IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING OR FACILITATING CURVILINEAR, PARALLEL, OR ANGULAR MOVEMENTS, AND FOR CONVERTING A RECIPROCATING TO-AND-FRO MOTION INTO A ROTARY MOTION, OR A ROTARY MOTION INTO A RECIPROCATING TO-AND-FRO MOTION."
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Fawcus, of North Shields, in the County of
Northumberland, Shipbuilder, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS
OR APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING OR FACILITATING CURVILINEAR, PARALLEL, OR
ANGULAR MOVEMENTS, AND FOR CONVERTING A RECIPROCATING TO-AND-FRO
MOTION INTO A ROTARY MOTION, OR A ROTARY MOTION INTO A RECIPROCATING
TO-AND-FRO MOTION."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Fawcus at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 27th February 1878.
GEORGE FAWCUS, of North Shields, in the County of Northumberland, Ship-
builder. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING OR FACILI-
TATING CURVILINEAR, PARALLEL, OR ANGULAR MOVEMENTS, AND FOR CONVERTING
A RECIPROCATING TO-AND-FRO MOTION INTO A ROTARY MOTION, OR A ROTARY MOTION
INTO A RECIPROCATING TO-AND-FRO MOTION."
My Invention relates to means or apparatus applicable to the traversing, balancing,
elevating, or depressing of heavy ordnance, and the traversing of armour-plate
mantlets or turrets, and of heavy movable bodies generally, the manipulation of
steering apparatus, the feathering of paddles and screw propellers, the rifling of
guns, and generally wherever an elliptical or other curvilinear motion is required;
also to the working of beam or other engines, and otherwise for obtaining an
elongated parallel movement; also to railways for traversing and reversing the
vehicles after the manner of ordinary turntables; also to motive power engines or
machinery for converting a reciprocating to-and-fro motion into a rotary motion, or
vice versa.
In carrying out my Invention as applied, for example, to the production of an
elliptical movement, to which the Invention is particularly appcable, I employ a

page_text: frame having two grooves or guideways arranged the one at right angles to the
other, in which respectively work two pivots or fulcra, or sets of pivots or fulcra,
attached to or carried by the body, or a movable frame supporting the body to which
the elliptical movement is to be imparted, in such a manner that by the act of
turning the said body or its movable supporting frame the pivots or fulcra will be
caused to traverse their respective grooves or guideways, and the required elliptical
movement will be obtained.
The pivots or fulcra may each be fitted with a roller or rollers for the purpose of
minimizing the friction, and the movable frame may also be provided at one or both
ends with wheels or rollers for balancing or steadying it, and obtaining additional
support in its movements.
It is obvious that the position of the pivots or fulcra will be regulated by the
relation between the major and minor axes of the ellipse to be produced.
When the Invention is applied to the other purposes before mentioned, the appa-
ratus is constructed upon the same principle and operates in a similar manner, the
details only being modified to adapt it to the special object to be attained.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said George Fawcus in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th August
1878.
GEORGE FAWCUS, of North Shields, in the County of Northumberland, Ship-
builder. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING OR FACILI-
TATING CURVILINEAR, PARALLEL, OR ANGULAR MOVEMENTS, AND FOR CONVERTING
A RECIPROCATING TO-AND-FRO MOTION INTO A ROTARY MOTION, OR A ROTARY MOTION
INTO A RECIPROCATING TO-AND-FRO MOTION."
My said Invention relates to means or apparatus for obtaining a variety of move.
ments with greater facilities than has heretofore been attainable. It is intended
more especially to be applied to the traversing, balancing, elevating, or depressing
of heavy ordnance, and the traversing of armour-plate mantlets or turrets, and of
heavy bodies generally, but is also applicable to other purposes wherever similar.
motions are required.
In carrying out my said Invention as applied, for example, to the production of
an elliptical movement, to which the Invention is particularly applicable, I employ
a frame having two grooves or guideways arranged at right angles or at any
required angle to each other, in which respectively work two pivots or fulcra, or
sets of pivots or fulcra, attached to or carried by the body or a movable framework
supporting the body to which elliptical movement is to be imparted, in such a
manner that by the act of turning the said body or its movable supporting frame-
work the pivots or fulcra will be caused to traverse their respective grooves or
guideways, and the required elliptical movement will be obtained.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood I shall now proceed
more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose shall refer to the several

page_text: Figures on the annexed Sheet of Drawings, the same letters of reference indicating
corresponding parts in all the Figures.
Figure 1 of my Drawings is a diagram plan illustrating the general principle of
the Invention as applied to the traversing of heavy guns.
Figure 2 represents a side elevation of a gun with its carriage and slide, the latter
carrying the pivots or fulcra which work in the angular grooves or guideways
herein-before referred to.
Figures 3 and 4 are respectively plans of the under and upper sides of the
slide.
Figures 5, 6, 7, and 8 are details, Figure 5 being a side elevation; Figure 6, an end
sectional elevation; and Figure 7, a plan of the under side of one of the pivots or
fulcra; and Figure 8, being a plan of another portion of the apparatus detached, to
be herein-after referred to.
A, Figure 1, is the frame having two grooves or guideways B, B', arranged the
one at right angles to the other. In these grooves or guideways respectively work
two pivots or fulcra C. C¹, (see details, Figures 5, 6, and 7,) attached to or carried by
the slide D, represented for the sake of clearness by a line in the diagram, Figure 1,
and in its complete form in Figures 2, 3, and 4.
The pivots or fulcra and their appurtenances may be arranged in various ways,
but the arrangement illustrated in the Drawing, and next herein-after described, is
one which will be found to be practically successful. Each pivot or fulcrum consists
of a sliding piece a attached by a pin b to the slide D, so as to be free to turn
upon such pin. It is provided with rollers c, c, for diminishing friction in its
passage along the track B or B', and with a turn plate d, which moves bodily with
the sliding piece a. Another turn plate e (see detail, Figure 8) is also provided,
which is interposed between the turn plate d and the slide D, and is mounted on a
square portion of the pin b, so as to partake of the motion of the latter and of the
slide. The pins 6 of the pivots or fulcra are fitted in holes in the slide D, any
required number of which, as, for example, at f, f¹, are provided, and the nature of
the evolution performed by the slide may be varied according to the holes in which
they are placed. In the example shewn the pins 6 are fitted in holes at f, f.
The apparatus operates in the following manner:-By the act of turning the
slide D the pivots or fulera C, C', are caused to traverse their respective grooves or
guideways B, B¹ Assuming the slide D to be in the position shewn by a full line
in Figure 1, with the muzzle end of the gun at g, if the slide is turned in the
direction indicated by the arrows h, the pivot or fulcrum C will first move in the
direction of the arrow i along its groove or guideway B, the pivot or fulcrum C¹
moving to the left along its groove or guideway B', and as the pivot or fulcrum C con-
tinues its motion in the same direction, videlicet, that of the arrow i along its groove
or guideway B, the pivot or fulcrum C₁ will return along its guideway B¹ towards
the right hand, and when the pivot or fulcrum C' has passed the central point k
the pivot or fulcrum C reverses its motion, and the apparatus is brought into the
position shewn by dotted lines in Figure 1, with the muzzle g of the gun reversed.
By this means the gun may be loaded by men stationed at under cover, and then
brought round again into firing position, either by continuing the motion of the
slide D in the direction indicated by the arrows h, or by reversing its motion, as
desired. The dotted line m indicates approximately the nature of the curve
described by the slide D in its motion.
By the construction and arrangement of the pivots or fulcra C, C', facility is
afforded for moving the slide D in a parallel track when required, which operation
is unattainable according to the systems ordinarily adopted. ;
The turn plates may be made so as to fit the one within the other by providing a
flange or rim on the one, thus forming a dovetail recess for the reception of the
other, in order to further promote the distribution and absorption of the shock of
the recoil.
Any suitable facilities may be employed for minimizing the friction of the various
moving parts, as will be well understood.

page_text: The Invention is also applicable to other purposes for which a similar movement
is required, either horizontally, or vertically, or inclined.
When it is required to apply the Invention to existing apparatus, as, for example,
to the elevating and depressing of guns by means of the present trunnions, I mount
or suspend the trunnions upon a plummer block, having two pivots or fulcra fitted
so as to work in grooves or guideways, as herein-before described, on the inner sides
of the gun carriage, whereby an easy balanced movement is obtained with a more
extended range of elevation and depression, and the gun is enabled to work or
traverse with a reduced width of port or embrasure.
When the body to be moved is only required to perform a partial revolution two
radiating grooves or guideways may be employed in lieu of two intersecting grooves
or guideways, as herein-before described.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said In-
vention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel and original,
and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part
recited Letters Patent is, the employment of two pivots or sets of pivots or fulcra
in combination with two intersecting tracks at an angle the one with the other, or
two radiating tracks, along or in which the pivots or fulcra respectively move or
work, substantially in the manner and for the purposes herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Fawcus, have to this my Specification
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of August, One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-eight.
GEORGE FAWCUS. (LS.)