AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR PROTECTING PRO- PERTY BY SOUNDING ALARUNS OR SIGNALS
Year: 1846

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I JOHN GILLETT,
of Brailes, in the County of Warwick, Agricultural Implement Makei, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Пei piesent most Excellent Majesty Queen Victona, by Hei
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-second day of June, in the tenth year of Ilei reign,
did, foi Heiselt, ei heus and successors, give and giant unto mc. the said
John Gillett, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authouty, that
I, the said John Gillett, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such
others as I, the said John Gillett, my executors, administrators, or assigns,
should at any time agicc with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
duing the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully night make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR PROTECTING PRO-
PERTY BY SOUNDING ALARUNS OR SIGNALS," in which said Letters Patent is con-
tained a proviso obliging me, the said John Gillett, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and asceitun the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause
the same to be inolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Gillett, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
nanner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and

page_text: ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had to
the Diawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures maiked thereon,
(that is to say)
My Invention of an improved apparatus for protecting property by sounding
alaiums or giving signals, relates to the construction and employment of such
an alarum as is required for protecting property out of doors, such as gram,
fit, or vegetables, from the depredations of buds and small animals, and is
intended to be placed in fields where grain has been newly sown, or in trees,
gardens, or chaids, or other places where fiuit. vegetables, or other produce is
liable to the depiedations of buds or animals The alarum apparatus is con-
sti ucted in such a manner as to go off or explode with a loud report or noise
at stated periods, such as at every hour or half hour, which it will continue to
do for some hours after being properly wound up or set Several different
views of the apparatus and modifications of the same to suit various purposes
are shewn in the accompanying Drawings. The apparatus consists of two
piincipal paits, viz, first a clock movement, upon which the length of the
intervals between which the alarum is sounded depends and is regulated, and
which is in fact the prime mover of the apparatus, and, second, the alarum
.apparatus, or that part which causes the sound-er-report-at the stated intervals.
The alarum part of the apparatus may be modified in various ways, some of
which are shown in the Drawings, but my improvements consist in adapting a
clock movement to the alarum apparatus in such a manner that the alaium
may be sounded at stated intervals for a given number of hours. The alarums
I employ arc percussion or detenonating caps of such a size and description as
will upon being stuck with the hammer of the apparatus explode with a loud
report, or I employ smaller caps mounted on nipples in connection with small
charges of gunpowder suitably aanged round a barrel, and which explode
with a loud noise whenever one of the caps is by the movement of the clock
brought under the hammer and struck by it. I also sometimes employ a laigo
bell in place of the explosive compounds, which bell, by being struck at stated
intervals by a suitable apparatus, will emit a sufficiently loud and continuous
sound to alaim or scale away buds or small animals that may be depredating
upon the produce of the land in the vicinity
Figure 1 in the accompanying Diawings represents a front elevation of one
modification of my improved alarum, and Figure 2 is a partial transveise
vertical section a, a, is the barrel of a clock, and contains a very strong con-
volute spring; b,b, is the spinal chain banel, 1ound which the chain, cord, or catgut
>> coiled when the apparatus is wound up, cand c are the escapement wheel and
balance, and d, d, d, part of the ordinary train of wheels of a clock movement,

page_text: by which the force of the spring in the banel a is made to act upon a laige
toothed wheel e on the shaft or axle f, the outer end of which shaft oi axle
canes a star wheel g, and a cast-11 on cylinder or banel h, which I will deno-
minate the alaium cylinder or barrel These two parts (the star wheel and
alaium cylinder) are made to revolve in conjunction by being locked together
by means of studs or feathers, as at 1, Figure 2, and a number of holes
1, 2, 2, 2, are bored in the face of the alarum bariel to a suitable depth to
receive charges of gunpowder, which are ignited and exploded by means of
pcicussion or detonating caps placed on the nipple 2, 2, 2, 2, as shown in the
Figures A hammer or striking piece 3, 3, is mounted on an axle immediately
above the caps, and a small fiction wheel 3, near the end of the hammer, is
made to work against the curved or inclined sides of the aims of the star
whicel
9, 9, as seen best in Figure 1 It will now be seen that as the wheel e
and stai wheel g, together with the alarum banel h, aic carried slowly 10und
by the power of the main spring in the barrel a, the hammer, will be raised
up by the inclined sides of the arms of the star wheel, and immediately that
the small function roller 3 at the end of the hammer passes over the extreme
point of the aim of the stau wheel the hammer will, by the power of a con-
volute spring in the small banel Z, be brought down with force on to the top
of one of the caps, which will be exploded by the percussion, and ignite the
charge in one of the holes of the alarum cylinder, and thereby occasion a loud
report, which will scale or dive away any buds or small animals that be
in the vicinity or within heuing When one change has been fired off the
star wheel g and barrel h will continue to move round, and the hammer will
be again raised in the same manner fo. another explosion, and this will take
place penodically until all the charges are fed off In order to prevent
accidents to persons who may be near when a charge is being exploded I cover
up the star wheel g and banel h with a metal shutter 1, 1, (see Figure 2,)
leaving a hole 4 for the waddling to pass through, and by this ineans the
exploded caps are prevented from flying out, which they will sometimes do
with great force.
may
Figure 3 is a front view, and Figure 4 a plan view, of a modification of
the above apparatus, in which the star wheel 9 15 dispensed with and the
hammer is raised in a different manner A large toothed wheel g is mounted
on the shaft of the alarum barrel h, which is bored out in holes to receive the
charges of the powder, and is furnished with nipples and percussion caps in
precisely the same manner as the former apparatus The axle of the hammer
is furmshed with a convolute spring in the barrel k, and at the opposite end of
the axle of the hammer a curved on irclined lever in is mounted, as seen by

page_text: dots in Figure 3 The toothed wheel g is furnished with a number of studs
01 rollers n, n, n, n, corresponding in number with the caps 2 and holes 2, 2, in
the alarum barrel, and as the large wheel g is carried round in the direction
of the arrow by the power of the main spring of the clock movement the
rollers n, n, are brought against the under side of the lever m, and will thereby
raise it and the hammer, as seen at Figure 3. and immediately that the end of
the lever m is released from the roller the hammer will, by the power of the
sping in the small bairel k, be brought down with force on to the cap on one
of the nipples, and thereby explode the charge
Figure 5 and 6 represent a side elevation and side vertical section of a more
simplified apparatus In the present case charges of powder are dispensed
with, and percussion caps of a laige and more powerful description are employed
in lieu thereof These caps are intended to be exploded periodically, by means of
a hammer actuated by a clock movement as before, but it has not been thought
necessary to shew the clock movement in connection therewith, as the mode of
adapting it has been so fully described before
In Figures 7 and 8 I have shewn a further modification of the apparatus,
-in-which detonating or explosive compounds are altogether dispensed with, and
the alarum is produced by striking a bell hy a httle-apparatus, which is put in
apid motion for a short time for the purpose of sounding an alaium of one or
two minutes duration, more or less Figure 7 represents a tranveise vertical
section, and Figue 8 a plan view of the apparatus, the bell only being shown
in section The prime mover of the whole apparatus is, as in the former
instances, a strong main sping, and the time at which the alarum is sounded
15 regulated by a clock movement as before The works, or movement part of
the apparatus, are enclosed in a wooden or other box A, A, and B is the bell
which, upon being struck, sounds the alaium, a is the barrel which contains
the main spring, upon the axle of which is mounted a toothed wheel b,b, by
means of which motion is communicated, through the oidmary chain of wheels,
to the escapement and balance, as is well known, c is a vertical shaft placed
beside the spring bariel, and caries at its upper end a horizontal arm d, the
outer end of which is kept in contact with the periphery of a horizontal disc
wheel e, by means of a small sping 4 The vertical shaft c also caries a
second short arm ƒ (seen by dots in Figure 8), which projects under the hori-
zontal toothed wheel 6, and is moved back as this wheel b rotates, by means of
small pins or studs 5. on the under side of this wheel, as seen in Figure 7.
A second convolute spring 9, connected with a second tiam of wheels h, h,h, 15
attached to a vertical spindle 2, 2, which supports the bell B
It will be seen,
on inspecting the Diawings, that the train of wheels h, h, connect the spring g

page_text: with the disc wheel e, and that the latter would commence rotating with great
apidity immediately that the spring g is wound up, if some intervening obstacle
did not prevent it
The wheel e is prevented from so rotating by a small stud
or projection 6 on its periphery coming in contact with and bearing against the
end of the horizontal arm d of the vertical shaft c, as seen best in Figure 8.
The spring
of the barrel a is wound up by applying a key to the square head p,
at the lower end of the shaft, and the other spring 9 is wound up by turning
the milled nut k above Now it will be easily understood that, when the lower
clock movement in connection with the spring a is set going, the pins oi studs
5, on the lower side of the toothed wheel 6, will, by coming against and forcing
back the short ann or lever f of the vertical shaft c, also force back the longer
arm & above, and by that means release the stud or projection 6 of the disc wheel e,
which, being thus freed from obstruction, and being powerfully acted upon by
the spring g, will commence rotating with great rapidity in the duection of the
black arrow, and the effect of this will be, that the two hammer blocks 1,1, (which
are mounted loosely on studs or pins on the upper side of the disc wheel) will
fly out by centrifugal force and stake the inner side of the bell a series of 1apid
blows, thereby occasioning a great noise; but immediately that the stud 5 of
the toothed wheel b gets past the end of the short lever f, which it will do in
about one minute, the lever d in the upper end of the shaft will be again forced
into contact with the periphery of the disc wheel e, by means of the small
spring 4, and will thereby stop its further rotation until the projection 6 is
agam released.
Having now described my Invention, and the manner of carrying the same
into effect, I wish it to be distinctly understood, that, although I have shown
and described effectual and economical modes and arrangements for carrying
out my improvements, I do mean oi intend to confine myself rigidly thereto, as
it must be evident to any person acquainted with this description of machinery
that the construction and arrangement of the several parts may be greatly varied
And I would
without departing from the nature and object of my Invention
observe, that I am aware that apparatus have been employed in which bells
have been sounded at a fixed time by means of clockwork; I do not theicforc
mean or intend to claim the exclusive right to sound alarums on a bell or bells
by means of clockwork. But what I consider to be new, and therefore wish to
5 claim under the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, 15,-
First, exploding or firing off, at stated or regular intervals, a succession of
charges of detonating or explosive compounds, in any convenient or suitable
shape, by means of a self-acting apparatus, in which the length of the intervals
between which the alarums are sounded is regulated by clockwork, and the