Year: 1888

page_text: I, ALBERT HENRY. WALKER, of 274, Main Street Hartford: Connecticut, one of the
United States of America; attorney and. counselor at law, 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 cartridge contains a projectile, which contains oil; and which projectile is open,..
at it's forward end, except when that end is covered by the forward; wall of the, outer
shell of the cartridge. The function of the cartridge is to throw the projectile out.of.
its interior, through its forward wall, and thus, to, uncover. the forward end of the.
projectile, and then to throw the projectile into the sea; and the function of: the
projectile is to float with its open-end upward, a little below, the surface of water,, and.
to discharge its oil upward through the water to the surface, of the waves, and, thus to:
allay the combers which would otherwise form upon their crests..
Figure 1, of the drawings, is an exterior full-sized view. of a cartridge, suitable for
a forty caliber, gun. Figures 2 and 3,, are views of the respective ends of the cartridge..
of Figure 1. Figure 4 is a central longitudinal section of the same. Figure 5 is: an
exterior view of the projectile immersed in the sea, and, discharging, its oil upward,
through the water to the surface thereof.
The letter A, indicates the body of the exterior shell of the cartridge. Its .base, is
constructed in a well known form, and is provided in a, well known.. manner with..
fulminate to be ignited by a firing-pin, and to communicate fire to the powder in the:
powder chamber B. The letter C, indicates the inner shell of the cartridge; which
shell is the body of the projectile, which carries the oil to the sea. Its exterior
diameter is identical with the interior diameter of the outer shell; and its. base is
loaded with the cylindrical block D; and its mouth is provided with, spool E., The
exterior diameter of the annular ends of the spool, is identical with the interior.
diameter of the inner shell; and the spool is preferably fastened within the mouth. of
the inner shell, by crimping the edges of that mouth down upon the outer border of..
the outer annular end of the spool. The insertion of the spool in the mouth of the
shell, produces the annular air chamber. F., and the cylindrical opening G. The inner
ishell is held in the outer shell by the forward wall of the latter; which, in the form
shown in the drawings, is the disk H, the diameter, of which, is identical with the inner
017-

page_text: diameter of the body of the outer shell, and which is kept in position by crimping the
edges of that mouth down upon the border of the outside of the disk. The oil
chamber I, needs no outlet except the opening G, and that opening is closed by the
disk H, after the projectile is made and filled and when the cartridge is completed; and
it continues to be thus closed until the inner shell is ejected from the outer shell by
the explosion of the powder in the powder chamber B.
The mode of operation is as follows:
The cartridge is placed in any suitable breach-loading, cartridge-firing, rifled gun,
located on shipboard or on shore; and the gun is directed over the waves to be
allayed, and is discharged in the manner proper with that sort of gun. The explosion
of the powder in the powder chamber B, drives the projectile through the forward wall
of the outer shell A, against the slight resistance thereof, and also drives the projectile
out from the mouth of the barrel of the gun, to a distance over the water, proportionate
to the charge of powder, the length and elevation of the gun barrel, and the weight of
the projectile and its contents. During the flight through the air, the open end of the
projectile is kept forward by the rotation of the projectile upon its own axis, and the
oil is held in the oil-chamber by the pressure of the air upon the outer surface of the
oil in the opening G. When the projectile reaches the end of its range, it sinks, base
downward, a little below the surface of the water. Thereupon the oil rises out of
the projectile, to that surface and spreads into a film upon the waves, as graphically
shown in Figure 5 of the drawings.
A projectile of the size shown in the drawings, will hold about a half an ounce
of oil; and half an ounce of oil, applied to a raging sea, will allay the combers of the
waves over half an acre of water, as was proved by the experiment made by Captain
Smith, of the British bark Wallace, on the Atlantic Ocean, September 21, 1886.
From these data, it follows that an ocean steamer, going forward fifteen miles an hour,
and provided with a suitable breach-loading rifle mounted upon a tripod, and provided
with a supply of the foregoing described cartridges, can make, in a raging sea, a path
of unbroken water for itself, an eighth of a mile wide, and extending nearly a mile
ahead by simply shooting forty of these projectiles a minute, from that rifle, to a
receding transverse line one-eighth of a mile long, and a mile in advance of the ship.
To throw the projectile that distance, the cartridge should be charged with seventy, or
more, grains of power, and the barrel of the gun should be elevated about twenty-
seven degrees. It follows, also, from the foregoing data, that when lying to, or when
lowering or hoisting boats in a heavy sea, the combers can be kept a hundred yards
away from a ship, by shooting twenty of these projectiles into the water around the
ship, and fifty yards away from the sides of the same, and by repeating the operation
from time to time if required.
The air chamber F, and the block D, or either of them, may sometimes be omitted;
but when they are used, they should be so proportioned to each other, and to the total
weight and size of the projectile and its contents, as to cause it to float, with its mouth
upward, a little below the surface of water.
The oil in the projectile may be fish oil, linseed oil, olive oil, or crude petroleum ; and
still other oils will produce beneficial results; but fish oil is probably best, except
when the projectiles are to be used in cold weather, when fish oil mixed with mineral
oil, to give it fluidity, is excellent.
I do not herein claim a sea oiling projectile consisting of a shell, one end or side of
the interior of which is provided with an air chamber, or its equivalent, and the
opposite end or side of the interior of which is provided with a weight or its equivalent,
and the intermediate part of the interior of which contains oil; though such a
projectile is described in this specification and shown in the accompanying drawings;
because that invention is described and claimed in another application of mine filed
cotemporaneously herewith.
saíd invention,
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. A sea oiling cartridge, consisting of the shell A, containing powder in the

page_text: rearward part of its interior; and the shell C, containing oil, and provided with the
forward opening G, and entirely enclosed within the forward part of the interior of
the shell A; all substantially as described.
2. A sea oiling cartridge, consisting of the shell A, containing powder in the
rearward part of its interior; and the shell C, containing oil, and provided with the
opening G, and entirely enclosed in the forward part of the interior of the shell A, and
provided with the block D, to sink it in the sea; all substantially as described.
3. A sea ciling cartridge, consisting of the shell A, containing powder in the
rearward part of its interior; and the shell (, containing oil, and provided with the
opening G, and entirely enclosed in the forward part of the interior of the shell A, and
provided with the air chamber F, to sustain it in the sea; all substantially as
described.
Date: : L
CMh 1000