IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING OR EFFECTING FOG SIGNALS
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Richardson, of Ravensthorpe, Mirfield, in
the County of York, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING OR EFFECTING FOG SIGNALS.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Edward Richardson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and Declaration,
on the 5th May 1865, pursuant to the 9th Section of the Patent Law
Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
RICHARDSON, of Ravensthorpe, Mirfield, in the County of York, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING OR EFFECTING FOG SIGNALS," and have
petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn
Declaration that I am the true and first Inventor thereof.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edward Richardson, do hereby declare
that the following Complete Specification under my hand and seal fully describes
and ascertains the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, in and by the following statement and accompanying
Drawings, that is to say :-
My said Invention is for improvements in means and apparatus for pro

page_text: ducing or effecting fog signals, and consists in the application of compressed
air to the sounding of an "alarm whistle" or "fog signal" in such places and
under such circumstances as where high pressure cannot be obtained, and in
means and apparatus for producing or effecting the same.
This Invention for the sounding by air of a whistle or other suitable sound-
producing instrument, at certain determined intervals, as an alarm or fog
signal is more particularly to be used by vessels at sea, where the pressure of
steam at command is not sufficient to blow such whistle direct. In this
apparatus steam of an inferior pressure actuates a suitable engine working an
air pump or pumps, which compress air to a superior pressure. This air
is accumulated in a suitable vessel or vessels, either separate from or forming
part of the entire apparatus; such closed vessel or vessels being in communi-
cation with the whistle or whistles or other sound-producing instrument by a
pipe or air passage opened and closed by the engine (or otherwise by any
automaton clockwork wound up by hand, and actuated by a spring or weight
at fixed intervals and for a suitable period of time. The heat of the waste
steam from engine may be applied to warm the compressed air, and thereby
increase the volume after it has been compressed by the air pump or pumps,
before it is allowed to escape through the alarm or fog signal.
Having thus set forth the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed
more particularly to describe the same.
Fig. 1 is an elevation of the improved fog signal apparatus, having the
engine and air pump working horizontally upon the air receiver; Fig. 2 is an
end view V; Fig. 3, a ground plan of the same; Fig. 4 is a ground plan of
the air pump, in section, from which the passage A leads into the air accu-
mulator. Any other modification of air pump can be adopted.
.
Fig. 5 is elevation of another arrangement, with vertical cylinder and air
pump, and two vertical air receivers.
Fig. 6 is a sectional elevation, and Fig. 7 a sectional end view of another
arrangement, with vertical cylinder and two air pumps, having the fly wheel
contained within, and protected by a part of the shell of the horizontal air
receiver, and the moving parts thereby protected and out of the way.
Fig. 8 is one of several arrangements that can be applied for the purpose
of sounding the fog or alarm signal at certain determined intervals for a fixed
period of time.
In this arrangement the pinions B are driven at any required speed from
the engine. This pinion gears into two wheels C, C, one of them having one
or more teeth in excess of the other. Each wheel carries round with it a
circular disc, each disc moving almost simultaneously in the same direction.

page_text: Upon these two discs a lever is caused to press by a spring or weight, or other
equivalent, and a concave recess (or other form or adaptation effecting the
same purpose) in both the discs at one particular place (or in several particular
places) allows the lever to take the position D, and the air passage or com-
munication from the accumulator is thereby opened, and the alarm whistle or
fog signal sounded. The continued rotation of the two discs closes the
whistle or sound-producing instrument by reversing the action of the lever.
As soon as the slowest of the two spin wheels and its disc has made one entire
revolution, the other one will be at that time in advance one or more teeth,
and the two recesses not being opposite as before, the lever cannot operate,
and the whistle is not sounded until the two recesses or other expedients again
coincide. When preferable instead of adapting the apparatus to sound the
alarm or fog signal for one or more seconds every 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or more
minutes, it may further be adapted to operate at irregular periods of time.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Richardson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Third day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
EDWARD RICHARDSON. (L.S.)