IMPROVEMENTS RELATING TO TORPEDOES
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Ambrose McEvoy at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd December 1877.
CHARLES AMBROSE M°Evor, of the London Ordnance Works, Bear Lane, South-
wark, in the County of Surrey. "IMPROVEMENTS RELATING TO TORPEDOES."
Horetoforo the fuse or mechanism for firing torpedoes on their being struck by a
passing vessel has either been arranged to effect the ignition of the torpedo by
mechanical means (as by the release of a hammer or by the movement of a
weight), or the firing has been effected by the closing of an electrical circuit.
According to my Invention I construct the firing mechanism in such manner that
it can either be used as an electrical or a mechanical fuse. When a fuse or firing
mechanism, such as is described in the Specification of a former Patent granted to
me, No. 2786, in the year 1875, is used, or wherever the release of a hammer is
effected by a rod or wire being raised or allowed to rise by the movement or
canting of a weight, I secure to the wire or rod by an insulating connection a disc
or plate of metal, and above the disc and at a short distance from it I placed
terminals from two insulated wires, so that whenever the rod or wire is raised the
metal disc or plate carried by it is brought against the two terminals and forms an
electrical connection between them.
If the firing mechanism is to be used with an electrical fuse, the wires from a
battery are coupled to the wires leading to the terminals, and then whenever the
circuit is completed in the manner above described a current will pass and the
charge will be ignited by an electric fase; but if the firing incchanism is required
to act mechanically and without the aid of clectricity, then the wires from the
terminals are not coupled to a battery, and the mechanism is adjusted to act in the
manner described in the Specification before mentioned. Also, when torpedoes are
moored in a tideway they are usually moored by a chain or wire rope to an anchor
or heavy weight at the bottom, and are so held down to the required depth below
the surface, being sustained by their own buoyancy, and therefore prevented
by their buoyancy alone from being drawn downwards with the tide, the
torpedoes have thus had to be made of larger dimensions than required, merely
for containing their explosive charges and so offer greater surface than necesssary
[Price 2d1

page_text: to the action of the tide. To obviate this I support the torpedo on an iron rod or
tube which passes down to a heavy weight or foot at the bottom.
The weight or foot I form with a hollow inverted cup standing up from it; I pass
the rod or tube through the top of the cup and connect them by a ball-and-socket
joint.
Around the lower part of the rod or tube I place a strong spring which presses
against the underside of the cup, and against a collar at the bottom of the rod; the
rod will consequently be held upright by the force of the spring and will sustain
the torpedo in its proper position although still allowing it to yield somewhat to
pressure. By this means the torpedo may be made of smaller dimensions than
heretofore, so that the stream will have less effect upon it, whilst at the same time
it will be held in position vertically above its weight or anchor by the strong spring
. before mentioned instead of merely by its own buoyancy.