A FIXED TELEGRAPHIC LIGHTHOUSE, AND ALSO A MOVEABLE TELEGRAPHIC LIGHTHOUSE FOR SIGNALS AND INTELLIGENCE, TO SERVE BY NIGHT AND BY DAY, IN RAIN, STORM, AND DARKNESS, IN ANY REQUIRED DIRECTION, AND PROM ANY GIVEN CENTRE
Year: 1809

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
ALBERT WINSOR, of Pall Mall, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Third day of August, in the
forty-ninth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Frederick
Albert Winsor, my exors, adññors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Frederick Albert Winsor, my
exors, adññors, and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, my Invention of "A FIXED TELEGRAPHIC LIGHTHOUSE, AND
ALSO A MOVEABLE TELEGRAPHIC LIGHTHOUSE FOR SIGNALS AND INTELLIGENCE, TO
SERVE BY NIGHT AND BY DAY, IN RAIN, STORM, AND DARKNESS, IN ANY REQUIRED
DIRECTION, AND PROM ANY GIVEN CENTRE;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso obliging me, the said Frederick Albert Winsor, to cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two
calendar months after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and
by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Frederick Albert Winsor, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described
in manner following, that is to say:-

page_text: The telegraphic lighthouse consists, first, of a plain or hollow mast, either
fixt or raised and lowered at pleasure, according to the local situation. A
lanthorn of a large size is fastened at the top which may be furnished with
lenses or reflectors to encrease the light. This may be produced either of gas
conveyed by a flexible or metal tube from a furnace below, or by oil lamps
placed within the lanthorn. These lights may be multiplied to any number,
and be arranged in different divisions above cach other, so as to leave some
visible space between them, for if only one row or circle of light is given, it
might be mistaken at great distance for a star, which is often the case at sea
with those lighthouses that have no revolving lamps. To avoid such mis-
takes, if only one row, circle, or division of light is given, a pure gas flame or
oil lamp should be fixed at a. certain heighth, above the lanthorn. My gas
flames burn in the form of a vane or weathercock, shewing the directions and
variations of the wind' in the darkest of nights, which no storm or rain can
extinguish. This being a central light it is seen from every point of the com-
pass; but the greatest utility consists in the application of it for signals and
telegraphic dispatches by night as well as by day. For example, such a light-
house is to serve for a head telegraph in a metropolis, in flects or armies.
The private signal "to prepare for dispatches" (which signals of course differ
as to the number of corresponding telegraphs immediately surrounding it,) is
given, say, from London to Portsmouth, when the next correspondent telegraph
in the road to Portsmouth will answer the signal, whilst all the other surround-
ing ones, though they observe this head telegraph at work, will remain inactive
until they observe their own peculiar signal for preparation. In this manner
one central telegraph may correspond with any number of surrounding ones,
by only reserving a distinct signal for preparation for each; whereas the pre-
sent central telegraphs of the metropolis now in use will only serve for one
direction or one point in the compass, and there must be as many central ones
as there are next surrounding telegraphs. A great variety of signals may be
made by transparent skreens of different, plain, and variegated colours ntade to
slide over the lanthorn by ropes and pullies all fitting one into the other like
so many hoops of different diameters shutting up in one box; and if the lanthorn
is pretty high all these coloured transparent hoops may be used as single or as
compound numbers, agreeable to any telegraphic alphabet or numerical dic-
tionary. A number of opaque hoops will answer the purpose if the lanthorn
is very long, for they will form different shades at the distance, and appear
like a luminous finger with so many black rings on it, which can be varied in
numbers as well as in visible distances from each other. These lanthorus may
be made from a circle to a triangle, from a square to an octagon; but the

page_text: round or circular ones are visible only from every point of the compass,
whereas the triangular, square, octagon, &c. can only present so many different
phases, as each of these forms contains, unless, indeed, they are so constructed
as to turn upon their own axes, like as a windmill is turned towards any point
from which the wind blows, when every phase of the lanthorn may be turned
towards each correspondent telegraph to transmit dispatches by signal.
Secondly, the telegraphic lighthouse is made moveable to correspond at
different parts of the sea coast, or anywhere when no fixt telegraphs are
erected. For instance, a vessel at sea in distress fires guns or makes other
signals of distress, a moveable telegraph may be brought by a horse and cart
nearest to the opposite point to give signals that relief is preparing, and to
give directions of any kind to the poor mariners in distress. This telegraph
may also be of great use to armies, and during any battle or engagement may
serve to convey orders from the commanding general to any and the most
distant corps, whereby great time is saved, and a variety of manœuvres can
be executed against the enemy with the greatest celerity. This machine is
constructed on the principles of lazy tongs which shut up in a cart, and is
raised to any length from thirty to sixty feet and more with great facility and
expedition. It may follow the commanding general every where, and become
more serviceable than any number of aidecamps or adjutants with the swiftest
of horses, provided the same mode of conveying orders by signals is intro-
duced in the army as is actually used in the navy.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Albert Winsor, have hereunto
hand and seal, this Third day of October, in the year of our
set my
Lord One thousand eight hundred and nine