provements in Boat-lowering Apparatus.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 11th Feb., 1890
Complete Specification Left, 11th Nov., 1890-Accepted, 13th Dec., 1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Improvements in Boat-lowering Apparatus.
1. GEORGE GRAY DONALD, of 35 Linskill Terrace, North Shields in the County of
Northumberland, Engineer do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
This invention relates to improvements in the construction of apparatus for
simultaneously engaging, and automatically, simultaneously and instantaneously dis-
engaging the gear connected with the raising and lowering of ships' boats.
The method of construction is as follows:-
A shaft is fitted immediately under the thwarts or seats along one side of the boat
and extending for the greater part of its length; to each end of this shaft is fitted a
lever or handle placed athwartships or in a plane at, or about at, right angles to the
centre line of the shaft, and which actuates, by means of suitable rods and levers, the
bolt or hook passing through the eye of each of the two blocks which carry the boat.
When it is required to engage or disengage the boat to or from the blocks, pressure
may be put on either or both of the levers or handles before mentioned, simultaneously
moving them up or down as required, thus giving a circular motion to the shaft to
which are attached the rods and levers giving the necessary movement to the bolts or
hooks.
In order to engage the boat to the blocks, the eyes of the latter are inserted in slots
made in the thwarts or seats of the boat for this purpose, thus removing one of the
arms of a lever placed adjacent to each slot and which lever is so adjusted, that, until
both blocks are placed in the position for engaging, neither of the two bolts or hooks
aforesaid can enter the eyes of the blocks.
When it is desired to disengage the boat before being fully waterborne, pressure is
put upon the levers or handles before mentioned, in the direction necessary to with-
draw the bolts or hooks from the eyes of the blocks.
When the boat is fully waterborne, the bolts or hooks, if not previously withdrawn,
are so arranged by means of the levers or handles as to automatically, simultaneously
and instantaneously disengage themselves from the blocks..
When it is not convenient or desirable to disengage the boat immediately on its
being waterborne, pressure may be put on either or both of the levers or handles in
the direction necessary to retain the bolts or hooks in the eyes of the blocks.
Dated this Seventh day of February 1890.
G. GRAY DONALD.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Boat-lowering Apparatus.
I, GEORGE GRAY DONALD of 35 Linskill Terrace, North Shields in the County
of Northumberland, Engineer 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 improvements in the construction of apparatus for
simultaneously engaging, and automatically, simultaneously and instantaneously dis-
engaging the gear, connected with the raising and lowering of ships' boats.
In the drawings appended hereto by way of illustration, the details of the invention
are shewn.
Fig. 1. is a cross section of a lifeboat shewing gear in position as fitted to each end
of the boat.

page_text: Fig. 2 is a longitudinal elevation of the gear in the same position as Fig. 1, but
shewing the rigid connection between the ends which brings about the simultaneous
action.
A is a bracket designed to fit in thwart of boat and to carry the hook B on pin C,
and the jaw piece D on pin E. This latter pin E also carries the lever F while the
pin C also carries the double-eyed bolt G which is fixed to the keel of the boat. The
bracket A also carries the trigger bolt H by means of the pin K.
L, is a shaft, rod, or pipe running fore and aft, it is fixed rigidly to the pins E, E,
which work in the brackets A, A, at each end of the boat.
The drawing shews the gear engaged through the ring M of block N. So long as
the weight of the boat is on the hooks B, B, it remains in position as shewn in
drawing, or, the attachment may be made more secure by passing a lanyard through
the hole P at end of lever F.
As soon as the boat is waterborne the lever F (being freed from the lanyard or other
restraint) falls, either by its own weight or assisted by a weight which may be fitted to
it. The lever F in falling rotates the pins E, E, at each end of the boat through their
rigid connection L. These pins E, E, in turn work the jaw pieces D, D, which open
the hooks B, B, by working on the tailpieces a, a, on each hook. The blocks N, N
are thus simultaneously freed and the boat is disengaged.
J
Immediately on the boat becoming disengaged the trigger bolts H, H, rise and
butt on the points of the hooks B, B, thus rendering engagement impossible until the
trigger bolts H, H, are depressed at both ends of the boat by the insertion in position
of the block rings M, M.
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,
The rotary motion given by the lever F to shaft, rod, or pipe L, which shaft, rod, or
pipe may be fixed in any position in the boat, either where shewn, or immediately
under the thwarts or on the sides or bottom of the boat and that the necessary motion
may be communicated to the hooks B, B, by any suitable rods or levers between them
and the rotating shaft rod or pipe L.
Dated this Tenth day of November Eighteen hundred and ninety.
G. GRAY DONALD.