AN IMPROVED SELF- REGISTERING COMPASS OR CONTROL COMPASS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Baron Ferdinand Julius of Wedel-Jarlsberg, of
Frederikswærn, in Norway, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED SELF-
REGISTERING COMPASS OR CONTROL COMPASS."
Sealed the 16th November 1858, and dated the 15th June 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Baron Ferdinand Julius
of Wedel-Jarlsberg at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 15th June 1858.
I, Baron FERDINAND JULIUS of WEDEL-JARLSBERG, of Frederikswærn, in
Norway, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED,
SELF-REGISTERING COMPASS OR CONTROL COMPASS," to be as follows:-
The object of the Invention is to register the steered course of a vessel and
the time which it continues on each course. For this purpose I employ a
compass needle, which carries a small funnel or basin in its centre, from
which a tube extends to one end; as, for example, the north end of the
needle. Round the circumference of a box placed under the compass box
are a series, as, for example, sixty-four small chambers, with inclined bottoms
and glass doors, and marked according to the points and half points of the
compass. A revolving wheel driven by a watch or clockwork, and provided
with twelve or other suitable number of cavities, receives a ball in each cavity.
and drops the balls at intervals of five minutes or other regular intervals into,

page_text: the basin on the magnetic needle. The ball runs through the tube and falls
into whichever compartment the tube happens to be over at the time, and
thus records the position of the needle at that time. The balls are visible
through the glass doors without opening the apparatus. At the end of every
watch, or oftener, the apparatus is examined. The steered course is signified
plainly by the chambers in which the balls lie. If one, two, three, or more
balls are found in the same chamber, the [same course has been made for
5, 10, 15, or more minutes. The balls are then taken out at the glass doors
and returned to an upper fixed tube which supplies the wheel; this tube is
large enough to allow the balls to run down freely, but not to pass each other.
By numbering the balls, and putting them in the tube in regular order, the
numbers on the balls in each compartment will show the particular times at.
which the vessel was proceeding in the course indicated.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Baron Ferdinand Julius of Wedel-Jarlsberg in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 20th November 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Baron
FERDINAND JULIUS of WEDEL-JARLSBERG, of Frederikswærn, in Norway, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Baron Ferdinand Julius of Wedel-Jarlsberg, Her special licence that I, the
said Baron Ferdinand Julius of Wedel-Jarlsberg, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Baron Ferdinand Julius
of Wedel-Jarlsberg, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term 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 "AN IMPROVED SELF-
REGISTERING COMPASS OR CONTROL COMPASS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Baron Ferdinand Julius of Wedel-Jarlsberg, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and

page_text: 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 Baron Ferdinand Julius of Wedel-
Jarlsberg, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawing, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that
is to say:
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing is a plan, and Figure 2 is a side
view, partly in section, of the instrument. The same letters refer to similar
parts in each Figure. In order to facilitate the description, the instrument
may be considered as consisting of two parts, the lower and the upper. The
lower part a, a, is cylindrical, and divided by walls halfway from the centre to
the periphery into sixty-four equal chambers b, b, the bottoms of which form
inclined planes with declivity towards the lower part of the outside c, c, where
the chambers are closed with glass doors d, d. The inner half of the
chambers is open above, and the outward half is covered by a circular metal
plate f, f, divided like a compass card in points and half points, but still with
this difference, that the east is placed on the left, and the west on the right,
side of the north point. Each chamber is named after the superscribed point
or half point. In the centre of the lower part of the instrument is placed
a pedestal g, g, on which a magnetic needle h, h, is suspended. A metal
pipe i, i, is fixed over the centre of this needle, and bent down over its north
end; on the south end is placed a counterbalance c. The open part of the
sixty-four chambers, as well as the magnetic needle and the pipe, are sur-
rounded by the upper part of the instrument k, k, which is a metallic cylinder
fastened to the lower part a, a, by screws 1, 1, and closed above by a lid
k, m, k, in the middle of which is a round hole m; over this is fastened a small
box n, n, in which a metal wheel o, o, has a rotary motion, and in the peri-
phery of this wheel are, at equal distances, twelve cavities p, p, destined to
receive balls, which are led to them through a pipe q, q, fastened to the out-
side of the box. The axis of the wheel is carried by the box, and has a
ratchet wheel 1, r, and can by a sliding tube and a screws be connected with
a clockwork t, t, fastened to the same lid of the upper cylinder. The instru-
ment is suspended in gimbals v, v, which may be fastened above or underneath
or at the side by a screw x, x. A small spoon may be used in managing
the balls. It must be observed that the wheel o, o, if wished, can be made
with more or less than twelve cavities; and, if desired, the sliding tube and
the screw s may be dispensed with, and the clockwork t, t, may be placed in

page_text: the box n, n, or close to it. When the instrument is to be used, it is placed
in such a way that the north chamber is turned ahead, and that a plano
through the north and the south points passes through. or is parallel with the
keel or diametrical plane of the ship. The clock is wound up, and its axis is
connected by the tube and screw with the axis of the wheel. The pipe 9, 9,
is then filled with balls, which by the turning of the wheel enter the cavities,
and drop into the pipe over the magnetic needle, and from thence into the
chamber, which happens to be beneath the end of the pipe. In this way, if
the wheel o, o, turns once in an hour, a ball will drop every fifth minute, and
the chamber in which it is found then gives the angle between the magnetic
north point and the diametrical plane. As the divisions of the control com-
pass are contrary to those of the common compass, and the course being given
by the magnetic needle, and not by the lubber point and the compass card,
the steered course is signified plainly by the chamber in which the ball lies.
If two, three, four, or more balls are found in the same chamber, the same
course has been made for ten, fifteen, twenty, or more minutes, etc. If every
ball is numbered and laid down in the pipe g, g, in order, the numbers will
show at what time the different courses have been steered. After the end of
each watch, or oftener if wanted, the instrument may be examined through
the glass doors to see in what chambers there are balls, which are then taken
out by lifting the glass doors; the courses are noted, and the balls are again
laid down in the pipe q, q. It must be observed, that if the wheel, for
instance, has sixty cavities instead of twelve, the courses may be given for
every minute. In that case the wheel must be somewhat larger, or if made
with few cavities, it must be turned quicker round. The control compass
may be used as a common compass when the lid k, m, k, is made of glass,
and the magnetic needle is fixed under a compass card.
In witness whereof, 1, the said Baron Ferdinand Julius of Wedel-
Jarlsberg, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of
☐ October, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
TERD. OF WEDEL-JARLSBERG. (L.S.)
I deliver this as my act and deed.