An Improved Speed Indicating or Recording Device for Ships.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Apr., 1897-Accepted, 26th Feb.,
1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Speed Indicating or Recording Device for Ships.
[A communication by PAUL JANKE, of Laurahütte, Upper Silesia, in the Empire
of Germany, Marine Architect.]
I, William PiilLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S., M.I.M.E., of the Agency for Foreign
Patent Solicitors, 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, & 6, Bank Street, Manchester, both in
the County of Lancaster, 118, New Street, Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
& 322, High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
This improved device for measuring the speed travelled by ships is characterised
by the pressure of the water, which increases with the speed of travelling, being
received by a part which is arranged in a perforation at a part of the ship's side
where it is withdrawn or removed from all deleterious or disturbing influences.
In order to render this possible and also to exclude as far as possible any source
of defect or error in the apparatus itself, the perforation of the ship's side takes
place merely by means of a shaft washered or tight fitted in a suitable stuffing box
with a friction which remains constant, which shaft is set in rotation by the part
which receives the shock of the water moving against the pressure of a spring and
thereby operating an indicating or recording mechanism, whilst the part which
receives the shock of the water is guided parallel to the longitudinal direction of
the ship, by means of which it is attained that both the resistance surface which is
exposed to the shock of the water and also the angle at which the water strikes
against said part remain continually constant and thus by using an appropriate
spring resisting the rotation of the shaft the angular movement operating the
indicating mechanism of the shaft which penetrates the ship's side will preferably
be directly proportional to the increase or decrease of the ship's speed.
In consequence of this arrangement the device which forms the object of the
present application has the following practical advantages:
-
1. It shows at any time the actual existing absolute ship's speed at the moment;
2. It allows an exact indication to be obtained at comparatively short intervals
without special technical difficulties which is precisely of greater importance for
the higher speeds;
3. The rotation of the shaft standing under the pressure of a spring may be
utilised for producing a series of electric circuit closings and the indications be
thus conveyed simultaneously to various parts of the ship;
4. The rotation of the shaft may also be utilised in the manner of pencil
registering apparatuses simultaneously for automatically preparing speed diagrams;
5. The device may easily be thrown out of action and like a spring balance be
checked or adjusted as regards the mile scale by a simple weighting arrangement
of the part which otherwise receives the water pressure on its direction of motion;
6. The estimation of all devices constructed in the same proportions of size and

page_text: of similar arrangement may be carried out on the basis of a single one which has
been thoroughly tested by experiments and of its mile scale.
A form of construction of this improved speed measurer is shown in the accom-
panying drawings, in which,
Figure 1 is a vertical section of the same taken in the longitudinal direction of
the ship;
Figure 2, a vertical section in a transverse direction of the ship on the line x-x,
Figure 1;
Figure 3 shows the method of constructing the apparatus in the ship;
Figure 4 is a horizontal section on the line y-y of Figure 2;
Figures 5 and 6 are vertical sections of the slide by means of which the per-
foration in the ship's side may be closed when the pressure receiving organ is
drawn in.
The section in Figure 5 is taken on the line z-z of Figure 4, the section of
Figure 6 is taken on the line z¹¹ of Figure 4.
In about the centre of the ship, close to the keel, a rectangular opening or slot
is formed in the ship's bottom S, which opening is tight closed towards the ship's
interior by means of a casing consisting of two parts a a¹. The screwed spindles b
and bare revolubly mounted in the casing in an upright position. A worm
wheel c¹, Figure 2, is mounted on each spindle and worms d d' respectively engage
in each of the two worm wheels. The two worms d d¹ are mounted on a crank
shafte which is mounted in the part a¹ of the casing and is tight washered by:
means of a stuffing box el.
A casing is mounted on the two spindles 6 61 by means of suitable lugs f and f¹
provided with internal screws, which casing projects to the outside through the
slot in the ship's bottom and may be completely raised into the casing a a¹ by.
turning both spindles b b¹.
In the cover g of the part a¹ of the casing, a box h is arranged. In this box h
a shaft i is revolubly mounted in such a way as to be thoroughly watertight, and
the said shaft i is also mounted in bearings h¹ h² which are situated in the casing f
immersed in the water. The part of the shaft i between the two bearings h and h¹
consists of three hinged or joint pieces, which when the casing f² is wound up are
adjusted into the position shown in dotted lines in Figure 1.
The lower part of the casing f2 forms a pasage k provided with several
grooves in which is fitted a plate / formed to the cross section of the passage
with suitable projections 11 12 13.
g
is
On the plate there is arranged an arm m extending through a slot in the cover
of the box which arm carries on one side above the box a rack n which engages
with a pinion o mounted on the lower end of the shaft i. The casing cover
provided at both ends with upright projections g¹ g² between which a number of
bars p (in the present instance four) are fixed. Over these bars p are placed
P and
springs which bear with one end against a plate t adjustable on the bars
guided by means of dovetailed projections t¹ 2 in suitable grooves provided on the
casing lid g. The plate t is firmly connected to one end of a cord u, the other end
of which is attached to the shaft i, said cord on the rotation of the shaft i being
wound up on a cord drum i¹ mounted on the said shaft and provided with a spiral
pitched groove.
The apparatus hereinbefore described works as follows:-
If the passage & be situated in the lowered position, as shown in Figures 1 and 2,
the plate is exposed to the pressure of water which always becomes greater with
the increasing speed of the ship. This pressure of water forces the plate back-
wards in the passage k and thereby sets the shaft i in rotation. The plate t is
thereby drawn by the cord, the springs r being correspondingly compressed. The
springs are preferably so constructed that the angular measurement of the rota-
tion of the shaft i is directly proportional to the increase or decrease of the ship's
speed. This can be obtained by continually increasing the cross-section of the
wires from which the springs are wound towards the one end. This construction

page_text: of the springs is to be preferred as the pressure exercised upon the plate 7 by the
water amplifies according to the square of the increase of the ship's speed. If the
shaft i up to the maximum of the ship's speed coming in question only made one
complete revolution, an indicator might be directly arranged on the shaft i which
would then indicate the actual speed on an evenly divided circular scale. As how-
ever in practice it is desired to be able to read off the ship's speed simultaneously
at several places in the ship, and also in smaller parts of sea miles or knots, such
for instance as tenths of a sea mile, and this may be effected most simply and.
securely by means of an electric transferring mechanism, it is advisable to allow
the shaft on the maximum displacement of the plate to make two, three or
more revolutions, and to fix on the said shaft i an electric contact arm v, the con-
tact piece of which is mounted adjustably on the arm and on the multiple
rotation of the shaft i moves in a spiral groove formed in a disc w and having
a corresponding number of threads turns to that of the spiral on the drum 2. In
the spiral groove are arranged contact pieces attached to the electric wires with
which contacts the contact piece mounted on the arm effects a closing of the
circuit in order to thereby suitably and evenly operate the indicating mechanisms
placed at various parts of the ship.
A spiral groove 22 may also be arranged on the shaft in order thereby by
means of a lever a² to set in action a writing pencil or marking point which traces
the speed in the form of a diagram on a sheet of paper 62 which is set in motion.
If this sheet of paper be provided with a scale divided into periods of time, the
speed of the ship for any given time may be checked at any subsequent time.
A flange a³ by means of which the part a¹ of the casing is fixed on the ship's
bottom S is broadened on one side, Figures 2 and 4, and several intermediate
plates are arranged between the ship's bottom and the flange a³, and between
the plate and the widened flange a³ a slot like space is retained in which a
slide d², Figures 2 and 5, is movably arranged. When the casing f³ is screwed
up, said slide may be pushed forward by turning a hand wheel e operating rack
gear and thus watertightly close the lower part of the casing part a.
For the first apparatus the indicating scale must of course be obtained by test
runs between two marks set up at given distances, for instance one sea mile. When
this normal mile scale has been ascertained, the casing or passage with the plate !
must be screwed up by turning the shaft e and the casing a a¹ be then closed
watertightly underneath by means of the slide d³, Figure 2. The part a¹ of the
casing must then be unfastened and together with the casing k, plate 1, shaft i
and spring apparatus and t be lifted up as a connected whole, and the shaft i
after having been extended again, then set in rotation by a suitable artificial weight-
ing of the plate by means of weights, in order to get a weight scale corresponding
to the mile scale previously obtained or ascertained. On the basis of this weight
scale of the normal apparatus all other speed measurers provided with a plate of
equally great cross section may be adjusted or checked, that is to say be provided
with a correct mile scale by an artificial loading of their plate corresponding to the
normal weight scale.
If in addition to the latter, a weight scale be also noted, the device may also be
checked or controlled on board at any time as regards its correctness of working.
The speed measurer is in such case lifted out in the manner herein before mentioned,
and its plate artificially loaded or weighted corresponding to the weight scale.
Of course the load must be adjusted on the plate and act on its rack n to the
same extent as would the water pressure during the journey of the ship, and the
apparatus taken out must remain in a corresponding connection with its indicating
mechanism. If it appears from this that the apparatus does not indicate correctly,
which cannot be entirely prevented by reason of some give or yield of the spring
power, the springs must be tightened up in such a way that a correct indication
again takes place according to the weight scale.
In order to enable the casing f2 to be screwed up during the journey, a spoke
wheel 3 is mounted on the shaft i by means of which the plate 1 may be pushed

page_text: back at any time into its initial position by turning back the shaft i. The spoke
wheel may be fixed in this position by means of a pin passed through it.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by
my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is:-
1. A speed indicating or recording device for ships, in which a shaft (i) for
operating the indicating mechanism is arranged to pass through the ship's side and
be set in rotation from a device (plate 7) which is arranged in proximity to the keel
and adapted to receive the pressure of the water with a constant resistance surface
and a constant angle of pressure by being removably mounted exclusively in the
longitudinal direction of the ship, springs (r) being preferably so arranged and
adapted to resist the rotation of said shaft that the angular displacement of the
shaft () is directly proportional to the increase or decrease of the ship's speed,
substantially as herein before set forth.
2. In a speed indicating or recording device for ships such as described, the
arrangement of a friction contact (¹) adapted to be moved by the indicating
shaft () over a disc (w) having a series of contacts electrically connected with
suitable indicating mechanisms arranged in various parts of the ship for the purpose
of enabling a reading to be taken at several places on the ship, substantially as
hereinbefore described.
3. In a speed indicating or recording device for ships such as described, the
arrangement of the part (plate 7) for receiving the water pressure together with
the shaft (i) which is under the pressure of a spring so that they may be taken as
a whole out of the case (a) and by artificial weighting be adjusted or checked as
regards the mile scale, substantially as hereinbefore described.
4. The general construction and combination of parts taken as a whole, forming
the improved speed indicating or recording device for ships, substantially as herein-
before described and illustrated.
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