IMPROVEMENTS IN BUOYS EXHIBITING ELECTRIC LIGHT, AND IN BATTERIES FOR GENERATING ELECTRICITY FOR THIS AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Stanislas William Meldon de
Sussex at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th February
1879.
STANISLAS WILLIAM MELDON DE SUSSEX, of Bruxelles, in the Kingdom of
Belgium, Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN BUOYS EXHIBITING ELECTRIC LIGHT,
AND IN BATTERIES FOR GENERATING ELECTRICITY FOR THIS AND OTHER PURPOSES."
This Invention relates to modifications or improvements which I have made on
the Invention already patented by me in conjunction with Mr. L. A. Brasseur, and
which Patent is dated the 5th day of June 1877, No. 2194.
Luminous electric buoys referred to in the Specification of the said Patent I now
construct in the following manner :-
The buoy is provided with a battery constructed as described in that Specifi-
cation, but having the panels by which the elements are separated made much
thinner; this allows a larger number of elements to be included in the same
space.
I employ very advantageously elements composed of graphite and zinc, and
I have found by experience that it is unnecessary to amalgamate the zinc.
If the surfaces be increased in size zinc and silver elements may be employed; it
is advisable to scratch the sheets of silver with sand paper in a vertical direction to
facilitate the disengagement of the hydrogen.
The battery is connected with the light producing apparatus by insulated
conductors suitably protected.
This consists of a Ruhmkorff's induction coil and a Geisler's tube.
In my luminous electric buoy I employ a tube in which the vacuum is made on
hydrogen or carburetted hydrogen.
The vacuum may be made on other gases, but the colors are less brilliant than
with the gases mentioned.
I make the tubes very long, 2, 3, and even 4 feet, and I roll them into a ball so
as to form a luminous centre; I make these tubes partly white and partly of uranium
glass, which greatly increases the brilliancy of the light.
I employ a lanthorn of very strong glass protecting the tube, Geisler's, from the
action of waves, and from shocks and humidity. This lanthorn shows a more
brilliant light when made of crystal than when of glass, and if inade of uranium
glass it is more brilliant than if made of crystal.
The body of the buoy consists of an open frame or cage of cross bars combined
with an annular float of sheet metal bolted together.
A waterproof box protects the Ruhmkorff's coil.

page_text: When the buoy is arranged for long service, say of several months duration, its
essential parts aro the same as those of the buoy already described, but a clock
movement-of-large-size-is-added; it is such as to require winding but once in two
months. The clock movement controls a contact wheel so calculated as to make
contact for one second in 7, 8, 9, or 10 seconds.
The battery is arranged according to the light to be produced, either for surface
or for tension.
In-the-latter case each electrode is furnished with a conducter, and all are con-
nected within the case of the clock movement with a commutator. At the moment
of contact this commutator groups all the elements for tension.
By this combination of contacts and interruptions, it is easy to see that the
battery enjoys the advantage of much repose. This repose and the continual
movement the battery receives from the sea produces complete depolarization
permitting the battery to remain in efficient action for many months.
The clock movement is enclosed in an impermeable metal case.
The battery may also be depolarized by mechanical aspiration.
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Thus a ventilator or blower may be mounted on the top of the buoy. This
ventilator by means of pipes passes air to the lower part of the battery, and this air
in ascending sweeps off the hydrogen which adheres to the carbon.
The bath inay also have a rotary movement given to it, which brings each part.
in succession into contact with the air.
This rotary motion may be imparted by means of a windmill or by a screw
worked by the tide.
C
Nevertheless when I wish to depolarize the battery by exposure to air the
mechanical instrument by which I prefer to effect it is the "noria.".
The battery is mounted upon an axis and balanced, so that a very small forco
will subice to put it into motion.
The two exterior panals of the battery are each furnished with a noria formed
with helicoidal partitions. The battery is immersed up to the axis, and the tide
acting upon the norias imparts to the whole a rotary motion equal to the tide
current.
In order that the direction of rotation may not be reversed I prevent the buoy
swinging in the tideway by means of two fixed metallic rudders, each about à
foot long.