Improvements in Means for Automatically Controlling Mechanical Movements.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 10th Nov., 1888
Complete Specification Left, 12th Feb., 1889-Accepted, 6th July, 1889
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Means for Automatically Controlling Mechanical
Movements.
I, GENNARO AZZERONI, of No. 20, Mount Stuart Square, Cardiff, in the County of
Glamorgan, Accountant, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
In my invention I have in view the necessity of automatically checking the motions
affecting machinery by concussion or for the purpose of reducing their velocity and
ultimately stopping them when required.
In the case of vessels' rudders I apply my invention as follows ;-
At any convenient position upon the rudder itself or the tiller or any of the chains
I fix chains. One end of each chain is led around a barrel and attached thereto. The
barrel may be of any convenient form. I call this the controlling barrel. It is
mounted upon a shaft running in bearings. One end of this shaft is prolonged and to
it is fitted a coupling in which works a corresponding gear made so as to allow of an
eccentric movement. This part of the coupling has a bearing formed in its interior
and bored out eccentrically with the shaft upon which the before mentioned barrel
works. I call this the eccentric barrel. In this internal bearing is fitted a projecting
shaft, also made eccentrically, one centre being made concentric with the bearings
upon which the controlling barrel shaft works. In the other or any convenient point
as may be found suitable on the outer end of this eccentric shaft I attach a lever
which controls the action of the barrel and to which I apply buffers or cushions
in order to counteract the shocks that may be brought to bear upon it.
Upon the outer circumference of the eccentric barrel I attach chains which are also
connected up to the ordinary steering chains of the vessel.
The action of the above is as follows:-
When the steering gear is put into operation the chain around the eccentric barrel
causes it to revolve and communicate its motion through the coupling before
mentioned to the steering chains around the controlling barrel and thence to the
rudder.
When the steering gear is at rest the eccentric barrel will act as a link between the
controlling barrel and the lever and thus keep the rudder under control.
My improved cushions I make as follows;-
In a cylinder filled with water or other fluid I place a sphere of any pliable
substance either solid or hollow and filled with air the concussion being .communi-
cated through a piston pressing against the ball. 1 can place this cushioning
cylinder on any convenient place either on the chain or attached to the lever or
both if preferred.
Dated this 10th day of November 1888
:
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION:
Improvements in Means for Automatically Controlling Mechanical
Movements.
I, GENNARO AZZERONI, of No. 20, Mount Stuart Square, Cardiff, in the County of
Glamorgan, Accountant, 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 :-
The object of my invention is to satisfy the necessity of automatically controlling
those movements which affect machinery in the way of concussion. The invention

page_text: is also applicable for the purpose of reducing the velocities of such movements, and
of ultimately extinguishing them, whenever such extinction may be required.
The invention consists in the combination of two drums, a disc or plane at right
angles to and fast on the axis of one drum, a link pivotted eccentrically on the
said plane, parallel therewith, and adapted to slide in a block fast on the end of the
axis of the second drum, which axis is in either a higher or a lower plane than that of
the drum first mentioned.
The former of the two drums is the controlling or governing, and the latter the
controlled, or governed, drum.
I have then two relatively fixed points, viz., the axes of the two drums, and one
movable one, viz., the axis of the link-pivot. During one revolution of the link-pivot
about the axis of the controlling drum, the said three points can be aligned twice only
(assuming that the axes of the two drums are in the same vertical plane), once when
the link-pivot the movable point is vertically above, and once when it is vertically
beneath the two fixed points. These positions of alignment may be considered, in
respect of my invention, as dead points. At every other point of the revolution the
three points will be the angles of a scalene triangle. Now, as is well known, a con-
struction on the lines of a triangle is incapable of distortion. This production of two
dead points and two series of triangles between them is illustrated in Fig. 6, which is
a diagram elevation of the disc or plane baving projected upon it, a = the axis of the
controlling drum; b = the axis of the governed drum, with which the axis of the
block above mentioned is always coincident; and c, c³, c³, c³, c³, c³, six positions of
the movable point, viz., the axis of the link-pivot, illustrating the two dead points ce
and four triangles.
-
The motion of the controlling drum can therefore be communicated through the
link to the second drum; but no motion brought to bear upon the latter can be
communicated to the former, in consequence of the rigidity of the triangle above
described.
The controlling or governing properties of my invention are applied directly, or
through the medium of any suitable chain of mechanism, to any machinery the action
of which it is desired to control.
I may duplicate the above described plane, slide, and block, placing the pivot of the
second slide in advance of the one first mentioned, so that the two dead points will be
neutralized.
In order that my invention, and the means by which it is to be carried into
practical effect, may be thoroughly understood, I will now describe one application of
it, viz., controlling a rudder. At the same time it is to be distinctly understood that
iny invention is not one for an improved steering gear, but that the application of
the invention illustrated in the drawings is included in the invention, and that the
invention is not co-terminous with the said application.
Fig. 1 is an elevation; and Fig. 2 is a plan.
Figs. 3, 4 and 5 are details of a spring buffer.
A is the controlling drum suitably grooved to receive a cable connecting the
controlling apparatus with the midship wheel when necessary.
C is the second or controlled drum, grooved to receive a second pair of cables
in the usual way, one end of each being fast to the drum and the other to either
end of the quadrant.
The cables above mentioned are passed through leading pulleys fixed in suitable
positions. These pulleys are combined where necessary with spring buffers adapted
to counteract the rigidity of the apparatus, and to absorb shocks as they are trans-
mitted along the cables.
D is the ordinary steering wheel. It is fast upon the axis of the controlling
drum A. E is the disc or plane fast upon the opposite end of the same axis.. Fis
the link pivotted at f, i.e., eccentrically on the disc E, but in a plane parallel with
it. This disc may be of any size, but never less than the diameter of a circle the
radius of which is equal to the perpendicular distance separating the axes of the
controlling and the controlled drums.

page_text: The link F is shown as of a trapezoidal section being thereby adapted to slide
in the duplicate block G fast upon a continuation of the axis of the duplicate plane H.
I is the duplicate link pivotted at i, i.e., eccentrically to the plane H, and adapted to
slide in the block J fast upon a continuation of the axis of the governed barrel C.
Referring to Figs. 3, 4 and 5, K is a pulley, k the cable led around it, k¹ the pulley
rod, a disc between which and the end of the case L plays the spring 7.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is :-
1. The combination of drum, disc, link, and block, substantially as and for the
purpose set forth.
2. The combination of two fixed, and one revolving, points, the three points being
the angles of a triangle, as and for the purpose set forth.
3. The application of the rigidity of an apparatus, the elements of which produce a
triangle, to the controlling or governing mechanical movements, substantially as set
forth.
°
4. The use of spring buffers to take up shocks as they are passing along the cable, or
equivalent part, of a gear substantially as set forth for automatically checking
mechanical movements.
Dated thin 19th day of February 1889
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
22, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.