Improvements in Sounding Apparatus for Navigating Purposes.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 9th Feb., 1898
Complete Specification Left, 20th July, 1898-Accepted, 27th Aug., 1898
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Sounding Apparatus for Navigating Purposes.
I, FREDERICK WALTER SHALLIS, of Whitefield Bank, Heaton Norris, in the
County of Lancaster, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention.
which has been communicated to me by John Wight Livingstone, Commander of
S/S
Kola," British India Steam Navigation Company, Bombay, to be as
"
follows:-
This invention relates to improvements in apparatus for measuring depths below
the bottom of a vessel and particularly to the well known form of apparatus which
consists of a glass tube closed at the upper end and open at the lower end and
provided with a preparation for marking that portion of its interior which has
resisted the further entrance of the water and has continued to be occupied by the
air under the pressure experienced by it at the depth to which the glass tube has
been sent and which depth is measured from the amount of compression under-
gone by the air.
The present improvements consist chiefly in dispensing with the marking prepara-
tion and in fitting the lower end of the glass tube with a ball valve or other
suitable form of non-return valve which will admit freely and retain the water
entering at the lowest depth which may be measured by graduations on the glass
tube, or by a separate scale. A great advantage of this arrangement is that the
tube can be used over and over again, it being only necessary to relieve the valve
and allow the water to run out whereas in the ordinary case, the marking prepara-
tion is destroyed and consequently the tube is useless after being once used and
is generally thrown away.
Al: Al
1000
H. B. BARLOW & GILLETT,
Agents for Applicant,
Improvements in Sounding Apparatus for Navigating Purposes.
I, FREDERICK WALTER SHALLIS, of Whitefield Bank, Heaton Norris, in the
County of Lancaster, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention,
which has been' communicated to me by John Wight Livingstone, Commander of
S/S "Kola," British India Steam Navigation Company, Bombay, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement: —
This invention relates to improvements in apparatus for measuring depths below

page_text: the bottom of a vessel and particularly to the well known form of apparatus which
consists of a glass tube closed at the upper end and open at the lower end and
provided with a preparation for marking that portion of its interior which bas
resisted the further entrance of the water and has continued to be occupied by the
air under the pressure experienced by it at the depth to which the glass tube has
been sent and which depth is measured from the amount of compression under-
gone by the air.
The present improvements consist chiefly in dispensing with the marking prepara-
tion and in fitting the lower end of the glass tube with a ball valve or other
suitable form of non-return valve which will admit freely and retain the water
entering at the lowest depth which may be measured by graduations on the glass
tube, or by a separate scale. A great advantage of this arrangement is that the
tube can be used over and over again it being only necessary to relieve the valve
and allow the water to run out whereas in the ordinary case, the marking prepara-
tion is destroyed and consequently the tube is useless after being once used and
is generally thrown away.
The accompanying drawing is a longitudinal section of the improved apparatus
in which a designates the graduated glass tube, b a bulb or valve chamber secured
to the lower end of the glass tube, c a ball valve, d a short chain, and e a counter-
balance weight.
When in use the tube a is usually placed in a brass cylinder or case in the
ordinary way and lowered into the water by a steel wire. As the tube sinks
the retaining valve c is lifted and as the head of water over the apparatus increases
the water passing the valve gradually rises in the tube and compresses the air
therein in proportion to the head of water over the apparatus until the descent of
the latter is checked when the valve closes and retains the water which has entered
the tube. The apparatus is then drawn to the surface and the amount of water
retained in the tube is an exact measurement as indicated by the scale or measure
of the depth to which the tube descended. The water can be allowed to escape by
lifting the retaining valve and when this has been done the apparatus is then
again ready for use.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven.
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is-
In sounding apparatus, the combination with the tube a which is preferably
graduated, of the ball valve c or other suitable form of non-return valve sub-
stantially as and for the purposes herein set forth.
בד
1011
e T... 1909
H. B. BARLOW & GILLETT,
Agents for Applicant,
17, St. Ann's Square, Manchester.