Improvements in and connected with Life Buoys.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 14th Mar., 1894-Accepted, 28th Apr., 1894
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and connected with Life Buoys.
We, HEINRICH OSTER, of Katzlerstrasse, Berlin, German Empire, Engineer,
and ALLGEMEINE ELEKTRICITÄTS-GESELLSCHAFT of No. 22 Schiffs bauerdamm,
at the same place, a corporation under the law of the Kingdom of Prussia, 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
tatement:-
This invention relates to improvements in life-buoys of that kind in which
electric lamps are provided for use at night. The chief object of the invention is
to provide means whereby the lamp may be lighted and extinguished automatically
the buoy being fitted with an accumulator and an arrangement whereby the
connection between the accumulator and lamp is broken or interrupted when the
buoy is suspended, and established when the buoy is not suspended. The invention
further comprises a watertight arrangement for leading the conducting wires through
the cover of the buoy, as well as the combination with the buoy of a sack in which
a rescued person hanging on to the buoy may seek protection from sharks and
the like.
.
And in order that said invention may be fully understood we shall now proceed
more particularly to describe the same and for that purpose shall refer to the
several figures on the annexed sheets of drawings, the same letters of reference
indicating corresponding parts in all the figures.
Fig. 1 of the drawings is a view of the buoy partly in elevation and partly in
section; Figure 2 is a plan of the same;
Figure 3 is a section of the contact device for the lamp,
Figure 4 a section of one of the coupling devices for the cables or wires provided
in the cover of the floating chamber, and
Figure 5 shows in section a ring with the sack or device for the protection of
rescued persons.
P
The buoy comprises a floating chamber A. of any suitable form and construction,
it being shown in the drawings of mushroom shape constructed of a casing a of
canvas or other like material and stuffed with reindeer hair 6 or other suitable
stuffing. This chamber A is provided with a watertight cover and contains an
accumulator B, and further carries by means of a suitable framing e a plate d on
which is secured an electric incandescent lamp L. The power of the lamp is
increased by means of a glass shade cut in the form of prisms and lenses,
the said shade also serving to protect the lamp from damage due to external
causes.
The buoy is normally suspended outboard of the ship by the ring g. This ring
is connected by means of wires or rods i or other suitable means to the frame / but
is not secured to the plate d, the said rods or wires i being free to move in corre-
sponding holes in the said plate. In consequence of this arrangement when the
buoy is suspended, the plate d owing to the weight of the floating chamber A, is
pulled down nearer to the frame whereby the springs o placed on the rods i are
compressed. On the frame is secured a vertical rod which projects through a
hole provided with a packing box in the plate d and carries a contact k (Figure 3).
This contact completes electric communication between two spring-plates
m which
form the ends of two sections n and no into which one of the conductors leading
from the accumulator to the lamp is divided. If the buoy is suspended, the
chamber A by gravity draws the plate d near to the cross frame / and compresses
the springs ons hereinbefore described, and the contact k is drawn away from the
spring plates m, so that the circuit of the lamp is broken. If the buoy is now
1

page_text: released the frame is forced back to its normal position by the expansion of the
springs o and draw the contact k between the spring plates m, the lamp being thus
put into circuit and commences to burn. The burning continues while the buoy is
floating. If the bucy is hung up again, the frame h is drawn up against the
resistance of the springs o, which will be compressed again, towards the plate d
and thus pushes the contact piece k out of contact with the spring plates m as
shown in dotted lines in Figure 3, the circuit being by this operation broken and
the lamp extinguished.
"
The conducting wires n, n hereinbefore mentioned are led through the cover p
through watertight joints and can be disconnected on both sides. One of the
arrangements for this purpose is shown in Figure 4. A tubular metal casing pl
either of straight or elbow form is firmly secured in the cover p and contains a.
tubular metal piece or socket q which is insulated from the casing p₁ by suitable
non-conducting material and terminates in the interior of the floating chamber A
by a contact plug &; on this plug the inner conducting wire n* from the accumulator
is coupled by means of an ordinary union t. The outer end of the casing p' is
screw-threaded internally to receive the screwed end of a gland p³ through which
the outer conducting wire n is passed into the socket 9, the said wire being
insulated from the inside of the gland and having formed on its end a plug n
adapted to make contact with the inside of the said socket. In this manner the
sections n and n* of the conducting wires are connected with each other.
The buoy is provided either with small rings A¹ (as shown in Fig. 1) or larger
rings A (as shown in section in Fig. 5) or both. These larger rings are made of
canvas or the like and stuffed with reindeer hair or other suitable stuffing, and carry
a sack a also of canvas or other suitable material. This sack tapers towards the
bottom which is provided with an open metal ring a
** so that the water can enter
freely into it, the object of this arrangement being to enable a rescued person to
derive protection therein from the attacks of sharks and other fishes.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is -
1. A life buoy consisting of a floating chamber of any form provided with an
accumulator battery and contacts for completing and breaking the circuit between
the said battery and an electric lamp and means whereby the circuit is automatically
broken when the buoy is suspended, and completed when not suspended, substantially
as herein before described.
2. A. life buoy consisting of a floating chamber A containing an accumulator
battery B for supplying current to an electric lamp L carried by the buoy, which
lamp when the buoy is suspended is cut out of circuit and when not suspended is
automatically put into circuit by means of springs o actuating a contact k to move
between spring contact plates m, substantially as described and illustrated with
reference to the accompanying drawings.
3. In a life buoy forming the subject matter of the preceding claims, boxes or
casing mounted in the cover of the floating chamber and provided with internal
screw-threads at the one end for the reception of a bored gland or screw plug and
with an insulated inner socket terminating in a contact plug at the opposite end,
substantially as and for the purpose described.
4. The combination with life buoys of a ring or rings each provided with a sack
made of canvas or other suitable material and of tapering form towards the bottom,
the said sack being fitted with a ring of metal or other suitable device, substantially
as and for the purpose described.
Dated this 14th March 1901