IMPROVE- MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SOUNDING A BELL APPLIED TO A BUOY OR OTHER FLOATING BODY
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Herbert, of Summerhill, near Dartford, in
the County of Kent, and Robert Stainbank, of No. 3, Verulam Buildings,
Gray's Inn, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
LETTERS PATENT to George Herbert, of Summerhill, near Dartford, in
the County of Kent, and Robert Stainbank, of No. 3, Verulam Buildings,
Gray's Inn, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SOUNDING A BELL APPLIED TO A BUOY OR OTHER
FLOATING BODY."
Sealed the 22nd November 1864, and dated the 30th May 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Herbert and Robert
Stainbank, at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their.
Petition, on the 30th May 1864.
We, GEORGE HERBERT, of Summerhill, near Dartford, in the County of
Kent, and ROBERT STAINBANK, of No. 3, Verulam Buildings, Gray's Inn, in
the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SOUNDING A BELL APPLIED TO A BUOY OR OTHER
FLOATING BODY," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for sounding a
bell applied to a buoy or other floating body. It has before been proposed to
employ for this purpose a ball capable of rolling in a trough or guide mounted
on the buoy or floating body. The ball, in moving the part of the trough.
which for the time. happened to be lowest, came in contact with levers or
instruments which caused the bell to sound. As each roll of the sea produced.
a fresh movement of the ball the bell was continually sounded; this arrange-
ment has, however, been found more or less complicated and inconvenient.
.

page_text: According to this Invention the ball or other heavy body in place of moving
in a trough or guide is controlled by being mounted on an arm capable of
turning on a centre or axis. We mount an upright axle or post on the buoy
or other floating body, and on this axle an excentric wheel is placed; it is
capable of being turned freely on its axle, and is actuated by means of a lever
arm with a ball or heavy body at its end, or otherwise weighted, which is
connected with it. In or on the surface of the wheel is an excentric track to
receive the end of a lever or levers arranged to give motion to the hammer or
hammers of a bell which is or are carried by the buoy, and such bell is by
preference suspended above the axis of the excentric wheel. The weighted
arm or lever connected to the excentric wheel causes it to make a partial
rotation each time the buoy or other floating body rolls by the action of the
sea. The outer end of the lever may have a roller or wheel at its outer end
supported by a circular track carried by the buoy or floating body, or the
weight at the end of the lever may be unsupported; in either case the end of
the lever will descend a distance each time the buoy or floating body rolls or
inclines in any direction. The excentric wheel gives motion to one or more
cranked levers having hinged fingers which can turn on their hinges in one
direction only; these fingers in moving in one direction act on the tail ends
of the hammer levers and so sound the bell; the fingers pass the ends of the
hammer levers in returning by moving on their hinge joints.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Herbert and Robert Stainbank in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 29th November 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, GEORGE
HERBERT, of Summerhill, near Dartford, in the County of Kent, and ROBERT
STAINBANK, of No. 3, Verulam Buildings, Gray's Inn, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent bearing date the Thirtieth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said George Herbert and Robert Stainbank, Her special licence that we, the
said George Herbert and Robert Stainbank, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said George Herbert and Robert Stain-
bank, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree

page_text: with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
terin 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 APPARATUS FOR
SOUNDING A BELL APPLIED TO A BUOY OR OTHER FLOATING BODY," upon the con
dition (amongst others) that we, the said George Herbert and Robert Stain-
bank, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them,
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 George Herbert, on behalf of myself
and the said Robert Stainbank, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be par-
ticularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof;
that is to say: _
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for sounding a
bell applied to a buoy or other floating body. It has before been proposed to
employ for this purpose a ball capable of rolling in à trough or guide mounted
on the buoy or floating body. The ball, in moving to the part of the trough
which for the time happened to be lowest, came in contact with levers or
instruments which caused the bell to sound. As each roll of the sea produced
a fresh movement of the ball the bell was continually sounded; this arrange-
ment has however been found more or less complicated and inconvenient.
. According to this Invention the ball or other heavy body in place of moving
in a trough or guide is controlled by being mounted on an arm capable of
turning on a centre or axis. We mount an upright axis or post on the buoy
or other floating body, and on this axle an excentric wheel is placed; it is
capable of being turned freely on its axle, and is actuated by means of a lever
arm with a ball or heavy body at its end, or otherwise weighte.l, connected
with it. In or on the surface of the wheel is an excentric track to receive the
end of a lever or levers arranged to give motion to the hammer or hammers
of a bell which is or are carried by the buoy, and such bell is by preference
suspended above the axis of the excentric wheel. The weighted arm or lever
connected to the excentric wheel causes it to make a partial rotation each
time the buoy or other floating body rolls by the action of the sea.
The outer
end of the lever may have a roller or wheel at its outer end supported by a
circular track carried by the buoy or floating body, or the weight at the end

page_text: of the lever may be unsupported; in either case the end of the lever will
descend a distance each time the buoy or floating body rolls or inclines in any
direction. The eccentric wheel gives motion to one or more cranked levers
having hinged fingers which can turn on their hinges in one direction only;
these fingers in moving in one direction act on the tail ends of the hammer
levers and so sound the bell; the fingers pass the ends of the hammer levers
in returning by moving on their hinge joints.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, we will proceed to
describe more fully the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 of the Drawings shews a side view, partly in section, of an appa-
ratus constructed in the manner we prefer for carrying out our Invention.
In this Figure a portion only of the framing by which the apparatus is sup-
ported upon the buoy or other floating body is shown. a is a ball or weight
the movements of which are controlled by its being mounted on the arm b
that is capable of turning around the upright axis c; a wheel d is also carried
by the axis c, and the wheel is connected with the arm b so that it shall turn
with it. On the surface of the wheel d is an eccentric track, as is shewn in
the plan view of this wheel at Figure 2. Into the eccentric track on this.
wheel are received the lower ends of the cranked levers e, e, which give motion
to the hammers; these levers turn on centres at e', e', and at the upper end
of each lever is hinged a finger f. which acts on the lower arm of a lever g,
the upper arm of which is furnished with a hammer for striking the bell k.
In the plan view, Figure 2, the eccentric groove on the wheel d is arranged
to lift each of the bammers three times for every complete revolution of the
wheel around the axis; but the groove may be differently formed to cause the
hammer to be raised a greater or less number of times for each revolution
of the wheel, we however prefer to arrange it as shewn in the Drawings.
The Drawings, also shew only two hammers for striking the bell and two
levers e for acting upon them; any other number of hammers may, however,
be employed. When the wheel by the rolling of the buoy or vessel, upon
which the apparatus is caused to turn or oscillate around its axis, the form of
the groove upon it causes the lower ends of the levers e. to be moved to or
from the axis c, this raises or lowers the upper ends of these levers. As the
upper end of either of the levers is raised the finger at its end acts on one of
the levers g and raises the hammers carried by it away from the bell until by
the continued movement of the lever the finger has moved away from under
the end of the lever g, the hammer then falls and strikes the bell; the ham-

page_text: mers are prevented from resting against the bell after they have delivered
their blow by springs i, i, as is shewn. On the continued rotation or oscillation
of the wheel the upper end of the lever will be moved downwards until the
finger carried by it comes below the end of the lever g, the finger by turning
on its pin joint allowing of its so passing below the lever. The lever is then
ready again to raise the hammer.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Herbert, have hereunto set my
band and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
GEORGE HERBERT. (L.S.)