IMPROVEMENTS IN FOG SIGNALS SUITABLE FOR LIGHTHOUSES AND LIGHT SHIPS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Hale Holmes, of the Provence
Hotel, Leicester Square, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FOG SIGNALS SUITABLE FOR
LIGHTHOUSES AND LIGHT SHIPS."
Sealed the 24th February 1874, and dated the 4th September 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Hale
Holmes at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 4th September 1878.
I, FREDERICK HALE HOLMES, of the Provence Hotel, Leicester
Square, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FOG SIGNALS SUITABLE
FOR LIGHTHOUSES AND LIGHT SHIPS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements on the apparatus for which
Letters Patent were granted to me, bearing date the 14th March 1871,
No. 674. In the apparatus each. sound consisted of a single note,
repeated at regular intervals, once, twice, thrice, or more times per
-

page_text: minute, it was therefore necessary to observe the time accurately by
a watch to distinguish one lighthouse or light ship from another. One
sounding, say three times per minute, the other four times per minute,
and as this timing by the watch was not always done errors were made
in trying to count the number of seconds between each sound.
In the present arrangement the intervals of silence are still retained,
as in the previous arrangement, but in order to make a still greater
distinction between one signal and another the sound instead of being
one long note is divided into 2, 3, 4, or more shorter notes following
in quick succession, after which there is the interval of silence, and the
sounds are repeated.
This is accomplished as follows:- A loaded lever presses down a
piston on a flexible diaphragm; this lever has a projecting piece which
cocks in front of a projecting piece on a wheel mounted on a shaft
which carries also another disc, against the side of which is bolted a 1
cam wheel having as many projections as the desired number of sounds
may be. When this cam wheel makes one revolution the whole of its
projections pass under a lever, and as each projection passes it lifts the
lever and opens a valve, allowing the compressed air to sound the horn
or horns, or whistle, as the case may be; but the valve closes instantly a
as soon as the projection on the cam wheel has passed the lever, so
that if there be three projections on the cam wheel the sound will be
repeated three times in quick succession.
The automatic action is accomplished thus:-When the pressure in
the air receiver is sufficient to raise the loaded lever, which presses on
the flexible diaphragm, the stop is lifted out of gear, and the wheel
on which the stop or projecting piece is fixed is free to revolve, and it
is immediately set in motion by a small air engine which is worked by
the compressed air in the cylinder or air chamber. The loaded lever
falls before the cam wheel has made its entire revolution, and is there- 3
fore in a position to stop the wheel with the projecting piece when it
has made one revolution, and the whole remains at rest till the former
pressure has again been restored in the air chamber.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Frederick Hale Holmes in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 4th March 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
HALE HOLMES, of the Provence Hotel, Leicester Square, in the County
of Middlesex, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the 37th
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Frederick Hale Holmes, Her special license,
that I, the said Frederick Hale Holmes, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Frederick Hale Holmes, my
executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN FOG SIGNALS SUITABLE FOR LIGHTHOUSES AND LIGHTSHIPS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Frederick Hale
Holmes, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to
be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Frederick Hate Holmes, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to
say:-

page_text: that apparatus each sound consisted of a single note, repeated at
regular intervals, once, twice, thrice, or more times per minute, it
was therefore necessary to observe the time accurately by a watch
to distinguish one lighthouse or light ship from another, one sounding,
say three times per minute, the other four times per minute; and
as this timing by the watch was not always done errors were made
in trying to count the number of seconds between each sound.
In the present arrangement the intervals of silence are still retained,
as in the previous arrangement, but in order to make a still greater
distinction between one signal and another the sound instead of being 1
one long note is divided into two, three, four, or more shorter notes
following in quick succession, after which there is the interval of
silence, and then the sounds are repeated.
•
This is accomplished as follows:- A loaded lever presses down a
piston on a flexible diaphragm; this lever has a projecting piece, which 1
catches in front of a projecting piece on a wheel mounted on a shaft
which carries also another disc, against the side of which is bolted a
cam wheel having as many projections as the desired number of sounds
may be. When this cam wheel makes one revolution the whole of
its projections pass under a lever, and as each projection passes it lifts 2
the lever and opens a valve, allowing the compressed air to sound the
horn or horns, or whistles, as the case may be, but the valve closes
instantly as soon as the projection on the cam wheel has passed the
lever, so that if there be three projections on the cam wheel the sound
will be repeated three times in quick succession.
The automatic action is accomplished thus:-When the pressure in
the air receiver is sufficient to raise the loaded lever, which presses on
the flexible diaphragm, the stop is lifted out of gear and the wheel on
which the stop or projecting piece is fixed is free to revolve, and it is
immediately set in motion by a small air engine which is worked by 3
the compressed air in the cylinder or air chamber. The loaded lever
falls before the cam wheel has made its entire revolution, and is there-
fore in a position to stop the wheel with the projecting piece when it
has made one revolution, and the whole remains at rest till the former
pressure has again been restored in the air chamber.
And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood I shall
now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose
shall refer to the several Figures on the annexed Sheet of Drawings,
3

page_text: the same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in all the
Figures.
Figure 1 of my Drawings represents a back elevation of the
apparatus; Figure 2 a side elevation; and Figure 3 a plan of the
same.
A represents an air vessel, on the top of which is fitted a flexible
diaphragm secured to the air vessel A by a metal ring O the under-
side of the flexible diaphragm communicating with the pressure in the
air vessel A by means of a small aperture through the top of the same);
D, a piston resting on the flexible diaphragm attached to a piston
rod F; O, a box containing a peculiarly constructed valve (hereafter
called the sounding valve) for shutting off and admitting pressure
from the air vessel A to pipes p, p², connecting valve box O with the
vibrator boxes q', q³, which communicate the pressure to sounding
horns N, N, (or whistles, as the case may be). The portions of the
apparatus, above referred to, being precisely similar in construction to
and for the same purposes as the corresponding portions more par-
ticularly shown and described by similar letters of reference on the
Drawings accompanying the Specification of my herein-before recited
Letters Patent granted to me, bearing date the fourteenth day of
March One thousand eight hundred and seventy one, No. 674,
will therefore need no further description. G is a lever resting on
the piston rod F and turning at its fulcrum on a spindle a fixed
in standard 6, at its outer ends a weight o, near which on its edge
is a projecting stop d, which catches against a similar projection
on the wheel or disc H fixed with the toothed spur wheel H³ on the
shaft I. running in bearings 1, 1, bolted on the top of the air
vessel A-;-J-is a cam wheel-formed with a raised portion & and bolted
to the side of a disc K, also fixed to the shaft I; L is a toothed pinion
working into the teeth of the spur wheel H and fixed to the shaft M;
O is a fly wheel, and P a crank disc, both fixed to the shaft M, which
runs in bearings 2, 2, bolted on the top of the air vessel A, the whole
being driven by an air engine R. fitted to and worked by the compressed
air from the top of the air vessel A, as shown in Figures 2 and 3; 8 is
a lever resting on and fastened to the upright spindle of the sounding
valve in the box O (herein-before mentioned), and turning at its fulcrum
on the spindle f fixed in a standard 6', its outer end being made with
a projecting piece on its under edge, which is caught by the raised

page_text: portion of the cam J during the revolution of the latter for the
purpose herein-after described.
The manner in which this apparatus operates is as follows:-When
the air is compressed in the vessel A. to the working pressure, or that
pressure which is found to give the loudest effect) by means of an air
pump or other contrivance, placed at any distance from and connected
with the air vessel A by a pipe, it passes through the aperture before
mentioned in the top of the vessel A and lifts the flexible diaphragm,
and with it the piston D, which forces up the lever G by means of the
rod F, thus releasing the projecting stop d from the corresponding
projection on the wheel or disc H. The latter is now free, and
commences to revolve with the shaft I, which is driven in the direction
of the arrow by the air engine R, as before mentioned. Before the
wheel or disc H has completed a revolution the lever G with its
weight c drops into its original position (owing to the diminished
pressure of air in the vessel A acting against the piston D) at the same
time its projecting stop d is in position for bringing to rest the wheel
or disc H, which occurs when the latter has performed a complete
revolution and its corresponding projection comes in contact with
stop d. Previous to this taking place however the raised portion
of the cam J comes in contact with the projection at the end of the
lever S and lifts the latter, thereby opening the sounding valve before
mentioned in the box o, through which the air from the vessel A
passes into the vibrator boxes q, q', and sounds the horns N, N, or
whistles, as the case may be, until the projection at the end of the
lever S has passed over the raised portion of the cam J, when the
lever 8 drops to its original position, and the sounding valve in the
box o is thereby instantly closed, the horns N, N, ceasing to sound until
the operation is repeated, which takes place as soon as the air in the
vessel A again comes up to the necessary pressure for lifting the loaded
lever G and releasing the spur wheel H. The duration of time between
each operation, or between each sounding of the horns N, N, is
regulated by the speed and capacity of the air pump supplying pressure
to the vessel A. The raised portion of the cam J, as shewn in
Figure 2, is for giving a single sound only to the horns N, N, during
each interval of time.
In Figures 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, are shewn cams J¹, J³, J³, Jª, J³, any

page_text: more distinct and separate sounds in quick succession thereby given
to the horns N, N, at the commencement of each interval of time, for
instance, by substituting cam J³, Figure 4, for cam J, Figure 2, two
distinct and separate sounds in quick succession will be heard, the first
sound being caused by the projection at the end of the lever T riding
over the raised portion of the cam J', and thereby opening the
sounding valve in the box o; the sound ceasing when the projection
on the lever drops into the space between 2¹ and the second raised
portion 2 of the cam, on mounting which the sounding valve will be
again opened and the second sound heard, ceasing when the projection
on the lever T again drops into the depressed portion of the cam; the
silence continuing during the remainder of the interval between the
sounding of the horns N, N. The same description applies to the
cams J³, J³, J³, and J³, as shown at Figures 5, 6, 7, and 8, the number
of raised portions on each cam corresponding to the number of sounds
produced on the horns N, N, at the commencement of each interval
of time.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider
to be novel and original, and, therefore claim as the Invention secured
to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the
arrangement and construction of apparatus whereby the increase and
decrease in pressure of an elastic fluid is caused automatically at one
or more times in quick succession, during regulated intervals of time,
to open and close a valve which communicates with a sound
emitting instrument, substantially as and for the purposes herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Hale Holmes, have to
this my Specification set my hand and seal, the Eighteenth