IM- PROVEMENTS IN TORPEDOES OR SUBMARINE EXPLOSIVE INSTRUMENTS
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Ambrose McEvoy at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th February 1866.
I, CHARLES AMBROSE MCEVOY, of 28, Bedford Square, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN TORPEDOES OR SUBMARINE EXPLOSIVE INSTRUMENTS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in torpedoes or submarine
explosive instruments. For these purposes, in constructing a torpedoe or
submarine explosive instrument which is to be employed against a ship or
vessel at anchor or against a floating bridge or like floating structures, a
metallic chamber of a cylindrical or other suitable form to contain the
gunpowder or explosive compound is employed in which a hollow screw
plug is.fixed, which is arranged to contain a needle or point and a recess for
receiving fulminating powder; these parts are kept separate by a spring.
Over the end of the hollow plug is a hollow half sphere of very thin copper,
which is fixed by its circumference to the plug so as to render the interior
water-tight; over this end of the hollow plug is fastened a stronger cap or
cover of metal when the apparatus is not in use, but which is removed when
the torpedo or instrument is floated. Through the centre of the chamber is

page_text: fixed an axis which is supported in a frame, which when in use is floated by
any suitable buoys or floats applied to the two ends of ropes or cord or chain.
On the fixed axis is a hollow tube, on which are fixed radially oblique blades or
vases, which when the chamber which contains the powder or explosive com-
pound comes to rest rotate; on the tube is formed a screw thread of any desired
length, which will revolve with the vanes. In this screw is received the tail
end of a detent or stop, which retains or holds the hammer of a spring lock,
till by the rotation of the screw the end of the detent or stop is released. The
arrangement of these parts is such that when a torpedo is floated down a
stream, or is carried by the flow of a tide against the cable of a ship at anchor,
the cord, chain, or other instrument will be stopped by the cable, whilst the
torpedo will continue to be floated till it comes against the side of the ship or
vessel, when it will come to rest, and the oblique vanes will be caused to
rotate, which will turn the screw thread and release the detent or stop, when
the hammer will strike against the thin covering metal of the hollow plug
and will cause the needle or point to be brought into contact with the fulmi-
nating powder with sufficient force to discharge the same, and so discharge
the powder or other explosive compound in the chamber.
In constructing a torpedo or submerged exploding instrument which is to
be anchored in a position to be struck by a ship or vessel the chamber con-
taining the gunpowder or other explosive compound is, by preference, of a
conical form, the upper and larger part or end being hollow in order to act as
a buoy to float the chamber. This instrument is connected to an anchor by a
rope or chain attached to its lower end, there being a shaft or bolt fixed
through the centre of the chamber; this shaft or bolt has an eye at its lower
end to fix the anchoring chain or rope to the bolt or shaft, and there is also
an eye at the upper end of the bolt to facilitate the lowering of the instrument
into the water. At the upper end of the chamber is placed a cap or cover of
metal, which being flanged at its circumference fits over the top of the
chamber, and such cap or cover will not fall off until the chamber is con-
siderably inclined by a ship or vessel running against it, when the cap or
cover will fall off, and will by its weight in sinking draw out the wire of a
friction fuze and ignite the charge in the chamber. In sinking the chamber
below the surface of the water provision is made for retaining the chain
which is attached to the cap or cover and to the wire of the friction fuze from
being acted on even should the cap fall off, but when the instrument has been
lowered under water the stop by which the chain is held or secured is removed.
The wire of the friction fuze is fixed by solder to a hollow cup of thin metal,
the edge or circumference which is fixed by solder or otherwise to a hollow

page_text: cup formed in the head or outer end of a screw plug, which is screwed water-
tight in a suitable bushed opening in the chamber containing the gunpowder
or explosive compound of a torpedo or submerged explosive instrument; by
these means the wire and its passage into the fuze are rendered water-
tight.