IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR BLOWING HORNS, WHISTLES, OR SIMILAR INSTRUMENTS, CHIEFLY DESIGNED FOR MARINE SIGNALLING PURPOSES
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Benjamin Barker at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th December 1880.
"
WILLIAM BENJAMIN BARKER, of Hoboken, New Jersey, United States of America,
now of 8, Southampton Buildings, London, Master Mariner. IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR BLOWING HORNS, WHISTLES, OR SIMILAR INSTRUMENTS, CHIEFLY
DESIGNED FOR MARINE SIGNALLING PURPOSES."
This Invention relates to apparatus designed to automatically give signals by
means of a fog-horn in sailing vessels, and a steam-whistle in steamers, to indicate
the locality of the vessel carrying the apparatus, and the direction in which the
same is steering, enabling masters of vessels in foggy weather or in darkness to
avoid all chances of collisions by properly directing their course in relation to the
course of other vessels within hearing distance, which they may do with the same
precision as if they were in sight of each other.
The said apparatus may be constructed to give indications by any predetermined
code of signals, but I prefer a code consisting of combinations of long and short
sounds, so arranged that each combination answers to a certain number of points
of the horizon or mariner's compass, and distinctly indicates to persons having
knowledge of this code of signals the course to which any signal heard corresponds.
The said apparatus has a cylinder placed in a vertical position in a suitable
frame, and in this cylinder is fitted a piston connected by a standard provided with
ratchet teeth to a carriage, which slides up and down between the posts of the
frame. The piston is raised in the cylinder by means of a pinion or chains, or both,
secured to a shaft; the latter in its turn is connected to a series of gear-wheels
by a ratchet and pawl, so constructed that when the piston has arrived at its
bighest position, the pawl is tripped by striking a lug on the carriage, and the
shaft carrying the pinion is released from its driving gear, allowing the piston and
the carriage to fall of their own weight; the time of their so falling, which is the
interval of time between two consecutive signals, is governed by the size of the
valve, which admits air to the cylinder; or the extent to which the said valve is
allowed to open, the same being adjustable to regulate the interval of time between
two consecutive signals to any amount desired. The driving gear-wheels will be
operated by a crank-handle when the apparatus is used on a sailing vessel, but
when used on a steam-vessel may be operated by steam-power through the medium
of a driving belt; the driving gear-wheels will be moving all the time the apparatus

page_text: is in use, and will cause the pinion after each stroke to again move up in the
cylinder to give another signal by the pawl striking a projection on the piston as
soon as the latter gets to its lowest position.
The piston in moving up in the cylinder compresses the air therein, which air
is allowed to escape to the fog-horn through a central hollow fixed stud on the top
of the cylinder, and provided with a valve connected to a vertical shaft caused to
partly rotate by means of a bell-crank-lever pivotted in standards in the aforesaid
carriage. This bell-crank-lever is actuated by a roller in its horizontal arm coming
in contact with one of the cam-shaped ribs on a vertical rod. There are as many
of these ribs as there are signals in the code, each one of the ribs having the cams
so formed thereon as to open the outlet valve to the fog-horn, and thereby allow
the air to escape in long and short blasts, corresponding to the combinations of long
and short sounds comprised in the code of signals.
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This vertical rod with the cam-shaped ribs thereon is connected by means of
gear-wheels at its upper end to a dial-plate, which is fitted to rotate on the central
hollow stud, and which covers the whole of the upper part of the apparatus.
its upper surface are marked the principal divisions of the horizon or compass-card,
or as many of them as it is deemed necessary to divide the horizon into for clearly
indicating the courses of vessels; and there are as many cam-ribs on the vertical
rod as there are divisions on the dial-plate, and the said dial-plate and vertical rod
are so set together through the medium of their connecting gear-wheels, that when
any one of the divisions on the dial-plate, corresponding to the course the vessel is
steering, is set opposite a fixed pointer on the frame (corresponding to and placed
in position relatively to the lubber point of the mariner's compass), the rib on the
rod, having the cam-projections corresponding to the course so set by the dial-
plate, is in position to act on the roller on the horizontal arm of the bell-crank lever
as the piston and carriage are raised, thereby actuating the outlet valve to the fog-
I born. The bell-crank-lever is so formed that when the said carriage is falling, the
roller on its horizontal arm moves over the cam-projections on the ribs without
actuating the outlet-valve of the fog-horn.
The lower ends of the ribs of the vertical rod are cut away, so that the fog-horn-
valve is not opened until the piston has moved up into the cylinder a sufficient
distance to compress the air therein to the initial pressure for properly operating
the fog-horn. The said fog-horn is provided with a large air chamber surrounding
the reed, which allows it to sound with its proper tone unaffected by considerable
variations in the pressure of the air supplied to it, and the cylinder is provided
with a safety valve.
When the dial-plate is set for any given course, the signal corresponding thereto
will continue to be sounded at regular intervals so long as power is applied to the
driving gear of the apparatus; and the dial-plate may be changed to accord with
a change in the course of the vessel during the interval between the signals, and
while the power is still applied to the apparatus, so that it requires no other
attention while in use than that of setting the dial-plate to correspond to positions
assumed by the compass-card.
The device for operating the steam-whistle of steam-vessels comprises a bell-
crank-lever, which is connected to the vertical shaft that operates the fog-horn-
valve. A wire or chain from this bell-crank-lever passes downward through the
bottom of the apparatus and the deck, and along under the deck to the location of
the steam whistle, to the valve of which it is fastened, so that steam is allowed to
pass to the whistle. When the apparatus is attached to the steam-whistle the fog-
horn is removed.