IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN STEERING SHIPS OR OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Ferdinand Walker of 58 Oxford Street
Birmingham in the County of Warwick Engineer for an invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN STEERING SHIPS OR OTHER
VESSELS." A communication from abroad by John Charles Robinson of
Acton Middlesex at present in command of the Royal Mail Steamer "Warwick
Castle" at Algoa Bay South Africa Master Mariner
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Ferdinand Walker
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th February 1882
THOMAS FERDINAND WALKER of 58 Oxford Street Birmingham in the County
of Warwick Engineer "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN STEERING
SHIPS OR OTHER VESSELS." (A communication from abroad by John Charles
Robinson of Acton Middlesex at present in command of the Royal Mail Steamer
("Warwick Castle" at Algoa Bay South Africa, Master Mariner
These improvements are applicable to that class of steering apparatus where the
power operating the rudder is that of steam hydraulic apparatus or other power in
place of manual force.
"
It is found in practice that men accustomed to work manual steering gear are
liable to errors in steering by power in consequence of the want of "sensation or
that feeling which in hand steering is conveyed to the steersman according to the
position the rudder is brought to.
This want of sensation is owing to the fact that the steering gearing when
power steering is used takes off the entire force of the water and the parts operated
by the steersman being simply for the purpose of giving direction to the power or
to take it off and on and whether the rudder be "Hard up" "Down
39 or elsewhere
the feeling to the steersman is the same
To obviate this difficulty my correspondent has found that by providing a
resistance to the operation of the power guiding or directing means such resistance
having to be overcome in applying the power which actuates the rudder or steering
Price C71

page_text: apparatus a sensation of steering is conveyed and the directing wheel each time it
is released is brought back to steady or central position.
The amount of this resistance may either be unvarying or may increase in
extent as the rudder is moved more and more from its nominal position. An
advantage of the adoption of an arrangement giving an increasing resistance as the
rudder is moved more and more is that the steersinan is thereby enabled to
estimate the position of the rudder more accurately independently of visible
indicating apparatus
In carrying out this invention one form of the apparatus consists of an extra
pulley wheel or drum of teak wood or other suitable material supported to revolve
on an axis of motion centrally of the small steering wheel and this drum or pulley
is deeply grooved or recessed in its outer circumference to receive a cord or line
secured to such pulley or drum by being passed through a hole bored through the
small diameter of the pulley and secured by knotting or otherwise, the knot being
received flush within an enlargement of this hole
This line or cord thence passes through suitable fair leads or guidos to and
partly around a pulley or sleeve which supports a weight and thence this cord or
line returns to the top of a well or enclosure within which the weight is by the
motion of the parts caused to rise and fall and the said cord is there secured. An
extra standard or extra standards may as required be provided to bear through an
extension of its axis the extra weight brought upon the axis of the operating
wheel. As the steering wheel is operated and the extra pulley or drum revolves
with it, the weighted cord or line is taken up by or wound around the groove in
that pulley or drum and as the groove is about the width of the thickness of the
cord the cord after each turn overrides itself and thereby increases the diameter of
winding surface at each revolution or in other suitable manner increases the
resistance to the operation of the directing or steering wheel.
Pressure obtained by compression of air or springs may be employed in lieu of
weight pressure to give the desired resistance.
Or a weighted lever operating with toothed gearing so that a swing of that lever
of a half or other portion of a circle may be equivalent to a full swing of the
rudder from Port to Starboard or this resistance may be obtained by other suitable
equivalent mechanical devices.
Supplementary visible indicating means may be employed.
The details in the mode of applying the resistance to the operation of the small
steering wheel may be greatly varied

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Thomas Ferdinand Walker in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
24th August 1882.
THOMAS FERDINAND WALKER of 58 Oxford Street Birmingham in the County
of Warwick Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN STEERING
SHIPS OR OTHER VESSELS. A communication from abroad by John Charles
Robinson of Acton Middlesex at present in command of the Royal Mail Steamer
"Warwick Castle" at Algoa Bay South Africa Master Mariner
These improvements are applicable to that class of steering apparatus where the
power operating the rudder is that of steam, hydraulic apparatus or other power
in place of manual force.
"
It is found in practice that men accustomed to work manual steering gear are
liable to errors in steering by power in consequence of the want of "sensation ΟΙ
that feeling which in hand steering is conveyed to the steersman according to the
position the rudder is brought to. This want of sensation is owing to the fact
that the steering gearing when power steering is used takes off the entire force of
the water, the parts operated by the steersman being simply for the purpose of
giving direction to the power, or to take it off and on, and whether the rudder be
"Hard up" or "Down" or elsewhere the feeling to the steersman is the same.
To obviate this difficulty my correspondent has found that by providing a
resistance to the operation of the power guiding or directing means, such resistance
having to be overcome in applying the power which actuates the rudder or steering
apparatus a sensation of steering is conveyed and the directing wheel each time it
is released is brought back to steady or central position.
The amount of this resistance may either be unvarying or may increase in extent
as the rudder is moved more and more from its normal position. An advantage of
the adoption of an arrangement giving an increasing resistance as the rudder is
moved more and more is that the steersman is thereby enabled to estimate the
position of the rudder more accurately independently of visible indicating apparatus.
In carrying out this invention one form of the apparatus consists of an extra
pulley wheel or drum of teak wood or other suitable material supported to revolve
on an axis of motion centrally of the small steering wheel or on other suitable shaft
in connection with the small steering wheel, and this drum or pulley is deeply
grooved or recessed in its outer circumference to receive a cord or line secured to
such pulley or drum by being passed through a hole bored through the small
diameter of the pulley and secured by knotting or otherwise, the knot being
received flush within an enlargement of this hole. This line or cord thence passes
through suitable fair leads or guides to, and partly around a pulley or sleeve which
supports a weight and thence this cord or line returns to the top of a well, or enclosure
within which the weight is, by the motion of the parts, caused to rise and fall and
the said cord is there secured. An extra standard or extra standards may as
required be provided to bear through an extension of its axis, the extra weight
brought upon the axis of the operating wheel. As the steering wheel is operated
and the extra pulley or drum revolves with it, the weighted cord or line is taken
up by or wound around the groove in that pulley or drum and as the groove is
about the width of the thickness of the cord, the cord after each turn over rides
itself and thereby increases the diameter of winding surface at each revolution or
in other suitable manner increases the resistance to the operation of the directing or
steering wheel.

page_text: Figure 1 represents by side view an arrangement of parts of steering apparatus
with one form of the improvements as communicated to me applied thereto.
Figure 2 represents a front view and Figure 3 a plan view of parts separately.
The same letters apply in each of these Figures. a. a. represents the line of the
upper bridge deck, 6, that of the lower bridge deck, c, the steam steering engine, d.
the controlling box and standard, d', the wheel thereto, e is the controlling gear
shafting. is the hand steering wheel on the bridge, and indicates the chart house.
All of which as thus far indicated may be of the character of that heretofore used
for such purpose.
• But according to the improvements there is applied on the axis d³ of the steering
wheel d², the grooved wheel and in order to give additional support to that end of
the axis d³, there is applied thereto the standard i, j is a line attached at one end
to the groove of the wheel this line thence passes down between the guide
pulleysk, under the pulley wheel 1, of the weight 1, and thence up to the upper
deck where the other end of this line j is made fast in any suitable manner.
cj
This line is protected and the weight is guided in a shaft or trunk m.
Figure 4 shows by a sectional view and Figure 5 by an end view parts of
another form of apparatus for carrying out the improvements by providing a spring
resistance to the operation of the power guiding or directing means.
A represents a screw thread cut on any suitable shaft in connection with and
actuated by the small hand steering or directing wheel of power steering apparatus.
B. B'. are spring boxes which can move in line with the screw threaded shaft A
but which are prevented from turning round thereon by the fixed slide C and the
stops D. D¹.
E. E. are pins affixed to the shaft A and these pins act on clutches F. F'.
One of these pins, "say" E, is acting on the clutch F at the time that the other
pin E is disengaged from the other clutch F¹ and vice versa. that is to say when
the shaft A is turned in one direction the pin E acts on the clutch F and this
clutch F being affixed to the centre piece G to which the spring H is secured that
centre piece G is caused to revolve and thereby wind up that spring H, within the
box B to which its other end is secured, the other spring box B' during this time
being moved along by the screw A with its clutch F free of the pin E and doing
no work. Upon a reverse motion being imparted to the hand wheel after passing
the centre, the piu E' acts on the clutch F and by means of a centre piece similar
to that already described winds up another spring within and similarly secured to
the spring box B', whilst at the same time the pin E leaves the clutch F and
the spring box B travels along and in line with the shaft A in its turn doing no
work.
Whenever the band wheel is released at any point between its "mid" or "steady'
position and that of "hard over" the action of the spring H or the corresponding
spring within the box B¹, by its uncoiling will constantly tend to bring the hand
wheel back to a mid or "steady" position.
Having thus described the invention as communicated to me, I would have it
C

page_text: understood that I do not confine myself to the precise details as here indicated as
the same may be varied without departing from the peculiar character of the
invention but what I claim is. The improvements in apparatus employed in
steering ships or other vessels substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof I the said Thomas Ferdinand Walker have hereunto set
my hand and seal this twenty first day of August in the year One
thousand eight hundred and eighty two.