IMPROVEMENTS IN TORPEDOES
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by The Honorable Frederick
Arthur Wellesley at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with his Petition, on the 25th November 1872, A communication
from abroad by Colonel Von Scheliha, of St. Petersburg, Russia.
I, The Honorable FREDERICK ARTHUR WELLESLEY, of No. 20,
Albemarle Street, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TORPEDOES," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in torpedoes. Por
this purpose I so construct torpedoes as to render them™ locomotive,
and also so that they can be directed from a distance by means of
electric currents transmitted through an insulated wire which is paid
out by the torpedo as it advances.
The motor is air compressed to many atmospheres in an air reservoir
forming part of the torpedo. The compressed air works an engine
which consists of three brass cylinders placed at a distance of 120ª from
centre to centre. The engine acts directly upon the shaft of a serew.

page_text: Within the torpedo is a reel on which 4000 or 5000 yards of insulated
wire can be wound, and this wire is drawn from the reel as the torpedo
advances. When electric currents are transmitted through this wire,
they excite electro-magnets within the torpedo, and cause them to
attract or repel a permanently magnetic armature. A lever in con-
nection with the armature supports two rods with pawls upon them to
act upon two ratchet wheels. The rods receive from the engine a to-
and-fro movement, but so long as the armature is not attracted and
repelled by the magnets, the pawls do not come in contact with the
teeth of the ratchet wheels. Immediately however that the magnets act
upon the armature, one of the pawl rods is lowered, whilst the other is
raised, and the former then commences to turn its ratchet wheel, and
so drives a worm and rotates an arc with which the rudder is coupled.
A reversal of the electric current reverses the position of the
armature, and throws one pawl rod and ratchet wheel out of action,
whilst it brings the other corresponding parts into action, and con-
sequently the rudder is moved in the opposite direction.
66
The torpedo is prevented from rotating as it passes through the water
by the arrangement of the weights within it, and it is maintained in an
horizontal position or nearly so by means of horizontal rudders or
fins," which are controlled by suspended weights. I employ three
such "fins" one at the stern and two at the sides. In place of con-
trolling the "fins" by suspended weights, they may be controlled by a
spring and diaphragm, or other such apparatus which is influenced by
the pressure of water to which it is exposed. When this pressure of
the water upon the apparatus is in excess of a certain amount it
inclines the "fins" upwards, and the torpedo rises similarly when the
pressure falls below a certain amount the "fins" are inclined down-
wards and the torpedo descends; so the torpedo is kept swimming at
or about the distance below the surface to which the apparatus has
previously been adjusted.
In order to compensate for the lessening weight of the torpedo as
it passes over its course water is admitted by taps which are controlled
by a piston and spring or by equivalent means, so that if the torpedo
tends to sink too deep the taps are closed to be opened again as the
torpedo rises.

page_text: In some cases I arrange a small furnace within the compressed air
reservoir, and ignite the fuel at the time that the torpedo is started on
its course. The combustion of the fuel by heating the air tends to
maintain the pressure which otherwise is constantly decreased by the
expenditure in driving the engine.