IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGULATING THE SPEED OF MARINE ENGINES
Year: 1872

page_text: "
LETTERS PATENT to Laurence Hill, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGULATING THE SPEED OF MARINE
ENGINES."
Scaled the 11th March 1873, and dated the 13th September 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Laurence Hill at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th September 1872.
"
•
I, LAURENCE HILL, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGULATING THE SPEED OF MARINE
ENGINES," to be as follows, that is to say:―
"
This Invention consists in improved arrangements for regulating the
speed of marine engines by means of the variations of the external
water level relatively to the part of the ship at or near where the
propeller is situated.
In apparatus of this kind, as formerly designed by Robert Waddell
and the present applicant; a chamber or cylinder was provided in the

page_text: ship close to the part where the difference of external relative level was
to be availed of by means of an open communication with such chamber,
and a piston or float therein was made to transmit the desired regulating
movements through rods or shafting to the engine room. It has also
been proposed to transmit the movement by means of air in a pipe.
By the present Invention it is proposed to simplify the apparatus and
render its action more certain and effective by using the water itself as
the means of transmission to the engine room. A pipe is led from an
apperture in the ship near the propeller to the engine room, and is at the
latter place put in communication with a chamber or cylinder provided 1
with a flexible diaphragm which is connected in the most convenient
and direct manner to the throttle valve of the engines. The pipe and
the part of the chamber under the diaphragm are kept full of water, the
external aperture being situated sufficiently low to be always covered by
the water, or being formed with a siphon bend or otherwise arranged to 1
prevent the entrance of air.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Laurence Hill in the Great Scal Patent Office on
the 11th March 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LAURENCE 2
HILL, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Civil
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the 2
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Laurence Hill, Her special licence,
that I, the said Laurence Hill, my exccutors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Laurence Hill, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no 3
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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN

page_text: APPARATUS FOR REGULATING THE SPEED OF MARINE ENGINES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Laurence Hill, 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 sanie was
to be performed, and 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 Laurence Hill, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement in writing, reference being had to the accompany-
ing Drawings, that is to say :-
My said Invention relates to improved arrangements for regulating
the speed of marine engines by means of the variations of the external
water level relatively to the part of the ship at or near where the
propeller is situated.
In apparatus of this kind, as formerly designed by Robert Waddell
and´me, a chamber or cylinder was provided in the ship close to the part
where the difference of external relative level was to be availed of by
means of an open communication from the outside into such chamber,
and a piston or float therein was made to transmit the desired regulating
movements through rods or shafting to the engine room. It has also
been proposed to transmit the movement by means of air in a pipe.
By my present Invention I simplify the apparatus and render its
action more certain and effective by using the water itself as the means
of transmission to the engine room.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, I hereunto append a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and representing
two modifications of apparatus to be used in carrying out my Invention.
In these Drawings the same reference numerals are used to mark the
same or like parts wherever they are repeated.
. In applying my improved apparatus in the case for example of a
steamer having a screw or other propeller at the stern, I fit a small
casing at as low a point as can be conveniently managed, inside the

page_text: vessel at the stern, and I make an aperture from the outside into this
casing and lead a pipe from the casing to the engine room. In the
engine room the pipe from the stern communicates with apparatus such
as is shown in vertical section in Figure 1 of the Drawings; or it may be
like that shown also in vertical section in Figure 2. The pipe 1 from
the stern leads in either case into a chamber or cylinder 2, having in it
either a diaphragm 3 of vulcanised rubber or other suitable flexible
material, as shown in Figure 1, or a piston 4 as shown in Figure 2.
The diaphragm 3 or piston 4 is attached to a rod 5 passing out through
a stuffing box, and having its outer end connected either directly to the
main regulating valve of the engines (which valve should by preference
be of the equilibrium class) or to the admission valve of a steam cylinder
and piston arranged for acting on the main regulating valve. A weight
or spring is applied to tend to keep the regulating valve shut unless
supported by the pressure of water against the diaphragm 3 or piston 4,
and when the propeller is sufficiently immersed, the diaphragm 3 or
piston 4 will be pressed by the water in the pipe 1 and chamber or
cylinder 2, so as to keep the regulating valve open, but whenever the
water recedes from and uncovers the propeller, there will be simul-
taneously a diminution of pressure in the chamber or cylinder 2, and
the weight or spring will cause the regulating valve to close. The
regulating valve will of course open again upon the propeller becoming
again immersed.
When the ship or vessel is much inclined longitudinally, there will be
produced in the pipe 1 and chamber or cylinder 2, a difference of
pressure due to the difference in height of the two ends of the pipe.
This difference of pressure would interfere to some extent with the
proper action of the apparatus unless counteracted; it is however com-
pletely remedied by fitting a second pipe 6 in communication with the
chamber or cylinder 2 on the other side of the diaphragm 3 or piston 4, 3
and leading it alongside of the other pipe 1 back to the stern of the ship,
and there connecting it, not to the outside like the other one, but to a
small cistern open to the atmosphere inside the ship. Whatever may
be the inclination of the ship it will have the same effect in both
pipes 1, 6, and the action of one will neutralise that of the other on the
diaphragm 3 or piston 4.
Tai

page_text: the precise details herein described or delineated, but that what I
believe to be novel and original, and claim as secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the arranging of
apparatus which regulates the speed of marine engines by means of the
variations of the external water level relatively to the propeller, so that
the regulating movements are transmitted to the engine room by water
in a pipe, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Laurence Hill, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of March, in the year of
our Lord, One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
LAUR. HILL. (L.S.)