Improvements in Tell Tale Apparatus, Applicable Especially for Indicating whether Orders Given to the Engine Room of Steam Vessels are Properly Carried Out.
Year: 1888

page_text: Improvements in Tell Tale Apparatus, Applicable Especially for
Indicating whether Orders Given to the Engine Room of Steam
Vessels are Properly Carried Out.
We, WALTER THOMAS WRIGHT THACKERAY of 80 Eccles Road, Wandsworth, in
the County of Surrey, Engineer, and ISAAC HURN of 18 St James Street, Pall Mall,
in the County of Middlesex, Electrician, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows
1
This invention has mainly for its object to provide a simple automatic and
inexpensive check on the working of marine or other engines to indicate whether and
when any order has been carried out.
To check the working of marine engines we cause an arm on the axis of the lever
used for controlling the working of the engine to press back one or other of a series
of electrical contact pins when the lever is moved to one or other of its several
positions for stopping the engine or for moving ahead or astern at full, half or slow
speeds.
From each contact pin an insulated wire is led to one or other of a series of
insulated contact plates fitted to the dial indicator of any ordinary mechanical or
electrical telegraph by which the orders are transmitted to the engine room.
An arm
on the axis of the indicator hand of this telegraph is caused to sweep over the
contacts as the hand is moved from pointing to one order to another
The axis of the indicator hand is connected through an insulated wire and a bell
apparatus and battery with a metal plate or surface with which normally all the
contact pins above mentioned are kept in contact by springs.
Whenever the indicator hand of the telegraph is moved from one order to another
the battery circuit will consequently be completed and the bell thereby rung and it
will continue to ring until the lever has been moved into position to carry out the
order given-the arm on the axis of this lever will then press back the contact pin by
which the current is passing and will break the circuit and so stop the ringing of the
bell and thereby indicate that the order has been properly carried out
may in like manner be made instead of being broken.
Or circuit

page_text: The contact pins may be ranged radially in an are concentric with the axis of the
starting lever or instead of being set radially may be set parallel with the axis
In cases where it is desired to indicate simply whether the engines are being moved
ahead or astern in accordance with any order given, two contact plates only are
required to be fitted to the indicator dial of the telegraph and two contact plates used
with the lever employed for controlling the working of the engine for a contact arm
on the axis of this lever to work over.
The "astern" indicator plate of the telegraph should be coupled to the ahead contact
plate of the working lever and the ahead plate of the telegraph to the astern plate of
the lever.
The two contact plates of the working lever are separated from one another by
insulating material upon which the contact arm of the lever iests when the engines
are stopped the two contact plates of the telegraph dial are also similarly separated
but the contact arm on the axis of the indicator hand is formed to be in contact with
both contact plates when it is opposite to the division between the plates and when the
telegraph indicates stop. The contact ains of the telegraph and lever are through
insulated wire and bell and battery coupled with one another
In this way if when the engines are stopped an order be given to go ahead or astern
and the order is not correctly carried out but the engines started in the wrong
direction an electric circuit would be completed through the bell and a warning thereby
given.
1000

page_text: Improvements in Tell Tale Apparatus, Applicable Especially for
Indicating whether Orders Given to the Engine Room of Steam
Vessels are Properly Carried Out.
We, WALTER THOMAS WRIGHT THACKERAY, of 80 Eccles Road, Wandsworth, in
the County of Surrey, Engineer, and ISAAC HURN, of 18 St James Street, Pall Mall,
in the County of Middlesex, Electrician, 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 has mainly for its object to provide a simple automatic and inexpen-
sive check on the working of marine or other engines to indicate whether and when
any order has been carried out The invention is also applicable as a steering
indicator.
To check the working of marine engines we cause the lever used for controlling the
working of the engine to press back one or other of a series of electrical contact pins
when the lever is moved to one or other of its several positions for stopping the engine
or for moving ahead or astern at different speeds
From each contact pin an insulated wire is led to one or other of a series of insulated
contact plates fitted to the dial indicator either of the transmitter or the dial indicator
in the engine room of any ordinary engine room telegraph worked either mechanically
or electrically-and an arm on the axis of the indicator hand of the dial indicator is
caused to sweep over the contacts as the hand is moved from pointing to one order
to another.
The axis of the indicator hand is connected through an insulated wire and a bell
apparatus and battery with a metal plate or surface with which normally all the
contact pins above mentioned are kept in contact by springs
Whenever the indicator hand of the telegraph is moved from one order to another
the battery circuit will consequently be completed and the bells thereby rung and
they will continue to ring until the lever has been moved into position to carry out
the order given--the lever will then press back the contact pin by which the current
is passing and will break the circuit and so stop the ringing of the bells and thereby
indicate that the order has been properly carried out. Or the circuit may in like
manner be made instead of being broken
The contact pins may be ranged radially in an arc concentric with the axis of the
starting lever or instead of being set radially may be set parallel with the axis or in
any other convenient position.
"
"
In cases where it is desired to indicate simply whether the engines are being moved
" ahead"
or astern in accordance with any order given, two contact plates only
are required to be fitted to the indicator dial of the telegraph (one covering orders
"ahead" and the other orders "astern") and two similar contact plates used with the
lever employed for controlling the working of the engine for a contact arm on this
lever to work over.
"
"
The "astern contact plate of the telegraph should be coupled to the "ahead"
contact plate of the working lever and the "ahead" plate of the telegraph to the
astern" plate of the lever.
The two contact plates of the working lever are separated from one another by

page_text: nsulating material upon which the contact arm of the lever rests when the engines
are stopped the two contact plates of the telegraph dial are also similarly separated
but the contact arm on the axis of the indicator hand is formed to be in contact with
both contact plates when it is opposite to the division between the plates and when the
telegraph indicates " stop The contact arms of the telegraph and lever are through
insulated wire and bells and battery coupled with one another.
<
"
to go
In this way if when the engines are stopped an order be given
"ahead" ог
astern" and the order is not correctly carried out but the engines started in the
wrong direction an electric circuit would be completed through the bells and a warning
thereby given.
When fitted to any electrical engine room telegraph the contact pins fitted in
connection with the engine lever would be connected to the transmitter which in
making any order would at same time (by separate wires) complete the circuit of
this apparatus.
This apparatus may also be used as a steering indicator. As in the engine telegraph
the steering order transmitter would make contact which would be broken by any
convenient part of the rudder, when brought to its proper position, pressing in the
contact pin. The apparatus may also be used for other similar purposes.
It will be seen that this apparatus is an indicator to the navigating officer not only
as to the direction the engines are working but what rate they are being worked at
fiom the position of the handle of the transmitter of the engine room telegraph As,
if the engines are not actually working as the order on telegraph shows the bells of
this apparatus would be ringing
In the drawings hereunto annexed we have shewn diagram views of apparatus con-
structed as above described
Figure 1 is a diagram view of the apparatus working with the ordinary hand lever
used for stopping and starting marine engines. Figure 2 is a cross section of the
indicator dial of the engine room telegraph
A is the dial of any ordinary engine room telegraph it may be the dial of trans-
mitting mechanism placed upon the budge or in other convenient position or it may
be the dial in the engine room itself and which is used for indicating to the engineer
in charge of the engines the orders sent to the engine room
If it be the dial of the transmitting mechanism the apparatus will indicate to the
officer sending an order whether and when his order is carried out if it be the dial
of indicator mechanism in the engine room it will indicate to the engineer in charge
of the engines as well as to the Navigating Officer, whether he has properly carried
out any order that has been sent to the engine room so that errors in the carrying out
of orders may be quickly rectified.
B is the indicator hand working in front of the dial-CC are insulated contact
plates carried at the back of the dial plate-and ranged in a circle concentric with the
axis of the indicator hand. D is an arm on this axis which is always resting at its end
on one or other of the contact plates but cannot be in contact with two at the same
time E E are insulated wires leading from the contact plates to a corresponding
series of insulated contact pins F F-G is a metal plate with which all these pins are
normally in cortact--the pins being pressed endwise by springs as shewn so that
shoulders upon them are pressed against the plate-H is a hand lever by which the
working of the engines is controlled The contact pins are as shewn ranged in the
arc of a circle concentric with the axis of this lever-H¹ is an arm on the lever H by
which one or other of the pins F is pressed back whenever the lever H is moved to
one or other of its several positions When pressed back the shoulder
upon the
pin F
is carried back out of contact with the metal plate G. I is a wire leading to a
battery J and electric bell K and from thence to the axis of the indicator hand B of
the dial A The pins F may conveniently he coupled to the wires E in the manner
indicated at Figure 3.
In place of the pins F being ranged radially to the axis of the lever H they might
be ranged parallel with it as indicated in the diagram view Figure 4 and be acted on
direct by the lever itself instead of by an arm on its axis.

page_text: In cases where the engines are of large size and not controlled in their working by
the position of a simple hand lever the pins F can be arranged to be acted upon by
any reciprocating part of the reversing mechanism instead of by the lover.
Figure 5 is a diagram view of apparatus arranged only for indicating to the Navi-
gating Officer and to the engineer in charge of engines whether the engines are
working in the direction indicated on the order dial of the engine room telegraph.
In this apparatus two insulated contact plates (_only are required with a wire E
passing from each to corresponding contact plates F with either one or other of which
a spring contact piece carried by the hand lever H used for controlling the working
of the engines comes into contact whenever it is moved over in one or other direction
to start the engines either ahead or astern I is the wire leading to the beil and
battery and from the battery to the lever H-or contact pins similar to those used in
the arrangement shown at Figures 1 to 4 might be used instead of the contact
plates F.
It it be desired that the apparatus should also indicate whether an order to stop the
engines is properly carried out then three contact pins acting in the manner described
with reterence to the contact pins F Figures 1 to 4 would be usod with wires passing
from them to three contact plates Con the dial and the apparatus would then work
just as described with reference to Figures 1 to 4
Apparatus such as herein before described can not only be used with engine room
telegraphs but can also be used as an indicator for indicating the position of a ships
rudder.
The tiller arm of the rudder would in this case take the place of the lever used for
working the engines and whenever an order was sent by the steering order transmitter
a circuit would be completed and a bell rung until the order was properly carried out
and the cucuit was so again broken.
In all cases the apparatus might be arranged to ring two or more bells instead of a
single bell if desired
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is :-
1 The combination with engine room telegraphs or steering or other such like
telegraphs of an arm on the axis of the indicator hand coupled to one pole of a battery
and which as the axis is tuined is made to pass over a series of contact plates one for
each order on the dial and insulated wires from these contact plates to contact pins or
mechanism which normally keep all the wires in connection with the other pole of the
battery and which are so disposed that one or other of them must be pressed back by
the lever or other moving part whose position has to be indicated so that if the
indicator hand is brought to point to any one or other order on the dial a circuit is
at first completed through the wire passing from the contact plate belonging to that
order and a bell in the circuit is rung and continues to ring until the circuit is broken
by the lever being moved into position to press back the contact pin or mechanism in
connection with that wire.
2. The construction of apparatus substantially as herein before described and
illustrated at Figures 1 to 4.
3 The construction of apparatus substantially as herein before described and
illustrated at Figure 5.
Dated this 5th day of March 1889
W. T. W. THACKERAY.
ISAAC HURN.