A Device for Registering the Draught of Water in Steam and other Vessels.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 3rd Feb., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 1st Mar., 1893-Accepted, 2nd June, 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by GEORGE CARR, of 24, Machen Place, Riverside,
Cardiff, in the County of Glamorgan, but at present residing at Antwerp, in the
Kingdom of Belgium.]
A Device for Registering the Draught of Water in Steam and other
Vessels.
I, HENRY HARINGTON LEIGH Assoc. M. Inst. C.E., Fel. Ch. Inst. P.A.,
F.I. Inst., practising as Phillips & Leigh, of 22 Southampton Buildings, Chancery
Lauc, London, Engineer and Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows:-
This invention applies to an improved method of and means for registering the
height or the level to which a ship is submerged. Usually marks are affixed to the
outside of the hull of the vessel, known as the "Plimsoll" load line, and to ascertain
the level it is necessary to get over the ship's side and examine the height from a
boat or its equivalent.
At night and in bad weather this is a dangerous operation, and very unsatis-
factory.
According to the present invention instead of examining the level of the water
on the outside of the ship, I fix a glass tube of sufficient length in the engine room,
or other open space about mid-ships.
This tube is of sufficient length to register the height of the water from the
lowest depth to which a ship is loaded to when she is light, or it can be of short
length so as to indicate when the ship is nearly to her proper immersion, and
somewhat above if necessary, or two short tubes may be used for light and loaded
ship. This glass tube is fixed very much after the manner of the water-gauge on
a steam-boiler, that is, with the lower portion of the tube in free communication
with the bottom of the ship, so that the water passing through and up into the glass
tube and finding its own level, will show in the glass tube the exact level of the
water outside. I prefer fixing the tube close up against any convenient bulkhead or
bunker, where the plates are made vertical, so that the glass tube may lie, and be
affixed, secure thereto. Marks are made upon the bulkhead and close to the tube,
to correspond with the external marks upon the ship's side. It is not necessary to
connect the top portion of the tube to the sea in any way, as the water will rise in
the tube to the level of the water outside, but I may convey a pipe from the top of
the tube to the side of the vessel, if required. It will be seen that by adopting this
method, a ship can be loaded to a greater nicety than is possible by the rough and
ready method at present practiced.
When the water is rough outside the vessel, it is impossible to see the exact level,
whereas, within the tube the water would be comparatively steady.
Marks may be placed on the side of the glass tube, to indicate the number of tons
loaded into the ship.
Deted this 2nd day of Fahru 1902
HENRY H. LEIGH, C.P.A.

page_text: A Device for Registering the Draught of Water in Steam and other
Vessels.
1, HENRY HARINGTON LEIGH, Assoc. M. Inst. C.E., Fel. Ch. Inst. P.A.,
F.I. Inst., of 22, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, Engineer and
Patent Agent, 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 improved method of and means for registering the
draught of steam and other vessels in the water.
Up to the present time it has been the custom to paint a series of marks-known
as the Plimsoll load line-on the outside of the hull, and when the draught has been
wanted, it has been ascertained by getting over the ship's side or outside her, and
reading it off. Such a task has often been a dangerous one, e.g., at night or in bad
weather, and the reading always more or less unsatisfactory.
Now according to the present invention, getting outside the hull becomes
unnecessary, inasmuch as provision is made for the draught being automatically
indicated by apparatus fixed inside the vessel from which the draught can be read
off or by which it can be indicated in any suitable way.
In order that my invention and the best means of carrying it into practical effect
may be thoroughly understood, I will now describe it in detail, referring in so
doing to the accompanying drawing which is to be taken as part of this Specifi-
cation and read therewith. It is a transverse section of an ordinary steamer at
about mid ships.
upon
a is a tube of glass or other transparent material. a¹ is a tablet
which are
set out scales a² which are counterparts of the scale of draught upon the outside of
the hull. The tablet may be dispensed with but the scales must be retained. Both
they and the tube a are shewn as continuous and vertical but this is a mere detail,
it being obvious that both may be set out in an oblique direction without interfering
with the correctness of the indications or of the readings. The scales a² may be
confined to draught, or there may be incorporated with them a corresponding scale
of weights. The Lloyd marks are also reproduced upon the bulk head in the proper
relative positions with reference to the scales.
The foot of the tube enters a stuffing box. 6 or its equivalent. This latter is the
inboards end of a pipe e the opposite end of which communicates with the water at
a level sufficiently below the light draught level e' for it to be always submerged.
c² care cocks for shutting off the water. I do not confine myself to making a
special opening through the side of the vessel for the pipe c to reach the water
through, inasmuch as it may be connected to any cock or valve which occupies a
suitable position.
The top of the tube a is shewn as open to the air and for it to be so answers very
well, but may, instead, place the top of the tube in communication with the water
by leading a pipe from it through the vessel's side.
The tubes may be set in pairs, one on each side of the vessel.
I have shewn the indicating tube a as long enough to include the range between
the two limits of light and loaded draught, and when a single tube or tubes are
used, it or they must be of that length. But my invention does not confine me in
this respect. I may use one indicating tube for the range near each limit.
It will be perceived that, inasmuch as my invention depends for its utility upon
the well known property of the equilibrium of fluids, it is not confined to the devices
illustrated nor to the use of a portion of the water in which the vessel floats as the
draught indicating agent, to the exclusion of other fluids. The inner end of the
pipe may be put in communication with the inside of a closed cylinder full of
mercury, into which cylinder it enters through the top. The indicating tube is then

page_text: led through the said top to nearly the bottom of the cylinder. According to this
arrangement, the indicating agent is mercury, and as it is heavier than water, the
scales a² will be correspondingly shorter.
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 :-
1. The hereinbefore described combination for indicating a vessel's draught upon
a scale inboards of the vessel, as set forth.
2. The combination of indicating tube, indicating fluid and communication
between it and the water in which the vessel floats, as set forth.
Dated this 1st day of March 1893.
HENRY H. LEIGH,
22, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, W.C.