Improvements in or Applicable to Ships' Riding Bitts.
Year: 1885

page_text: Improvements in or Applicable to Ships' Riding Bitts.
We WILLIAM HORATIO HARFIELD, of Mansion House Buildings, in the city
of London, Mechanical Engineer, and WILLIAM EAMES of No 150, Leadenhall
Street, in the city of London, Marine Engineer, do hereby declare the nature
of our said invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OR APPLICABLE TO SHIPS' RIDING
BITTS" to be as follows:-
This invention relates to so constructing and arranging bitts for war ships, that
the riding bitte can, when it is required to clear the deck or otherwise, be lowered
out of the way, so that the top of the riding bitt shall lie flush or nearly flush with
the surface of the deck.
For this purpose the support to which the riding bitt is connected is adapted so
that it may be lowered and raised by means of a screw working in a nut in
a projection on the support, the lower end of the support passing through a suitable
opening in the lower deck so that, if the screw be turned by any suitable arrange-
ment the support, and with it the riding bitt, can be moved downwards to the
required extent and again raised by operating the screw in the opposite direction.
Or instead of moving the support, the riding bitt can be arranged to work
telescope-wise in the support, and be operated directly by means of a sorew or other
suitable mechanism.
Suitable stops are provided on the underside of the deck to prevent the bitt from
turning.

page_text: We WILLIAM HORATIO HARFIELD, of Mansion House Buildings, in the city
of London, Mechanical Engineer, and WILLIAM EAMES of N° 150, Leadenhall
Street, in the city of London, 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 :—
.
This invention relates to so constructing and arranging riding bitts for ships, that
the riding bitts can, when it is required to clear the deck or otherwise be lowered
out of the way, so that the top of the riding bitt shall lie flush or nearly flush with
the surface of the deck.
For this purpose the support to which the riding bitt is connected is adapted so
that it may be lowered and raised by any suitable means such as a screw working
in a nut in a projection on the support, the lower end of the support passing through
a suitable opening in the lower deck so that if the screw be turned, the support,
and with it the riding bitt, can be moved downwards to the required extent and
again raised by operating the screw in the opposite direction.
Suitable stops are provided on the underside of the deck to prevent the bitt from
turning.
In order to enable our invention to be fully understood we will proceed to
describe the same by reference to the accompanying drawing in which figure 1
represents a section of part of the upper and lower decks of a ship provided with a
riding bitt constructed according to our invention, the bitt being shewn in elevation
and in its raised position; figure 2 is a plan of the same; figure 3 is a similar view
to figure 1 but shewing the bitt in its lowered position; figure 4 is a horizontal
Bection on line A, B of figure 3.
Similar letters in all the figures represent similar parts..
a, represents the support and b, is the riding bitt connected to the same, the
bitt b, passing through and being adapted to slide in an opening in the upper
deck A of the ship; the said opening is sheathed or bushed with metal as shown
at c; d is the screw and e, is the projection on the support a, provided with
a screw-nut through which the screw d, works for raising and lowering the riding
bitt; f, is a winch bandle operating bevel gearing g, for rotating the screw d; the
stops for preventing the bitt from turning consist of projections h, h, on the lower
part of the riding bitt b, which take into corresponding notches or recesses i, i, in
the metal bushing c.
Instead of moving the support a, as hereinbefore described, the riding bitt b, can
be arranged to work telescope-wise in the support a, and be operated directly by
means of a screw or other suitable mechanism.
By this construction it will be obvious that if the riding bitt be in the position
shewn in figure 1, and it be required to clear the deck, the riding bitt can by means
of the screw d, and gearing g, be lowered out of the way into the position shewn in
figure 3, so that the top of the riding bitt shall be flush or nearly flush with the
surface of the deck A and when required the riding bitt.can be easily raised into
the position shewn in figure 1 and when raised it is kept in position by a key
or fid i.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is
1. Constructing and arranging ships' riding-bitts so that the bitt can he lowered
out of the way in such a manner as to bring the top of the riding-bitt flush or
nearly flush with the surface of the deck as and for the purpose hereinbefore
described.
2. The manufacture and use of the improved ships' riding-bitts hereinbefore
described and represented in the accompanying drawing.