Year: 1854

page_text: LONDON:
PRINTED BY GEORGE E. EYRE AND WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE
PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY:
PUBLISHED AT THE GREAT SEAL PATENT OFFICE,
25. SOUTHAMPTON BUILDINGS, HOLBORN,

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Mears, of the Bell Foundry, Whitechapel
Road, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING SOUND."
IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING SOUND."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Mears at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th
June 1854.
I, GEORGE MEARS, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING SOUND" to be as
follows:-
In certain buildings, such as lighthouses, the ordinary modes of ringing
large bells have been found uncertain and inconvenient; I therefore propose
to render, by means of machines or apparatus, the ringing of such bells certain
in time, full in quantity of sound, and (when desired) increasing in rapidity, by
small outlay of manual labor. To enable my mode of proceduro and apparatus
to be understood, the following outline description will, I think, suffice:-The
bell is placed upside down, being previously fitted into or on to a stock or piece
of iron-bound timber of suitable dimensions, and moveable in a see-saw (direc-
tion; to one end of this stock I fit a sort of quadrant, the segment of which
is furnished with coggs or teeth, to allow a small cogged or tooth wheel to
traverse therein. In the centre of the open segment is a piece of metal, called

page_text: a bridle, running nearly the length of the opening, and supported from behind
by cross pieces. From the centre of the small cogged wheel an arm projects,
one end of which is formed with a ball and gives into a socket, forming a joint,
called a ball and socket joint. The socket forms part of the apparatus or means
for winding up a weight, but is only acted upon as the weight runs down, and
by its (the joint) peculiar form gives reciprocation to the movement of the
cogged wheel running in the quadrant and guided by the bridle. The appa-
ratus is wound up for service, and may.be made to perform its service during
the operation of winding. The modus operandi is easily understood. From
the moment the winding up of the weight begins, it tells upon axle or
shaft, on which the winding chain works, causing motion to be given to the
arm which connects the winding apparatus to the quadrant apparatus, causes
the small cogged wheel to make the circuit of the segmental opening in the
base of the quadrant, and the quadrant and stock to swing, and with them the
bell. The rapidity of motion and consequent strokes on the bell may be regu-
lated by volants of greater or less capacity placed on the fly-wheel of the
winding apparatus. The whole can be stopped instantaneously by hand.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Mears in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
19th December 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
MEARS, of the Bell Foundry, Whitechapel Road, in the County of Middlesex,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her reign,
did for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
George Mears, Her especial license that I, the said George Mears, my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said George Mears.
ny executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and
110 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 MACHINERY
OR APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING SOUND," upon the condition (amongst others) that

page_text: I, the said George Mears, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, should particularly describo 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 George Mears, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The object of my Invention is to obtain regulated sound, as by the ringing
of a bell, the clapper of which shall be made to strike thercon at certain
intervals, only such intervals being marked and regulated by mechanical means
(to be hercin-after described); and I consider my Invention more particu-
larly applicable to the sea coasts for alarum bells, or bells to make known
the rise and fall of tides in bar harbours, or to warn vessels from dangerous
rocks or shoals in dark, hazy, or foggy weather, or for any other purposes
where it may be desirable that sound should be capable of being regulated.
The machinery or apparatus is divided into two parts; one being immediately
connected with the bell, the other connected to the first, as herein-after
described, being the means by which the first is put in motion and regulated.
The nature of my Invention will be understood by reference to the accom-
panying Sheets, numbers 1 and 2 of Drawings, accompanying or annexed to
this description; in the first of which, the mechanical arrangements by which
the prime mover is regulated in its action, so as to communicate a uniform
and sufficiently retarded motion to the axis of the bell, are shewn; and in the
second, the means by which this sane motion is communicated and rendered
reciprocating, as illustrated. Figure 1, Sheet 1, represents an elevation of the
framework which supports the machinery, by which motion is transferred from
the prime mover to the bell; Figure 2 is an end view of the same; and
Figure 3, a plan; Figure being a view of a flat chain and wheels to be
used instead of the wheels i, i. It may be necessary to state, before proceeding
to describe the various parts of this arrangement in detail, that the Figures on
Sheet 1 merely represent one such arrangement as has been found to answer
in practice; but it need hardly be observed, that the arrangements therein
shown to effect retardation will have to be varied, according to the require-
ments of each particular case, in reference to the weight and construction of
the principal parts. In the arrangement shewn in Sheet 1, the framework
supporting the machinery consists of four cast-iron vertical plates a, a, and b, b.
rivetted together by means of angle irons, and supported on the two footing

page_text: plates of timber c' and c. These are shewn in the three Figures, Sheet 1,
and throughout, on both Sheets of Drawings. Similar letters denote similar
parts, where such parts appear or can be seen respectively. On the four
vertical plates a, a, and b, b, rests the horizontal casting d, d, to the rin or
periphery of which are bolted the various bearings for the support of the
axles of the machinery. The prime mover in this case, the weight c, has
a bearing faffixed to it, in which works the axle of a chain wheel 9'. Round
the under periphery of the wheel passes the chain h, h, which is carried
over the chain wheels i, i, the axle of which is supported by the bearings
and, affixed by bolts to the horizontal casting d. The peripheries of these
chain wheels i, i, are not made smooth, but indented, to receive the edge side
of overy alternate ends of the chain, so as to prevent the possibility of the one
moving independently of the other.. The ends of the chain next peg against
the guide wheels k, k, affixed to the side vertical castings of the framing by
plates and bolts, and to the extremity of the chain is affixed a sufficient
counterweight. To the axle of the chain wheels i, i, is also affixed a toothed
multiplying wheel Z, which communicates motion to a pinion m, on whose axis
n, supported on the bearings o' and o³, is affixed a second multiplying wheel p,
acting on the pinion g of the fly-wheel axle r. This axle is supported on the
sido extremity of the horizontal casting d, by means of the two bearings shewn
at S' and S, Figure 2. To the end t of the axlo r is affixed the fly-wheel, by
which the motion of the machinery is retarded. In this case it consists of
four arms, at right angles to each other u', u², t, and u'; to the extremity of
these the flat vanes v, v, are bolted at w, w. The number of multiplying
wheels, (and the number of their teeth placed to intervene between the prime
mover and the fly, will have to be regulated, as already stated, according to
the mechanical effect and velocity required under each especial case. By tho
arrangement I have described, an equal and sufficiently retarded motion is
communicated by the weight or prime mover e to the axle x, by means of the
pinion y and toothed wheel z. The return or backward motion of the same
is prevented by means of the catch lover :.
Having shown how force and the necessary degree of velocity is commu-
nicated to the shaft z, it remains for me to describe how the circular
motion of the shaft is converted into the necessary reciprocating one. For
this purpose I must now refer to Sheet 2. Figure 1 represents an elevation
of the bell on its bearings connected with the shaft of the prime mover,
already described; Figure 2, a side view of the same; Figure 3, a vertical
section of the universal joint, by which the rotatory motion of the axle
is converted into a reciprocating one, describing a "partial" arc instead

page_text: of an entire revolution; and Figuro 4, a clapper, of different descrip-
tion to the ordinary clapper, to be used in some cases instead A, A, the
axles of tho bell, working on. proper bearings affixed to the standards D, D.
B, B, the bell, and C its clapper; E, E, and G, G, straps, properly bolted and
secured, and so combined as to lower the centre of gravity of the bell below
the points of support on the bearings at A, A; the bell being turned, not as
of old, with its clapper hanging, but with its opening or mouth upwards, as
shewn in the Drawings. At the side of the frame is bolted a metal plate H, H,
having its lower part cast in the form of a quadrant I, I, with a lower and
upper row of teeth, connected at both ends of the quadrant by semi-circular
terminations, toothed in liko manner. Midway between theso quadrants is
placed a metal guidej, j, over and under which travels alternatively the axle K
of the toothed pinion L. The other end of this axle K terminates in a cap or
socket M, within which works the ball N of the shaft x, which communicates
motion from the prime mover, thus forming together a ball and socket uni-
versal joint, to allow for the necessary vertical play of the pinion shaft K as it
alternates its position along, over, and below the guide. The action will be
readily understood by the use of the vane, described in the first part of the
Invention. The motion communicated to the main shaft a by the prime mover
or weight is retarded sufficiently to produce the necessary amount of speed to
which the rack and bell are to be subjected. The vane not only retards the
motion of the main shaft x, but also equalizes and, acting like a fly wheel,
regulates the uniformity of the motion. This shaft x, revolving at a fixed and
sufficiently slow velocity, communicates; its own motion to the ball of the
socket joint at its extremity; and this motion is again communicated by
means of a pin, inserted through both ball and socket at O, to the cap or
socket of the second or pinion shaft K. The difference between the rotatory
motion of the two shafts w, not in the degree of velocity, which as a matter
of necessity remain precisely the same in both cases, but in this: that the ball
shaft lever changes the horizontality of its position, whereas that of the
pinion shaft K has a vertical play, indicated by the red lines O, P, and O, Q,
to the extent shown by the vertical angle P, O, Q. The combination of the
capability thus afforded to the shaft K to play vertically with the rotatory
motion given to the pinion affixed to it secures the alternate working of the
quadrant backwards and forwards, according as the axle of the pinion travels
over or under the central metal guide j, and thus the reciprocating motion is
communicated to the bell itself, the extent of the circular are travelled being
equal to the fourth part of a circle. In some cases I use a flat chain and
toothed wheels, the teeth gearing into the links of the chain, as shewn at

page_text: Figure 4, Sheet 1, and also a different shaped clapper to that shewn in the
bell, which will be observed in Sheet 2, Figure 4.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner by which
I carry the same into effect, I desire it to be distinctly understood that I lay
no claim to the exclusive use of any of the parts of machinery or apparatus
herein-named or illustrated in the Drawings when such parts of machinery
or apparatus are taken or used seperately, or as parts only, and not in combi-
nation, for the purpose of my Invention; and I further declare that I do
not confine myself to the precise disposition of the parts forming my apparatus,
or to the relative proportions of such parts, as such may and must be varied
to suit particular circumstances, without in any way departing from the prin-
ciple of my improvements, which I declare to be and I claim the node or
means of obtaining and regulating sound by the machinery or apparatus
herein-before described and illustrated in the annexed Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Mears, have hereunto affixed
my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
EDWARD WATSON GEDGE,
89, Maiden Lane,
Covent Garden.
GEORGE MEARS. (L.s.)