IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR STRIKING BELLS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Herbert, of Summer Hill, Dartford, in the
County of Kent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR STRIKING BELLS."
Sealed the 23rd November 1861, and dated the 24th May 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Herbert at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th
May 1861.
i
I, GEORGE HERBERT, of Summer Hill, Dartford, in the County of Kent,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPA-
RATUS FOR STRIKING BELLS," to be as follows:- ·
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for striking
bells. For these purposes the hammer heads or striking instruments are
mounted on elastic, rods so that when a part of the rod at a distance from
the head or striker comes against a stop the momentum of the head or
striking instrument carries it forward so as to strike the bell, and the elasti-
city of the rod aided by the rebound of the head moves the head away and
retains it from the bell. In order to give motion to hammers of bells carried
by floating bodies, troughs or tubes are used in a suitable manner to admit
of spheres rolling in such troughs or tubes, when put in motion by the action
Each hammer is mounted on one end
of waves or ripple of the water.

page_text: of a lever, the other end moving on a suitable axis, and such lever is constantly
pressed on by a spring so that the hammer is kept away from the bell. The
lever is under the trough or tube, a projection on the upper surface of the
lever passing through the trough or tube so that the sphere in rolling may act
on the lever and cause the hammer to strike the bell. In place, however, of
the sphere acting on the lever so as to cause its hammer to strike the bell
the sphere may be arranged to act on the lever in such manner as to lift the
hammer a distance from the bell, and the hammer may then strike the bell by
its own gravity.
The levers may be placed either at the bottom of the trough or at the ends
of the trough or elsewhere, so that they may be acted upon by the rolling
sphere.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Herbert in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
23rd November 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
HERBERT, of Summer Hill, Dartford, in the County of Kent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Iler most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Iler
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said George Herbert, Her special licence that I, the said George
Herbert, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said George Herbert, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR STRIKING BELLS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said George Herbert, my executors and administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be
filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Herbert, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the fol-
lowing statement thereof, that is to say:
This Invention has for its object the application of apparatus to floating
bodies in order to strike bells or sounding instruments by the aid of spheres
or rolling bodies in troughs or tubes carried by such floating bodies.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews a side elevation partly in section; Figure 2 an end eleva-
tion of parts of the apparatus, and Figure 3 a plan of parts of the apparatus.
In each of these Figures the same letters are used to indicate the same
parts.
a, a, is a trough which is to be mounted on a floating body in such
manner that the trough may be put in motion by the waves or ripples of tho
water in which the body is floating. At the bottom of this trough is a narrow
opening through which parts of the levers hereafter mentioned pass. In this
trough a heavy sphere 6 is placed, and it will roll from end to end of the
trough as the trough is caused to incline in opposite directions from time to
time by the waves or ripples of the water; c, c, are two levers having their
axes at c', c'. These levers are each bent upwards as shewn at c², c². On
each of the levers c at the bends c is an axis d on which there are two arms d¹,
d2, on the lower end of the arm d¹ is a roller or truck, which when it is
depressed by the sphere depressing the lever c acts on the tail end of the
lever e which at its upper end carries the hammer f, which strikes the bell as
hereafter explained. The stem of the hammer may be elastic, or it may fall
on an elastic surface or buffer g. The arm d is prevented descending below
a certain point d³, so that the end of the arm d¹ is caused to be moved off
the tail of the lever e, when the end of the arm d² is prevented descending
further, by which the arm d¹ will release the lever of the hammer and allow
the hammer to strike. The levers c are lifted by means of levers h, when
the sphere rolls to either end of the trough. The arms d¹are prevented
moving too far by a stop d³. It is not thought necessary to shew a bell or
other proper sounding instrument, the dotted line near the hammer clearly
indicating the position of such sounding instrument.
I would state that the details of the apparatus may be varied so long as
the same are caused to act by mounting on a floating body a trough or tube
having a heavy sphere or rolling body therein, which is caused to act on suitable

page_text: interposed levers or apparatus to cause a hammer to strike a bell or other
sounding instrument.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Herbert, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
GEORGE HERBERT. (L.s.)