AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR SUSPENDING THINGS IN EQUIPOLSE
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Isaac Antoine Chomel at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd February 1875.
I, ISAAC ANTOINE CHOMEL, formerly of the City and State of New
York, United States of America, but now of 6, Christchurch Road,
Hampstead, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR SUSPENDING THINGS
IN EQUIPOLSE," to be as follows:-
-
This Invention has for its object an improved method of suspending
things in equipoise, and is applicable for the suspension of berths,
couches, cabins, tables, boxes for damageable articles, or for cattle.
platforms, for artillery, and other things; mariners' compasses, and other
nautical or mathematical instruments on board ship, in vehicles for
land transport, or in other places where great steadiness of the thing in
equipoise is a desireability.
I construct an articulated frame of suitable form and material, which
frame is made in three members; each member may consist of one piece
of any suitable material, or it may be made of several parts and of

page_text: various materials suitably wrought together. The two outer members
are suspended from supports, each by an universal joint, or by a loop
upon a stud, or by some other form of bearing having sufficient play for
the articulated frame to swing freely in any direction. When the
articulated frame is hung in a vessel or vehicle, the centres of the said
universal joints or bearings are fixed points in such vessel or vehicle,
and when the said frame is hung in a building or in the open, the said
centres are also fixed points.
The central member of the articulated frame is suspended from and
between the two outer members. The three members when suspended
form roughly the ends and one side of a prism or hexahedron,
At or near the transverse centre line of the central member of the
articulated frame I provide and fix one or more bearings or trunions,
the axes of the same being on the same right line, which line is parallel
with the axes of the joints of the articulated frame, but it is not
necessary that the said line and the axes of the said joints should all
three be in the same plane.
The thing to be suspended in equipoise is carried by the said bearing
or bearings fixed upon the central member of the articulated frame, and
it will be free to turn upon the axis of the said bearings or trunions.
The central member of the articulated frame may be so formed that
the lower part of the thing suspended is between the sides of the said
member or projects below on the outside of the same.
Upon the lower part of the thing suspended I fix an arm or arms
which project downwards. The extremity of the said arm or arms,
which may be furnished with a friction roller, is held by an arc whose
centre is upon the centre line of suspension of the articulated frame.
This arc is fixed to the deck, floor, wall, or cieling, of the ship, vehicle,
or building, in a constant relative position to the centres of the two
joints upon which the articulated frame is hung. When the whole
apparatus is in a horizontal position, the centres of the said two joints
are in the same right line A, the axes of the bearings or trunions at or
near the centre of the central member of the articulated frame are in
another right line B, which is by preference at a lower level than the
line A, the vertical planes containing these two right lines are at right a
angles, and the right line B the centres of the arms projecting downwards.

page_text: from the thing suspended and the line of the said arc are all in the same
vertical plane. The arc is struck from a centre on the line A where tho
vertical plane of the line B cuts it.
When I use this improved apparatus to suspend in equipoise a berth,
cot, or couch on board a ship I hang the articulated frame by holes in
its two outer members upon studs fixed to the walls of the cabins, or
upon supports fixed to the deck, or to the cieling, or in any other suitable
manner.
At or near the centre of the central member of the articulated frame
I provide two bearings arranged as herein-before described, one on either
side of the said member, in which bearings I suspend the cot, berth, or
couch. These bearings are so arranged as to allow of the lifting of the
said member by the motion of the ship to an angle with the cot, berth,
or couch which is in equipoise. An arm fixed rigidly to the bottom of
the cot, berth, or couch, and projecting downward therefrom through an
aperture in the central member of the articulated frame is held by an
arc fixed beneath the said frame to the floor or other part of the ship
as herein-before described.
The motion of a vessel at sea about the berth, cot, or couch thus
suspended is as follows:-If the berth and the articulated frame be
suspended lengthwise, fore and aft in the ship, and the motion of the
ship is a rolling motion only, the centre of gravity of the berth and
occupant being below the centre line of suspension of the articulated
frame, then the berth remains in a horizontal position and the vessel
rolls round the said centre line of suspension. If the motion of the
vessel is a pitching motion only then the centre of gravity of the berth
being below the point of its suspension upon the articulated frame, and
also below the centre line of suspension of the said frame, the berth will
retain its horizontal position. The ship pitching turns upon the axis of
the bearings upon the central member of the articulated frame.
The berth is furthermore kept in its horizontal position, and both it
and the articulated frame are kept in a certain space in the ship and
from contact with the walls of the cabin by the arm projecting downwards
from the bottom of the berth and held by the arc aforesaid. This arm
and arc keeps the whole apparatus and the thing suspended above the
level they would naturally assume if there were no arc and arm.
articulated frame swinging toward that end of the ship which is highest
The

page_text: instead of towards the end which is lowest, as would be the case without
the said arc and arm.
If an extra weight is required to be carried at one end of the berth or
cot, one or more springs are provided to counteract the same, these
springs are placed in the vacant space between the bottom of the berth &
and the central member of the articulated frame.
I suspend other things in this improved apparatus in a similar way to
that in which I suonand a herth not or couch