Improvements in Apparatus for Automatically Registering the Forces and Speeds of Currents or of Bodies Travelling through. Water.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd Dec., 1896-Accepted, 6th Mar., 1897
Improvements in Apparatus for Automatically Registering the
Forces and Speeds of Currents or of Bodies Travelling through.
Water.
We AMAND CHARLES HENRI COLSON Engineer of 31 Rue Jacob Makoy
Liege Belgium and EMILE ANSELINE BURSSON, Engineer of 18 Avenue du
Boulevard, Brussels Belgium do hereby declare the nature of this invention and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to apparatus designed to automatically register by means
of a continuous diagram, and exactly the force of water currents in which the
apparatus may be placed, or the speed of bodies carrying the said apparatus and
passing through water, such for example the speed of vessel, or the force of
currents of rivers, the force and duration of tides, or the force of jets or streams of
water.
Our apparatus is designed so that we utilize the actual pressure of the water,
resulting from the current passing the apparatus at rest, or resulting from the
travel of the apparatus through the water, acting upon a known and determined
opposing surface of the apparatus, to move the said opposing face, against reacting.
spring pressure, of which springs the force corresponding to any degree of
compression or extension has already been measured and determined and this is':
combined with means for marking or registering the movement of the said spring
pressed surface upon a continuous band of paper uniformly traversed under the
said registering marker by any suitable motor such as clockwork.
The springs, the registering appliances and the band motor are contained in an
hermetically closed case, whilst the plate operated upon by the water pressure is
arranged outside the said case, and is connected to the interior registering
mechanism by means ensuring the water-tightness of the connections and at the
same time avoid any serious frictional resistance of the moving parts.
And in order that our invention may be the better understood we now proceed to
describe one convenient form of our apparatus reference being had to the drawing
hereto annexed and to the letters and figures marked thereon.
Fig. 1 is a longitudinal part section through our apparatus.
Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the same on line A B. Fig. 1 and
Fig. 3 shows an automatically registered diagram of the passage of a vessel,
showing times of starting and stopping and the speed of travel at each moment
between such terminals.
The apparatus is enclosed in the water-tight case or box a closed by a cover b
within the box is fitted a casting c with three vertical plates d d d through which
slide with easy friction four smooth spindles e each one carrying a spiral standard
spring fresting, upon one side, upon the plate d and on the other side against a..
shoulder g of the spindles e to the rear of the plate d' the extremities of these
spindles are joined by a cross-head h. Between the two plates d' and d" the upper
spindles e are further united by a crossbeam i carrying in its centre a pencil j; the
two plates d and d are also united by a bridge piece k, on the surface of which
touches the pencil j.
Between the bridge piece k and the pencil; passes the paper band for.the.

page_text: diagram unrolling from the cylinder 7 onto the drum m driven by an axis m¹ operated
by clockwork enclosed in the case 9 attached to the plate d'.
The four spindles e continue beyond the hermetically closed box a traversing
the cover b; their extremities are screwed into the bosses of the surface
plate t.
To obtain perfect water-tightness between the spindles e and the box a and at
the same time little friction in the sliding of the spindles we adopt the following
construction.
In the cover bare screwed four stuffing boxes or collars u with smooth
perforated axes being any easy fit for the spindles e and suited to their section.
The stuffing boxes u terminate with a spreading conical shoulder upon which a
female conical collar w can be screwed down by a nut .. The end of a collapsible
impermeable bag y is attached at one extremity to the coned head of the said
stuffing box u where it is received by the female clamp w; at the other end the bag
is, attached similarly to a similar coned collar v¹ fixed by a screw thread or
otherwise to the end of the spindle e & having a female clamp to and a clamping
nut ¹.
The length of the collapsible bags y is such that they are not completely
stretched when the surface plate t is at its outward extreme position and the
collars u u' are fixed at such a distance from one another as to permit plenty of
room between them for the folds of the bag y when the plate t is at its inner
extremity of travel.
The plug serves to admit the insertion of a key in order to wind up the
clockwork when the apparatus is to be put in use.
The box a and all parts outside it except the bags or pipes y are made in
nonoxidisable metal.
The expanding force of the springs f when the force on t ceases or lessens serves
to drive out again the plate t to its full extent i.e. until the crosshead h touches the
plate d.
If we suppose the force of the water such as a stream acts on the plate t and
that this force is greater than the reaction of the springs f the latter will yield and
the spindles e e with the pencilj attached thereto will travel towards the end of the
box a distance proportional to the force exerted upon the plate t.
As the force augments or diminishes the spindles e and pencil j attached will
move backwards or forwards and mark a line upon the paper band p at right angles
to its longitudinal movement of travel from roll to roll drawn by the drum m
operated by clock-work in the case q; as a consequence the pen or pencil will
trace upon the paper a straight line so long as it occupies the same position
together with the plate t but so soon as the latter moves in either direction under
a change of liquid force upon it and under the reaction of the springs the pencil j
participating in this movement will draw a curved or irregular line indicating the
variations at any movement of the forces acting upon the plate t.
Having determined by experiment with the clock-work the amount of paper
traversing under the pencil in a given time and marking such spaces by vertical
lines upon the paper, as also the degrees of movement of the plate t by horizontal
lines, we shall have as a result an automatic diagram giving equally the duration
of any journey of experiences in hours and minutes and the intensity of the efforts
in units of pressure or speed.
In the diagram given in Fig. 3 which is representation of a short voyage by say
a river steamboat; it will be seen that the boat started at 8 o'clock, that it
stopped from 12.30 to 1 o'clock, at which time it re-started, and completed its
voyage at 4.15. The irregular lines between these points indicate in their height
above the upper base line which is 0 the various speeds at which the boat was
travelling during each successive periods of its voyages.
In the apparatus illustrated we have shown the springs that re-act upon the
plates & operating by compression and bringing back the plate t to normal position
by after extension but it is evident that we can equally well cause the said springs

page_text: to operate by extension and bring back the plate to normal position by after
contraction.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
1st. An apparatus for automatically registering the force of currents of water or
the speed of bodies travelling therethrough consisting essentially of a movable
surface or plate of determined area, re-acted upon by suitable springs, and
operating a means for registering the differences of these re-acting forces upon a
band of paper caused to travel uniformly by a suitable motor.
2nd. One form of automatic apparatus registering the force of currents of water
or the speed of bodies travelling therethrough consisting of in combination a
movable plate t reacting by spindles e upon springs f, bedded upon a fixed abutment
plate d; a drum m operated by the movement of clock-work drawing a band of
paper p under a pencil j fixed to the spindles e; the said spindles e sliding freely
and in a water tight manner through one of the sides of an hermetically closed
box a enclosing the springe and means for registration.
3rd. In an automatic apparatus for registering the force of currents of water or
the speed of bodies travelling therethrough as claimed in Claim 2 the arrangement
of a watertight connection between the movable spindles and the box a consisting
of collapsible and impermeable bags or pipes y, enveloping the said spindles and of
which one end is attached hermetically to the box a and the other to the end of the
said spindles.
4th. The apparatus, for automatically registering the force of currents of water
or the speed of bodies travelling therethrough, substantially as described herein,
and as illustrated in the drawings annexed hereto.
Dated this 22nd day of December 1896.
FELL & JAMES,
Agents for the Applicants.