34. The ends of the windings of an inductor are connected to insulated rings 37, 38, Fig. 7, on the shaft. A brush 39 is in contact with the ring 37, while an arm 43 on a shell 40 makes contact with a contact 41 when the operating-handle is turned in one direction and with a contact 42 when the operating-handle is turned in the opposite direction. The contacts 39, 41, 42 are connected, as shown diagrammatically in Fig. 7, to two pairs of electro-magnets 65, 66 and 67, 68, the armatures of which operate the indicating-mechanism in opposite directions through pawl and ratchet-wheel, bevel-wheel, and worm gearing, which as shown in Fig. 6 has two bevel-wheels 88, 95 with central clutches so that they can both rotate freely in one direction on their shafts to allow the indicating-mechanism to be operated in either direction. The indicating- pointers are shown in plan in Fig. 3, and their operating-mechanism is shown in plan in Fig. 4 and in part sectional elevation in Fig. 5. The electro-magnets operate the pointer 55 through gearing similar to that shown in Fig. 6 and a worm and worm-wheel sector as shown in Fig: 5 so as to keep the pointer parallel with the distant sighting -telescope. A screw 104 carrying the cursor 57 is similarly operated so that the position of the object on the map is at the intersection of two threads vertically below one another on the cursor with two similar threads 54 on the arm 55. A pin on the cursor engages a slot in a graduated arm 59 which indicates the bearing and range of the distant object at the place where the chart is situated, the sighting and indicating stations on the chart being coincident with the pivots of the arms 55, 59. The cursor may carry a pencil to trace on the map the path of the moving object. A relay may be arranged between the transmitting and receiving apparatus, a wireless electric wave system may be used, or the operating-handles may carry disks with two contacts each of which contacts alternately with fixed positive and negative terminals connected to a battery, so that an alternating current can be passed through circuits arranged as shown in Fig. 7. In a modified form of sighting-apparatus, the telescope is tilted by a screw-threaded rod raised and lowered by a rotating screw-threaded socket.