Improvements in Ships' Engine-room and Steering Telegraphs and the like.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 10th Apr., 1897.
Complete Specification Left, 10th Jan., 1898-Accepted, 12th Feb., 1898
.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Ships' Engine-room and Steering Telegraphs and
the like.
I, EDWIN JAMES PRESTON, of the Firm of J. Stone & Co., of Deptford, in the
County of Kent, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
-
Heretofore in ships engine room and steering telegraphs and the like, and
whether with electric or mechanical action a speaking tube has sometimes been
provided as an extra precaution to enable the captain or other person to give
audible orders in case of disarrangement of the ordinary telegraph. This mode of
emergency communication is however not efficient in case of the modern ships'
engine room or other places where the auxiliary engines and the dynamo and other
machinery causes so great a noise as to render the speaking tube signal impossible
of being heard or clearly understood; the same would apply at certain other times
such as during a battle or firing of salutes.
The object of this invention is to obviate this defect and prevent the frequently
serious results therefrom by providing clearly audible and visible emergency devices
for signalling the most important orders, such devices being fitted in connection
with an electric or mechanical telegraph on board ship or elsewhere, so that in case
of the failure of such telegraph from any cause the said emergency devices for sig-
nalling shall be conveniently and instantly available for use.
For this purpose I
provide on the pillar or head of the ordinary order transmitting telegraph, on the
bridge or other place, a threeway switch which by wires is connected to an electric
bell in the engine room or other place where the order is to be received, and to
an indicator in the same place for shewing the given order on a tablet. Or I
connect the wires to three bells having distinctly different sounds. The orders
given by the aforesaid emergency or auxiliary arrangements would in general be
go ahead," go astern," and stop" in the case of engine room telegraphs;
"
port," "starboard," "steady" in the case of steering telegraphs.
Means may be provided to cause the bell above mentioned to continue ringing
until the person for whom the order is intended has acknowledged it for instance
by pressing a button or moving a lever.
1011 1
P
1907
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION,
Improvements in Ships' Engine-room and Steering Telegraphs and
the like.
I, EDWIN JAMES PRESTON, of the Firm of J. Stone & Co., of Deptford, in the
County of Kent, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
Pine Rd1

page_text: and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
Heretofore in ships engine room telegraphs and steering telegraphs and the like,
and whether with electric or mechanical action, a speaking tube has sometimes been
provided as an extra precaution to enable the captain or other person to give
audible orders in case of disarrangement of the ordinary telegraph. This mode of
emergency communication is however not efficient in case of the modern ships'
engine room or other places where the auxiliary engines and the dynamo and other
machinery causes so great a noise as to render the speaking tube signal impossible
of being heard or clearly understood; the same would apply at certain other times
such as during a battle or firing of salutes.
The object of this invention is to obviate this defect and to prevent the frequently
serious results therefrom by providing clearly audible and visible emergency devices
for signalling the most important orders such devices being fitted in connection
with an electric or mechanical telegraph on board ship or elsewhere, so that in case
of the failure of such telegraph from any cause the said emergency devices for sig-
nalling shall be conveniently and instantly available for use.
For this purpose I provide on the pillar or head of the ordinary order transmit-
ting telegraph, on the bridge or other place, a threeway switch which by wires is
connected to an electric bell in the engine room or other place where the order is to
be received, and to an indicator in the same place for showing the given order on
a tablet. Or I connect the wires to three bells having distinctly different sounds.
The orders given by the aforesaid emergency or auxiliary arrangements would in
general in case of engine room telegraphs be "go ahead" go astern" and "stop
or in case of steering telegraphs "port" "starboard" and " steady." Means may
be provided to cause the bell above mentioned to continue ringing until the person
for whom the order is intended has acknowledged it, for instance by pressing a
button or moving a lever.
33 *
"
Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings is an end view half in section; Fig. 2 a
longitudinal section and Fig. 3 a plan of the transmitter, which is mounted on
the head of the ordinary telegraph pillar. As shown here the transmitter is dupli-
cated so as to be applicable to twin propellor engines, A. in each transmitter is a
vertical spindle provided with contact maker A¹, and B. C and D are contacts cor-
responding to the three most important orders viz. "astern", "stop" and "ahead'
respectively. E is a spring the bent end of which drops into one of three longi-
tudinal grooves A2 formed in the spindle A to hold the contact maker A¹ fairly in
place opposite one of the contacts B Cor D. The bolt F is by the spring G pressed
against the spindle A, and when the latter is raised out of action the bolt Fis
pressed against the tapered bottom part A3 of the spindle A and thus holds it in
the "off"
or raised position. The case of the instrument is formed in two parts I
and K, the cover I being held in place by the screws H. L is the bell for reply
from the engine room, it is here shown as of the single stroke form.
6
Fig. 4 is a diagram showing the electrical connections for a vessel with twin
engines. The order say for "ahead is given on the bridge or other suitable part
by turning the knob ended spindle A till its pointer A is opposite the order
ahead" marked on the cover I Figs. 1, 2 and 3 and consequently the contact
maker A¹ opposite the contact D, the spindle is then depressed whereby contact is
made with the contact D and the current sent to the indicator in the engine room,
whereby the bell M Fig. 4 is sounded and the corresponding flag is shown on the
instrument N or 0. It will be understood from the double arrangement shown
here as an example that one or the other of the spindles A Fig. 1 is worked
according as the order is to control the port or starboard engine by acting on the
instrument indicated by the letter N or the letter O in Fig. 4. The letter R indi-
cates the battery for supplying the electrical power, but this power if desired may
be derived from the lighting dynamo.
The instruments N and O may be ordinary electro magnetic indicators with
mechanical replacement of the flags, one flag corresponding to each order. The

page_text: act of replacing the flag in question viz. by pushing in the replacement rod between
spring contacts P and Q Fig. 4 provided for the purpose of this invention causes
the circuit to be closed and the bell L Fig. 2 on the transmitter to be sounded
whereby it is ascertained that the order signal has been duly received in the engine
room. The replacement rod may be pushed home once twice or thrice by the
engineer in the engine room according to the respective signals. Or instead of
pushing the replacement rod in he may pull it in by means of a suitably arranged
cord. Instead of the aforesaid indicator device in the engine room I may use a
small form of the electric telegraph described in Prestons Patent Specification
No. 18661 of 1893. An ordinary bell push could be used for the reply.
Instead of one push spindle A for all three order signals
may employ three
spindles one spindle for each signal, such spindles having merely an up and down
motion and not a turning motion. Or I may employ other suitable forms of switch.
One or more transmitting instruments may be arranged in other parts of the
ship from which it may be desired to send orders besides the one on the head of
the ordinary telegraph pillar such other transmitter or transmitters all controlling
the same receiving and indicating instrument in the engine room or steersmans
cabin.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is:-
1. The application and use as an auxiliary to the ordinary engine room or steer-
ing telegraph and the like of an electric emergency telegraph for the purpose of
giving and receiving reply to the most important signal orders.
2. The combination with a suitable signal order indicator for an emergency tele-
graph as firstly claimed of means for replying to the order received.
3. The construction of emergency transmitter substantially as described and
shown.
4. The arrangement of electrical circuit and of contacts, substantially as de-
scribed and shown, whereby the act of inserting the replacement rod causes a cur-
rent to be sent to the bell on the transmitter to indicate that the signal has been
received.
T: T
1
P T
1000