IMPROVEMENTS IN THE COMBINATION AND ARRANGEMENT OF APPARATUS FOR THE INSTANTANEOUS CLOSING AND SECURING OF THE PORTS, AIR-HOLES, AND OTHER SIMILAR OPENINGS IN SHIPS OF WAR AND OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1878

page_text: .
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Rooney McDonald at the;
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 7th May 1878.
JAMES ROONEY MCDONALD, of Sheerness, in the County of Kent, Postmaster and,
Associate of the Telegraph Engineers' Society of Great Britain. "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE COMBINATION AND ARRANGEMENT OF APPARATUS FOR THE INSTANTANEOUS
CLOSING AND SECURING OF THE PORTS, AIR-HOLES, AND OTHER SIMILAR OPENINGS
IN SHIPS OF WAR AND OTHER VESSELS."
The said Invention consists in the construction and arrangement of apparatus,
whereby the whole of the ports, air holes, and other similar openings in the sides
of a ship can be instantaneously and securely closed by the officer of the watch or
by any other person appointed to do so.
By the employment of this Invention the distressing accidents which so fro-
quently occur owing to the time occupied in closing the ports independently, or the
inability of those on board the ship to obtain access to the ropes or other contrivances
by which the shutters or coverings of the ports are kept open (such ropes occa-
sionally becoming fixed in such a manner as to prevent the shutter or covering
from being closed without great labour and valuable loss of time) can be prevented.
The arrangement of apparatus, as will be seen from the following description, is
simple, efficacious, and not liable to get out of order.
The shutters or coverings of the ports or other openings are provided on the out-
side with a small metal plate, properly insulated if necessary, and are hinged in
the ordinary manner.
When it is desired to open the ports the said shutters or coverings (or only a
portion thereof, if desired, when made in two parts) are raised outwards by means
of ropes, as is well known and understood, and when they are elevated to the
required angle the plates thereon come in contact with the bevelled faces of the
poles of a series of electric magnets, one or more of which of suitable strength to
maintain the weight of the shutter or covering, is or are mounted in any convenient
manner above each port or opening, and are connected by means of wires with the

page_text: requisite batteries for producing an electric current, the said wires being provided
with apparatus for breaking contact when desired.
The shutters or coverings are also provided with bolts, which, when the former
are closed, enter into recesses formed in the frame of the port, or the bolts may be
arranged in the frame of the port and the recesses made in the shutter or covering ;
this arrangement forms a self-locking apparatus.
The action of the apparatus is as follows:-The circuit of electricity being com-
plete, the plates on the shutters or coverings, on coming in contact with the poles of
the magnets are held firmly thereby, thus dispensing with all necessity for fastening
the ropes or other appliances, and they can only be released by breaking contact
in the connections between the batteries and magnets, apparatus for so doing being
arranged in suitable parts of the vessel.
On the contact being broken the magnets become depolarised, the whole of the
shutters and coverings. are released and descend by reason of their own weight, the
bevelled faces of the bolts coming into contact with the frame of the ports are pressed
in until they come opposite their respective recesses, when they fall into the same,
and firmly secure the ports. Additional fastenings may also be employed when
desired..
In cases where the shutters or coverings are hinged at the side or bottom
springs are employed for closing them on being released from the magnets.
When, as is sometimes the case, the shutters or cocoverings are made in two parts,
the upper part when opened is raised and secured, as herein-before described, and
the lower part is forced down into a suitable aperture provided for that purpose in
the side of the ship, and is held in that position by means of a magnet, as will be
well understood. .
"
When it is desired to close the before-mentioned lower part the circuit of elec-
tricity connected with the said magnet is broken, and the lower part being released
is raised or drawn up by means of preponderating weights arranged in any suitable
manner; it is then locked or secured by means of automatic bolts, as above described
or in any other convenient or desired manner.