IMPROVEMENTS IN OR APPLICABLE TO STEERING GEAR, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE FOR OTHER PURPOSES WHERE SUDDEN STRAINS ARE BROUGHT TO BEAR ON CHAINS, ROPES, OR OTHER TACKLE."
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Wotherspoon, of Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OR APPLICABLE TO
STEERING GEAR, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE FOR OTHER PURPOSES
WHERE SUDDEN STRAINS ARE BROUGHT TO BEAR ON CHAINS, ROPES, OR
OTHER TACKLE."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Wotherspoon at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 18th November 1880.
ROBERT WOTHERSPOON, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN OR APPLICABLE TO STEERING GEAR, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE
APPLICABLE FOR OTHER PURPOSES WHERE SUDDEN STRAINS ARE BROUGHT TO
BEAR ON CHAINS, ROPES, OR OTHER TACKLE."
The steering apparatus of ships is subject to violent shocks from the waves,
severely straining the steering gear, and sometimes overpowering the men at the
wheel by the sudden strain.
To obviate these shocks to the steering gear I have invented this buffer or spring
attachment to be linked up in the steering chains so as to take up the sudden
shocks. It will be found useful also in other hauling gear.
It consists essentially of the following parts:-First, a pair of links interlinked
so that in case of the spring, hereafter described, breaking, they will yet hold and
maintain the continuity of the chains; second, a guard to take the strain off the
spring when the latter is compressed to a certain point (this guard can form a part
of the links or of the spring, and can be an actual separate part, or the links and
spring or either of them can be so designed as to form a mechanical equivalent for
a guard); third, a spring or springs.
There are many ways of designing this buffer. The plan I at present prefer is
as follows:-The links each consist of a shackle with two stems firmly attached to

page_text: a disc at their other ends. Each pair of stems passes through boles in the disc of
the other, facing opposite ways, the two pairs of stems forming a cross with each
other in cross section. The spring is a spiral one coiled round the four stems
between the two discs, and pressing against the said discs, serving to keep them
apart. The guard is a cylinder attached to one of the discs and projecting, say,
two thirds of the distance towards the other disc when the chain, of which my
apparatus forms a link, is not in tension.
This guard can be dispensed with altogether, the spring itself when the various
coils touch each other forming a mechanical substitute. Or it can be made to
envelop the other disc, and thus act as a sheath to protect the spring, a flange
inside the sheath being added if desirable as a stop for the other disc.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, and
of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, filed by the said Robert Wotherspoon in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 18th June 1881.
ROBERT WOTHERSPOON, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster. " IMPROVE-
MENTS IN OR APPLICABLE TO STEERING GEAR, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE
APPLICABLE FOR OTHER PURPOSES WHERE SUDDEN STRAINS ARE BROUGHT TO
BEAR ON CHAINS, ROPES, OR OTHER TACKLE."
The steering apparatus of ships is subject to violent shocks from the waves,
severely straining the steering gear, and sometimes overpowering the mon at the
wheel by the sudden strain.
To obviate these shocks to the steering gear I have invented this buffer or
spring attachment to be linked up in the steering chains so as to take up the
sudden shocks. It will be found useful also in other hauling gear.
It consists essentially of the following parts:-
First, a pair of links interlinked so that in case of the spring, hereafter
described, breaking, they will yet hold and maintain the continuity of the chains;
second, a guard to take the strain off the spring when the latter is compressed to
a certain point (this guard can form a part of the links or of the spring, and can
be an actual separate part, or the links and spring or either of them can be so
designed as to form a mechanical equivalent for a guard); third, a spring or
springs.
There are many ways of designing this buffer; the plan I at present prefer, and
have found very successful in practice, is represented in the accompanying Drawings,
in which Fig. 1 is a section; Fig. 2, end elevation; Fig. 3, front elevation; Fig. 4,
transverse section. In these A, A¹, are two shackles or links consisting of
eye B or B' and bolts C, C, or C, C¹; D, D¹, disc plates through which the
bolts C, C, C, C', pass, and beyond which they are held by the nuts E, E, E¹, E¹;
F, spring of steel, either round or square, compressed between the plates D,
G, piece of square iron fitting between the bolts so that it practically forms, with
the bolts, a solid filling to the spring, and at the same time acts as a guard to take
off the strain from the spring F when the strain becomes excessive; H, wheels or
runners upon which the whole rests when used horizontally on a deck or in other
similar position.
D';
In this form of apparatus the bolts C, C, C¹, C', act as guides to the spring.
The chain to which the buffer is attached, and of which it forms a part, is
attached to eyes B, B. The runners H provent the discs and spring from touching
the deck and thus wearing out. In cases, however, where these rollers are omitted
I sometimes substitute for the guard G a cylindrical cover guard surrounding the
spring and forming one piece with one of the discs D, D¹.
Having now described my Invention and the best mode known to me of
carrying it into effect, I wish it to be understood that what I believe to be new
and desire to protect under tho hereinbefore in part recited Letters Patent is,―
First. The manufacture of steering gear for ships' use with spring buffers,
substantially as described, placed in such position as to take sudden strains off the
steering gear and yet have safety guards or stops within themselves (or outside
the spring when the buffers are arranged with cylinders encircling or covering in
the spring), so that the spring shall be relieved from excessive strain, and even if the
spring breaks the buffer will still hold and maintain the continuity of the chains
and act as an unbroken link in the chain or rope.

page_text: Second. The herein described buffer, consisting of two shackles or links, each
with two bolts or their mechanical equivalents inside the spring, and preferably
acting as a guide to the same while being compressed, each of said bolts passing
through or attached to both abutments of the main spring, and so arranged that
while the spring takes off sudden strains from the chain, should that spring break
the chain will not be much lengthened, and will be still as capable of withstanding
heavy strains as it would have been if in one length without the interposed
buffer.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Wotherspoon, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty one.