Hydropneumatic Apparatus for Raising and Lowering Gun Mountings or other Platforms.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 28th Apr., 1890
Complete Specification Left, 17th Jan., 1891-Accepted, 25th Apr., 1891
Hydropneumatic Apparatus for Raising and Lowering Gun
Mountings or other Platforms.
1, THOMAS ENGLISH, of Hawley, near Dartford, Kent, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:--
My invention relates to hydropneumatic apparatus for raising and lowering gun
mountings or other platforms, the weight being balanced or nearly so
positions.
in all
For this purpose, I attach under the mounting or platform a vertical hydraulic
cylinder with its mouth presented downwards and with a space in its upper part
forming an air vessel. A stationary tubular plunger projects upwards from a base
below and enters the cylinder through packing.
On the base there are fixed three, or there may be more, horizontal hydraulic
cylinders radiating from the lower end of the plunger, with the bore of which their
outer ends communicate by suitable pipes or channels. The aggregate area of these
cylinders is equal or nearly so to that of the vertical plunger. Each of those
cylinders is fitted with a piston the rod of which projects through packing at its
outer end and is attached to a slipper that can run along a horizontal guide.
Each slipper is connected by a diagonal link to a pin at the upper part of the
vertical cylinder, and the middle of this link is connected by a radius rod to
a pin near the base of the plunger, this pin being vertically under the upper pin for
the diagonal link. The horizontal cylinders being charged with water or liquid
and the vertical cylinder being also charged partly with liquid and partly with air
under pressure occupying its upper part, the air pressure being such as to balance
or nearly balance the vertical cylinder, the mounting or platform and its load, the
mounting or platform can be raised or lowered without material alteration of the
balance, the varying pressure being nearly compensated by the varying inclination
of the diagonal links. The diagonal links with their slippers and radius rods also
constitute a parallel motion guiding the cylinder in its vertical movement.
platforms of considerable size several cylinders and their connections may be
employed.
Dated this 50th day of dil 1900
For
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Hydropneumatic Apparatus for Raising and Lowering Gun
Mountings or other Platforms.
I, THOMAS ENGLISH, of Hawley, near Dartford, Kent, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement :-
My invention relates to hydropneumatic apparatus for raising and lowering gun
mountings or other platforms, the weight being balanced or nearly so in all
positions, as I shall describe referring to the accompanying drawings.
Fig. 1 is a vertical section partly in elevation, and Fig. 2 is a plan of hydro-
pneumatic apparatus according to my invention for raising and lowering a gun G,
which is preferably fitted to recoil along a cradle C with suitable hydraulic or
other buffers and elevating gear E. The cradle C is mounted upon the top of a

page_text: vertical hydraulic cylinder A, the upper part of which is enlarged to form an air
vessel A. On this the mounting C is fitted and secured by a clip ring so that it
can freely turn in a horizontal plane. Through packing in the lower mouth of the
cylinder A projects a stationary tubular plunger P which is fixed to a base B. On
this base are also fixed three radial horizontal cylinders H, each fitted with a
piston, the rod of which passes out through packing at the outer ends of the
cylinder, and is connected to a slipper S which can slide along the base B. The
base of the plunger P is connected by three passages to the outer ends of the
cylinders H. To the slippers S are jointed the lower ends of diagonal rods R,
the upper ends of which are jointed at R' to the upper part of the hydraulic
cylinder A, and to R2 at the middle of each of the diagonal rods R is jointed the
upper ends of a double radius rod T, the lower ends of which are jointed to the
base B at T, which point in each case is vertically under R. The horizontal
cylinders H being charged with water or liquid, and the vertical cylinder A being
also charged partly with liquid and partly with air under pressure occupying its
upper part A, the air pressure being such as, acting on the area of the plunger l'
and on the pistons of the cylinders H, to balance or nearly balance the vertical
cylinder A and what it carries, the mounting or platform can be raised or lowered
without material alteration of the balance, the varying pressure resulting from
variation of the volume of the contained air being nearly compensated by the
varying inclination of the diagonal links R. These links with their slippers S and
radius rods T also constitute a parallel motion, guiding the cylinder A. in its
vertical movement.
Obviously, for raising and lowering large platforms carrying heavy loads, several
sets of the apparatus described might be arranged to act simultaneously. As, in all
cases, the load to be moved is only the difference between a given load and the
resultant upward pressure of the apparatus, the raising and lowering may be
generally effected by tackle or by a screw or other mechanical means, pumping
may also in many cases be conveniently applied to increase or diminish the acting
pressure.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
:―
Hydropneumatic apparatus for raising and lowering gun mountings or other
platforms, consisting of a vertical cylinder and plunger in combination with
horizontal hydraulic cylinders having their piston rods connected to the vertical
cylinder and plunger by diagonal links and radius rods, arranged and operating
substantially as described.
Dated this 17th day of January 1891.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.