A Floating Telegraphic or Telephonic Station or Apparatus for Enabling Ships at Sea to Communicate with One Another or with the Shore.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd May, 1888
Complete Specification Left, 15th Feb., 1889
Complete Specification Accepted, 23rd Mar., 1889
A Floating Telegraphic or Telephonic Station or Apparatus for
Enabling Ships at Sea to Communicate with One Another or
with the Shore.
1 URBAIN DIEULEVEULT of Tréguier Cotes-du-Nord in the Republic of France
Gentleman do hereby declare the nature of this Invention to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to means for enabling ships at sea to communicate by
telegraph or telephone with one another or with the shore with great facility-For
this purpose a buoy of any suitable construction is anchored in a convenient position
and connected with other or distant buoys or with stations on shore or both by
suitable telegraphic or telephonic conductors. These buoys are provided with mooring
rings and suitable contact makers or means by which passing vessels can temporarily
connect telegraphic or telephonic apparatus with which they are provided for this
purpose. Messages can then be sent between a vessel and another vessel or vessels
similarly connected with another buoy in communication with the first or between
the vessel or vessels and a station or stations on shore according to the way on which
the connections are arranged. The buoy may be combined with an electric or other
light or an electric or other audible signalling or sounding apparatus in order to enable
it to be found with facility in the night time or in foggy weather.
A convenient method of anchoring the buoy is one in which a screw or other
suitable device is fixed to the bottom of the sea being provided with a swivel shackle
or universal joint by which it is connected to a disc bar or plate to which are attached
a couple of chains connected together at intervals by suitable distance pieces engaging
with the links. At the upper ends these chains are similarly connected by a shackle
or a plate or cap connected by a swivelling or universal joint arrangement to the
bottom or underside of the buoy. The electric conductor or cable or conductors or
cables is or are threaded through the centre of the pins or axes of the shackle swivel

page_text: or universal joint connection at the upper and lower ends of the inooring chains and
through holes in the aforesaid distance pieces. By these means the said conductor or
cable is effectually protected and prevented from fouling the moorings.
Dated this 22nd day of May 1888.
J. H. JOHNSON & Co.,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C.,
Agents.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A Floating Telegraphic or Telephonic Station or Apparatus for
Enabling Ships at Sea to Communicate with- One Another or
with the Shore.
I URBAIN DIEULEVEULT of Tréguier Côtes-du-Nord in the Republic of France
Gentleman do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
samo is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
This Invention relates to means for enabling ships at sea to communicate_by
telegraph or telephone with one another or with the shore with great facility. For
this purpose a buoy of any suitable construction is anchored or moored by any suitable
moorings in a convenient position and connected with other or distant buoys or with
stations on shore or both by suitable telegraphic or telephonic cables or conductors.
These buoys are provided with mooring rings and suitable contact makers or means
by which passing vessels can temporarily connect the conductors attached to the buoy
with the corresponding telegraphic or telephonic apparatus with which the said vessels
are provided. Messages can then be sent between one vessel and another vessel or
vessels similarly connected with another buoy in communication with the first or
between the vessel or vessels connected to the buoy and a station or stations on shore
according to the way in which the electric connections are arranged.
In place of being employed solely for transmitting signals or sounds the floating
station may be utilised for giving an electric light or other similar indications. In
this case it is combined with an electric or other lamp or an electric or other suitable
signalling or sounding apparatus serving to show at night or in foggy weather the
exact position of the stations or buoys to which ships or vessels may be moored or
through which the ships or vessels may communicate.
And in order that my said invention may be fully understood I shall now proceed
more particularly to describe the same and for that purpose shall refer to the annexed

page_text: drawing which represents in elevation and by way of example only a floating station
according to my invention.
This station is composed of a buoy A of any suitable construction connected by
chains CC to a metal shoe B provided with a screw V or any other anchoring
arrangement suitable for the nature of the ground.
The shoe B is provided at its upper part with a pivot or pin passing through a
disc 6 secured by a nut and a washer g of spherical shape on the under side forming
a species of universal joint whereby the disc is enabled to turn or rotate and dip or
incline in any direction with the greatest facility. This shoe is perforated with a
central hole through which a telegraphic or telephonic cable T is threaded the said
cable passing out at the side of the shoe and connecting the buoy with the shore or
with another floating station for example.
The chains CC attached to the disc have their links connected at intervals by
metallic transverse or distance pieces o porforated with a central hole or eye c¹ for the
passage of the cable T. The length of these chains is necessarily variable and
calculated according to the depth of the water. Their section and number are
likewise to be proportioned to the power and tonnage of the ships or vessels that
may be moored to the buoy.
The buoy A is attached to a plate or disc a connected to a bell or cap shaped piece d
capable of rotating or turning and inclining in any direction on a universal joint
arrangement similar to that at the lower ends of the chains being secured by a nut h¹
and a spherical washer g'. The upper extremities of the chains CC are attached to
the bell d which together with the disc a and the buoy A is perforated with a central
hole for the passage of the cable T which is passed through all these parts and projects
at T on the upper side of the buoy between two mooring rings e e.
It will be seen that the cable or conductor T occupies the centre of the system and
that the several parts of the latter are free to move about the said cable according to
the impulses of the currents or waves without any danger of fouling or becoming
entangled therewith and the end T¹ of the cable T is always free to be laid hold of at
the surface of the buoy when required for making a connection.
Upon the buoy which is of any convenient dimensions or construction there may
be provided an electric light or electric bell connected with a separate or special cable
running along side of the cable T hereinbefore referred to.
The electric light serves to indicate the position of the floating telegraphic or
telephonic station. If desired it may be employed alone to indicate the situation of
the mooring buoy. The same remark applies to the electric bell which enables the
buoy to be readily found in foggy weather.
The invention is not limited to the particular combination and arrangement of
parts herein before described with reference to the accompanying drawings as the
dimensions and details of construction may evidently be modified in various ways
without departing from the principle of my invention.
Having now particularly described and asetained the nature of my said invention
and in what manner the same is to be perform. d I declare that what I claim is :-
1. For the purpose of telegraphic or telephonic communications between ships or
vessels or between ships or vessels and the shore a floating station formed by an
anchored buoy combined with a telegraphic or telephonic cable or conductor con-
nected at one end with a station on shore for example and projecting at the other
end at the surface of the buoy in such a manner that it can be readily connected to the
ships or vessels which desire to enter into communication substantially as hereinbefore
described.
2. The construction of a floating telephonic or telegraphic station in which an
electric cable T passes through the centre of a buoy A, through the transverse or
distance pieces c of the chains CC and through the centre of the anchoring shoe B so
as to form the axis about which these parts may turn without danger of fouling or
entanglement substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accom-
panying drawing.

page_text: 3. In combination with the system of construction referred to in the preceding
claiming clause, the spherical or universal joints interposed between the disc a of the
buoy A and the connecting cap piece or bell d and between the connecting disc b of
the chains (C and the anchoring shoe B in order to enable these parts to turn and
oscillate freely in all directions without entangling or fouling the cable T passing
through their centres or axes and which is left free to be connected as required at the
surface of the buoy substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the
accompanying drawing.
4. In combination with the arrangement of the floating station hereinbefore
described and claimed an electric light or an electric bell apparatus for indicating,
at night or in foggy weather, the position of mooring buoys, the said light or
sounding apparatus being capable of being employed in combination or not with
the cable T employed for the telegraphic or telephonic communications substantially
as hereinbefore described.