Improvements in or relating to Apparatus for Quickly Stopping a Ship's Way.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Dec., 1893-Accepted, 4th Aug., 1894
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Apparatus for Quickly Stopping a
Ship's Way.
I, AUGUSTIN CEPL of Vienna VI B, Windmühlgasse No. 23, in the Empire of
Austro-Hungary, Art-locksmith, 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 an apparatus whereby ships may be brought to a
standstill in the shortest possible time, or their way so greatly reduced that little
or no injury can result in case of collision with another ship.
The greater part of all the mishaps and accidents that befal ships arise from the
fact that when a steamer, say, is being driven at full speed, and another ship crosses
her course, it is impossible to stop her way or even so far to diminish her speed as
would be desirable.
Under such circumstances what is most essential is in every possible way to
decrease the speed as quickly as possible and bring the ship to a standstill.
Hitherto this has been possible only by steaming astern; but inasmuch as the
vis inertiae of the ship or her momentum is so great, as compared with the power of
the engines, this expedient, in many cases, is of little or no avail.
My invention has for its object to provide an apparatus which may so materially
support and enhance the useful effect, in this particular, of the engines that a ship
provided with such an appliance can be.brought to a standstill in the very shortest
possible time.
The fundamental principle of the invention is to magnify the ship's resistance to
motion so greatly, that the vis inertice of her mass is very quickly nullified.
Now the best means of magnifying a ship's resistance is to be attained by plunging
into the water, across her bows, a surface of large area.
In our arrangement this surface is in two parts, each part turning on a hinge, so
as to form, as it were a kind of door.
While the ship is on her voyage, and going at speed, these doors, so to say,
are carried above the water-level, on the outside of the hull, as shown in the
accompanying drawings.
Sheet; Fig. 1 being a front view and Fig. 2 a side view of the apparatus.
In Sheet II of the drawings the doors are shown open; Fig. 3 being a front
view, and Fig. 4 a side view.
In Sheet III the doors are shown sunk into the water; Fig. 5 being a front view,
and Fig. 6 a plan of the same.
In Sheet IV are shown various details of the parts of the apparatus, hereinafter
to be more particularly described.
AA are the two leaves of the door and B their hinges. In the upper half of
each door-leaf there is a thrust-block or bolt a which is also held by the two
guides 6 and b₁ (see also Sheet IV Fig. 8). To this bolt both the chains c and d
are made fast, whereof the one (c) passes over the guide-roller e (Figs. 1 to 6)
fixed on the door-leaf, and thence through the hawse-hole fin the ships bows and
over the guide-roller g to the windlass C; while the other (d) passes over the
guide-roller h, fixed to the prow of the ship to the same windlass C. Connected
with the bolt a there is also in addition to the foregoing, a lever i turning on the
pivot and constantly pressed by the blade-spring i, towards the hinge B
(Fig. 2).
The closing of the two door-leaves is effected by means of the windlass C, which
is rotated in a direction to wind up the chain c whereby the door-leaves, as may be

page_text: best seen in Fig. 6 Sheet III, are drawn close to the bows of the ship. The chain
is thereby drawn taut, and so remaius, as long as the door-leaves rest against the
bows; thereby also is the bolt a drawn (against the resistance of the spring i,) so
that it snaps into engagement with the hook or catch j, projecting through a slot j
in the door-leaf and thus the latter is fixed in position.
On the inner side of the door-leaf, turned towards the ship is fixed a guide-
way D (Fig. 6) which, when the leaf is lowered into the water, slides on the guide-
piece F carried on the arm E; this guide-piece F is so constructed that, in
combination with the guide-way D, it not only bears the entire pressure of the
water on the door leaf, but also prevents the latter becoming detached, if the
engines are reversed and the ship gets sternway on her, while the door-leaf is still
in the water.
The guide-piece F attached to the arm E is always moved to and fro in the
guide-way D by the opening and closing of the door-leaves.
The arm E is attached at its other end by means of a bolt G to an angle-lever,
or hell-crank lever H pivoting on H₁ so that the direction of motion of the guide-
piece F may be a compound or combined one.
The longer arm of the bell crank lever slides in a segmental guide-way J, held
by a stud J, working in a slot therein (Fig. 2) an arrangement adopted for the
purpose of relieving the bolts G and H, of a part of the strain, which they would
otherwise have to bear, were there no such guide way and pin J, which bears a
large part of the pressure.
The displacement of the guide-piece F in the guideway D is brought about by
the movement of the door-leaf in combination with a bent lever K which is pivotted
on the bolt K, attached to the ships bow. The upper and longer arm of K is bent
downwards (see also Fig. 4), while the short arm is attached by the bolt L to the
drawhar L. The other end of the latter, in its turn, is attached by the bolt L, to
one arm of a bell crank lever M pivotting on M, whereof the other end grasps the
lever N (see also Fig. 2) which holds the arm E and is pivotted on a universal or
ball-joint N₁ fixed to the ship's bow.
By the closing of the door, the longer arm of the bent or double-lever K,
previously free, engages in an opening O in the door-leaf; and as that opening is
moved in a horizontal plane, and the lever-arm entering further and further therein
as the door closes, is bent, it follows that for it to pass through the opening O it
must be continuously depressed.
The effects of that depression are obvious.
The shorter arm of the double-lever K, being moved inwards, towards the ship's
bows, draws with it the drawbar L, with an upward movement, which is communicated
to the bell crank lever M and thereby the lever N is turned round, in the direction
towards the ships bows, which causes the arm E to be raised and pressed towards
the ship's bows (see Figs. 1 & 2).
In order to immerse the door-leaf in the water, it must first be opened. This is
effected by means of the draw-chain d; for this purpose, therefore, the windlass C
is turned in the proper direction to wind up the chain d while simultaneously the
chain c is unwound.
The bolt a is withdrawn from the catch; and with a powerful pull on the
chain d the door-leaf is opened at the same time assuming the position shown in
Sheet II.
This position must be made secure, so that the door-leaf can neither.be closed
nor opened further.
This is effected by means of the lever i whereof the end i, snaps into a notch k
cut in an oblique piece or arm k fixed firmly on the leaf; simultaneously, the upward
projecting pin of the lever i is brought under the cap-piece m fixed on the end of
a lever pivotted at 4. This can best be seen in Figs. 9 and 10.
Two notches m, and m, are cut in the underside of the cap m whereof the latter (m,)
engages with the pin or stud i̟, when the door-leaf is open.
In this manner any untimely closing of the leaf is prevented.

page_text: In this position of the leaf the guide-piece F is not yet engaged in the guide way
or slide D; it has only been moved, as will appear from the foregoing, into the
vertical position, exactly and immediately underneath the latter (see Sheet II).
The lowering of the door-leaf is effected by means of a vertical screwed
shaft P (Figs. 1 to 7) by the rotation whereof a screw-nut R is moved up and
down in the guide way or slide Q, carrying with it the door-leaves A by means
of the collars R, R., attached to the door-leaf and encircling the screw nut R
(Fig. 7).
As the door is lowered the guide-piece F at once engages in the guide-way or
slide D, so that the pressure of the water against the door is transferred to the
guide-piece and borne by its supports, as herein before explained.
The lowering of the door is continued until the theoretical water-level reaches to
about half the height of the door, or a little higher; as it is not necessary to
submerge the door to any greater depth, so as to immerse it entirely, inasmuch as,
without that, the water-level will naturally be raised, by the resistance encountered,
sufficiently to cause the entire surface of the door to be acted upon by the water-
pressure.
These doors have also the advantage, that even if the ships actually come into
collision, the colliding surfaces are so increased that the shock and damage done by
the collision will be materially lessened, if not even reduced to little or nothing as
compared with that which would have resulted from the sharp stem of the ship,
seeing that the force of impact is distributed over a larger area.
Should the doors have served their purpose by averting the collision entirely,
they are then raised out of the water by the reverse action of the screwed
shaft P; while the lever i must be released from the notch k₁ so as to enable the
doors to be closed.
•
This is accomplished by means of the lever l and more particularly by the cap m.
"That is to say, the said lever 1, when the door goes down, falls by its own weight.
The upright stud i̟ of the lever i (Fig. 11) engages in the second notch m₁ on the.
under side of the cap m and as the movement continues raises the cap and the
lowered lever whereby the distance of the stud i, from the hinge B is increased,
in such a manner as to withdraw the lever i from the notch k₁ (Fig 12). The
door-leaf can now be closed by means of the draw-chain c as hereinbefore
described.
Besides the guide-piece F, a second guide S is provided for the lowering of the
door-leaves.
The winding and unwinding of the chains c and d and the rotation of the screw-
shaft P may be accomplished by the agency of the anchor-weighing machine, or by
means of a special engine provided for the purpose and placed close by the anchor
weighing machine, as may be convenient.
From such engine a vertical shaft w is led on deck and terminates in a bevel-
wheel with a spur-wheel r below it. This spur wheel drives another spur
wheel T which also carries above it a second bevel wheel rs.
Gearing with and driven by the bevel-wheel r is the bevel wheel 74, by which
the horizontal shaft w, is driven, and this latter by means of a worm s works the
windlass C.
Gearing with and driven by the bevel wheel r, the bevel-wheel r, mounted on
the horizontal shaft w, operates the vertical screw-shaft P by means of the bevel-
gear u whereof one wheel is carried on the forward end of the shaft w, and the
other on the upper end of the shaft P whereby the doors are lowered and raised.
Inasmuch as the windlass C and the screw shaft P and consequently the bevel
gear and, which work them respectively, can never be in simultaneous
operation, but only in alternation, provision is made by an engaging and disengaging
gear to throw the bevel-wheels r, and r, alternately in and out of gear with r and r
respectively. For this purpose r, and rs are provided with fixed slideways or
link-guides t₁ and t, connected by means of the link V fitted with a stud ₁₂ at
each end, which slide in the two segmental slots provided for them. These are

page_text: operated by a hand-lever V, fitted with grippers W, in such manner that when the
one bevel-wheel, say r, is thrown forward into gear, the other r. is withdrawn out
of gear, and vice versa (see Figs. 14 and 13).
The hand-lever V, not only operates the engaging and disengaging gear of the
bevel-wheels, as above described but also, and simultaneously, that of the
windlass C (Fig. 15, which is a section on the line x-r of Fig. 6 on an enlarged
scale). This is effected in such a manner that, whenever the bevel-wheels and r
are thrown into gear, the windlass C is coupled up and all its three sections caused
to rotate together, so that the two end sections wind or unwind the two chains c
(of the door leaves), and the central section simultaneously unwinds or winds the
two chains d for which purpose the chains d are coiled on the winding drum in the
contrary direction to the chains c. For this purpose the central section is a sleeve
running loose on the main shaft of the drum constituting the other two sections, its
end being hollowed out in the form of a cone C, and forming a friction-clutch in
conjunction with a corresponding cone C¹ formed on the adjacent external section
of the windlass.
The steam-engine for driving the foregoing apparatus must preferably, be so
constructed that it may be directed from the deck or bridge, which may best be
done by means of a hand-lever, and so that it may be promptly set in direct action,
stopped and reversed.
The mode of operating the apparatus for stopping the ships way, when required
is as follows;—
For opening the doors or leaves the bevel wheels must be thrown into gear
by the hand-lever V₁ which simultaneously couples up the windlass C. Then by
means of the hand-lever of the engine the latter is started so as to wind the
chains d and unwind chains c whereby, as hereinbefore explained, the doors are
opened.
Then by means of the hand-lever V, the motion is transferred to the shaft w
whereby the screw-shaft P is put in motion and the doors are lowered.
To raise doors again the engine is reversed so as to operate screw P and shaft w
in the contrary direction; and when the doors are raised, the hand-lever V, is also
reversed, so that the chains & are unwound and the chains d wound by the windlass,
and the doors are closed.
In the open sea this apparatus would rarely be used, only in fogs; but in coasting,
running in and out of ports and harbours, and in narrow straits and channels, where
the danger of collision is ever present, a watchful eye must continually be kept
upon this safeguard.
The anchors may be kept further aft than is at present usual, if it be desirable
to avoid any hindrance to the effective working of my invention, from want of room
or other cause.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the, same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is;-
1. An apparatus for speedily stopping a ship's way characterised by two door-
leaves such as A turning on hinges B and resting against the ship's bows and so
arranged that they can be opened or turned towards the front across the ship's
bows and lowered into the water when required substantially as described and
illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
2. In apparatus for speedily stopping a ship's way in connection with the opening
of the door-leaves or doors the arrangement of chains & which being worked by a
windlass are wound thereon and tightened so as to draw the bolt a from the hook
or catch j and effect the opening of the doors while the levers i by means of their
noses i engaging in the notches k₁ secure the doors in position athwart-ship
substantially as described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
3. In apparatus for speedily stopping a ship's way the arrangement of a screwed
shaft such as P by means whereof the opened doors are lowered in to the water or

page_text: hoisted out of it for which purpose the guides and guide-ways OS and D are also
employed whereof the last named (D) are so held by the guide-pieces F that the
latter not only support the doors firmly against the resistance of the water-pressure
but also effectually prevent their being torn away or displaced thereby substantially
as described and illustrated in the.accompanying drawings.
4. In apparatus for speedily stopping a ship's way the arrangement of guide-
pieces such as F operated by the opening and closing of the doors and carried by
arms E also made movable by bolts or pivots G and H₁ so that the arms E in
combination with lever-arrangements K L, M and N are raised by the closing of
the doors in consequence of levers K passing through the guide-orifices O while
when the doors are opened said arms E are depressed so that the guide-pieces F
assume a vertical position behind the opened doors substantially as described and
illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
5. In apparatus for speedily stopping a ship's way in connection with the closing
of the doors the arrangement of caps such as m on levers turning by their own.
weight on pivots with notches or recesses on the underside of the caps in which.
when the doors are hoisted up the studs i engage whereby the catches i, are
released from the notches k₁ so that the doors may be closed by winding the
chain c on the windlass C substantially as described and illustrated in the
accompanying drawings.
Dated this 19th day of December 1893.
W. P. THOMPSON & BOULT,
Agents for the Applicant.