IMPROVEMENTS IN NIGHT SIGNALLING, AND IN ADPPARATUS FOR WORKING THE SAME
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Kinnersley, of Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN NIGHT SIGNALLING,
AND IN ADPPARATUS FOR WORKING THE SAME "
Scaled the 1st February 1876, and dated the 4th August 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Kinnersley at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 4th August 1875.
I, HENRY KINNERSLEY, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN NIGHT SIGNALLING, AND IN APPARATUS FOR WORKING THE SAME," to be as
follows:-
:-
In signalling at sea great difficulty has been experienced in finding an
available substitute for the commercial code of signals for night use, it
having hitherto been deemed impossible to use the usual figures by
night. It is however to do this very thing that this my Invention is
designed. In its more simple form it consists of a lantern having a
reflector at back, and an arrangement in front for sliding the signals

page_text: into position exactly in front of the reflector, and between the latter and
the person who is to read the signal. I usually make a lot of flat boards
or plates like school slates and all of the same size, so that they can any
of them fit and slide into the pair of grooves or other arrangement for
holding a plate in front of the lantern. Each of these plates has cut
out of it (the perforation passing entirely through the plate) a figure
corresponding to some figure of the commercial code. When the plate
is in position the spectator can see no light proceeding from the
reflector except that portion which comes through the perforation
forming the figure, consequently he sees the figure in brilliant light on
the dim background of the dark sea, land, or sky. In order to prevent
the back of the figure from absorbing the light unduly it is itself made
of tin or other bright reflecting substance or is coloured white.
In adopting this mode of signalling to a lighthouse I arrange a
moveable screen having a hole therein for the insertion of the aforesaid
plates. When it is required to signal a ship in reply to signals from the
same the screen is raised so as to entirely obstruct the light from the
direction of the vessel to be spoken. The plates having the required
letters are then rapidly substituted for each other in the hole aforesaid
until the message is duly signalled. If desirable any other letters or
figures than those of the ordinary commercial code could be used.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Kinnersley in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 4th February 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
KINNERSLEY, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Henry Kinnersley, Her special
licence that I, the said Henry Kinnersley, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry Kinnersley, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,

page_text: 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 "Iм-
PROVEMENTS IN NIGHT SIGNALLING, AND IN APPARATUS FOR WORKING THE SAME,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry Kinnersley,
my executors or 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Kinnersley, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement:-
-
In signalling at sea great difficulty has been experienced in finding
an available substitute for the commercial code of signals for night use,
it having hitherto been deemed impossible to use the usual figures by
night. It is however to do this very thing that this my Invention is
designed. My apparatus can also be applied to day signals.
The commercial code consists of a series of one, two, three, or four
consonants representing all the words or ideas useful in communication
by sea, and is common to all nations. Flags are used to represent the
letters. I use the letters themselves, my usual manner of doing so being
as follows, reference being had to the accompanying Drawing:-In
this. A is a box having a strong reflecting surface, or fresnel or other
reflectors at the back. Holes for the passage of air are placed at the
top and bottom, represented in the Drawing by chimneys F, F, F;
occasionally however it is found more convenient to put them at the
back. In the box are a series of lamps B of any convenient form firmly
secured to the bottom or back so as not to upset or work loose when the
apparatus is carried about. Equidistant in front of the box are three
grooved pillars C, C, C, and in the top of the box extending from groove
to groove in each of the four equal divisions thus formed is the slit D,
the same width as the grooves. Twenty-three slides E, preferably of
metal, are constructed to enter the slits D and easily slide in the

page_text: grooves in pillars C. When one is in position it entirely fills up the
vacant space between the pillars C, C, the four slides in use at one time
acting as it were as four sliding lids to the divisions of a box laid on its
side. Eighteen of these slides have each a different one of the eighteen
consonants used, cut out of its substance in well defined block letter a
perforations, and another is used for the sign for latitude and longitude,
say a plate with a round hole in it, the other four being left blank. I
usually however substitute a U for M and a Z for W, M and W being
of a rather inconvenient size. On the Drawing Hand F are thus shown.
These slides can be made of any suitable material, but I prefer stout
sheet iron and tinned, not merely to preserve them but also to reflect
the light striking their backs back again on to the reflectors. Painting
them white on the inside and black on the outside would do quite as
well. Of course any series of figures could be used instead of the
consonants, even toughened glass slides with representations of the flags
themselves painted thereon in transparent colors. An additional red
lamp is used for the answering pendant.
To work the apparatus at night the lamps are lighted and the box is
placed with its open side directly facing the spectator to be signalled
to, the lettered slides representing the signals required are then slid into
position and successively substituted for one another.
When any signals require less than four letters the spaces not repre-
sented are filled up with blank slides.
The whole apparatus is supplied with convenient handles, and can be
casily carried about a ship and placed in the most advantageous position.
In using it on lighthouses I prefer to place the apparatus perpendicular,
that is, the letters one over the other; by day, black letters placed
against a white background, or the plates E themselves, if the side
exposed be painted black, will accomplish the same purpose. In this
case however there must be a well lighted white background to show
off the perforated figures.
Having now described my Invention, and the mode of carrying it
into effect, I would have it understood that I do not confine myself to
the exact shape and arrangement, as hercin-before described, as the
same may be varied in many ways without departing from the principle
of my Invention, but what I do claim and desire to secure by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,

page_text: 1st. As an improvement in the devices or apparatus used in signalling
in the commercial code used at sca a series of screens or flags each
provided with a letter or figure in such manner that they can shut off
the light reflected or radiating from behind them in such manner as to
make that letter or figure clearly distinguished at a distance.
2d. A signalling apparatus consisting of well lighted compartments,
each compartment provided with a figured, or lettered, or pictorial
screen arranged to operate, substantially as and for the purposes set
forth.
Witness,
W. P. THOMPSON.
Patent Agent,
6, Lord Street,
Liverpool.
HENRY KINNERSLEY. (L.S.)