IMPROVEMENTS IN SIGNALLING APPARATUS, SPECIALLY APPLICABLE TO SIGNAL- LING ON BOARD SHIP
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Archibald Brooman at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 29th
August 1864. A communication from abroad by John Blackie, of
Washington, United States of America.
:..
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SIGNALLING APPARATUS, SPECIALLY APPLICABLE TO SIGNAL-
LING ON BOARD SHIP," to be as follows:-
The Invention will be understood by the annexed Drawings and the following
description thereof.
Figure 1 is a perspective view, and Figure 2 a transverse vertical section of a
portion of the apparatus when intended for conveying orders to the engineman
or other person, as required.; Figure 3 is a bottom plan view, and Figure 4 a
side elevation of an apparatus connected with and operated by a rudder for
conveying return signals which may have been made to the helmsman, to the
pilot, or other officers, as may be desired. Similar letters in each of the Figures
indicate corresponding parts.
In Figures 1 and 2, A represents an armature, made long and round as
shown, and hung excentrically upon pivot points at its ends, as shown at C,
Figure 2, so as to permit it to turn upon its pivots in either direction when
attracted by an electro-magnet. To one end of A is secured a pointer or index

page_text: which may be of such weight as to counterbalance the excentrically hung
armature, by which means the latter may be operated by very small power.
By turning the armature A on its pivots the hand or index a will be made to
move in the arc of a circle, corresponding with the movement of. A. By pro-
viding a dial plate and placing it so that the hand a shall sweep across its face,
it is obvious that the hand may be moved to or past any required numbers or
signals pointed or printed thereon, the signals or orders being arranged in the
are of a circle corresponding with the sweep of the hand. I cause the arma-
ture A and hand a to assume as many different positions as there are orders to
be conveyed, and this I accomplish by means of electro-magnets having their
ends arranged or fitted radially around the armature A in positions correspond-
ng with the relative positions which the hand is required to assume in order
to point to the various orders on the dial. It is immaterial what position the
bodies of these magnets occupy provided their faces or ends are properly
placed, as the armature will be attracted by the-flat face of the end presented
to it when the electrical current is applied without reference to the position of
the body of the magnet; I therefore construct the bodies of the magnets B,
C, D, and E, that, while occupying the same plane, their ends shall be presented
towards A in different positions radially, whereby. A can be readily attracted
or moved from one to another of the magnets, according as the circuit is broken
with one and completed with the other of the magnets. By these means I
am enabled to operature the armature A and hand a to any required extent
by magnets arranged as shown in Figure 1; the armature assuming the various
positions required, as indicated in dotted lines in Figure 2. In this case-I
have placed four magnets horizontally, two on each side of A; while the fifth
magnet F is placed underneath A in a vertical position, as shown in Figure 2;
but it is obvious that the body of F may also be placed horizontally, pro-
vided its ends are brought underneath-A. It is further obvious that any
desired number of magnets may be thus arranged and the hand a made
'to assume a corresponding. number of positions, the principle being the
same as in Figure 2. Another magnet H is arranged vertically. near the
rear end of A, having secured to its upper end a plate b, which is provided
with the projection e, through which pivot points extend, pivoting the
armature or keeper I thereto. To this keeper I is attached a rod having a
hammer secured to its opposite end for the purpose of striking a bell-J
properly placed to attract the attention of the helmsman whenever the index
is moved. In order to hold A and a in position, the armature A has attached
to it a notched wheel i; into the notches of which the spring rod h falls when
the hammer drops, thus holding A securely in position and thereby retaining

page_text: the index a at the desired order marked on the dial. Attached to h is a small
vertical rods; having its upper end bent in the form of a hook, which.
rod s is of such a length that the hammer rod when raised almost up to-the-
bell shall engage in said hook and thereby lift the rod li out of the notch in
the wheel i, whereby the armature A is unlocked and permitted to rotate..
As the hammer falls again by its own gravity the rod s is released, whereby h
again engages in one of the notches of i, again locking A in place.
The operation of this part of the apparatus is as follows:-A battery kis
provided, having a wire leading to a keyboard L placed within reach of the,
pilot. From the keys a separate wire runs to each magnet except the vertical.
magnet H. When one of the keys is pressed down so as to come in contact with
the conductor from the battery, whereby the circuit which the fluid. is to
travel is closed, the magnet connected with said key becomes charged and
thereby attracts the armature A and thereby moves the index a. The current
at the instant of charging the magnet by passing along the wire No. 1, for,
example, returns from the other arm of the magnet B by the wire 1, and is
conducted along the rod d in the direction of the arrow until it arrives at the
wire g, which conveys it to and charges the magnet H, which attracting. the
keeper I causes the hammer f to strike the bell, and raise the.rod hout of the;
notch in the wheel i all at one operation, the fluid returning from; the opposite.
arm of the magnet H by the wire 6 to the battery in the usual manner. 'As:
the return wire from each magnet B, C, D, E, and H, is connected with the
rod d, which is connected with the magnet H by the rod g and as there is no
return wire to the battery except No. 6, which passes direct from H to the
battery, it follows that whenever either key, is touched, whereby either of the.
magnets operating A is charged, the current is compelled to pass around H,
charging, it at the same time. Thus the index is operated, the armature A,
unlocked and relocked, and the bell struck all at one operation. By these
means the pilot is at all times enabled to transmit instantly to the signalman
or the man at the wheel
of the orders marked on the dial, the latter being
situated where it can be always seen by the signalman or helmsman. In order;
however, that the pilot may know that his order has been obeyed it is necessary
that some means should be provided by which the position of the rudder; in;
the case when the order has been given to the helmsman shall be automatically.
indicated or made known to him; or this purpose I employ the, apparatus,
shown at Figures 3, 4, and 5.
-
any
In Figure 3,.M represents the rudder post, which has attached to it an ;
arm m, provided with a vertical pin l, which works in a slot in a similar arm n', i
attached to another shaft or rotating post.N. This post N is also provided with

page_text: a spring arm 0, which has secured to its upper side, near the outer end, an
adjustable frame p, in which is mounted a metallic roller o: By having the
frame p adjustable or pivoted, as shown at o', it can be turned so as to cause
the roller o to stand diagonally to its line of travel, as shown in Figures 3 and
4. By these means the roller o is caused to scrape or slide to a limited degree
at the same time that it rolls in moving over the face of the metallic plates 1*,
2*, the roller o being held firmly up against the plates by the pressure of the
spring arm O, as shown in Figure 4. The series of plates from 1 to 9* are
connected by conducting wires, as shown in Figure 4, from the extremities of
which series of connecting wires a separate wire r and is connected, lead-
ing to a differential galvonometer, Figure 5, which being a well-known appa-
ratus needs no description.
1
3
The operation of the apparatus is as follows:-A wire from the battery R
leads to the shaft or post N, from whence the fluid passes along the arm O to'
the wheel o, from which it passes to any of the series of plates 1* to 9*,
according as the wheel o may be in contact with one or the other of those'
plates. From the plate which in the Drawing shown by the position of the
roller o in Figure 3 as plate 3*, the electric current passes along the wire 81
to the point where that wire is connected to the uniting coils on either side, at
which point the current is divided and flows thence along both wires r and
to the differential galvanometer, Figure 5, from which it returns to the battery
along the wire t, when the circuit is closed by means of the knob u, Figure 5.
As the rudder is turned to one or the other side the arm O and wheel.o is
made to move in a corresponding manner over the series of plates, as already
described, whereby the circuit is closed between the wheel o and the plate'
upon which it rests. When the wheel rests upon plate 5* it is obvious that
the current which it divided at the point where wire 51 unites with the con-
necting coils will have the same distance to travel along-wires r and r¹, the
same being of uniform lengths, in which case the needle of the galvanometer
will stand at zero; but whenever the connection is made between the wheel o
and any other plate, as, for instance, with plate 3*, as shown in the Drawing,
then the current passing to the right along wire will have a greater distance
to travel than that portion passing to the left and along wire r, which will
cause the needle to be deflected to a degree exactly corresponding with the
difference in the distance travelled by the two currents. When the wheel o
is carried to the opposite side of plate 5*, then the needle will be deflected to
the opposite side in a similar manner. By these means the position of the
rudder will at all times be indicated by the position of the needle whenever
the circuit is closed at u, and thus the pilot in the pilot house, the captain in
:

page_text: his room or any other portion of the vessel where the galvanometer may be
situated, can at all times, day or night, and without knowledge of the helmsman,
know exactly at what angle or point the rudder stands.
It is obvious that the entire apparatus, or either of the parts composing it,
may be applied to other purposes and uses than that shown, the application to
signalling on board ship being sufficient to illustrate the Invention.