IMPROVEMENTS IN COMMUNICATING INTELLIGENCE
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Job Allen, of Bower Street, in the County
of Middlesex, Engineer, for the Invention of. "IMPROVEMENTS IN
COMMUNICATING INTELLIGENCE."
Sealed the 27th October 1853, and dated the 18th May 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Job Allen at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th May 1858.
I, JOB ALLEN, of Bower Street, in the County of Middlesex, En-
gineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN COMMUNICATING INTELLIGENCE" to be as follows:-
I intend my Invention to be applied specially on board of steam
ships, for the purpose of enabling a person upon deck to communicate
with the engineer in the engine room. On each paddle box, or other
convenient position on both sides of a steam ship, I fit a drum carrying
an index or pointer, and on a fixed segment outside the drum I make
the signals required to be made. I also fit a third drum or pulley
about midway between the side index drums, and by means of cords

page_text: or chains cause the turning of onG drum to communicate similar
motion to the other drun. From the central drum I carry a connect-
ing band or chain to another index drum, fitted in a conspicuous part
of the engine room, and provided with a marked segment and pointer
similar to the two side index drums. Whatever signal is made by
the person on deck, the same will be transferred to the drum in the
engine room; and when the drums are caused to act, a bell is simulta-
neously rung in the engine room. In combination with these signal
drums I make use of two bells, one placed on deck and the other in
the engine room. When the captain, pilot, or other person on deck
wishes the attention of the engineer, he rings the bell in the engine
room, and the engineer, to shew he is at his post, rings the bell on
deck; the captain next directs him how to proceed by means of the
signal drums before named.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Job Allen in the Great Seal Patent Office, on
the 18th November 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JOB ALLEN, of Bower Street, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and succes-
sors, give and grant unto me, the said Job Allen, Her special licence
that I, the said Job Allen, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Job Allen, ny 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN COMMUNICATING

page_text: INTELLIGENCE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Job Allen, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same 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 Job Allen, 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 thereof, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, that is to say:
My Invention consists in communicating the necessary intelligence
for working a ship from a person on deck to either the engineer or
steersman by means of an arrangement of index drums and pointers.
On each paddle box, or other convenient position on both sides of a
steam ship, I fit a drum or spindle carrying an index or pointer, and
on a fixed dise or segment outside the drum I mark the signals
required to be made. I also fit a third drum or pulley about midway
between the side index drums, and by means of gearing cords or
chains cause the turning of one drum to communicate similar motion
to the other drum. From the central drum I carry a connecting band
or chain to another index drum fitted in a conspicuous part of the
engine room, and provided with a marked segment and pointer similar
to the two side index drums. Whatever signal is made by the person
on deck, the same will be transferred to the drum in the engine room;
and when the pointers are caused to act, a bell is simultaneously rung
in the engine room to direct the attention of the engineer to the
signals on the dial. Or I make use of two bells in combination with
these signal drums, one placed on deck, and the other in the engine
room. In Figure 1, of the Drawings hereunto annexed, I have shewn
a transverse section of a steam ship with my apparatus applied thereto.
A, A, are the two side index drums, having the necessary signals
marked thereon, similar to the detached view in Figure 2. B, is the
central drum. These drums A, and B, are supported upon the hollow
columns C. C, and are connected together by the shaft D, and mitre

page_text: wheels a, a, and b, b. c, c. c, are handles upon the spindles of the
wheels b, b, for communicating motion to the index pointers d, d, d, in
front of the signal drums. E, is another signal drum similar to those
upon deck, and connected to the central drum B, by the cords d, d, so
that the index pointer in the engine room is acted upon similarly and
simultaneously with those upon deck. G, is a bell fixed in the engine
room, and connected by the series of wires and bell cranks 9, 9, to the
handle h, h, h. on the columns C, C, by means of either of which the
person in command on deck can strike the bell to attract the attention
of the engineer to the signal given. Instead of the shaft D, and mitre
wheels, the index pointers may be connected together by cords or
chains, and acted upon in a similar manner to that hercin-before
described. When two bells are made use of, and the captain, pilot, or
other person on deck wishes the attention of the engineer, he rings the
bell in the engine room, and the engineer, to shew he is at his post,
rings the bell on deck by means of a suitable arrangement of wires and
bell cranks; the captain next directs him how to proceed by means of
the signal drums, as before explained. When it is desired to com-
municate with the steersman, then one dial is fixed in any convenient
position within his view. The steersman's dial is worked in a similar
manner to that already described for working the dial in the engine
room.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the
arrangement and combination of apparatus for communicating intel-
ligence as hercin-before described and represented in the Drawings
hereunto annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Job Allen, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of November, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-three.