Improvements in Ventilators for Ships, and like purposes.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 8th June, 1895
Complete Specification Left, 8th Apr., 1896-Accepted, 6th June, 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Ventilators for Ships, and like purposes.
I, FLORIMOND WILLEMS of 113 Rue des Plantes, Brussels, Belgium, Engineer
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
The object of this invention is the automatic ventilation of ships' cabins and
holds, in all weathers, without admitting water or moisture.
Inside
My improved ventilator is a bent bell-mouthed tube of the usual kind.
and in or near the centre of the throat of this tube, I fix a cone of metal or other
suitable substance, the diameter of the base of which is about half the diameter of
the tube. Above the cone the throat may be contracted by a funnel or otherwise,
so as to direct all air entering the tube on to the cone, but this contraction is not
indispensable.
Below the cone is an annular trough or chamber so placed as to receive all
moisture that drips from the cone and conduct it outside the ventilator. This
trough may be arranged inside or outside the ventilator, but in the latter case the
upper part of the ventilator will be enlarged and the cone will be large enough to
cover the lower part of the tube. The moisture entering the mouth of the
ventilator will thus be trapped and carried off by the trough through automatic
valves or apertures to the outside of the ventilator, while sufficient space is left
for the passage of air to the cabin.
.
My improvements can be applied to all existing tubular ventilators.
1
•
S. S. BROMHEAD,
97 Newgate Street, London, Agent for. Applicant.
Improvements in Ventilators for Ships, and like purposes.
1, FLORIMOND WILLEMS of 113 Rue des Plantes, Brussels, Belgium, 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 :-
The object of my invention is to afford automatic ventilation, without any
artificial aid, to ships' cabins and holds in all weathers and in such a manner as to
absolutely prevent the entrance of water through or by the ventilator.
In the ventilating funnels at present in use on steamers and other vessels, much
inconvenience is caused by the entrance of water when it rains, and if the sea
is rough it becomes necessary to close or stop the ventilators in order to keep the
water out of the cabins and holds..
As a matter of hygiene, as well as for the comfort of the passengers and to
secure the preservation of the goods stowed in the hold, there is much need of a
reliable ventilating system which will not admit water.
In my new veutilator, I employ the ordinary air-tube preserving its general
form along with the usual bell-mouth at the outside, but I provide, as an addition

page_text: o the cylindrical air-pipe, a funnel and cone, or a cone alone, allowing the air to-
pass in whilst throwing the water into an annular trough, or chamber, placed
around the air-pipe, the water being thence automatically conveyed outside of the
ventilator.
In the accompanying drawing 1 show two ways in which my ventilating system
may be put in practice.
Fig. 1 is an elevation, partly in section, of my ventilator, made in the first of
the two ways I am about to describe.
Fig. 2 is a horizontal section taken on the line a-b of Fig. 1.
Fig. 3 is a horizontal section taken on the line c-d of Fig. 1.
Fig. 4 is an elevation, partly in section, of the second form my invention
may take.
Fig. 5 is a horizontal section taken on the line a¹- of Fig. 4.
Fig. 6 is a horizontal section taken on the line c'-d¹ of Fig. 4, and
Fig. 7 is a reproduction of Fig. 4 shewing in dotted lines the part necessary to
be added to existing ventilators, in order to convert them to my system.
Below the hent bell-mouthed part found in all ship-ventilators. I fix at the
beginning of the vertical cylindrical pipe, the piece (A) which is in the form of
a funnel. To this funnel (A) is suspended by arms a conical cap (B), the top
of which points upward.
Under the cone (B) the cylindrical pipe is divided into concentric compart-
ments, or chambers, for a certain height, by the intervention of a tube of smaller
diameter than the pipe; this tube rests on the outer casing of the pipe with the
help of two prismatical pipes which are, themselves, joined to the said casing by
their upper faces. The pipes (D) are closed, outside by doors or flap-valves (E)
the hinges of which are fastened to the upper wall of these pipes in such a
manner that the said flap-valves are lifted by outward pressure from within
and fall again by their own weight as soon as the excess of pressure from within
ceases.
It will be readily understood that the air, caught by the bell-mouth of the
ventilator and sucked in, reaches the funnel, passes thence into the contracted
part between the funnel and the cone, and is thus drawn down under the said cone
to escape by the tube whence it is conveyed by the ventilation-pipe to the cabin or
hold as the case may be. Any volume of water which might happen to be dashed
into the bell-mouth from a wave, or the rain-water, merely, which might be
driven into the said mouth by the wind, falls from the funnel (A) on to the outer
surface of the cone (B) whence it falls again, in the form of a parabolic cascade,
into the annular trough, or water chamber (C). This water, therefore, passes into
the pipes (C) (Fig. 1) where, by its pressure, it lifts the flap-valves (E) so that
it can be made to fall on the bridge or elsewhere, as may be described. As soon
as water has ceased to press against the inside face of the flap-valves (E), the
latter shut by gravitation and thus check the escape outwards of the air exhausted,
which would of course be directed towards these valves.
Another form of my apparatus, represented in Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7 provides a section
for the continual passage of the exhausted air. In this case, I dispense with the
funnel (A) and give to the auxiliary tube (C) concentric to the pipe (C¹) a larger
instead of a smaller diameter than the latter. This tube (C) is jointed at the
bottom to the pipe (C1); at the top it is connected with the bent part by a conical
surface parallel to the surface of the cone (F) and in such a way that the annular
passage-section between the two cones is equal to the section of the pipe (C¹)
This pipe (C) is interrupted at a sufficient distance from the cone (F) to assure a
suitable air-passage section between its edges and the base of this cone. Finally,
the cone (F) is connected by horizontal arms with the pipe (C) so as to be firmly
sustained, the escape flap-valves of the preceding device, being replaced by self-
acting floating-valves (I) placed on the metallic crown forming the bottom of the
water-trough (H).
These valves are raised as soon as there is any water in the trough (H) and they

page_text: fall, afterwards, of themselves, on to their seats; as they are never immersed they
cannot be frozen in winter.
My apparatus will stand the test of any weather and may be exposed to the
full force of the wind without being put out of order.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :
A system for the automatic ventilation of ships' cabins and holds in all weathers
without admitting water or moisture, distinguished by the addition to ordinary
ventilators of a combination of a funnel and cone, Fig. 1, or of a cone only,
Fig. 4, such combination or such cone being connected with an auxiliary tube
forming with the principal pipe, either an interior water trough, Fig. 1, or an
outer one, Fig. 4, the whole being arranged as above described and as shown in
the accompanying drawing, that is to say in such a manner as to ensure the passage
of the air through the pipe under any circumstance, whilst the water introduced,
reaching the outer surface of the cone is thrown on leaving this surface; into the
water-trough whence it flows out through flap-valves or other self-acting valves.
To meet special cases and local requirements, I reserve the right of altering my
ventilators as regards shapes, materials and dimensions whether of the several
parts or the whole, while still adhering to the principle of my invention as described
in the above Specification and shewn in the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 7th day of April 1896.
L. DUVINAGE,
Agent for Applicant.