An Improved Watertight Bulkhead Door.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd Feb., 1895
'Complete Specification Left, 22nd Nov., 1895-Accepted, 18th Jan., 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Watertight Bulkhead Door.
VICTOR CANROBERT Marine Engineer No. 8 Pier Terrace Ocean Road South
Shields in the County of Durham do hereby declare the nature of this invention to
be as follows:-
A water-tight door of steel, iron or other metal to be bolted or screwed onto a
bulkhead in a ship, consisting of a frame with two parallel guides. On each guide
are two brackets into each of which is fitted a rod with one, two, or more small
eccentric sheaves. Each of these rods has a handle keyed on so as to be able to
turn each rod a little more than half-way round. The door slides freely in the said
parallel guides and further guided upon the rods up or down for shutting_or
opening as required. This door has a chain or wire rope attached to top edge
which runs over a pulley on a lever fitted above the door, and this lever has a
balance weight on one end so as to counterbalance the weight of door when closing
or opening. By turning the rods, the eccentric sheaves force the door against a
faced edge on frame and so make it watertight. The sides of door are also
parallel so that they cannot seize or set fast as with tapered sides.
In a modified construction the brackets may be upon the door itself and the rod
or weigh bar (preferably one only) which carries the eccentric sheaves and the
operating handle, is placed across, and travels up and down with the door as it
is opened or closed and, when closed, the ends of the weigh bar enter into bearings
on the frame, to form a fulerum when the eccentric sheaves are operated, to force
the door against the faced edge of the frame.
Instead of the chain, pulley and balanced lever the door may be closed or opened
and kept so, by a screwed spindle, working in a bracket fixed above, the lower end
of said spindle engaging in a socket on the top of the door in such a way that it
can be readily disengaged and the door allowed to fall and close instantly.
Dated this 22nd day of February 1895.
W. LLOYD WISE,
46 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Chartered Patent Agent.
An Improved Watertight Bulkhead Door.
I, VICTOR CANROBERT, No. 8 Pier Terrace, Ocean Road, South Shields, in the
County of Durham, Marine Engineer, 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 :-
A watertight door of steel, iron, or other metal, to be bolted or screwed on to a
bulkhead in a ship, consisting of a frame with two parallel guides. On each guide
are two or more brackets into each of which is fitted a rod with one, two, or more
small eccentric sheaves. Each of these rods has a handle keyed on so as to be able
to turn each rod a little more than half-way round. The door slides freely in the
said parallel guides, and is further guided upon the rods up or down for shutting or

page_text: opening as required. This door has a chain or wire rope attached to top edge
which runs over a pulley on a lever fitted above the door, and this lever has a
balance weight on one end so as to counter-balance the weight of door when closing
or opening. By turning the rods, the eccentric sheaves force the door against a
faced edge on frame, and so make it watertight. The sides of door are also
parallel so that they cannot seize or set fast as with tapered sides.
In a modified construction the brackets may be upon the door itself, and the rod
or weigh bar (preferably one only) which carries the eccentric sheaves and the
operating handle, is placed across, and travels up and down with the door as it is
opened or closed and, when closed, the ends of the weigh bar enter into bearings on
the frame, to form a fulcrum when the eccentric sheeves are operated, to force the
door against the faced edge of the frame.
Instead of the chain, pulley, and balanced lever, the door may be closed or
opened and kept so, by a screwed spindle, working in a bracket fixed above, the
lower end of said spindle engaging in a socket on the top of the door in such a way
that it can be readily disengaged and the door allowed to fall and close instantly.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS.
On the accompanying sheet of drawings I illustrate my invention in two forms
in which it may be carried into practical application to a scale of one-eighth
actual size, but in modified forms, as will be hereafter described, it may be adapted
to application wherever on board ship watertight doors are required, on parts
equivalent to bulkheads, as bunkers, ballast tanks, or the like.
Fig. 1 shews a front view of a bulkhead door closed watertight with the counter-
balance gear above.
Fig. 1 is a section through x-x Fig. 1, shewing the door closed and wedged
watertight in the frame by the cams; and
Fig. 1 a section through x-x Fig. 1 with the cams revolved in the reverse
direction, and the door released to be opened.
Fig. 2 shews a front view of a door adapted for bunkers or tanks, with the cams
operated by a transverse shaft, which, with the cams, moves with the door.
Fig 2 is a section through vertical line - Fig. 2, with the door closed, and
wedged watertight; and
Fig. 2 is a section on the horizontal line ¹¹ on Fig. 2 shewing the door
closed and wedged watertight in the frame by the cams.
The same letters refer to the same or equivalent parts on all the figs. where such
parts occur.
The
A. is the frame bolted to the bulkhead B, and having formed in it the parallel
guides C, in which the door D. slides, resting when closed on the bottom ledge E.
The frame has cast upon it the brackets F, carrying the rods G, upon which are
formed or fixed the cams H, and these rods are carried up to brackets J. on the
bulkhead, to guide the door as the guides K. travel up and down upon them.
cams H. are operated by the handles L. fixed on the rods G, so as to wedge
the door watertight in the frame A. when folded, as shewn on Figs. 1 and 14 and
to release the door when turned in the direction of the arrows on Fig. 18.
As an
additional precaution against possible leakage, for instance in oil tanks, I propose
to provide a groove in the face of the frame against which the door is wedged, and
to insert therein some elastic or flexible joint making substance, as shewn at Y in
Fig. 1 in black.
In addition to the handles L. on the rods G. close to the top of the door, another
pair of handles may be fitted on the upper end of the rods, as shewn in dotted lines,
by means of which in a sudden emergency the door, having been lowered and
closed, may be wedged by the cams from above. The handles L. I propose to fit
with hinge joints near the eyes on the rods, so that they may hang down when not
being operated, out of the way of being broken or bent by anything falling upon
them from above.

page_text: Referring to Figs. 2, 24, &c., the cams H. are operated by the cross shaft G.
mounted in bearings M. on the door D, and moving with it by the handle L. the
shaft G, when the door is closed, resting in the open brackets F, on the frame A,
to form a fulcrum for the cams in wedging the door watertight in the frame.
When the door is opened, the cross shaft bearings, handle and cams rise with it
and it is raised by the screwed rod N. being operated by a tapped hand wheel O.
in a bracket P. bolted to the bulkhead B, the lower end of the rod engaging by a
trigger catch Q. with the head of the door, but in any emergency, by disengaging
this catch, the door will fall instantly by its own weight, and close the opening in
the bulkhead.
When this form of door is fitted horizontally instead of vertically, as to water
ballast tanks, the frame may be made with an open instead of a closed groove, so
that when the cams are released and the door moved till the cam shaft G. is clear
of the brackets F, it can be lifted bodily from the aperture.
The advantages of this improved construction of watertight doors are that there
are no tapered guide grooves to provide in the frame with tapered edges on the
door, thereby saving expense in casting and machining, and preventing the
possibility of the door setting fast by seizing the frame. The powerful wedging
action of the cams forces the door into perfectly close and watertight contact with
the frame, and when required to be opened the door is perfectly free to slide
upward in the guides of the frame, and as freely descends, and is instantly wedged
watertight, without fear of sticking fast in a critical emergency.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
First. The construction and application of watertight bulkhead doors with
parallel edges sliding in parallel grooves in the door frame, in which the door, when
closed, is wedged watertight by the operation of cams, revolved in one direction,
and released to be opened by the cams being revolved in the opposite direction,
substantially as described and in two alternative forms illustrated.
Second. The improved watertight bulkhead door comprising the various parts as
in Figs. 1, 14, and 1B, and the alternative arrangement adapted for smaller doors
or bunker doors, as in Figs. 2, 24, &c., combined, constructed, and operating sub-
stantially as described, and the modifications adapted for doors on horizontal
bulkheads, as in tank tops, as described but not illustrated.
Dated this 22nd day of November 1895
T. J. DANSON, F. Inst., P.A.,
Agent for Applicant.