IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF TARGETS, AND IN SIGNAL APPARATUS TO BE USED THEREWITH
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Crosthwaite and Thomas
Edward Arman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 18th October 1861.
I, JOHN CROSTHWAITE, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, and
THOMAS EDWARD ARMAN, of Liverpool aforesaid, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF TARGETS,
AND IN SIGNAL APPARATUS TO BE USED THEREWITH," to be as follows (that is
to say):-
This Invention consists in constructing the circular part of the target in a
separate piece, and mounting it so as to swivel on points, that either side may
be presented to the front; protecting the marker, who is in rear of the target;
and an improved system of signal to be used with the same.
A short-range target, constructed according to this Invention, consists of a
strong plate of iron of, say, six feet high by four feet broad, which is painted
white, and has a circular hole of, say, two feet in diameter cut through it,
into which is fit a stout circular plate of iron mounted on pivots, that it
may be turned round to present either face to the front of the target. The
circular swivelling plate is painted with a bull's-eye on each side (or all
black when used as a long-range target); and when turned level with the
face of the target, it is held in position by a stout iron bar, which carries
a circular ring, or its mechanical equivelent, for covering the joint round
the circular swivelling plate. When this bar is removed by the marker,
who is at the back of the target, it actuates a danger signal, and on the
marker turning round the clean face of the swivelling centre to the front,

page_text: and replacing the bar, the danger signal disappears. This target plate is
mounted on wheels, which travel upon a rail or tramway, and the top slides
with a groove formed on the under side of a stout iron or iron-cased beam,
which it is preferred to be about twenty feet long. The target plate with the
swivelling centre is flanked on each side by a number of stout iron plates,
each of which are, say, four feet wide by six high, travelling upon a tram or
railway at the bottom, and at the top within a groove in the under side of the
beam described, that they may be readily pushed aside to be replaced by a
larger target for long ranges. For the better protection of the marker an iron
or iron-cased roof is formed extending backward from the beam at the head
of the sliding plates, say, from six to ten feet, and it is preferred to cover in
the sides and back so as to form a shed. The large target for long ranges it is
proposed to joint to the back of the transverse beam at the head of the sliding
plates, so that when not in use it may be drawn up against the under side of
the roof of the marker's shed. The sliding plates on each side of the target
plate are to be painted black; but in some cases it may be found advisable to
paint one side black and the other white, and to mount them on swivels
within stout iron frames, that either face may be presented to the front to
meet particular cases.
The improvement in the signalling consists in the use of a number of seme-
phore arms painted the required colours, which it is preferred to mount on one
centre on the rear of an iron or iron-cased angular-fronted mast springing
from the ground up through the marker's shed. The semephore arms are so
mounted that they can travel a whole circle, and may be actuated by endless
bands or chains, working over pullies attached to the sides of the inner ends
of the arms and pullies at the foot of the mast within the marker's shed, or
other suitable mechanical equivelent. It is preferred to form the lower pullies
of larger diameter than the upper ones, that the semephore arms may be
worked with greater facility. The object in mounting the semephore arms
that they may be placed at any angle at either side of the pole upon which
they are mounted, is that the arm shown may be placed at the same angle the
bullet has struck the target in relation to the centre of the bull's-eye.