IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS OR APPLIANCES FOR MAINTAINING LEVEL SURFACES FOR SUPPORTING GLASSES, PLATES, AND OTHER ARTICLES THEREON, THE SAID APPARATUS BEING APPLICABLE TO SHIPS AND OTHER FLOATING STRUCTURES
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Alexander Walker at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th January 1876.
JAMES ALEXANDER WALKER, of 33, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS OR APPLIANCES FOR MAINTAINING
LEVEL SURFACES FOR SUPPORTING GLASSES, PLATES, AND OTHER ARTICLES
THEREON, THE SAID APPARATUS BEING APPLICABLE TO SHIPS AND OTHER FLOATING
STRUCTURES."
The object of this Invention is to enable plates, glasses, bottles, and other articles
to be kept level during the movements of a ship or other vessel. For this purpose
I construct apparatus with surfaces whereon to stand the glasses or other articles,
and I maintain such surfaces in level by supporting them by means of a kind of
gimbal or double joint appliance, and by a weight suspended beneath the same.
I make the supporting stand of the apparatus with a screw clamp or clip for
attaching it to the cabin dining table or other cabin or deck furniture. At the
upper part of the stand which is in the form of a bridge, more or less, I form a half
round recess, and I support therein a roller or a block the under side of which is
formed with a corresponding half round projection, and the top side of which is
formed with a half round recess, the axis of which is at right angles to the axis of
the recess in the stand. The surface for holding the glasses or other articles I
make in the form of a disc or table preferably round, and with projecting rim at the
top all round. On the under side of this disc I mount or form centrally a half
round projection which is supported in the aforesaid recess in the block; or the
under side of the disc simply rests on a roller; in the first named recessed roller or
block the disc can thus oscillate freely in both directions, that is, so as to counteract
both the pitching and rolling motion of the vessel. A rod extends downwards
from the disc on each side of the bridge, and equidistant from the centre these rods
carry a weight for steadying and counterbalancing the disc and the articles placed
thereon; the two rods are preferably joined below so as to form a staple, and
inclined towards the middle, and the weight may be formed with a slot fitting over
the staple.
Two or more discs as above may be supported in a frame having a corresponding
number of recesses and blocks or rollers, and attached to a dining table by screw
clamps or clips. I prefer to make the frame so as to join in the middle of its length
or at any other convenient point, in order to facilitate the insertion of an inter-
mediate lengthening piece so as to suit the number of passengers or the size of the
ID 273

page_text: table. The staples for holding the counterweights are by preference provided with
a hook on the side for the purpose of holding them together by means of bars with
a corresponding eye at each end; these bars may have additional counterweight on
them, or may by their own weight form additional counterweight, or they may be
made heavy enough to form the whole counterbalancing and steadying weight.
The stand may consist of a lower frame provided with two or more recesses, and an
upper frame provided with a corresponding number of half round projections, and
on the said upper frame I support any convenient number of discs in half round
recesses as aforesaid.
The aforesaid arrangement may be reversed, that is, the recesses may be formed
in the upper parts of the apparatus, and the half round projections in the lower parts
of same.