AN APPARATUS OR INSTRUMENT FOR SHOWING THE COURSE OR DIRECTION AND Demon Dr
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Davy Gray, of No. One, Clifton Road,
Old Kent Road, Surrey, Master Mariner, for the Invention of "AN
APPARATUS OR INSTRUMENT FOR SHOWING THE COURSE OR DIRECTION AND
Demon Dr
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Davy Gray at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
28th September 1855.
I, WILLIAM DAVY GRAY, Master Mariner, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "AN APPARATUS OR INSTRUMENT FOR SHOWING THE
COURSE OR DIRECTION AND DISTANCE RUN BY A SHIP AT SEA" to be as follows;
consisting of a fan revolving in the water, which gives motion to a cylinder
so constructed as to cause shot to fall in a tube placed on a magnetic needle
in proportion to the velocity of the vessel. The tube conveys the shot to a
number of cells; the shot again pass into a number of tubes suspended from a
disk, which disk is supported on a pivot or by gimbols. On the disk is placed
a bale, to show the direction or inclination. The pivot or gimbols act on a
balance, having an indicator to show the weight of the shot, which gives the
distance run by the ship, and the inclination of the said disc gives the course
or direction. A modification of the same plan shows leeway and variation.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Davy Gray in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
27th March 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
DAVY GRAY, of Number One, Clifton Road, Old Kent Road, Surrey, Master
Mariner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Davy Gray, Her special licence that I, the said
William Davy Gray, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as 1, the said William Davy Gray, my executors, administrators,
and 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 Inven-
tion for "AN APPARATUS OR INSTRUMENT FOR SHEWING THE COURSE OR DIRECTION
AND DISTANCE RUN BY A SHIP AT SEA," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said William Davy, Gray, my executors or administrators, by an.
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
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 William Davy Gray, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement and the Drawings therein referred to, that is to say:
(a). Figure 1, is a fan or screw outside of the hull of the ship, placed below
the keel, which revolves by the reaction of the water as the ship moves through
it. By means of the axle (b) and the cog wheels (c) and (d) it communicates
a rotary motion to the rod (e), which rod in its turn gives again a rotary motion
to the cylinder (f) by another set of cog wheels, and which cylinder (f) is
placed in contact with one end of the feeding tube (9), and has indented on
its circumference the small cavities (h), (h), best seen on a larger scale in
Figure 2. (i) is a magazine for holding small shot, and communicates with
the other end of the feeder (g). As the cylinder (f) revolves, the shot by their

page_text: weight fall into the said cavities, when the cavities are turned towards the
feeder, and fall out of them into the tube. () when they are turned towards
such tube. By the tube () the shot are conveyed to the tube (k), placed
on a magnetic needle, mounted like that of an ordinary mariner's compass.
The tube (1) is not joined to the tube (k), but the end of the former is placed
exactly over the bent end of the latter at the centre of the magnetic needle,
so that the shot may fall from the one into the other. By means of the tube
(k) the shot are distributed into a number of cells (n), (n), which surround
the magnetic needle, and which represent the points and fractional points of the
mariner's compass, there being one cell allotted to each point or fractional
point, and the shot always falls into the cell allotted to the point in which the.
ship is sailing. From these cells the shot are again conveyed by an equal
number of flexible tubes (p); (p), to a like number of bags (9), (1), which
bags are suspended around the circumference of the disk (r), and which disk
is poised at its centre on the pivot (s), like the magnetic needle, so that the
disk can incline or dip in any direction whenever a preponderance of shot in
the bags may cause it to do so. On its surface is printed the points of the
mariner's compass, and on it is also placed the small ball (t), which acts as an
indicator to show the point of greatest inclination, which it does
its gravity,
and the said disk has a raised edge to prevent the ball from rolling off. The
point thus indicated is the course of the vessel, and the distance is obtained by
ascertaining the force with which the said disk inclines, which is done by
placing a weight at the point exactly opposite the point of inclination sufficient
to balance the disk, and the steelyard (u) is intended to facilitate this opera-
tion, one end of which revolves on a pin at the centre of the disk, and the
other end can be turned to any required point; for example:-Supposing
the ship should have sailed ten miles north and ten miles east, the whole of the
shot will be deposited in equal portions in the two bags allotted to these points;
the point of inclination, or ship's course, will consequently be midway between
them, or north-east, and the point to which the steelyard must be turned for
the purpose of weighing the distance will be south-west. The fan also acts in
the water as a vane, to obtain the correct direction of the ship when she is
making leeway, and communicates a horizontal motion to the tube (v), to
which it is affixed, and which tube again communicates a like motion to the
cells (n), (n), by means of the lever (w) and cord and pulley (x) and (y).
By this arrangement, the cell which is in a line with the ship's true course is
brought opposite to the magnetic needle, instead of the cell which represents
the head of the ship. When the apparatus is only used as a tell-tale to show
the course in which the ship is sailing, the fan can be dispensed with, and

page_text: motion given to the cylinger (f) by clockwork, as shown in Figure 3, and the
true distance may then be obtained with Massey's patent log by proportion.
Figure 4 shews the fan housed, by being drawn up into the tube (o). The
Drawings show the framework of the apparatus suspended in the gimbals
(2), (3).
In witness whereof, I, the said William Davy Gray, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of March, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-six.
WILLIAM DAVY GRAY. (L.S.)