Improved Indicating or Signalling Apparatus for Use in connection with Marine Engines.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 4th July, 1893
Complete Specification Left, 4th Apr., 1894-Accepted, 5th May, 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Improved Indicating or Signalling Apparatus for Use in connection
with Marine Engines.
JOHN WILLIAM RAY 8 Canning Place Liverpool Nautical Instrument Maker
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This is a mechanical arrangement which may be bolted on column of main
engines, or other suitable place. It comprises two (2) metal wheels, with a spiral
spring placed between them; the wheels are so placed on a shaft that they can
freely revolve, the spring is connected to each wheel by rods working on stirrup
shaped guides arranged transversely. I prefer to make the boss of wheel B
eccentric.
One of these wheels A is connected with the weigh shaft either by (1) a lever
(2) a system of levers (3) or an endless band. The other wheel B works an
indicator on the bridge of the vessel, on a third dial of transmitting indicator,
but when the engines are stationary and reversing gear central, this wheel B is
locked; this is done by means of a pin fastened on the end of a lever falling into
a slot on boss of said wheel, the long end of lever is carried to the foot of guide
of the crosshead.
When the reversing gear is put over from a central position either to ahead or
astern, wheel A. (which is connected to weigh shaft) moves a similar distance to
that travelled by weigh shaft. Wheel B does not move, because it is kept in
position by the aforesaid pin. This causes the spiral spring to contract.
On the first downward movement of the crosshead of main engines the pin is
lifted out of slot in boss, releasing wheel B. The tension of the spring draws
wheel B to its former relative position with wheel A, thus registering on the
indicator on the bridge.
On the engines being stopped the reversing gear is brought central, and there is
sufficient tension on spring to work the wires of main lead to bridge without
altering relative position of wheels and thus indicating on bridge when engines are
stopped; the pin again dropping into the aforesaid slot, being pressed in by a
spring, preventing any motion of the reversing gear being registered until the main
engines actually move again.
The indicator on the ship's deck consists of an extra dial or dials placed upon
the side or head of the ordinary transmitting instrument. The fingers or pointers
being worked by bevel wheels from wheels in head of said transmitting instru-
ment; thus making its registrations entirely distinct from the rest of the ordinary
telegraph.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Indicating or Signalling Apparatus for Use in connection
with Marine Engines.
I, JOHN WILLIAM RAY, of 8 Canning Place, Liverpool in the County of
Lancaster, Nautical Instrument Maker, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to that class of apparatus used chiefly on board ship to
indicate on deck the direction of rotation of the main engines.

page_text: Fig. II is an elevation, Fig. III a plan and Fig. IV an end elevation of the
main portion of the mechanism,
Fig. V is an elevation of a modification,
Fig. VI a fragmentary section on the line A. A. of Fig. V and
Fig. VII is a modification of the detent lever.
Throughout the drawings the same parts are indicated by the same reference
figures, and in the case of the section, the direction in which it is viewed, is
indicated by the small arrows placed adjacent to the letters denoting the plane of
section.
From an inspection of Figs. I to IV it will be seen that my invention comprises
two wheels or pulleys 1 and 2, mounted concentrically on a stud 3 carried by a
frame 4. The wheel 1 is positively connected by a rod 5 to the lever 18 on the
weigh-shaft 6 and has therefore an angular motion corresponding to the latter.
The wheel 1 is also connected to the wheel 2 by the interposed spiral spring 7,
the spring connections being such (as will be more fully described) that any
angular movement of the one wheel relatively to the other produces a compression
of the spiral spring.
The pulley 2 has a notch 8 formed in the periphery of its boss 17 into which a
projection 9 on the detent lever 10 normally engages and so holds the wheel 2
stationary. An endless chain 11 connects the wheel 2 to a spindle 19 which
operates the index hand 20 of the indicator on the bridge. Supposing now that
the reversing gear is moved, in response to an order, from mid position to say the
ahead position, the wheel 1 will be moved to a corresponding position but the
wheel 2 being held as described will not be able to follow, with the result that
the spiral spring will be compressed and tend to move wheel 2 to a position
corresponding to wheel 1; the engine will now begin to revolve and as soon as
the piston crosshead is in its lowest position, as shown in Fig. I, the releasing
pin 12 thereon will operate the detent lever 10 in opposition to the spring 16,
lifting the projection 9 out of the notch 8, and so allow the spiral spring to rotate
the wheel 2 into a position corresponding to that of the wheel 1, and as the latter
is connected to the weigh-shaft and the former by the chain 11 to the index
hand 20 of the indicator, the said hand will, as soon as the engines begin to move,
but not before, take up a position corresponding to the angular position of the
weigh-shaft which latter of course determines the direction of rotation.
The boss 17 of the wheel 2 has its periphery, in the vicinity of the notch, formed
eccentric to the centre of rotation, so that when the wheel is on either side of mid-
position this eccentric periphery lifts the projection 9 so that the tail end of the
detent lever 10 is clear of the releasing pin 12 on the crosshead as the latter
reciprocates.
Should the engines now be reversed or stopped the weigh-shaft and consequently
the wheels 1 and 2 will pass through their mid position the wheel 2 being held in
this position by the projection 9 after which the action will be similar to that
described.
The projection 9 is made of smaller dimensions near its extremity so that it may
engage with the notch before the wheel 2 actually comes into mid position; this is to

page_text: provide for the case where the weigh-shaft of the reversing gear is not brought
exactly into mid-position.
The connections of the spiral spring whereby any relative movement between
the wheels 1 and 2 produces compression of the spring are as follows; -
Each of the wheels is provided with a forked connecting rod 13, each prong of
each rod is reduced in diameter from the end to a shoulder 14. Two sliding
pieces 15 having four holes at right angles pass over each prong of each rod (see
Fig. VI) thus locating the prongs of the rods at right angles. The spiral spring
is interposed between the sliding pieces 15 which are limited in their travel by the
shoulders 14 and nuts and washers on the ends of the prongs and an inspection of
the figure will show that, whether the rods 13 approach towards, or recede from
each other, as a result of the movement of the wheel 1 relatively to the wheel 2,
the spiral spring is compressed. The object of arranging the spring in this way is
to obviate the loss of motion which would result if the spring was alternately
extended and compressed; in the arrangement shown an initial compression can
be given greater than that required to overcome frictional resistance or inertia.
Figs. V and VI show a modification in which there is but one wheel, 2', the
spiral spring being interposed between this wheel and the weigh shaft; the con-
struction in other respects and the action are identical with what has already been
described.
The chain 11 is endless and is attached to the wheel 2 and is led as directly as
possible to the indicator on the ship's deck which is preferably an additional dial 21
placed athwart-ships on the transmitting instrument 22, the chain 11 operating a
wheel 23 in the instrument whose movement is transmitted to the index hand 20 of
the indicating dial by bevel wheels.
I prefer not to attach the releasing pin 12 to the cross-head of the low pressure
cylinder in vertical engines having more than one cylinder as there is a tendency
for the engine to come to rest with the low pressure crank on the bottom dead
centre on account of the greater weight of the low pressure piston and it will be
seen that if the engine stops with the releasing pin at the bottom of its stroke any
movement of the reversing gear is transmitted to the indicator although the engine
may be stationary. In some cases however the low pressure cylinder crosshead
is the only one to which the releasing pin can be conveniently attached and in
such cases, to overcome the difficulty above mentioned, I modify the detent lever
as shown in Fig. VII.
I provide the detent lever with a second arm 10¹ and projection 9¹ and 1 form a
second notch 81 in the boss 17 so that when the releasing pin is at the bottom of its
stroke the lever 10, 10', is in the position shown in full lines in Fig. VII the
projection 91 engaging in the notch 8'; the boss 17 is free of both projections when
the lever is in the position shown by the dotted lines in Fig. VII, that is when the
releasing pin, and therefore the cross-head to which it is attached, is a short
distance from the end of its stroke, a position in which the engine is not likely to
come to rest.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is ;-
1. In combination, the weigh-shaft of the reversing gear of an engine, a movable
index hand, an elastic connection between the index hand and the weigh-shaft, a
detent lever adapted to hold the said index hand stationary, and a releasing pin
carried by a part of the engine which moves as the engine rotates, and adapted to
disengage the detent lever; substantially as described.
2. In combination, the weigh-shaft of the reversing gear of an engine, an index hand
moving over an index scale, a rotatable piece positively connected to the index
hand and elastically connected to the weigh-shaft, a detent lever adapted to hold the
said rotatable piece in mid-position, and a releasing pin carried by a part of the

page_text: engine which moves as the engine rotates, and adapted to disengage the detent
lever, substantially as described and illustrated.
3. In combination, the weigh-shaft, the index hand, the rotatable piece positively
connected to the index hand and elastically connected to the weigh-shaft, the
detent lever, the releasing pin, and an eccentric piece connected to the said
rotatable piece and moving therewith and adapted, when the rotatable piece is not
in mid-position, to move the detent lever clear of the releasing pin, substantially as
described and illustrated.
4. In combination, the weigh-shaft of the reversing gear of an engine, an index
band moving over an index scale, a rotatable piece positively connected to the
weigh-shaft, a second rotatable piece positively connected to the index hand, an
elastic connection between the first and second rotatable pieces, a detent lever
adapted to hold the second rotatable piece in mid-position, and a releasing pin
carried by a part of the engine which moves when the engine rotates, and adapted
to release the detent lever, substantially as described and illustrated.
5. In combination with the weigh-shaft, the first and second rotatable pieces, the
detent lever and releasing pin of Claim 4, an eccentric piece connected to the
second rotatable piece and moving therewith, and adapted to move the detent lever
clear of the releasing pin, substantially as described and illustrated.
6. In combination, the wheel 1 connected to the lever 18 on the weigh-shaft 6,
the wheel 2 connected to the index hand 20 and having a notched eccentric boss 17,
the spiral spring 7 connecting 1 and 2, the detent lever 10 and the releasing pin 12,
substantially as described and illustrated.
7. In combination with the index hand the weigh-shaft, a detent lever and a
releasing pin, the initially compressed spiral spring carried by the forked rods and
sliding sleeves, and adapted to elastically connect the said hand to the weigh-shaft,
substantially as described.
8. In combination with the wheel 1 connected to the weigh-shaft, and the
wheel 2 connected to the index hand, the interposed initially compressed spiral
spring carried by the forked rods and sliding sleeves and elastically connecting the
said wheels, substantially as described and illustrated.
9. The combination and arrangement of parts forming the improved indicating
or signalling apparatus for use in connection with marine engines substantially as
described and illustrated in Figs. I, II, III and IV.
SLOAN & LLOYD BARNES,
Castle Chambers, 26, Castle Street, Liverpool,
Agents for the Applicant.
SLOAN & LLOYD BARNES,
Castle Chambers, 26, Castle Street, Liverpool,
Agents for the Applicant.