IMPROVED SEA SOUNDING AND ALARM APPARATUS FOR VESSELS
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Melville Clark at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 11th April 1876. A communication
from abroad by Franz Xavier Wagner and Abraham Schoenberg, both of the
City, County, and State of New York, United States of America.
ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middle-
sex, Patent Agent.
"IMPROVED SEA SOUNDING AND ALARM APPARATUS FOR
VESSELS."
This Invention relates to a new mechanism, which when attached to a steam or
sailing vessel will give timely notice to the persons on board such vessel of the
approach of the same to shallow water, and also indicate automatically as soon as
its sinker strikes the bottom the exact depth of water beneath such vessel.
The Invention is applicable to all ships in place of the ordinary leads now in
use, and also as a surveying apparatus to ascertain the profile of the bottom of
seas, lakes, rivers, or other courses, and the character of ground.
The Invention consists principally of a sinker suspended from a sounding line,
which passes over a registering apparatus, and is counterweighted to register the
depth of water as soon as the sinker strikes ground.
The Invention also consists in the combination of said sounder line and sinker
with a bracing line, which serves to hold the sinker at the proper place with refer-
ence to the position of the ship.
The following is a detailed description of the Invention:-
To the side of the vessel, near the stern, or to its stern, is rigidly secured a frame,
in which a horizontal or nearly horizontal shaft has its bearings. The outer end
of this shaft is forked, and carries the case or shell of the registering and alarm appa-
ratus, the shank of said case or shell being pivoted in the forked end of the shaft.
By this mode of attachment the case or shell is suspended by a universal joint so
that it can freely vibrate in either direction without straining its connection with
the ship. Any other form of universal joint may, however, be substituted for the
above. In the case or shell is hung a drum, which is mounted upon an arbor
carrying a pinion, which gears into a toothed wheel mounted upon another arbor,
also mounted in the shell. The inner face of the case or shell carries or constitutes
a graduated dial or index plate, over which a pointer fastened to the arbor is
caused to travel.
The upper part of the sounding line or chain passes around the above-mentioned
drum, thence downwards around a pulley, which is hung in a counterweight, and
Price d

page_text: thence upwards to the case or shell again, to which its upper end is firmly attached.
The lower end of the sounding line is attached to a sinker. The counterweight is
poised to hold the finger to zero on the dial as long as the sinker remains suspended
in the water, but as soon as the sinker strikes the bottom the weight will descend
until it draws the line taut, and in descending will cause the drum to rotate and
the finger to move over the face of the dial. The more the sinker is raised, that
is the shallower the water becomes under the ship, the further will the counter-
weight descend, and the further will the finger travel over the dial. The finger or
pointer will thus correctly show the depth of water beneath the ship as soon as
the sinker has reached the bottom, the dial being properly graduated with reference
to the diameter of the drum and toothed wheels to show the exact depth by
fathoms or other units of measure. It is evident that the toothed wheels may be
entirely dispensed with or others substituted in their place, and that the drum
may be directly mounted upon the arbor of the pointer.
A toothed wheel, or prong or prongs, is mounted upon one or other of the arbors
to actuate when said arbor revolves a lever, which is pivoted to the case or shell,
and which when thus set in motion actuates the clapper of a bell or gong carried
on said shell or case. By this means an alarm will be sounded whenever the
pointer is set in motion, and the attention of the officers of the ship called to such
inotion.
Any other species of alarm mechanism may be substituted for the one
described. Thus the prong or wheel may when moved serve to close or break
an electric circuit, and thus cause the alarm to be given in the captain's and
officers' cabins, or either, or in other parts of the vessel.
For the purpose
of holding the sinker in proper position with reference to the position of the
moving ship and preventing said sinker being dragged behind the vessel, and for
other evident purposes, I connect the sinker with a bracing line or chain, which
extends to a windlass hung in the forward part of the ship. This bracing chain or
line should preferably have a length nearly equal to the distance between the wind-
lass and the borizontal shaft of the registering apparatus, so that when the ship
enters a harbour, and at other times when desired, the line may be wound upon
the windlass and the sinker thereby raised out of the water. The sinker is of
suitable form, preferably cigar shaped, and carries at its lower side a tube, which is
open in front and closed in rear, and which serves upon the sinker striking the
ground to scrape up and gather parts of the ground to disclose the character
thereof.
For ordinary passenger and freight ships it is preferred to suspend the sinker at
a depth of, say 200 to 300 feet, so that the finger will remain at zero as long as
the ship has a greater depth of water beneath it than that to which the sinker is
suspended, but as soon as a less depth is reached the sinker will strike the bottom
and will cause the alarm to be sounded, the pointer at the same time indicating
the depth of water beneath the ship. Suitable provision may be made for
lengthening or shortening the sounding line, but the indicator would always show
the depth of the sinker.