IM- PROVEMENTS IN MACHINES POR TAKING SOUNDINGS (KNOWN AS MASSEY'S SOUNDING MACHINES
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Edward Massey at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st December 1868.
I, JOHN EDWARD MASSEY, of No. 17, Chadwell Street, Clerkenwell,
in the County of Middlesex, Manufacturer of Patent Logs and Sounding
Machines, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN MACHINES POR TAKING SOUNDINGS (KNOWN AS MASSEY'S
SOUNDING MACHINES,)" to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machines for taking
soundings. For this purpose I employ a solid brass frame, about 13
inches long by 7 broad, formed in the shape of an oblong shield, this
shape being preferred in order to facilitate its passage through the
water. Through the thicknes of the frame a hole is formed in the
upper part, in which is secured the rope for descent and ascent, and in
the lower part another hole through which is secured the rope for
attaching the sinking weight. In the upper part of the frame is formed
a hollow chamber, constructed to receive the registering wheels and
other parts of the recording apparatus. The hollow chamber is con-
trived so as to protect its contents from all pressure of the water, and from
being fouled or injuriously affected by seaweed, grit, and other foreign

page_text: substances, thereby securing increased strength, greater durability,
perfect freedom, and accurate action during the use of the machine in
sounding. In this chamber is placed an endless screw and two or more
wheels, the first of which gears into the endless screw. The chamber and
its contents are covered in by a plate of thick brass, on the outer surface
of which is a small raised box for the purpose of containing the dial and
indices, which are protected by a sliding cover formed in the edge of the
said raised box. In the centre of the lower part of the frame is placed
the rotator or water wheel, which is formed out of a short piece of brass
tube, having four or more vanes or wings soldered obliquely across it
and mounted on a brass spindle or shaft, on the upper end of which is
formed an endless screw; the ends of this spindle are pivoted into two
gun metal cocks, the upper one fastened in the before-mentioned hollow
chamber, and the lower in the bottom part of the frame. The first wheel
is formed with a suitable number of teeth, and gears into the endless
screw; it is planted upon a staff carrying a pinion of a suitable number
of leaves; this staff and wheel is pitched in the bottom and the cover
plate of the hollow chamber so correctly that the teeth of the wheel will
gear into the thread of the endless screw, and the leaves of its pinion
act upon the teeth of the second wheel, which is suitably pitched upon
a staff in the said chamber. The upper pivots or extremities of the
wheel shafts are continued through the chamber cover plate into the
exterior box, and form the axis upon which are placed the indices. The
floor or bottom of this exterior box is formed with an enameled index
plate or dial having circles divided so as to bear a correct relation to the
rate of the rotator, the revolutions of which it records in fathoms.
rotator is protected from all injury by a brass ring or band which is
fastened to the frame; this ring extending laterally some distance beyond
the rotator secures it from injury. Upon the outside of the frame above
the rotator is planted a locking piece composed of a pall which is forced
upwards by the rush of the water during the descent, thus setting the
rotator at liberty to revolve. Upon reaching the bottom the pall falls
owing to the resistance of the water ceasing, and the locking piece
entering between the vanes of the rotator prevents all motion during the
ascent of the machine.
The