Improvements in Apparatus for Maintaining a Constant Plane in a Floating Vessel.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Dec., 1889
Complete Specification Left, 15th Oct., 1890-Accepted, 22nd Nov., 1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Maintaining a Constant Plane in a
Floating Vessel.
I, BEAUCHAMP TOWER, of No. 5 Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster, in the County of
London, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
In my Specification No. 14208 of 1886 I described apparatus in which a heavy
reaction wheel, caused to revolve by water under pressure issuing from it, operated as
a gyroscope to maintain constancy in its axial direction, and a platform was mounted
in gimbals subject to the action of four hydraulic cylinders fed by a jet of the water
under pressure directed to the one or the other according as the platform tended to
deviate from coincidence of its axis with that of the gyroscope. My present invention
relates to improvements in apparatus of this kind, having for their object chiefly to
correct certain errors to which any previous apparatus was subject. I mount the
reaction wheel, as before, on a spherical bearing the centre of which I now make
coincident with the centre of gravity of the wheel, and in order to determine
verticality of the axis of the wheel, I apply, to the upper or under surface of the
wheel, rollers mounted on the horizontal arms of four bell crank levers, the vertical
arms of which carry pendulous weights. In order to correct a slight error to which
the direction of the platform axis relatively to that of the wheel axis was liable, I now
provide a second platform mounted on gimbals on the first, and like it controlled by
four hydraulic cylinders, or two double acting cylinders, which are fed, like the others,
from the jet through small ports formed in the partitions which divide the mouth that
receives the main jet. The plungers or pistons that control the second platform are
urged to their neutral or middle position by springs. When the platform is used to
carry a gun, search light or other object mounted on trunnions and requiring
constancy of its one axis only, the second platform and two of the single acting
In order to
cylinders or one of the double acting cylinders may be dispensed with.
prevent the return water from dashing about the wheel and the jet issuing from it,
and so vitiating somewhat the action of the jet, I place between the jet, and the ports
towards which it is directed a guard in the form of an inverted funnel. The jet passes
through its central orifice and the return water from the ports is received on its sloping
sides and is thus directed away obliquely.
Tehdy of Deanmber 1880
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Maintaining a Constant Plane in a
Floating Vessel.
I, BEAUCHAMP TOWER, of No. 5, Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster, in the County of
London, Civil Engineer, 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 :-
In my Specification No. 14208 of 1886 I described apparatus in which a heavy
reaction wheel, caused to revolve by water under pressure issuing from it, operated as
a gyroscope to maintain constancy in its axial direction, and a platform was mounted
in gimbals subject to the action of four hydraulic cylinders fed by a jet of the water
under pressure directed to the one or the other according as the platform tended to
deviate from coincidence of its axis with that of the gyroscope. My present invention

page_text: relates to improvements in apparatus of this kind, having for their object chiefly to
correct certain errors to which my previous apparatus was subject as I shall describe
referring to the accompanying drawings.
Fig. 1. is a vertical section of the apparatus described in my previous Specification
No. 14208 of 1886.
Fig. 2. is a plan and Fig. 3. an elevation partly in section shewing one of the
improvements according to my present invention.
Fig. 4. is a plan shewing a gun mounted on the apparatus,
Fig. 5. is an elevation partly in section shewing the mounting of the gun and
means according to my present invention of correcting slight errors in its elevation.
Fig. 6. is a part plan shewing the correcting appliance.
As shewn in Figs. 1., 2., and 3 the heavy reaction wheel A is mounted on a spherical
pivot B.
Water under pressure, supplied as described in my former Specification,
through the gimbals G and their trunnions, passes up through the hearing B and
flows, partly out at the reaction orifices C producing and maintaining the rotation of
the wheel A., and partly up the central jet pipe D towards the four orifices of
channels E., leading respectively to the four hydraulic cylinders F., the plungers
of which are linked to the arms of the gimbals G. The construction is so far the
same as that described in my previous Specification, and the operation is the same,
that is to say the axis of the rotating wheel A remaining constant in direction, should
the axis of the platform and other parts carried by the gimbals tend to deviate from
the axis of the wheel A., more of the jet from D would be directed into one of the
channels E than into the others, thus creating a greater pressure in one of the
hydraulic cylinders F., and causing such depression of that cylinder as to correct
the deviation. In order the better to maintain constancy in the direction of the axis
of A., I arrange the centre of the spherical bearing B to be as nearly as possible
coincident with the centre of gravity of the wheel A., and I mount on the hydraulic
cylinders F four bell crank levers having their vertical arms loaded by equal weights J,
and having on their horizontal arms rollers K which bear on the upper surface of the
wheel A. The bell cranks might be arranged at a lower level with their rollers
bearing against the under surface of the wheel A. By the action of the pendulous
weight J., any tendency of the wheel A to deviate from true horizontality of its upper
or under surface is at once corrected. When a gun H is mounted on trunnions on the
apparatus as shewn in Fig. 4., I apply to it means of correcting slight errors in
elevation as shewn in Figs. 5 and 6. Over the jet orifice of D I fix a guard L having
a round hole through its middle and sloping down to its outer edge. The water from
the jet D passes through the central hole of L., and the water which is dashed back is
deflected by the border of L so as to take a course outwards clear of the wheel A.,
the action of which might be more or less interfered with by the water dashing on it.
Besides the four quadrantal orifices of the channels E leading to the four-hydraulic
cylinders F., I provide two rectangular orifices and channels M. N from them, leading
respectively to the lower and upper ends of a hydraulic cylinder O. This cylinder is
fitted with a piston P which is maintained in middle position between two springs. To
the piston rod is connected by a spherical joint a socket nut Q for the elevating
screw R of the gun H. The gun being once set to the desired elevation is maintained
without change of elevation by the action of the piston P subject to excess of pressure
on the one side or the other resulting from direction of the jet more into the one of
the channels M, N, than into the other. If, for instance, the breech of the gun
descended a little, the channel M would receive more of the jet from D than the
channel N, the piston P being therefore pressed more on its under than on its upper
side, would rise a little raising the breech. And in like manner if the breech rose a
little, the excess of pressure would be on the upper side of the piston P causing the
breech to descend. The correcting appliance shewn in Figs. 5 and 6 as applied to
maintain constant position of the longitudinal axis of a gun, might be applied also in
a plane at right angles to the plane of that axis, in cases where a platform requires
to be kept always parallel to oue plane, the platform being in this case mounted on
gimbals.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In apparatus for maintaining a constant plane in a floating vessel, mounting the
reaction wheel on a spherical bearing having its centre coincident with the centre of
gravity of the wheel, and subjecting the upper or under surface of the wheel to the
pressure of rollers connected through bell cranks to pendulous weights, substantially
as described.
2. Providing above the jet orifice D a guard L substantially as and for the purpose
set forth.
3. For correcting slight errors, in combination with the four apertures facing the
jet and the channels leading thence to the hydraulic cylinders, additional apertures
and channels leading to subsidiary hydraulic cylinders substantially as described with
reference to Figs. 5. and 6.
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